The Commentariat -- Independence Day

Paul Krugman opposes the tax holiday corporations are lobbying for the Congress to pass in order for the U.S. to have the privilege of corporations' returning their overseas profits to the U.S. so they can pay their stockholders dividends, up their CEOs' pay, pay down debt, buy other companies -- and create zero jobs. ...

... I posted a comments page for Krugman's column on Off Times Square. Comment on Krugman or whatever.

** What to Read. Frank Rich is back with his first essay in New York magazine: "The president’s failure to demand a reckoning from the moneyed interests who brought the economy down has cursed his first term, and could prevent a second." Here's a taste:

For all the lurid fantasies of the birthers, the dirty secret of Obama’s background is that the values of Harvard, not of Kenya or Indonesia or Bill Ayers, have most colored his governing style. He falls hard for the best and the brightest white guys.

David Remnick of the New Yorker writes a good commentary on the brief history of the gay marriage movement. "The struggle for marriage equality is about more than the definition of marriage; it’s about the definition of justice."

The Abu Ghraib Accountability Model, Con'd. Glenn Greenwald on the criminal investigations into two prisoner deaths: "... the U.S. Government has effectively shielded itself from even minimal accountability for its vast torture crimes of the last decade.  Without a doubt, that will be one of the most significant, enduring and consequential legacies of the Obama presidency." CW: how is it that a President can be impeached over perjuring himself about sex, but Obama has protected a former President, Vice President & assorted administration & other officials from their likely culpability in the torture & deaths of (primarily) men in their custody. Perjury is wrong, but does anyone think it is more wrong than torture & murder? You may argue that Obama's policy is akin to the reconciliation amnesty overseen by Archbislop Desmond Tutu, but it ain't. Those who received amnesty in South Africa were granted it only after fully disclosing their crimes, and only one in eight who applied were granted amnesty. Not only have our war criminals not apologized for their war crimes, some -- like John Yoo -- have vigorously defended their actions. Why are we protecting them?

The Three Amigos Do Afghanistan. AP (via the NYT), Kabul: "The senators — John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham — said that they were heartened by the progress of Afghan security forces, but concerned that Mr. Obama’s withdrawal plan could deplete American military strength before dealing a decisive blow to the Taliban, especially in the east. That part of the country is a haven for the Afghan and Pakistani wings of the Taliban and affiliates of Al Qaeda."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), who represents the Napa Valley, "is not only the industry’s foremost champion in Washington, helping it secure tax breaks, get money for pet projects like the Napa Valley Wine Train or beat back restrictions on direct sales of wine. He is also a vineyard owner.... Mr. Thompson is in business with some of the same companies whose agendas he promotes. His vineyard has been paid at least $500,000 since 2006 by two wineries whose executives have appealed to Congress on legislative matters. Mr. Thompson could also benefit from his own efforts on the industry’s behalf, including a push to increase the value of grapes grown near his vineyard by seeking a special designation from the Treasury Department."

Okay, here's the news on DSK from the journalists at the New York Post:

... Brad Hamilton & Larry Celona: "She was turning tricks on the taxpayers' dime! The<> Sofitel maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of a sex attack in his suite wasn't just a hotel hooker -- she continued to work as a prostitute in a Brooklyn hotel where she was stashed by prosecutors, The Post has learned." ...

... AND Hamilton & Cathy Burke: " Sources now tell The Post that when the two were finished, the woman demanded cash from Strauss-Kahn -- but he refused to pay."

News Ledes

The Obama family will attend an Independence Day celebration this evening. President Obama will speak at 6:30 pm ET.

The Atlantic: "French writer Tristane Banon will file charges for attempted rape against Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday, her lawyer told Reuters. She alleges that Strauss-Kahn attacked her in 2002 when she was interviewing the former IMF chief in an apartment in Paris. She compared his behavior that day to a, 'rutting chimpanzee' in a television interview in 2007. The statute of limitations on rape in France is ten years."

Sick, Vicious. BBC News: "The @foxnewspolitics feed stated: "BREAKING NEWS: @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much." More than two hours after the malicious postings appeared, they had still not been removed. A group or individual, calling themselves The Script Kiddies appeared to claim responsibility. Fox News said it was investigating the posts. The bizarre messages began appearing around 07.00 BST on July 4." ...

... Fox News: "FoxNews.com alerted the U.S. Secret Service, which is declining public comment. Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital, said FoxNews.com is working with Twitter to address the situation as quickly as possible." ...

     ... The New York Times has an updated story here.

New York Times: "Two senior Republicans [Sens. John Cornyn & John McCain] said Sunday that they might be open to raising new government revenue as part of a deal to resolve the dispute over the federal debt ceiling, but they warned that there was little time to enact a comprehensive deal."

AP: "A leading credit ratings agency warned on Monday that Greece would be considered to be in default if banks rolled over their holdings in the country's debt as proposed recently in a French plan. Standard & Poor's said in a statement that two proposals by an association of French banks 'would likely amount to a default' under its criteria because both options offer 'less value than the promise of the original securities.'"

AP: "Thailand's military eased concerns of renewed turmoil Monday by accepting the sweeping electoral win of toppled ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's party, while his sister vowed to reconcile the deeply divided nation as its first female prime minister. The election marked an extraordinary rebuke of the military-backed establishment that deposed Thaksin in a coup five years ago, and the opposition's strong mandate in parliament was likely to boost stability in the short-term — a fact reflected in a sharp rise in the Thai stock market Monday."

AP: "Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike's handlebars and hit his head on the pavement. The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse."

AP: Army Command Sgt. Major Jeffery Mellinger, believed to be the last Vietnam-era draftee, is retiring after 39 years of service.

The Commentariat -- July 3

Okay, for you royal watchers & wedding sentimentalists, here's a doubly-whammy. If the bride, Princess Charlene, looks sad -- and she does -- it might be because a third woman came forward this past week claiming she had a child by the groom, Prince Albert II of Monaco. Here's the New York Times wedding announcement & here's an AP story on today's ceremony. This Reuters story mentions the 13th-century "Curse of the Grimaldis":

     ... The couple were married Friday in a civil ceremony. A video of the civil ceremony & link to the news story are under the Soaps near the bottom of the right column.

Now, to our own travails:

Maureen Dowd doesn't quite know what to make of the unraveling of the case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. She concludes, "When a habitual predator faces off against a habitual liar, the liar will most likely lose, even if it is the rare case when she is telling the truth." ...

... I've added a comments page for Dowd's column on Off Times Square. You can write on something else, if you prefer. My comment got whacked again, so Off Times Square is the only place to read it. ...

... Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times profile Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, whose office has experienced a string of high-profile losses & whose management style is controversial.

News You Can Use. David Streitfeld of the New York Times: "Two of the nation’s biggest lenders, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, are quietly modifying loans for tens of thousands of borrowers who have not asked for help but whom the banks deem to be at special risk."

NEW. Matt Yglesias on the Constitutional option on the debt ceiling: "It’s not clear that anyone would have standing to sue if Obama refused to abide by the debt ceiling. But it seems perfectly clear that if the government promised to pay you to do some work, and then just doesn’t pay you that you have grounds for a legal complaint. The president must 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed' and the appropriations bills are real laws. [Emphasis mine.] Congress passed them." CW: this is what makes sense to me. Of course, I'm not a lawyer & I don't think Yglesias is, either.

Ghost of the Gipper -- Obama Assumes the Reagan Persona

Karen Garcia one-ups Krugman's post of yesterday and finds "Four Reaganisms in One Paragraph" of President Obama's radio address. "The good news, according to the One, is not the fact that he is fighting back, but that Democrats and Republicans are agreeing on the same fake problem."...

... David Rogers: "... a POLITICO review of [President Ronald] Reagan’s own budget documents shows that the Republican president repeatedly signed deficit-reduction legislation in the 1980’s that melded annual tax increases with spending cuts just as President Barack Obama is now asking Congress to consider.... The rich diversity of Reagan-era tax changes is most striking, impacting even such conservative priorities now as the estate tax. At the same time, Reagan also signed laws to double the federal gasoline tax to build more roads and increase payroll taxes to stabilize Social Security." ...

... Steve Benen. On taxes, this puts Reagan slightly to Obama’s left.... Doesn’t it bother Republicans, just a little, that Barack Obama is more in line with the Reagan legacy than they are?" ...

... Constant Weader: it sure bothers Democrats like me. ...

... BooMan: "... today's conservatives ... don't see Reagan's presidency as the ideal. They see it as the beginning. He was the great man who got the ball rolling, not the man who governed (Goldilocks-style) just right.... So, telling Republicans how reasonable Reagan was doesn't impress today's Republicans; it just reminds them of how much progress they've made. And I'm tired of writing things that make Republicans feel warm all over."

The War on Terror Everybody. Adam Estes of The Atlantic: "Somalia is now the sixth country over which the United States is flying attack drones." And boots on the ground: "Somalia's defense minister says that American military forces touched down to collect the bodies of the insurgents."

He’s a rotten prick.... This is all about him being a bully and a punk. I wanted to punch him in his head.... You know who he reminds me of? Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ the mean old bastard who screws everybody.... He’s mean-spirited. He’s angry. If you don’t do what he says, I liken it to being spoiled, I’m going to get my way, or else. -- New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Gov. Chris Christie, who line-item vetoed many state programs for the disadvantaged. Thanks to commenter Marvin Schwalb for this rhetorical gem

Aristocracy Watch. Pradnya Joshi of the New York Times: "... the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. That works out to a 23 percent gain from 2009. Some chief executives have consistently taken token salaries — sometimes, $1 — choosing instead to rely on their ownership stakes for wealth. These stock riches don’t show up on the current pay lists.... Warren E. Buffett, for instance, saw his stock holdings rise last year by 16 percent, to $46 billion.... The average American worker was taking home $752 a week in late 2010, up a mere 0.5 percent from a year earlier. After inflation, workers were actually making less."

... Aristocracy Watch, Con'd. E. J. Dionne: "The United States Supreme Court now sees its central task as comforting the already comfortable and afflicting those already afflicted." ...

... Lincoln Caplan, the New York Times editorial writer for legal affairs, writes a powerful editorial condemning the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Connick v. Thompson which overturned a $14MM jury award for John Thompson, who was the victim of serial prosecutorial misconduct. Caplan concludes, "The capital punishment system in this country has put many innocent people on death row. It cannot be fixed and should be repealed everywhere. With this ruling, the court made it even more likely that innocent people will be railroaded by untrained prosecutors — with the terrible prospect of their being put to death for crimes they did not commit."

** Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly: "... the Department of Justice filed a brief in federal court employee Karen Golinski's federal court challenge, supporting her lawsuit seeking access to equal health benefits for her wife and arguing strongly that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional in terms unparalleled in previous administration statements.... Unlike in other cases where DOJ has stopped defending DOMA in accordance with President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder's decision that Section 3 of DOMA -- the federal definition of marriage -- is unconstitutional, DOJ lawyers today made an expansive case in a 31-page filing that DOMA is unconstitutional."

Bibi's Big Fat Greek Wedding. Barak Ravid of Haaretz: Israeli PM Benjamin "Netanyahu’s personal investment in his relationship over the past year-and-a-half with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in which he increased diplomatic ties with the floundering European nation seems to have put the final nail in the Gaza flotilla’s coffin." CW: see also today's Ledes on arrest of flotilla captain.

Andy Greenberg of Forbes: "If Visa Europe and MasterCard Europe haven’t re-opened payment WikiLeaks by next Thursday, the group and its payment provider DataCell plan to file a complaint with the E.U. Commission against the two companies as well as the Danish payment processor Teller, according to Sveinn Andri Sveinsson, the Icelandic lawyer for WikiLeaks and DataCell." In this knockoff "ad," WikiLeaks claims the financial institutions have cost it $15MM:

Right Wing World *

Vicki Needham of The Hill: Congressional Democrats & the Obama Administration expected smooth sailing for three trade deals the White House sent to Congress last week, but House Republicans walked out of the committee hearing on the markup. Here's why: "GOP lawmakers are opposing the decision to include Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which helps retrain workers displaced by foreign trade, as part of the South Korean deal, insisting, instead, that TAA be considered separately."  CW: They don't want to retrain displaced American workers???? Can we just face it? Republicans hate people. The 2012 Democratic campaign theme for 2012 should be "Republicans: They're just not that into you."

Ryan Reilly of TPM: "The sponsor of an Ohio bill which restricts access to the ballot box was arrested back in April on drunk driving charges.... On April 23, an Indiana state trooper pulled Rep. Robert Mecklenborg, [a Republican,] over for a burned out headlight.... After failing three separate field sobriety tests, Mecklenborg allegedly refused to take a breath test and was placed under arrest. A blood test later revealed that he had recently taken a Viagra.... Mecklenborg was accompanied by a 26-year-old woman, who a local blogger claims has 'personal connections' with Concepts Show Girls strip club, which is right near where Mecklenborg was arrested." CW: since the police almost certainly confiscated Mecklenborg's driver's licence, he no long has a voter ID.

* Where the facts occasionally kick the deserving in the ass. 

News Ledes

CNN: Speaking at Aspen, former President Bill Clinton urged the White House "not to blink" in the debt ceiling negotiations & said President Obama should stand his ground.&

AP: "Greek authorities have arrested the captain of a boat that is part of a Gaza-bound flotilla trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory, officials said yesterday."

AP: "Hundreds of barrels of crude oil spilled into Montana's Yellowstone River after an ExxonMobil pipeline beneath the riverbed ruptured, sending a plume 25 miles downstream and forcing temporary evacuations, officials said. The break near Billings in south-central Montana fouled the riverbank and forced municipalities and irrigation districts Saturday to close intakes."

AP: On Friday Commander Christopher Ferguson, co-pilot Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus will make NASA's 135th and final shuttle flight on board Atlantis. "It will be years before the United States sends its own spacecraft up again."

The Commentariat -- July 2

The President's Weekly Address: Cutting the deficit & creating jobs:

     ... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama on Saturday repeated his challenge to Republicans to accept higher taxes on wealthy people and corporate interests, as part of a plan to reduce the budget deficit." ...

     ... ** Krugman writes a very short, must-read post on the President's address. I'd copy the whole right thing if it weren't illegal. Here's the closer: "This is truly a tragedy: the great progressive hope (well, I did warn people) is falling all over himself to endorse right-wing economic fallacies." CW: I've written to Krugman via a comment on this post, begging him to request an audience with the great progressive hope. Why don't you do the same?

** NEW. Prof. Suzanne Mettler, in the Washington Monthly, on the government benefits Americans, especially wealthy Americans, receive through what she calls "the submerged state," a/k/a "tax loopholes." Mettler has published some of these data before, & I've linked the reports, but I highly recommend this article which reader Trish Ramey called to our attention. A sample:

As a matter of budgeting ... there is no difference between a tax break and a social program: both have to be paid for, either by raising tax rates or by adding to the deficit. Eugene Steuerle, a tax economist and political appointee in the Reagan administration, said of the distinction between tax expenditures and direct social spending, 'One looks like smaller government; one looks like bigger government. In fact, they both do exactly the same thing.'

CW: I'm not sure how accurate this is since it's a case of the White House tooting its own horn, but the Council of Economic Advisers released a report (pdf) asserting that the stimulus (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) raised GDP by as much as 3.2 percent as of the first quarter of 2011 and added as many as 3.6 million jobs over its lifetime. According to the claim re: the GDP rise, "These estimates are very similar to those of a wide range of other analysts, including the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office."

Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress: "It appears the U.S. government may finally be getting smarter after decades of failure to develop a coherent approach to the phenomenon of political Islam in the Middle East. Speaking in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was seeking 'limited contacts' with members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood ahead of elections later this year, as well as with Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda." ...

... BUT, gosh, not everybody agrees this is a good idea. Adam Serwer of American Prospect: "Andrew McCarthy [of the right-wing National Review] is claiming that the news ... is ... proof that [President Obama] is secretly a part of their plan to establish a global caliphate (a plan in which killing Osama bin Laden is a key step!) While Karl Rove ... claims that engagement makes the U.S. 'look weak,' a description that presumably does not apply to Rove's former boss when he also communicated with the Brotherhood."

** Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic: "The Supreme Court term that ended this week would have looked very different if Justice Sandra Day O’Connor were still on the bench. Twenty percent of the cases were decided by a 5-4 vote, and, in many of those cases, Justice O’Connor would have voted to swing the result the other way."

It was an instance of extreme injustice. I thought that the court was not just wrong but egregiously so. -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on the Supremes' 5-4 Connick v. Thompson decision, in which conservative Justices rescinded a $14 million verdict for former death-row inmate John Thompson who was convicted largely because prosecutors illegally withheld exculpatory evidence ...

... Joan Biskupic of USA Today interviews Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Michael Powell of the New York Times: "Some day soon — today, perhaps? — an observant bookie might ask: Who faces longer election odds? Dominique Strauss-Kahn or the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.? The new district attorney’s string of losses and/or embarrassments in high-profile cases has become perversely impressive." ...

... Legal analyst Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic: "The New York Times' story Thursday night ... is a devastating bit of business. Even if portions of it are inaccurate -- and I am not claiming that they are -- the piece virtually guarantees that prosecutors would lose the case if they were to proceed to trial. This is so because the alleged victim's credibility now is forever shattered...." Cohen writes a follow-up post here.

George Will enjoys blaming Democrats for everything, but this time he might be right. ...

... NEW. Contra Will -- ergo contra Morgenson & Rosner -- reader Trish Ramey recommends this May 21 post by Paul Krugman. CW: I would love to see a symposium featuring Krugman & Morgenson.

Tim Egan has a pretty hilarious post on Michele Bachman even if he does make a serious point. Here's a sample:

From her contention that eliminating the minimum wage would mean full employment to her assertion that 'almost all' people in the 'gay lifestyle' have been abused, these things can be explained. Bachmann has a worldview that requires constant reshaping in the face of real life. However, if God is writing the script for her campaign, as she says, He needs a fact-checker.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Chokehold Prosser just can't keep his hands to himself. Yesterday he grabbed the mic of a local reporter who was attempting to question him about the incident in which he allegedly put a chokehold on Justice Ann Walsh Bradley after a heated discussion:

Alexander Burns of Politico: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's New Hampshire AND Iowa staff quit. CW: Maybe they're going to work for a more serious candidate, like Newt Gingrich.

Lots of Cash but Less than Zero Class:

America needs a president who understands the special sauce of what it is that makes this country great. The fact of his personal story of being half black and all that is a wonderful, inspiriting story. But it doesn’t qualify him to be president. -- Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Jon Huntsman fundraiser & former Hillary Clinton fundraiser

Alexander Burns: "The most valuable asset [former Gov. Tim] Pawlenty [R-Minn.)] has left is his reputation as a solidly conservative governor who balanced budgets without raising taxes. Now, that reputation is drawing new scrutiny amid the spending showdown in St. Paul.... Throughout the day [yesterday], Democratic Party committees and independent groups pummeled the former governor, using the shutdown to intensify a favorite line of attack: that Pawlenty managed the Minnesota budget through a long string of gimmicks and short-term fixes that have now come home to roost." CW: see Star-Tribune story below on the Minnesota state government shutdown.

Local News

Los Angeles Times Editors assail the California legislature's decision to cut the state sales tax by one cent & cut other taxes at the expense of important programs like higher education funding.

Take the Weekend Off, Kids! Baird Helgeson of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "There won't be any holiday weekend resolution to Minnesota's government shutdown. State leaders spent Friday cooling off from the drama and bitter words with which they ended days of negotiations Thursday without an agreement for tackling Minnesota's projected $5 billion budget deficit. And Republican legislative leaders and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton had no plans to talk again until after Independence Day, giving both sides time to regroup and reassess."

News Ledes

Reuters: "Rhode Island's governor [Independent Lincoln Chafee] on Saturday signed into law a controversial bill legalizing same sex civil unions, but said it does not go far enough toward legalizing gay marriage."

New York Times: "Greece will get a vital loan installment by July 15 while work continues on a second bailout for the struggling country, euro zone finance ministers said Saturday. The ministers agreed to their portion of the 12 billion euro ($17.39 billion) loan installment in an evening conference call. The International Monetary Fund is expected to approve its part of the loan next week."

New York Times: "The clandestine American military campaign to combat Al Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen is expanding to fight the Islamist militancy in Somalia, as new evidence indicates that insurgents in the two countries are forging closer ties and possibly plotting attacks against the United States, American officials say."

Los Angeles Times: "With marijuana sold openly at retail stores throughout California, some advocates, pot growers and even city officials believed authorized commercial cultivation could be next. But the Obama administration dashed that notion this week, making clear it will not allow such operations."

AP: "Syrian President Bashar Assad dismissed the governor of the key central city of Hama on Saturday after one of the largest protest gatherings to demand an end to Assad's authoritarian regime."

Reuters: "The U.S. government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction. The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court on Wednesday, accuses Edgar Mitchell of illegally possessing the camera and attempting to sell it for profit."