The Commentariat -- December 3

My New York Times eXaminer column is on the New York Times' new comments format. I heartily suggest you read all the way to the end. Or at least read the end. No, sing the end. The NYTX front page is here. ...

... A related item by Eva Galperin & Jillian York on online anonymity is here. The item includes a rebuttal to a New York Times letter to the editor from Christopher Wolf, head of the Internet Task Force of the Anti-Defamation League, in which he wrote: "It is time to consider Facebook’s real-name policy as an Internet norm because online identification demonstrably leads to accountability and promotes civility." Be sure to read the published rebuttals to Wolf's letter, which appear on the same page.

President Obama's Weekly Address. The transcript is here:

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Deep rifts among House Republicans became evident on Friday as rank-and-file members of the caucus told their leaders that they did not want to extend the cut in Social Security payroll taxes for another year, as demanded by President Obama. Speaker John A. Boehner has told Republicans they would run political risks and could be accused of allowing a tax increase if they block the continuation of payroll tax relief." ...

... Greg Sargent: a senior Democratic aide says there will definitely be another vote next week.

Mike Gudgell of ABC News takes you inside Camp Victory, Iraq, as the last US soldier leaves the base. "... it’s a real challenge to share the stunning significance of the end of Camp Victory."

CW: I've found that you can't always trust the fact-checkers. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post is particularly bad on economics. And here's PolitiFact, nominating as its "Lie of the Year a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ad which claims, "Seniors will have to find $12,500 for health care because Republicans voted to end Medicare." ...

... The problem with the PolitiFact analysis is that the DCCC claim is true. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: Paul "Ryan’s plan ends traditional fee-for-service program and forces seniors to ultimately enroll in private coverage." I've written to PolitiFact & asked them to change their designation. In the past when I've challenged them, they have responded. We'll see what happens this time.

Jo Becker of the New York Times: "The former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, in his first extended interview since his indictment on sexual abuse charges last month, said Coach Joe Paterno never spoke to him about any suspected misconduct with minors. Mr. Sandusky also said the charity he worked for never restricted his access to children until he became the subject of a criminal investigation in 2008." CW: With video I won't be watching. ...

... Joe Nocera on the Penn State & Syracuse sexual abuse scandals and how the universities handled them: "If a university — and its community — can’t treat players and coaches the same way everyone else is treated, then what is it really teaching? Surely, the lessons it is imparting are the wrong ones."

Greg Sargent: "Wall Street executives have been quite open about the fact that they really, really don’t want to see Elizabeth Warren get anywhere near the Senate. And it looks like they’re about to ratchet up their efforts to help Scott Brown prevent it from happening — including the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

Right Wing World

"The Anti-Science Party." Coral Davenport of the National Journal: "Over the past year, GOP politicians have increasingly questioned or flatly denied the established science of climate change. As the presidential primaries heat up, the leading candidates have either denied the verdict of climate scientists or recanted their former views supporting climate policy.... Challenging climate science has become, in some circles, as much of a conservative litmus test as opposing taxes.... In fact, recent reports from the National Academy of Sciences show that the data and consensus on the principles of climate change are stronger than ever.... Here’s what has changed for Republican politicians: The rise of the tea party, its influence in the Republican Party, its crusade against government regulations, and the influx into electoral politics of vast sums of money from energy companies and sympathetic interest groups."

In this week's New York Times Magazine, Robert Draper profiles Mitt Romney. CW: I know I should read this. ...

Mainstream Racism

Steve Benen with more on the bogus story that President Obama is "walking away from the white working class": "I wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if racial politics played a significant part in the right’s misleading rhetoric on this. Conservatives very likely see it as in their interests to convince the white working-class that the president is “abandoning” them while appealing to minority voters and better-educated whites. Indeed, the racial subtext of Fox News’ presentation on this wasn’t exactly subtle":

Screengrab from Fox Nation. Oh, look, there's President Obama at a basketball game with all his blackety-black Affirmative Action friends, waving buh-bye to the last hard-working white person he'll ever acknowledge. Via Dave Weigel. ...

... Ben Adler of The Nation has a good overview of the proliferation of the Republicans' cynical appeal to white racial resentment. CW: it appears to me that many Republican politicians & operatives truly do not believe that any non-whites are "working class." To wit: the Newt:

... Heather of Crooks & Liars: "What's amazing is that we're supposed to believe that Gingrich actually thinks it's going to help him win the GOP primary to do something like this and go about one inch shy of just outright calling black people lazy niggers, which is what he did here. This wasn't a dog whistle. It was a siren." ...

... Charles Blow produces the statistics to debunk another of Newt's big lies. Sorry, Newt, poor kids do know what "work" means, and no, they don't think it's running drugs and shoplifting. ...

... ** Speaking of Affirmative Action, Wayne Barrett, writing in the Daily Beast, follows Herman Cain's wholly-Affirmative-abetted career. (Cain staunchly opposes AA.) CW: I know you don't care about Cain, who by the time you read this, may have dropped out of the race to spend more time with his family, but read this essay for the quality of the writing & the legwork that went into researching the story. Barrett, a long-time star of the Village Voice, has lost none of his edge. ...

... Jim Newell of Gawker on "how to blame your failed political campaign on your wife." Republican political wives are always ruining their husbands' careers.

Maggie Haberman & Alexander Burns of Politico: "Bad Newt’s coming back. The all-too-familiar character from the 1990s has only peeked out in public a handful of times so far. But already, Newt Gingrich – flush with pride over new polls showing his left-for-dead candidacy now leading the pack – is letting his healthy ego roam free again, littering the campaign trail with grand pronouncements about his celebrity, his significance in political history and his ability to transform America." With plenty of hilarious examples.

"Trump? The Republican Primary Is Now Officially a Gong Show." Joe Conason: "Marketing genius is perhaps the most appropriate way to describe Donald J. Trump's newest incarnation as the announced host -- he can hardly be called a 'moderator' -- of a post-Christmas Republican debate sponsored by Newsmax, the conservative magazine." Jon Huntsman, Jr., has the invitation to participate.

News Ledes

New York Times: GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain was scheduled to make "an announcement" at 11 am ET but has postponed it until an unspecified time this afternoon. ...

     ... Update: So I just ran a live video of a speech by Cain, who said he was "suspending" his campaign. And quite a bit of other stuff. God was mentioned. And we the people. And his wife. And then more stuff. Here's the CBS News story.

New York Times: "Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke sternly on Friday to America’s closest ally in the Middle East, telling Israel that it is partly responsible for its increasing isolation and that it now must take 'bold action' — diplomatic, not military — to mend ties with its Arab neighbors and settle previously intractable territorial disputes with the Palestinians."

Reuters: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu "has cancelled government-sponsored television advertisements calling on expatriates to return, after some American Jews complained that the message denigrated their lifestyles. The spots, aired on Israeli channels that are often viewed by emigrants, featured dramatized scenes of Jewish assimilation in gentile settings. In one, an Israeli couple looks dismayed to hear their grandchild mention celebrating Christmas abroad." Haaretz story here. The Haaretz story has embedded videos, but the first one -- which I guess is the Christmas one -- "has been removed by the user."

AP: "Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was being treated at a hospital in South Dakota after falling and hitting his head on the pavement outside a library bearing his name.

The Commentariat -- December 2

My New York Times eXaminer column on David Brooks' paean to the superiority of the German culture is here. (Either Brooks is getting sicker & sicker, or I'm just reading more closely.) The NYTX front page is here.

The Lighting of the National Christmas Tree (Thursday evening):

... AND on that happy note: "The Senate Wants the Military to Lock You up without a Trial." Spencer Ackerman of Wired: The Senate has included an amendment in the defense spending bill, which allows "the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without a trial.... The detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners."

     ... Update. Jeremy Herb of The Hill: "The Senate passed a $662 billion Defense bill Thursday evening after a long fight over how the U.S. military detains terror suspects. The bill passed overwhelmingly 93-7, following an agreement reached late Thursday afternoon to add compromise language on the detention of U.S. citizens and terror suspects on U.S. soil.... It is not clear whether the change will satisfy the White House, which has threatened to veto the Defense bill over the detainee provisions. The Obama administration expressed its opposition to the use of military detention within the United States, but also had concerns over the legislation tying the hands of federal law enforcement by mandating military custody and prosecution of al Qaeda members. The administration also opposes restrictions on transferring Guantanamo detainees."

Paul Krugman on how the Very Serious Europeans are killing the euro.

Karen Garcia on the two-tiered world of New York Times commenters and Obama supporters. CW: I'll probably have something on the Times' "trusted commenters" in tomorrow New York Times eXaminer. I just felt obligated to let Brooks have it today (see above).

Brian Stelter of the New York Times: "Whatever the long-term effects of the Occupy movement, protesters have succeeded in implanting 'We are the 99 percent,' referring to the vast majority of Americans (and its implied opposite, 'You are the one percent' referring to the tiny proportion of Americans with a vastly disproportionate share of wealth), into the cultural and political lexicon." ...

... Occupy the Office. Print story here, with additional audio:

Jonathan Chait of New York magazine explains the arithmetically different ways a presidential campaign treats the Electoral College and a specific demographic, because -- here's a surprise -- the right wing, including the Wall Street Journal editorial page, is making up stuff. So, no, no matter what you hear in Right Wing World, Obama is not abandoning white working class Americans.  CW: Maybe Chait could also start vetting David Brooks' columns & save him some embarrassment.

Greg Sargent: "The [Karl] Rove-founded group Crossroads GPS has run ads falsely insuinating that [Elizabeth] Warren backs the violence of protesters, and national Republicans have called on her to repudiate the protests.... A new poll just out from the University of Massachusetts suggests this conservative line of attack has yet to bear fruit. The poll finds that Warren has edged ahead of Scott Brown among registered Massachusetts voters, 43-39, though that’s within the margin of error. What’s more interesting is what the internals tell us about whether each side’s message is resonating."

Right Wing World

The public ... still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem. -- Pollster Frank Luntz, advising GOP governors on how to "message" Occupy ...

... More on Luntz's words of wisdom from Greg Sargent. ...

... AND more yet from Seth Michaels of Working America: "Remember, when you hear talking points like those touted by Luntz, what you’re really hearing is anxiety and desperation. It’s the anxiety and desperation of the 1 percent and their political allies, who know that a message about economic fairness resonates with voters and threatens their control over our politics and our economy. Take these talking points for what they are—calculated falsehoods, and a cheap, transparent attempt to use real economic worries to support the same old 1% agenda."

"Mister One Percent." MoveOn.org is running this ad in Iowa;

Willard & Newt. Art via Esquire.Charles Pierce of Esquire assesses Willard & Newt: Willard "come[s] across like Eddie Haskell with a hedge fund. Newt's reversals come within the overall currents of his apparently depthless self-regard."

News Ledes

Presidents Obama & Clinton announces a $4 billion investment in energy efficiency upgrades for commercial buildings:

ABC News: "With his chances for winning the GOP nomination sliding by the day, Herman Cain’s team today launched a 'Women for Cain' campaign, chaired by his wife Gloria, in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to salvage his candidacy. The embattled candidate said this afternoon that he’s going to make an announcement Saturday to 'clarify' what his next steps are."

AFP: "Facebook said Friday that it plans to hire thousands of employees over the next year and add an engineering team to its office in New York."

New York Times: "Chancellor Angela Merkel [of Germany] on Friday called for swift action to amend European treaties to address the underlying causes of the debt crisis that has shaken Europe and jeopardized the future of the common currency."

Politico: "Tired of waiting, the House Agriculture Committee moved Friday to subpoena former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine to testify regarding the collapse of MF Global and the loss of customer funds belonging to farmers who relied on the futures broker.... Hours later, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, announced she would also seek a vote in her panel next week to compel her former colleague to appear."

New York Times: "House investigators examining the 2008 push by Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. to take the Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama found 'probable cause' that Mr. Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, directed one of his supporters to raise money for Rod Blagojevich, who was then the Illinois governor, in exchange for the appointment to the Senate, a detailed investigative report released Friday shows." The report (pdf) is here.

AP: "U.S. officials gave Pakistan soldiers the wrong location when asking for clearance to attack militants along the border last weekend, Pakistani military officials said Friday. The strike resulted in the deaths of 24 soldiers and a major crisis in relations between Washington and Islamabad."

ABC News: "The morning after the Senate defeated Democratic and Republican plans to extend the payroll tax cut, President Obama issued a Grinch-like threat to Congress to pass a payroll tax cut before the holiday recess or 'we can all spend Christmas here together.'” See also Saturday's Commentariat.

The Hill: "Unemployment dropped to 8.6 percent in November, its lowest level in nearly three years.The steep drop — the jobless rate was 9 percent a month ago — is good news for Democrats and President Obama, who is counting on a recovering economy to help him win a second term." New York Times story here.

Washington Post: "The Senate late Thursday rejected competing partisan visions for extending a temporary tax break that benefits virtually every American worker, clearing the way for more serious negotiations over how to cover the cost of the tax cut. All but a handful of Democrats voted in favor of their party’s proposal, but in a surprising turn, more Republicans voted against the GOP plan than in favor of it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted this week that a majority of his conference would vote for the party’s plan to extend the payroll tax cut."

The Commentariat -- December 1

CW: The New York Times has rolled out its full "Trusted Commenter" program. For info on the program, here's the Times' help page, and here's a note from Jill Abramson, the Times' executive editor on the program. Abtramson's note is open for comments on the new program, and they are snarky! If you've commented since the full system went up, please share your experience on today's Off Times Square, whether you're "trusted" or "mistrusted."

It's getting to be retrospective time, so here's a funny one: GQ's depiction of the least influential moment of the year. The who's who is here:

The Debt Ceiling. GQ. Art by Victor Juhasz.

** Eliot Spitzer in Slate: while telling the public, the market, their own shareholders & the Congress that they were solvent & didn't need TARP money, the big banks borrowed $7.7 "— one-half of the GDP of the entire nation.... This was perhaps the single most massive allocation of capital from public to private hands in our history, and nobody was told.... So where are the inquiries into the false statements made by the bank CEOs?... In addition to the secrecy, what is appalling is that these loans were made with no strings attached, no conditions, and no negotiation to achieve any broader public purpose." The banks made about $13 billion in profits on these near-zero-interest loans. Spitzer suggests some appropriate paybacks to the public. ...

... Judy Woodruff of PBS "News Hour" interviews Bob Ivry, one of the Bloomberg News reporters who broke the story of our $7.7-billion gift to Wall Street. Thanks to Haley S. for the link to the video & to the Spitzer post:

... Dean Baker: "The [Washington?] Post ran an article ... with the headline: 'big banks got $13 billion in undisclosed Fed loans.' ... This $13 billion was effectively a gift from the taxpayers to J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and other large banks. It was not a loan as the Post headline implies." ...

... Nicholas Kristof gets a Florida mortgage banker on the record -- and it's one disgusting record.

Dean Baker in TruthOut: "The deficit is the agenda of the One Percent." A very interesting essay, with a clever idea that would help reduce healthcare costs, and it's so-o-o free market-y!

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Responding to a plan by Senate Democrats to pay for [a one-year extension of the] payroll tax holiday by enacting a surtax on wealthy individuals, Republicans outlined a counter-proposal that would extend the current two-year pay freeze for federal workers by an extra year, trim the federal workforce by 10 percent and means test programs such as Medicare and unemployment insurance so that benefits are reduced for higher earners." ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones on why Republican obstructionism on policy matters like the payroll tax holiday work: "When it comes to domestic policy, there's virtually nothing the president can do without congressional approval. The American public, however, rather famously seems not to understand this, and Republicans know it perfectly well."

"We Regret Those Deaths." Glenn Greenwald in the New York Times eXaminer on the New York Times Editors' jingoistic tilt in the way they refer to U.S. & NATO deaths, on the one hand, and Afghan & Pakistani deaths on the other.

Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Environmental groups and elected officials have warned Barack Obama that America was emerging as the spoiler of the UN climate summit in Durban, unless there is a big shift in its negotiating stance. In two separate, but strongly worded rebukes, Obama heard from some of his closest allies that his administration was not living up to his election promises on climate action."

Mitt, et al., to Public: MYOB. Stephen Braun of the AP: "Romney's selective policy toward public access and preservation of his executive records raises stark questions about how transparent his administration would be if he were to become president.... Other leading candidates for the presidency — incumbent Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Rick Perry — have touted their commitment to transparency, but their administrations also have been selective at times in the records they disclose. They have limited, stalled or denied access when it suited their purposes."

Right Wing World

The latest in the GOP presidential race from NBC News:

Martin Bashir of MSNBC hosts a fairly good segment on Cain, et al.:

Brian McGrory, former Romney fan, of the Boston Globe: "Mitt Romney has yet again relinquished his role as the adult in this race, the serious-minded reformer who soars above the fray to tell it like it is. Romney, yet again, is just another politician willing to sacrifice what’s left of his integrity for a vote."

... What a Difference a Presidential Campaign Makes. There are a lot of people who say, ‘you know Governor, I don’t like this idea that people are going to be required to buy insurance. This is America. They should be free.’ Well, they are going to get free health care if they don’t buy insurance. I don’t think it is appropriate to say individuals have a choice of saying I don’t want to buy insurance even though I can afford it and I want to make somebody else pay for it. That’s not American. -- Mitt Romney, 2006

Mike McIntire & Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: for a guy who insists he wasn't a lobbyist, Newt Gingrich sure did a lot of the same things a lobbyist does -- and he made millions doing it. ...

     ... Citizen Gingrich. Jim Rutenberg: "Newt Gingrich said on Wednesday night that his advocacy with state and federal legislators for policies that would help his paying clients was in keeping with his role as a citizen, and was not evidence that he ever acted as a lobbyist." CW: The fact that corporations paid me millions to do my civic duty is simply evidence that corporations are people, too, and they are committed to making sure all Americans participate in this great democracy of ours.

... The Ron Paul campaign hits Newt Gingrich's hypocrisy:

     ... Ben Smith: "Ron Paul's gleefully vicious video attacking Newt Gingrich ... is rooted in a fifteen-year old relationship in which Paul has been, characteristically, typecast as the purist against the compromising Gingrich." CW: I wonder if well-paid historian Newt remembers why Paul doesn't like him.

Herman Cain explains international relations. This is not a spoof. It's from his actual Website:

Ben Smith sez the Cain map reminds him of this one:

News Ledes

President Obama on World AIDS Day:

Bloomberg News: "More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits during the holiday- shortened week, signaling limited recovery in the labor market. Jobless claims climbed by 6,000 to 402,000 in the week ended Nov. 26 that included the Thanksgiving holiday."

New York Times: "Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, hinted Thursday that the bank might be willing to step up its support for the European economy if political leaders take decisive steps to prevent future debt crises. Mr. Draghi stopped well short of offering a European version of the massive securities purchases that the Federal Reserve has used to try to stimulate the U.S. economy."

New York Times: "Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt’s first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the most significant step yet in the religious movement’s rise since the start of the Arab Spring."

AP: "President Barack Obama is renewing the U.S. commitment to ending HIV and AIDS on Thursday, setting goals for getting more people access to life-saving AIDS drugs and boosting spending on treatment of the virus in the U.S. by $50 million dollars. Senior Obama administration officials said the president will set a goal of getting antiretroviral drugs to 2 million more people around the world by the end of 2013. In addition, the U.S. will aim to get the drugs to 1.5 million HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent them from passing the virus to their children."

Not Officially Sorry. New York Times: "The White House has decided that President Obama will not offer formal condolences — at least for now — to Pakistan for the deaths of two dozen soldiers in NATO airstrikes last week, overruling State Department officials who argued for such a show of remorse to help salvage America’s relationship with Pakistan, administration officials said."

New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on Thursday that the United States would loosen some restrictions on international financial assistance and development programs in Myanmar in response to the country’s nascent political and economic reforms." ...

... AP: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is meeting with opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee) on a historic visit to Myanmar."

AP: "Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday thanked U.S. and Iraqi troops for sacrifices that he said allowed for the end of the nearly nine-year-long war, even as attacks around the country killed 20 people, underscoring the security challenges Iraq still faces."