The Commentariat -- September 21

John Dickerson of Slate thinks this time the President really means what he says -- because "the previous approach [of caving] didn't work." CW: yeah, we noticed. ...

... I've posted a "Does He Really Mean It This Time?" page on Off Times Square today. You can write on this or something else, as usual. ...

... David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "President Obama's proposal for a new tax on millionaires echoes a call in many countries struggling with budget deficits and overwhelming debts to make the wealthy pay more. Britain and France have imposed new taxes on their highest earners — and Italy, Spain, Greece and Japan are considering similar moves.... Obama ... has also framed his plan as a way to make the system more equitable. Specifically, his proposal would counteract decades of tax reductions for most Americans that have given the wealthy the most benefit. But the idea being embraced by much of the world faces strong opposition in the United States from Republicans and other conservatives who say it would harm the economy and cost jobs." CW: another he said/he said report. ...

... Steve Benen finds some cracks in the Republicans' no new taxes ever policy. Benen notes that this is because all the polls are against the GOP policy; Americans want the rich to pay more.

** "Doom!" The Lessons of History Fall on Deaf Ears. John Judis has an excellent long piece in The New Republic: "Unless there is a fundamental — and difficult-to-imagine — change in the way our politics interacts with our economy, the United States and much of the world are headed for a very grim future." I highly recommend it, especially to our conservative readers who are trying to decide which Republican candidate will do the least harm. Answer: None of 'em. ...

... Paul Krugman recommends Judis' article & adds, "The amazing thing now is not that we’re having a crisis, it’s the fact that we’re having the same crisis, and making the same mistakes. A lot of the blame goes to the economists, by the way, who abandoned what they used to know — and many of whom are giving bad advice now, I firmly believe, based more on ego and political affiliation than on analysis. That is, I believe that we’re looking at a moral failure as well as an intellectual failure."

David Corn, in The New Republic, parodies & takes down David Brooks for his nasty little lies about the Obama deficit-reduction plan. ...

... Tim Noah, also in The New Republic, is just plain sick of Brooks' bullshit about the rich paying all the taxes & how Obama is being "mean and intransigent" because he won't give the rich a break. Noah writes, "Oh, please. The top 10 percent pays nearly 70 percent of all income taxes [about which Brooks whined] because the top 10 percent makes half the income." ...

... AND ...

... "you people" being Brooks. Krugman writes, "Tax policy has very much leaned into that growing inequality, not against it — and anyone who says otherwise should not be trusted on this issue, or any other." (Emphasis added.) CW: it is stunning that one NYT columnist would call another completely untrustworthy, and that's what Krugman said about Brooks today: that David Brooks cannot be trusted to be honest about any issue.

New York Times Editors: "Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for the 1989 killing of a police officer in Savannah, Ga. The Georgia pardon and parole board’s refusal to grant him clemency is appalling in light of developments after his conviction: reports about police misconduct, the recantation of testimony by a string of eyewitnesses and reports from other witnesses that another person had confessed to the crime.... The board’s failure to commute Mr. Davis’s death sentence to life without parole was a tragic miscarriage of justice." ...

... Steve Kornacki of Salon on the implications of Davis' impending execution for the death penalty -- and, implicitly -- what it says about Americans.

President Obama should take a moment out of his very busy schedule today to commute the sentence of Mr. Davis to life without possibility of parole. Yes, he can. -- Constant Weader

CW: Bob Reich agrees with me (almost word-for-word! -- see today's Ledes): "Whatever shred of doubt you may have harbored about the determination of congressional Republicans to keep the economy in the dumps through Election Day should now be gone. Today, in advance of a key meeting of the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee to decide what to do about the continuing awful economy and high unemployment, top Republicans ...  stated in no uncertain terms the Fed should take no further action to lower long-term interest rates and juice the economy.... Besides, they've never met a government institution they don’t mind trashing." ...

... Steve Benen: "... the leaders of a major political party appear eager, if not desperate, to prevent steps that may improve the economy. The top four GOP members of Congress, including the Speaker of the House, practically demanded yesterday that no steps be taken at all as our anemic growth stalls and the job crisis intensifies. [CW Note: all links that follow are Benen's, & they point to the evidence of his assertions.] The 'sabotage' question comes up from time to time, and this certainly won’t help. As things stand, Republican leaders, some of whom have admitted that defeating President Obama is their single highest priority, now want the Fed to sit on its hands, want to strip the American Jobs Act of its most effective measures, and want to raise middle-class taxes. Oh, and they’re threatening to shut down the government, too. These are just the positions they’ve talked up over the last week." ...

     ... CW: Actually, Matt, I think the story of the day is the execution of Troy Davis -- a man who may be innocent (see links above). I am physically sick about it.

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren appeared on Morning Joe today. And she sticks it to assholes Mark Halperin & Joe Scarborough who think they're going to hit her with a gotcha question:

Josh Boak of Politico: Contra a Republican Congressional parade of industrial whiners, "Federal regulations may not be so bad after all. Challenging a flood of firsthand business testimonials about the burden of federal red tape, new research by environmental and consumer groups suggests some regulations might even lay the groundwork for a lasting economic recovery." Thanks to Doug R. for the link.

Steve Thomma of McClatchy News: "A new McClatchy-Marist poll finds that Obama looks increasingly vulnerable in next year's election, with a majority of voters believing he'll lose to any Republican, a solid plurality saying they'll definitely vote against him and most potential Republican challengers gaining on him." CW: Hmm, maybe progressives should be defending Obama more. ...

... AND Andy Borowitz of the award-winning Borowitz Report, always a reliable source for public polling results: "Frustration with President Barack Obama has grown to the point where some voters are now considering replacing him with people who appear to be blatantly brain-damaged, according to a new poll released today."

AlterNet: "Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been stripped of legal immunity ... for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office. The 7th Circuit made the ruling in the case of two American contractors who were tortured by the US military in Iraq after uncovering a smuggling ring within an Iraqi security company [which] ... was under contract to the Department of Defense.... The ruling comes as Rumsfeld begins his book tour with a visit to Boston on Wednesday, September 21, and as new, uncensored photos of Abu Ghraib spark fresh outrage across [the] Internet." CW Warning: horrendous photos accompany the article.

What Ron Suskind wrote in his book on the Obama White House:

Looking back, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace.... Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace for women. -- Anita Dunn

What Dunn actually told Suskind, based on his recorded interview of Dunn, which Washington Post reporters reviewed:

I remember once I told Valerie [Jarrett] that, I said if it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace.... Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women. -- Anita Dunn

     -- Via Kevin Drum of Mother Jones. CW: Substantive difference? You betcha.

A Sweatshop in Allentown. Spencer Soper of the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Morning Call documents conditions in Allentown's Amazon.com warehouse where summer temperatures regularly rise to 100 degrees with a heat index well above that,they keep a team of paramedics [in an air-conditioned room] to deal with all the heatstroke victims, there have been numerous OSHA complaints including at least one from a doctor who treated heatstroke sufferers, Amazon demands workers perform at super-human speed even under such conditions, and most workers are temps, many of whom get fired & marched out in front of others as examples. CW: Now wonder they call it "Amazon." Allentown has always been a factory town, & it's had a high unemployment rate for decades. There is a high immigrant population there, and it's rough. When I lived in nearby Western New Jersey, politicians used to like to scare their constituents by warning, "If we don't do [whatever], they'll bus people in from Allentown." You might want to think twice before you buy your next book or doodad from Amazon. I'm boycotting the bastards. Thanks to Kate M. for the link.

Would you buy a $16 muffin or pay $8.24 for a cup of coffee? Oh, wait, you already did. But somebody in the DOJ ate it. Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "A report released Tuesday by the [Justice] Department’s acting inspector general, Cynthia A. Schnedar, is full of what she called 'wasteful or extravagant spending' at 10 law enforcement conferences spanning the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. Descriptions of cookies and brownies costing the government nearly $10 each and beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres at $7.32 per serving struck a nerve in Washington, where austerity and belt-tightening are the watchwords at a time of economic hardship."

Ed Kilgore, the Democratic Strategist, has a fairly funny piece about Phony Pundits Universal, Ltd. a few of whom immediately crawled out of jumped from the woodwork to decry Obama's dastardly "shift to the left."

Right Wing World

Israel is our oldest and most stable democratic ally in that region.... I also as a Christian have a clear directive to support Israel. So from my perspective, it's pretty easy. Both as an American and as a Christian, I am going to stand with Israel. -- Rick Perry, September 20 ...

... Rick Perry, Way Dumber & More Dangerous than Bush. William Saletan of Slate: "By framing U.S. foreign policy in terms of a religious alliance between Christians and Jews, Perry is validating the propaganda of Islamic extremists. He's jeopardizing peace, Israel, and the United States. [President George W.] Bush understood that the terrorists who struck us on 9/11 wanted a religious war. The key to defeating them wasn't to wage that war, but to refuse it. That's why Bush constantly praised Islam, emphasized American freedom of religion, and dismissed Osama Bin Laden as a renegade killer of Muslims."

Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: "The same Republicans who are dubious of government's ability to do anything right have an apparently bottomless faith in the capital-justice system. Everything is broken in America, they claim—except the machinery of death." CW Note: Lithwick wrote her post before the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Duane Buck, another person Perry was sure it was fine to send to his death.

Mixed Signals. Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times: "On her visit to a traffic-signal plant Monday, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann called it an example of how President Obama's policies are 'continuing to dig us deeper into the hole toward another recession.' Standing before a row of shiny orange trailers carrying portable solar-powered traffic lights, she said her plans for a smaller government with fewer rules and lower spending would help OMJC Signal Inc. 'grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.' ... OMJC thrives on the kind of road and bridge spending that Obama has promoted as a key remedy to the nation's economic slowdown. As much as 80% of OMJC's revenue comes from government, according to the company's chief executive, Arlen Yost..., a conservative Republican.... Yost acknowledged that his company has profited from the infrastructure spending promoted by the president." CW: I'd day Bachmann & Yost are tied for Dumbest. But I'll warrant it's a close one.

Listen to Jerry Brown, Mr. Obama. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: California Gov. Jerry Brown, who served two terms as governor three decades ago, "has told friends he was unprepared for the extent, in his view, to which Republicans have not made sufficient efforts to accommodate him on critical issues, like putting on the ballot measures to extend taxes to avoid budget cuts.... Again and again, he said, he has found that approaches that once worked ... were no longer effective." CW: the local leaders of Right Wing World want you to fail, Governor.

Not a big deal, BUT ... Juana Summers of Politico: "... a new poll by Public Policy Polling ... showed [Texas Gov. Rick] Perry with a negative approval in Texas: while 45 percent of the state’s voters approve of Perry’s job performance, 48 percent of Texas voters say they don’t approve."

News Ledes

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is updating their Webpage on Troy Davis. The New York Times is also updating their story regularly. You'll have to refresh the pages. Pete Williams on MSNBC-TV just (at about 7:15 pm ET) said it appears Georgia is waiting to hear whether the U.S. Supreme Court will grant a stay. At 8:00 p.m. ET, MSNBC is still reporting Davis' execution has been delayed pending the U.S. Supreme Court decision. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The United States Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch request to step in late Wednesday to stay the Georgia execution of Troy Davis, who was convicted of gunning down a Savannah police officer 22 years ago, after Mr. Davis filed an eleventh-hour plea Wednesday with the high court." ...

     ... At about 10:50 pm ET, Pete Williams of NBC News said it was likely Mr. Davis would be executed tonight. ...

     ... MSNBC Update: Davis was executed at 11:08 pm ET. This is a tragic day for the nation.

President Obama at the U.N.:

     ... The White House site has videos of President Obama meeting in New York City with other world leaders.

President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly this morning. The text of the speech, as prepared, is here (pdf). New York Times: "President Obama declared his opposition to the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood through the Security Council on Wednesday, throwing the weight of the United States directly in the path of the Arab democracy movement even as he hailed what he called the democratic aspirations that have taken hold throughout the Middle East and North Africa."

Reuters: "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday looks set to launch a fresh effort to invigorate the faltering economic recovery, embarking on what could be the first in a series of incremental steps to foster stronger growth." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The Federal Reserve announced a new plan Wednesday to stimulate growth by purchasing $400 billion in long-term Treasury securities with proceeds from the sale of short-term government debt, defying Republican demands to refrain from new actions. In extending its campaign of novel efforts to shake the economy from its torpor, the Fed said that it was responding to evidence that there was a clear need for help." CW: What? And ignore extraordinary pressure from Republicans to let the country go to rack and ruin? I guess Ben Bernanke is "almost treasonous," after all. Good for him. (See next link.)

... BUT New York Times: "Even though the financial markets have been counting on the Federal Reserve to take action, Republican Congressional leadership sent a letter to the Federal Reserve chairman on Tuesday evening urging it not to engage in further stimulus." CW: this should end any lingering doubts you might have that Republicans don't really want the economy to tank. Yes, they do.

Washington Post: "The Obama administration has sharply warned Pakistan that it must cut ties with a leading Taliban group based in the tribal region along the Afghan border and help eliminate its leaders, according to officials from both countries. In what amounts to an ultimatum, administration officials have indicated that the United States will act unilaterally if Pakistan does not comply."

Washington Post: "The two Americans held in Iran for more than two years will be freed within hours, their lawyer said on Wednesday. After waiting several days for a judge to return from vacation, lawyer Masoud Shafiei secured a second signature that was needed to free Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal on $1 million bail." ...

     ** New York Times Update: "Two Americans arrested while hiking along the Iran-Iraq frontier two years ago and sentenced to eight years for espionage were released Wednesday on $1 million bail by the Iranian authorities, news agencies reported. The men, Shane M. Bauer and Joshua F. Fattal, both 29, were seen by reporters for The Associated Press leaving Evin prison in a diplomatic convoy including Swiss and Omani officials. Press TV, a state-controlled broadcaster in Iran, also said that the men had left the prison and were headed in the direction of Tehran’s international airport."

The Commentariat -- September 20

I've posted a comments page today on Off Times Square on the President's deficit-reduction speech of yesterday.

Markos Moulitsas gives the President a Thumbs-Up: in reading "Obama's deficit reduction plan, looking for that poison pill. It looked too good to be true—an aggressive and truly progressive position at odds with his previous efforts at bipartisan compromise.... The process-focused consensus builder was a flop, and now we get to try something new, something inspiring, and something that genuinely motivates me to fight." ...

... Daily Kos & Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are calling on the supercommittee to support (1) "Independent review by the Congressional Budget Office to measure how many jobs it would create or eliminate; & (2) "Reject any budget package that would cost more jobs than it creates." You can sign a petition in support of their position here. I did. ...

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: President "Obama ... seems to have given up on his strategy of nearly a year, beginning when Republicans won control of the House last November, of being the eager-to-compromise 'reasonable adult' — in the White House’s phrasing — in his relations with them." ...

... Dana Milbank: "... it was refreshing to see the president in the Rose Garden on Monday morning delivering a speech that, for once, appealed to the heart rather than the cerebrum.... Whether his plan to tax the wealthy ever could — or should — become law is not really the point. Obama finally gave his side something to stand for after too much uncertainty. He also showed that he is finally learning to negotiate." ...

... Paul Krugman: "some notes on the actual class war that has taken place over the past 30 years — namely class warfare for the rich against the middle class."

... Karen Garcia: "The reviews of today's speech are mixed between those who feel it's too little, too late and a big fat fake, to those who are experiencing renewed hope that our beleaguered president has finally grown a spine, has drawn a line in the sand and thrown down the gauntlet and is fighting for the people. I tend to go along with the former. Obama should be leaving the deficit out of it. He should be leaving the social safety net out of it. He should be calling for higher taxes in order to create jobs, period. Working people will bring down the deficit once they're allowed to work." ...

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan includes about $320 billion in cuts to government health care programs. Most of the cuts [are]  from Medicare.... But these reductions are less severe, and less worrisome, than some of the proposals Obama indicated he was willing to support over the summer.... The cuts ... are more or less consistent with the kind of cuts that you find in the Affordable Care Act: They are reductions designed to change the way Medicare pays for treatment and services, ideally (although not always) in ways that will actually improve the efficiency or quality of care." ...

... Sam Baker of The Hill: "There’s something for just about everyone to dislike in the $320 billion of healthcare savings President Obama proposed Monday."

... Brad Plumer of the Washington Post reports on five unexpected ideas in President Obama's deficit reduction plan, one of which is reforming the Postal Service.

The Wrong War. CW: A commenter in yesterday's Off Times Square got miffed at me for "deliberately misleading" readers on Paul Volcker's record as Fed Chair. Well, no I didn't, but the point I made was an aside & not a very important one, so I deleted it. Now comes Paul Krugman, who gets to the heart of the Volcker Fallacy: "Volcker, I’m sorry to say, is worrying about refighting the 1970s when we’re actually refighting the 1930s. And fighting the wrong war is a good way to lose the one we’re in." ...

     ... AND Krugman: "There are worse things than inflation," Part 2.

Landon Thomas of the New York Times: "As concerns grow that Greece may default on its government debt, economists are starting to map out possible outcomes. While no one knows for certain what will happen, it’s a given that financial crises always have unexpected consequences, and many predict there will be collateral damage. Because of these fears, Greece is working frantically in concert with other European nations to avoid default, by embracing further austerity measures it has promised in return for more European bailout money...."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Increasingly convinced that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria will not be able to remain in power, the Obama administration has begun to make plans for American policy in the region after he exits. In coordination with Turkey, the United States has been exploring how to deal with the possibility of a civil war among Syria’s Alawite, Druse, Christian and Sunni sects, a conflict that could quickly ignite other tensions in an already volatile region."

Jeff Benedict in the Hartford Courant: At a social event, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Richard Palmer apologized to Susette Kelo for his vote in favor of the City of New London. A vote in favor of Kelo would have changed the outcome of the case, at least at the state level. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a controversial 5-4 decision, ruled for the city to tear down a neighborhood in favor of urban redevelopment that never happened. The redeveloper backed out of the deal after the city moved Kelo's house & razed the neighborhood.

Horse Race Prelims. Susan Page of USA Today: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, in what is becoming a battle between the candidate who excites more Republicans and the one who shows stronger appeal among swing voters. The only other candidate in double digits is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, at 13%. Support for Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has plummetted to 5%."

Right Wing World

Too Much Noon-Day Sun. Jillian Rayfield of TPM: After meeting with a local Tea Party group last month who thinks President Obama's long-form birth certificate could be a forgery, "infamous Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio ... announced a five-person 'Cold Case Posse' that will delve into the issue of President Obama's birth certificate."

News Ledes

Reuters: "The House of Representatives unexpectedly defeated a bill that would fund the federal government past September 30 on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party to push for deeper spending cuts. The measure failed by a vote of 195 to 230, with 48 of the chamber's most conservative Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. It was an embarrassment for House Republican leaders who have at times struggled to rein in rank-and-file conservatives." New York Times story here.

President Obama salutes the people of Libya:

     ... New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday extended to Libya’s transitional leader a diplomatic honor never offered his predecessor, meeting formally with Mustafa Abdel-Jalil at the United Nations and heralding the victory of Libyan rebels who brought an end to the 42-year reign of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi."

New York Times: "Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network controlled by Qatar, named a member of the Qatari royal family on Tuesday to replace its top news director following disclosures from the group WikiLeaks indicating that the news director had modified the network’s coverage of the Iraq war in response to pressure from the United States."

New York Times: "Troy Davis, whose death row case ignited an international campaign to save his life, has lost what appeared to be his last attempt to avoid death by lethal injection on Wednesday. Rejecting pleas by Mr. Davis’s lawyers that shaky witness testimony and a lack of physical evidence presented enough doubt about his guilt to spare him death, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles ruled on Tuesday morning that Mr. Davis, 42, should die for killing Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer, in a Savannah parking lot in 1989." Atlanta Journal-Constitution story here. A pdf of the ruling is here.

AP: "The world economy has entered a 'dangerous new phase,' according to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the international lending organization has sharply downgraded its economic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year."

New York Times: "Actions taken by David M. Becker, the former general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, in the Bernard L. Madoff matter are being referred to the Department of Justice for a possible criminal investigation to determine whether they ran afoul of federal conflict-of-interest laws."

New York Times: "The most prominent Afghan official trying to negotiate a reconciliation with the Taliban was assassinated Tuesday night by a suicide bomber with explosives tucked in his turban who had been brought to his home by a trusted emissary, officials said. The assassination was a potentially devastating blow to the Afghan-led peace process aimed at ending 10 years of war."

New York Times: "The 18-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy officially ended at midnight...." Washington Post story here. AP story here.

CNN: in a surprise appearance, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) showed up at an event Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry held in Rangel's district. Rangel said his purpose was pleasantries, but he later blasted Perry in a statement.

The Commentariat -- September 19

This is not class warfare. it's math. -- Barack Obama

... The plan is here (pdf).

... Steve Kornacki of Salon explains why: Obama has finally figured out that Congressional Republicans will oppose his every policy, so he has shifted into campaign mode to establish the difference between Republican & Democratic proposals. CW: I think he "caught on" about 18 months too late, & as Kornacki points out "late may not be better than never" in terms of Obama's political future. But it's all he's got. ...

... NEW. Nice Guys Finish Last. Ezra Klein says the reason Obama changed course is that, well, his bipartisan strategy was losing voters. ...

... Matt Yglesias: "... as a statement of vision [President Obama's deficit reduction plan] sets up the contrast with the opposition quite clearly. House Republicans want to repeal Medicare in order to make tax cuts for the rich affordable, President Obama wants to tax the rich in order to make Medicare affordable. Some [progressive] critics will focus on the relatively small changes to federal health care programs here, but the President is essentially doing what progressives have been urging him to do for months — abandoning the strategy of pre-compromising, and planting his flag in a way that draws strong contrasts." ...

... NEW. Digby: President Obama "frames it as a 'shared sacrifice' so that people still believe it's right to trade essential middle class benefits for millionaire chump change. I hate that formulation and I think it's a mistake to perpetuate it.... Overall, I think the obvious takeaway is that the White House isn't looking to make any more deals to please Wall Street and burnish its 'post-partisan' image before the election. To that, I can only say 'thank God.'" ..

... NEW. Jon Walker of Firedoglake: "... it is important to remember: simply because the president did not put ... cuts [in Medicare] on the table doesn’t mean he took these cuts off the table."

... See also Glenn Greenwald's post, linked below. Oh, and there's this from VastLeft.com, via Greenwald:

... And here is why you should never, ever pay any attention to anything coming from the mind of Mark Penn, the man who sabotaged the primary election for Hillary Clinton.

Bill Keller of the New York Times: "The decline in Obama’s political fortunes, the Great Disappointment, can be attributed to four main factors: the intractable legacy bequeathed by George W. Bush; Republican resistance amounting to sabotage; the unrealistic expectations and inevitable disenchantment of some of the president’s supporters; and, to be sure, the man himself." CW: I'm not a big fan of Keller's, but this seems to be a pretty "fair & balanced" essay; most of us can agree with most of the points (I think) -- which is a pretty amazing feat in itself. ...

... I've posted a Keller page on Off Times Square.

Krugman, the Movie

... But He Does It Anyway. Paul Krugman: the U.S. and European nations have instituted austerity programs to boost corporate & public "confidence" in government. "Strange to say, however, confidence hasn’t surged. Somehow, businesses and consumers seem much more concerned about the lack of customers and jobs, respectively, than they are reassured by the fiscal righteousness of their governments. And growth seems to be stalling, while unemployment remains disastrously high on both sides of the Atlantic.... What we really need ... is to convince a substantial number of people with political power or influence that they’ve spent the past year and a half going in exactly the wrong direction, and that they need to make a U-turn." ...

... Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker in a New York Times op-ed: "... the danger is that if, in desperation, we turn to deliberately seeking inflation to solve real problems — our economic imbalances, sluggish productivity, and excessive leverage — we would soon find that a little inflation doesn’t work. Then the instinct will be to do a little more — a seemingly temporary and 'reasonable' 4 percent becomes 5, and then 6 and so on. What we know, or should know, from the past is that once inflation becomes anticipated and ingrained — as it eventually would — then the stimulating effects are lost." ...

... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Investors have concluded that the Federal Reserve will announce new measures to promote economic growth after a meeting of its policy-making committee ends Wednesday. Long-term interest rates have moved as if the Fed had already spoken. The central bank is often ... facing the choice of whether to do more to improve the economy. But the anticipatory behavior of investors means the Fed really faces a slightly different choice...: whether to risk doing less than expected."

** Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post relates an excellent -- and do-able -- idea to help millions of underwater homeowners: order Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac to allow fully-paid-up mortgageholders to refinance at lower interest rates with low refinanacing fees & no appraisals, & grant banks who agree to similar low refinancing charges "immunity from lawsuits stemming from loans issued during the bubble." The plan's designers, at least one of whom is a Republican, "estimate that their plan could allow as many as 25 million households to refinance mortgages and have an extra $70 billion every year to spend and invest — the equivalent of a $70 billion-a-year tax cut that can be had at no cost to taxpayers." Reading Pearlstein's prose is a bit of a slog, but especially if you hold such a mortgage, it's worth a read.

If (former President) Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House. There is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president. -- Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus

David Goldstein of McClatchy News: "As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, [Rep. Emanuel Cleaver] has been at odds with President Barack Obama over his administration's response to the soaring unemployment rate in the African-American community. Nearing 17 percent, joblessness among blacks is at a three-decade high and almost twice the size of the overall unemployment rate. The black caucus wants the president to do more."

Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times: "The portrait of the Obama White House that the veteran journalist Ron Suskind draws in his searing new book, 'Confidence Men,' is that of a young, inexperienced president lacking the leadership and managerial skills to deal effectively with the cascading economic problems he inherited; a brainy but detached executive with a tendency to frame policy matters intellectually 'like a journalist, or narrator, or skilled observer'; an oddly passive C.E.O. whose directive on restructuring the banks in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis was, the author says, ignored or slow-walked by his own economic team." CW: this is the most informative review of Suskind's book I've read, & it gives a much fuller picture of Suskind's conclusions than have news reports that mostly picked out the good gossip & left it at that. Suskind pretty much confirms what most of us have figured out. Thanks to Kate M. for the link. ...

... ** Glenn Greenwald: "Geithner wasn't chosen and hasn't remained despite being 'associated with the deregulatory policies of the past' and despite being the bankers' 'man in Washington.'  He is empowered precisely because of those facts.... Obama featured progressive economists during the campaign, only to immediately subordinate them to Wall-Street-subservient officials once in power.  Feigning progressive leanings for political gain is Obama's modus operandi.... That's why -- after 2 1/2 years -- we suddenly see an outburst of 'fighting for jobs' and, now, a call to raise taxes on the rich.  He does that precisely because everyone -- especially the rich -- knows it will not and cannot happen." CW: Greenwald's is a well-supported POV (he's been providing the evidence for years), so it would be naive & irresponsible to rule it out. ...

... AND here's a really entertaining conversation between Frank Rich & Adam Moss of New York Magazine on Suskind's book. CW: I have always thought former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) was the most fiscally responsible member of the Senate (he retired in 2011). Dorgan tolc President-Elect Obama in December 2008 exactly what I would have (& did on Reality Chex) about his utterly horrible economic personnel choices:

I don't understand how you could do this. You've picked the wrong people!

E. J. Dionne: "However justified their past grievances might be, [Democrats] have a powerful collective interest in seeing the fighting Obama get his new act off the ground."

The motivation for this is somewhere between despicable and reprehensible. In a close election, that could be devastating. -- former Gov. Ed Rendell (D) ...

... Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "The newly empowered Republicans in Pennsylvania are considering changing the way the state awards its electoral votes in presidential elections despite growing concerns by some Republicans that the move could backfire." ...

... Nate Silver: Silver lays out a number of the scenarios in which their little plot could backfire. ...

... Meanwhile, Alexander Burns of Politico: Nebraska Republicans are pushing to go from a Congressional District-based Electoral College to a winner-take-all system to avert the possibility that Obama will -- as he did in 2008 -- win one whole Electoral College vote in the 2nd Congressional District (Omaha area).

Right Wing World

Class Warfare, Republican Style. Do these people ever listen to themselves? --

     ... Who knew Chris Jansing was a Bolshevik? Well, she does have her red dress on. Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress has more. ...

... THEN, Laura Clawson of Daily Kos does the math & finds that Poor Mr. Moneybags there is paying those 500 workers he so benevolently employs far less than $11,400 a year -- gross. CW: Oh, what could be wrong with that? ...

... John Cook of Gawker doesn't even have to do any math to learn that it costs $200,000 a year just to feed a Republican Congressional family of six. ...

     ... Steve Benen piles on: "If it seems like these incidents come from fairly often, it’s because they do. Last month, Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) complained that his $174,000 per year congressional salary is inadequate, given all 'the hours' he works. In March, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) complained to voters that he’s 'struggling' on his $174,000 congressional salary, and to prove the point, he complained about 'driving a used minivan.' In April, Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), the 23rd richest member of Congress who owns millions of dollars in farm and ranch land, whined that he and his wife 'are struggling like everyone else.' ... As a rule, politicians make an effort not to appear out of touch. These guys aren’t even trying."

Republicans -- Keeping millions out of work to put one man out of a job. -- Attribution: Hazy

Mitch Daniels Gets It Half-Right. Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Four months after he decided against jumping into the Republican presidential race, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana says that he has occasionally been frustrated by the discourse in the campaign and that the field could benefit from at least one more contender whose candidacy was rooted in a message of fiscal discipline. Mr. Daniels said his party’s candidates had a responsibility to conduct a 'more candid and honest' conversation about the nation’s financial burdens, particularly Social Security and Medicare."

Walt Cronkite (really!) of CBS News: "Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney highlighted his Michigan roots Wednesday at an Arizona Ford dealership, telling the owner about his collection of Cadillacs." (Emphasis added.) CW: so he strapped his dog to the hood of a Cadillac?

News Ledes

TPM: "The Justice Department said Monday that Texas' state House and congressional redistricting plans didn't comply with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), indicating they thought the maps approved by Gov. Rick Perry (R) gave too little voting power to the growing Latino population in the state. Officials with DOJ's Civil Rights Division said ... they had concerns with the state House plan and the plan for congressional redistricting."

President Obama made remarks on the deficit & recommendations to the Joint Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction this morning. CW: Video & link to document in left column. ...

... New York Times: "President Obama called on Monday for Congress to adopt his 'balanced' plan combining entitlement cuts, tax increases and war savings to reduce the federal deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years, and said he would veto any approach that relied solely on spending reductions to address the fiscal shortfall."

... Reuters: "Republican leaders on Sunday criticized President Barack Obama's proposal for a new tax on millionaires, calling it 'class warfare' and predicting it will face heavy opposition in Congress." CW: but it's not "class warfare" when they do the bidding of the rich at the expense of the rest of us?

The Hill: "Three congressional Democrats are introducing a bill Wednesday that would abolish the federal debt ceiling. The lawmakers say that the recent debate to raise the ceiling and avoid default had a 'disastrous' effect on the U.S economy, and that the legislation would keep parties from using a potential default as a hostage in future budget debates.... But the bill is unlikely to gain traction, especially in the Republican-controlled House."

New York Times: "Greek leaders struggled through the weekend to agree to a set of radical budget reductions that would satisfy foreign lenders’ demands even as they tried to stave off mounting resistance to those cuts at home."