The Commentariat -- October 18

I've put up a comments page on Off Times Square. Write on anything you want.

"I Am Not Moving." Video by Corey Ogilvie, uploaded October 11. Thanks to reader Bonnie:

Greg Sargent: "Working America, the affiliate of the AFL-CIO that organizes workers from non-union workplaces, has signed up approximately 25,000 new recruits in the last week alone, thanks largely to the high visibility of the protests." Karen Nussbaum, the director of Working America, "acknowledges that conservatives might have some success discrediting the movement 'if they can change the subject to what the occupiers are wearing. But if we keep the subject on jobs and democracy, we’ll keep those working class moderates in this fight." CW: seriously, kids, if you want maximum effectiveness, show up for marches dressed as if you're going for a job interview in a red state.

     ... For more info on Playing for Change, go here.

Nate Silver on where the protesters are -- as it turns out, there are more on the West Coast than in New York and the East Coast.

Annie Lowrey of Slate: Why does Wall Street hate President Obama? While the reasons likely include his policies, his perceived ideology and their own psychological aberrations, Lowrey suggests the recent sudden turn from "cautious ingratitude" to "angry opposition" may be plain ole economics: Wall Street is not as profitable as it was even six months ago, and as many Americans do, the cats blame the President when they're not getting fatter. ...

... BUT Wall Street Loves Mitt (in case you can't read the legend, the big tall violet cylinders represent financial sector contributions to Romney, the blue are Obama & the little teeny red ones are Perry)"

... AND why not? After all, President Obama is not doing enough for Jeff Immelt, Obama's jobs-cutting jobs czar who is the CEO of the non-taxpaying GE. Scott Malone of Reuters: Immelt "held out Germany -- home to one of GE's biggest rivals, Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE) -- as an example of a wealthy country that has been successful in pushing exports. 'Chancellor (Angela) Merkel flies from Berlin to Beijing, there's 25 German CEOs that go on the plane right behind her. And they connect the dots. They play hard, they play to win,' Immelt said. President Barack Obama, he added, 'has been out driving and pushing to try to double exports in the next five years. I think we can compete very well. But we're not all-in the same way that the Germans are all-in.'" CW: This is the same whine Immelt made in his "60 Minutes" interview, which I posted last week. It's all about Jeff. 

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Democrats in the Senate will this week start to advance elements of President Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan piece-by-piece, challenging Republicans who have already nixed the package as a whole to likewise take vote after vote against its various planks."

David Crary of the AP: "As of Oct. 31, according to the U.N. Population Fund, there will be 7 billion people sharing Earth's land and resources.... Experts say most of Africa — and other high-growth developing nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan — will be hard-pressed to furnish enough food, water and jobs for their people, especially without major new family-planning initiatives. 'Extreme poverty and large families tend to reinforce each other,' says Lester Brown, the environmental analyst who heads the Earth Policy Institute in Washington. 'The challenge is to intervene in that cycle and accelerate the shift to smaller families.'"

You probably should not miss this -- Herman Cain, then CEO of Godfather's Pizza, at a 1991 Omaha Press Club meeting. Dave Weigel has the lyrics:

Right Wing World *

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: Chris Wallace of Fox "News" forgot where he worked Sunday & repeatedly pressed House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) about the economic analyses for the Republicans' so-called jobs plan. "Cantor kept dodging the question. He has no answer. Republican leaders in the House and Senate have each put out job plans. But the plans have slogans, not specifics: Less regulation, repeal Obamacare, cut taxes, and so on. Professional forecasters can't make serious estimates without more information." With video. ...

... Really, this is from Politico, not from The Onion. Jake Sherman: "Friday: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor ... is heading to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to talk about income disparity and how Republicans believe the government could help fix it." CW: probable suggested "fixes": cut taxes on the rich & eliminate regulation of Wall Street. Oh, Eric Cantor feels your pain.

Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine: Herman "Cain himself does, in fact, invoke race constantly. The context is almost always to absolve conservatives of racism, to assure them that they are less racist than the left. He ... [refers] to the "Democratic plantation." He ... [says] that, 'A lot of these liberal, leftist folk in this country, that are black, they're more racist than the white people that they're claiming to be racist.' He ... [announces] that 'most people have gotten past color, especially the Republican party.' Even if Cain decided midstream to switch from business plan pseudo-candidate to actual candidate, it is difficult to believe that many of his putative supporters would actually pull the lever for him."

Sick "Jokes" Have Consequences

We'll have a real fence, 20 ft. high with barbed wire, electrified, with a sign on the other side that says, 'It can kill you.' What do you mean insensitive? What is insensitive is when they come to the United States across our border and kill our citizens and kill our border-patrol people. -- Herman Cain, Saturday, to raucous applause

That is not a serious plan. I've also said America needs to get a sense of humor. That is a joke, O.K.? -- Herman Cain, Sunday, on "Meet the Press"

How can you joke about killing poor people who are searching for a better life? Jaime Carrillo, an accountant

Ioan Grillo of Time: "... when Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain joked about a killer electric fence to keep migrants out, political electric shocks surged rapidly south of the Rio Grande. From pulpits by the border to editorial offices in the capital [Mexico City], priests and editors vented their anger at comments they called 'stupid,' 'barbaric' and 'shameful.'"

CW: Playing "Can You Top This?" when it comes to identifying instances of Republican hypocrisy is a never-ending game in which the answer is always "Yes." Here's Alec MacGillis of The New Republic on Newt Gingrich & "death panels." Newt's duplicity is stunning, even for Newt.

* Where an interview is defined as saying something unrel ated to every question asked.

News Ledes

President Obama spoke at Greensville County High School in Emporia, Virginia this afternoon:

President Obama spoke at Guilford Technical College in Jamestown, North Carolina this morning. The video is here.

President Obama held a roundtable with educators in in Jamestown, North Carolina this morning. AP: "For President Barack Obama, the bus is back. That's the sleek, million-dollar, Secret Service-approved bus that's been carrying Obama along North Carolina's winding mountain roads, giving the president a chance to take in the fall foliage and bask in some small-town Southern hospitality."

New York Times: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton landed [in Tripoli] on Tuesday to demonstrate support for Libya’s new transitional government even as a senior administration official expressed concern that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi remained a 'lethal nuisance.' Mrs. Clinton, the administration’s most ardent champion of the NATO-led intervention year, arrived here from Malta at noon to meet with the country’s new leaders, including the chairman of the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Mohammed Abdul Jalil."

New York Times: "An Israeli soldier held for more than five years by the militant Palestinian group Hamas was traded on Tuesday for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in an elaborate exchange that could shake up regional politics.... The soldier, Sergeant First Class Gilad Shalit, was taken from Gaza, where he had been held since being abducted in a cross-border raid in 2006, into Egypt and from there to Israel, where he was given a quick medical check and declared in good health."

New York Times: "Just before the American-led strikes against Libya in March, the Obama administration intensely debated whether to open the mission with a new kind of warfare: a cyberoffensive to disrupt and even disable the Qaddafi government’s air-defense system, which threatened allied warplanes.... But administration officials and even some military officers balked, fearing that it might set a precedent for other nations, in particular Russia or China...."

AP: "Bank of America says it earned $6.2 billion in the third quarter, largely from accounting gains and the sale of a stake in a Chinese bank."

The Commentariat -- October 17

Paul Krugman: "... until a few weeks ago it seemed as if Wall Street had effectively bribed and bullied our political system into forgetting about that whole drawing lavish paychecks while destroying the world economy thing. Then, all of a sudden, some people insisted on bringing the subject up again. And their outrage has found resonance with millions of Americans." So now the Wizards of Wall Street are whining. ...

... I've added a page for comments to Krugman's column on Off Times Square. ...

... Groupthink. In commenting on this latest Rupert Murdoch scandal (which I also linked last week), Krugman offers an insight that I think many of us may have missed or not fully grasped:

My sense, after 11 years of punditizing, is that people are complicated, but gangs of people less so. Individuals are often mixed in their behavior: incorruptible politicians may cheat on their spouses, political scoundrels may have impeccable personal lives. But groups, like a politician’s inner circle or the management team of a media empire, tend to behave similarly on multiple fronts. If they lie and cheat routinely in one domain, they tend to do it in others as well.

     ... Krugman adds that this is how he knew the Bush team was making a fake case for war with Iraq; they had routinely made fake cases for their economic policies. ...

... ** Peter Beinart of the Daily Beast has an excellent analysis of how Occupy Wall Street fits into the recent (past 50 years) history of American protests and why it has such resonance. ...

... Off Times Square contributor Elizabeth Adams helped organize a 99 Percent rally in the small, conservative town of Marysville, California (north of Sacramento). Adams writes that her daughter, Olivia Key, is quoted in the local paper (story linked below), as is she. She says, "We plan to do this again next Sunday." ...

... Someone yelled, 'Take a shower.' It's not like we've been here for weeks. -- Elizabeth Adams ...

     ... Nancy Pasternack of the Appeal-Democrat: "Marysville, not generally known for street protests or liberal sentiment, attracted more than 50 demonstrators to Washington Square in support of the 'We are the 99 percent' movement during the peak of an afternoon rally Sunday.... They got some honks of support and a few drive-by cheering sections as well as some flipped middle fingers and derogatory remarks. ...

... ALSO see Off Times Square's weekend thread for reports from Meredith, who was in Times Square for the huge Occupy Wall Street event, and from Julie, who attended the Occupy Boston protest. ...

... Toilets of the Rich and Famous. Karen Garcia: "Alas, there are no toilet facilities in Zuccotti Park.... The New York Times broke the story about the bathroom crashers of OWS when the encampment was entering its third week. The paper of record still can't seem to make up its mind whether to jump on the revolutionary bandwagon and celebrate the movement, or continue siding with the oligarchs over how stressed the whole thing is making them feel.... But unlike the OWS'ers, the million dollar wunderkinds don't have to worry about their next bathroom break. Again, from the New York Times ... comes the story of a luxury toilet called the Numi," which costs 81 times the price of a Home Depot crapper. ...

Do you feel your cause is hurt by the fact that you’re dressed like a Viking? -- "Daily Show" correspondent John Oliver, interviewing a Zuccotti Park protester who was, well, dressed like a Viking ...

... TRIPOLI (The Borowitz Report) – As arrests mounted in the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City, Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) issued a stern statement today warning the NYPD to exercise restraint.... Libyan government officials also hinted that if the arrests continue, it would consider forming a NATO coalition'“to ensure the safety and security of the American people.' While it did not state it as an explicit goal, insiders believe that if the arrests continue Libya may seek the ouster of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose whereabouts remain unknown."

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post: "Despite the marketing pitch from the armed forces, which promises to prepare soldiers for the working world, recent veterans are more likely to be unemployed than their civilian counterparts. Veterans who left military service in the past decade have an unemployment rate of 11.7 percent, well above the overall jobless rate of 9.1 percent, according to fresh data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The elevated unemployment rate for new veterans has persisted despite repeated efforts to reduce it."

Adam Goldman & Mark Apuzzo of the AP: "Three months ago, one of the CIA's most experienced clandestine operatives started work inside the New York Police Department.... The CIA is prohibited from spying domestically, and its unusual partnership with the NYPD has troubled top lawmakers and prompted an internal investigation."

Nicholas Confessore & Griff Palmer of the New York Times: "Since the beginning of the year, [President] Obama and the Democratic National Committee, for which the president is helping raise money to finance his party’s grass-roots efforts, have spent close to $87 million in operating costs.... That amount is about as much as all the current Republican candidates together have raised so far in this campaign."

Mitt Romney, Vulture Capitalist. Steve Benen: "... literally all of the Republican [presidential] candidates ... want to eliminate all of the [financial regulatory] safeguards approved in 2010, but this seems to pose an even more acute problem for Mitt Romney. He not only wants to lift any measure of accountability for the financial industry, he’s also from that industry — Romney got very wealthy heading up a vulture capitalist fund, which made money by breaking up companies and firing their American workers.... By most measures, Romney is the strongest Republican candidate, but if voters are basing their decision in part on frustrations with Wall Street, a Romney nomination could very well be a gift to the Democratic Party."

New York Times Editors: Elizabeth "Warren talks about the nation’s growing income inequality in a way that channels the force of the Occupy Wall Street movement but makes it palatable and understandable to a far wider swath of voters. She is provocative and assertive in her critique of corporate power and the well-paid lobbyists who protect it in Washington, and eloquent in her defense of an eroding middle class. It is an informed and measured populism.... She is a remarkably eloquent and appealing Senate candidate." ...

... And allies of House Democrats are trying to climb onto the populist bandwagon, as evidenced by this negative spot against Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) produced by the HouseMajorityPac:

Adam Cohen of Time: "Abortion opponents have a new weapon of choice: the 'heartbeat bill.' A coalition of anti-abortion groups told the Associate Press last week last week that it was pushing to enact laws in all 50 states that would make women listen to a fetus's heart beat before they could abort. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has introduced a similar federal bill, The Heartbeat Informed Consent Act, in Congress. When the Supreme Court decided Roe, critics of abortion vowed to get it overturned. They have not succeeded in that. But they have managed to pass a wide array of laws — some upheld by the courts, others struck down — making access to abortion more difficult."

Right Wing World *

Susan Saulny of the New York Times: "Herman Cain ... was pushed to admit that his signature economic plan, 9-9-9, would result in increased taxes for some people.... He also sought to back away from fiery comments he had made just hours earlier, saying he was only joking about killing people trying to cross the border from Mexico with an electrified fence.... Beyond that, Mr. Cain acknowledged that he was unfamiliar with the neoconservative movement, and was not exactly sure what the word 'neoconservative' meant. All this was in the space of a 20-minute interview....” Here's the interview featuring our favorite hard-hitting journalist:

Enemy of the Earth. Chris Tomlinson of the AP: Texas Gov. Rick "Perry has cut funding for clean air programs and sued the Environmental Protection Agency to avoid enforcing laws to make the air cleaner. As part of his Republican presidential campaign, he routinely blasts the White House for tightening environmental standards."

Note to Conservatives: the MSM Is Not Obama's PR Unit. Keach Hagey of Politico (yes, Politico!) The right constantly asserts that President Obama has the media "in his back pocket" (Sarah Palin's description) & there is a "longstanding complaints from conservatives that the mainstream media treated the tea party with contempt.... But a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that, in the past five months, the reverse has actually been true: Obama has received the most unremittingly negative press of any of the presidential candidates by a wide margin, with negative assessments outweighing positive ones by four to one. Pew found that just 9 percent of the president’s coverage was positive, while 34 percent was negative — a stark contrast to the 32 percent positive coverage and 20 percent negative that it found Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the most covered Republican, received." CW: C'mon, Keach. Don't confuse us with the facts.

* Where one defense for saying you plan to kill people looking for work is to say, "I was only kidding."

News Ledes

President Obama spoke at West Wilkes High School in Millers Creek, North Carolina, this afternoon. Update: the video is here.

AP: "A lawyer for Dominique Strauss-Kahn says the former IMF chief wants to be questioned by police so that he can debunk claims he was linked to a suspected hotel prostitution ring."

President Obama speaks on the American Jobs Act in Ashville, North Carolina, & appropriately mocks the Republicans' "Real American Jobs Act," which would probably actually cut jobs:

Guardian: "A lawyer acting on behalf of an Occupy Wall Street protester who was allegedly assaulted by a New York police officer on Friday has called for an investigation into the behaviour of the deputy inspector involved after video evidence appeared to show the same officer [Johnny Cardona] engaging in the rough handling of a woman protester in an earlier incident." With videos which you really should watch; the NYPD look more like barroom brawlers than peace officers.

AP: "Greek unions lashed out at the government Monday with protests, strikes and ministry building sit-ins, intensifying resistance to more austerity cuts as both Greece and the 17-nation eurozone faced a crucially decisive week. Strikes halted ferries to the Greek islands and left rotting trash piling up on the streets of Athens for a 16th straight day. Tax collectors and customs officers walked off the job and protesting civil servants occupied the finance and labor ministry buildings in the Greek capital."

New York Times: "Three years after needing a federal bailout to survive, Citigroup reported its seventh-straight quarterly profit, with a 74 percent rise in the third quarter despite dismal results of its investment bank. Citigroup announced a profit of $3.8 billion, or $1.23 a share, beating analyst consensus estimates of 81 cents per share. The bank had reported a $2.2 billion profit, or 72 cents a share, a year ago in the third quarter."

Guardian: "Far from requesting that the 300-strong crowd be removed from [London's St. Paul's] Cathedral steps on Sunday , the Rev Dr Giles Fraser, canon chancellor of St Paul's, requested that the police themselves move on as the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest entered its second day."

New York Times: "The British oil company, BP, said Monday that a partner in a well that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, Anadarko Petroleum, had agreed to pay $4 billion to settle claims relating to last year’s oil spill. The settlement ends a long dispute between BP, which operated the well in the gulf, and Anadarko, which owned a 25 percent stake, about accepting responsibility for compensating those affected by one of the worst oil spills ever in the United States."

The Commentariat -- October 16

Adrian Chen of Gawker: Tom Ryan, a conservative "New York-based computer security expert..., has leaked thousands of emails from Occupy Wall Street organizers and told us he's identified members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous involved in the protest.... Now they're being used by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart to smear the movement. The emails show that Occupy Wall Street is a 'conspiracy to "destabalize" Global Markets,' Breitbart says!" ...

... In a follow-up post, Chen writes that since the start of Occupy Wall Street, Ryan "has been waging a campaign to infiltrate and discredit the movement, [and] he was forwarding interesting email threads to contacts at the NYPD and FBI.... He was also giving information to companies" like NBC Universal.

Nicholas Kristof: "... the United States is [economically] more unequal a society than either Tunisia or Egypt. Three factoids underscore that inequality (the following links are to data referenced):

¶The 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans.

¶The top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent.

¶In the Bush expansion from 2002 to 2007, 65 percent of economic gains went to the richest 1 percent.

Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic for the New York Times, on the significance of place -- and of face-to-face contact -- to protest movements. "In his 'Politics,' Aristotle argued that the size of an ideal polis extended to the limits of a herald’s cry. He believed that the human voice was directly linked to civic order."

Closing your [Citibank] account is now a go-to-jail offense. -- Ken Layne, Wonkette ...

... A woman wearing a business suit is manhandled, detained & arrested at the La Guardia Place (Manhattan) Citibank branch -- AFTER she shows police & security guards her Citibank documents & repeatedly declares, "I'm a customer!" According to Layne, the woman went into the bank to close her account. Watch from about 60 secs. in:

The View from the Court of Louis XVI. Nelson Schwartz & Eric Dash of the New York Times: Wall Street bankers see Occupy Wall Street protesters as "a fringe group" & "a ragtag group looking for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll," people who don't have the sense to realize bankers "pay all the taxes." [CW: And why is that? you jerks.] One banker said Sens. Chuck Schumer & Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), both of whom get plenty of Wall Street campaign money, should be defending the Street: "They need to understand who their constituency is." That, of course, is the exactly problem.

"We Are the 53 Percent." Or Not. Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Monthly on Erick Erickson's "response" to the 99 Percent -- a Tumblr grievance site that allows wingers to complain that they are paying taxes and you're not. BUT, Bernstein writes, "... a substantial portion of them … don’t actually pay income taxes, and therefore are not, in fact, part of the 53 percent of households who do. For example, [a] citizen claims to be a college senior working '30+ hours a week making just barely over minimum wage.' ... If that’s all he’s got he’s not paying any income tax. Just as a guess, I’d be surprised if any fewer than 10 percent of the posters are actually income-tax free, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s about 50/50."

How to Identify a Moderate Republican. Jamison Foser of Media Matters: The votes by Maine Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins against the American Jobs Act, which Moody's Analytics estimated would create nearly 2 million new jobs, have sparked protests in Augusta, [Maine's capital].... In her five-paragraph statement about her vote against the jobs bill, Snowe indicated an objection to only one of the bill's provisions: the surcharge on adjusted gross income in excess of one million dollars a year, which would affect only one-tenth of one percent of Maine residents. So it's pretty clear what side Snowe is on: She sides with the richest one-tenth of one percent of Mainers, and against 99.9 percent of her constituents.... But just to drive the point home, Snowe spoke to group of businessmen..., where she courageously told them their taxes are too high and they are over-regulated.... Snowe also backed a balanced budget amendment, which, according to ... Moody's Analytics ..., 'is likely to push the economy back into recession.'"

Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "The Internet banking services that have been sold to customers as conveniences, like online bill paying, also serve as powerful tethers that keep customers from jumping to another institution.... Representative Brad Miller [D-NC] ... introduced a bill this month that would make it easier for customers to switch" banks.

Nicholas Confessore & Griff Palmer of the New York Times: "Mitt Romney has raised far more money than [President] Obama this year from the firms that have been among Wall Street’s top sources of donations for the two candidates. That gap underscores the growing alienation from Mr. Obama among many rank-and-file financial professionals and Mr. Romney’s aggressive and successful efforts to woo them." CW: this is the top story in this morning's online Times, which can only please Barack Obama. ...

... CW: guess I was right. From Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "President Obama and his team have decided to turn public anger at Wall Street into a central tenet of their reelection strategy. The move comes as the Occupy Wall Street protests gain momentum across the country and as polls show deep public distrust of the nation’s major financial institutions. And it sets up what strategists see as a potent line of attack against Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, a former investment executive whom Obama aides plan to portray as a wealthy Wall Street sympathizer." CW: the Obama campaign probably fed the Times reporters the Obama-Romney Wall Street fundraising story above.

Right Wing World *

As the Worm Turns. Ryan Foley of the AP: "Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers [David & Charles Koch] who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity."

From yesterday's Commentariat: CW: the AP reported that "the United States is ... sending about 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to [act as advisers] ... against a guerrilla group accused of horrific atrocities." AND here is Rush Limbaugh's "news" report on the development. The headline: "Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians." ...

     ... Matt Yglesias: "... Rush Limbaugh’s instinct is to embrace brutal murderers.... Reasonable people can disagree as to whether or not chasing a relatively small band of depraved mass murderers around central africa is a reasonable thing for American military personel to be doing. But let’s make no mistake—these are depraved mass murderers. And yet Rush Limbaugh is pleased to welcome them as fellow Christian allies." ...

     ... Digby: "Considering that Rush is a leader of a rather large group of people who insist that Hitler was a leftist, I'm not entirely surprised. Rightwingers' worldview is so Manichean they literally cannot conceive of anyone a Democrat or liberal might oppose not being the good guys --- particularly if that enemy calls itself 'Christian.' (Again, the proof offered for Hitler's alleged leftism is that the word 'socialism' appears in the name of the Nazi Party. So there you go.)" ...

     ... Steve Benen: "I don’t care that Limbaugh is a professional liar; I do care when he sides with depraved, roving band of mass murderers, solely because he hates the U.S. president.... When Congress passed the LRA Disarmament & Northern Uganda Recovery Act, authorizing U.S. military support against the LRA [the group the U.S. military is targeting], it was approved unanimously in both chambers.... Given that Limbaugh is one of the nation’s most prominent Republican leaders, perhaps the GOP presidential candidates can be asked for their opinion on this. Does Mitt Romney agree with Limbaugh? Will Limbaugh’s embrace of the LRA ... stop the candidates from appearing on Limbaugh’s show?" ...

     ... Commenter Mike on Benen's post: "The Limbaugh show is still carried on Armed Forces Radio, btw." CW: I've written to Armed Forces Radio to protest their continued carrying of a program which supports terrorists. You can write to P. J. (Jerry) Weaver, an Armed Forces Radio director, at pjweaver94@gmail.com Here's my letter to him:

Dear Mr. Weaver:

As you probably know, last week Rush Limbaugh came out in support of the terrorist African group the Lord’s Resistance Army. In 2009, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed the LRA Disarmament & Northern Uganda Recovery Act, authorizing U.S. military support against the LRA (you can find reference to it here). Last week the President sent Congressional leaders a letter advising them that he had “authorized a small number of combat equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony [the LRA leader] from the battlefield.”

In view of Mr. Limbaugh’s support of a group which the Congress and President have recognized as a violent terrorist organization, and against whom American troops are fighting, I ask you to immediately and permanently remove Mr. Limbaugh’s program from your schedule. Armed Forces Radio Network, which is taxpayer-funded, should not carry a radio show that advocates for enemy terrorists.

Thank you for your urgent attention to this matter.

Marie Burns

* Where nothing is as it seems.

Local News

Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "The push to repeal ... [Ohio State] Senate Bill 5..., Gov. John R. Kasich’s [R] signal achievements..., a law that weakens public employees’ bargaining rights..., will be one of the biggest battles in the country this Election Day, with the law’s supporters and opponents expected to spend in total more than $20 million in the fight."

News Ledes

AP: "Libyan revolutionary forces bulldozed the green walls surrounding Moammar Gadhafi's main Tripoli compound on Sunday, saying it was time 'to tear down this symbol of tyranny.'"

New York Times: "More than six months before the French presidential election, the main candidates appear to be set, with François Hollande, 57, winning a runoff election on Sunday to become the Socialist Party presidential candidate.... The putative favorite for the Socialists’ nomination — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund — did not run after he was arrested on charges of attempted rape in New York. The charges were dropped, but Mr. Strauss-Kahn retreated from political life." Hollande will likely face President Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), France's major right-wing political party.

New York Times: "Israel on Sunday released the names of the first 477 Palestinian prisoners that it will exchange for a soldier held by the militant faction Hamas, and the list revealed why the country has found the trade so wrenching: the majority of the inmates were convicted of manslaughter, attempted murder or intentionally causing death."

President Obama spoke at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial dedication on the National Mall this morning. AP story here. A post-speech AP story is here.

AP: "Iran's supreme leader warned the United States on Sunday that any measures taken against Tehran over an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington would elicit a 'resolute' response."

New York Times: "Buoyed by the longevity of the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Manhattan, a wave of protests swept across Asia, the Americas and Europe on Saturday, with hundreds and in some cases thousands of people expressing discontent with the economic tides in marches, rallies and occasional clashes with the police.... At least 88 people were arrested in New York, including 24 accused of trespassing in a Greenwich Village branch of Citibank and 45 during a raucous rally of thousands of people in and around Times Square. More than 1,000 people filled Washington Square Park at night, but almost all of them left after dozens of police officers with batons and helmets streamed through the arch and warned that they would be enforcing a midnight curfew. Fourteen were arrested for remaining in the park."

Reuters: "The world's leading economies pressed Europe on Saturday to act decisively within eight days to resolve the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis which is endangering the world economy. In unusually direct language, finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of 20 major economies said they expected an October 23 European Union summit to 'decisively address the current challenges through a comprehensive plan'."

AP: "Arab foreign ministers have called an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss whether to suspend Syria from the Arab League, officials said, ramping up the pressure on Damascus to end its bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters."