The Commentariat -- November 14

POTUS for a Day. Today's question on Off Times Square: if you could impose only one policy change on the federal government, what would it be?

No, Regulations Do Not Kill Jobs. Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "In the face of the country’s unemployment crisis, many politicians have portrayed regulations as the economy’s primary villain.... The critique of regulations fits into a broader conservative narrative about government overreach. But it also comes afteir a string of disasters in recent years that were tied to government regulators falling short, including the financial crisis of 2008, the BP oil spill and the West Virginia mining accident last year.... Economists who have studied the matter say that there is little evidence that regulations cause massive job loss in the economy, and that rolling them back would not lead to a boom in job creation. Firms sometimes hire workers to help them comply with new rules. In some cases, more heavily regulated businesses such as coal shrink, giving an opportunity for cleaner industries such as natural gas to grow.... Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that very few layoffs are caused principally by tougher rules.... In 2010, 0.3 percent of the people who lost their jobs in layoffs were let go because of 'government regulations/intervention.'" CW: that's 3/10ths of one percent. This is a news analysis, not an opinion piece. It appears in the right-leaning Washington Post. Guess if it will do anything to silence GOP fiction writers.

Kevin Bogardus of The Hill: "Unions and Occupy Wall Street protesters will be joining forces next week for a 'day of action' to pressure lawmakers on jobs. The AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union and the Laborers’ International Union of North America will partner with Occupy Wall Street for 'We are the 99 percent' rallies on Thursday. Liberal groups like MoveOn.org and the American Dream Movement plan to participate." ...

... Aren't the Cops among the 99 Percent? Peter Moskos in Slate: "If you think of police as coming whenever you call for help, you may be surprised to learn that police do not work for you. Officers work first for the police department and then for the city that pays them. A force designed to maintain order and the status quo will never sing Kumbaya with protesters who combine a desire for change with a privileged sense of agency and entitlement.... There are guidelines of protest behavior that can mitigate police unpleasantness: 1) don’t hurt yourself or others, 2) don’t shut down the city, 3) don’t antagonize the police, and 4) no surprises."

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration will announce Monday as much as $1 billion in funding to hire, train and deploy health-care workers, part of the White House’s broader 'We Can’t Wait' agenda to bolster the economy after President Obama’s jobs bill stalled in Congress. Grants can go to doctors, community groups, local government and other organizations that work with patients in federal health-care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid." 

CW: As a service to readers, I intended to read Bill Keller's column in today's New York Times about how Mitt Romney could win the presidency. But right near the top, Keller wrote this:

Despite efforts to polarize our politics into ideological base camps, in presidential elections the deciding vote still belongs to the middle. These voters have been drowned out lately by the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, but they are the main prize in 2012.

      ... So that's as far as I got. Several weeks ago, after Keller described OWS as "warmed-over anarchists," he got -- and acknowledged -- a flood of protest letters from people, many of them nicer than I, explaining to him what OWS was all about. I guess Keller didn't do well in math, because there's something about "99 Percent" he just can't grasp. Ninety-nine percent is not a fringe -- unless Keller, whose father was CEO of Exxon -- thinks everyone who is not part of the One Percent is the left-wing fringe.

"Green Graft." Peter Schweizer provides an excerpt of his book Throw Them All Out to the Daily Beast & Newsweek: "A large proportion of the winners [of DOE alternative energy grants] were companies with Obama-campaign connections. Indeed, at least 10 members of Obama’s finance committee and more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers were big winners in getting your money. At the same time, several politicians who supported Obama managed to strike gold.... According to the Department of Energy’s own numbers..., [in one of the programs,] $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.... The department’s loan and grant programs are run by partisans who were responsible for raising money during the Obama campaign from the same people who later came to seek government loans and grants.... These programs might be the greatest — and most expensive — example of crony capitalism in American history. Tens of billions of dollars went to firms controlled or owned by fundraisers, bundlers, and political allies, many of whom—surprise!—are now raising money for Obama again."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "With a little over a week left to reach a deal, members of the Congressional deficit reduction panel are looking for an escape hatch that would let them strike an accord on revenue levels but delay until next year tough decisions about exactly how to raise taxes."

** Jason Zengerle of New York Magazine has a fine profile of Elizabeth Warren, whom he contrasts to President Obama: "'I’ll just be blunt, I thought the whole fight was 2008,' she says. 'We’d put sensible people in place, we’d write sensible rules, and we’d spend 50 years rebuilding America’s middle class.' The question that hangs over Obama — and the entire Democratic Party, for that matter — is why that didn’t happen." Here's another tidbit:

Congressman Barney Frank says he advised Obama that nominating Warren to head the CFPB was 'a win-win, because if the Republicans filibuster her, they’ll make her a hero who can run for the Senate, and because of that, to avoid her being a Senate candidate, you might get them to confirm her.' But the White House didn’t have the stomach for such a confrontation....

       ... Here's the "Daily Show" segment from January 2010 which Zengerle refers to at the top of his profile:

Votes, No. Guns, Yes. Michael Luo of the New York Times: "Under federal law, people with felony convictions forfeit their right to bear arms. Yet every year, thousands of felons across the country have those rights reinstated, often with little or no review. In several states, they include people convicted of violent crimes, including first-degree murder and manslaughter.... While previously a small number of felons were able to reclaim their gun rights, the process became commonplace in many states in the late 1980s, after Congress started allowing state laws to dictate these reinstatements — part of an overhaul of federal gun laws orchestrated by the National Rifle Association. The restoration movement has gathered force in recent years, as gun rights advocates have sought to capitalize on the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms."

Occupy APEC! Zaid Jilani of Think Progress: At a meeting of APEC leaders, including President & Mrs. Obama & others heads of state & their guests, "Hawaiian guitarist Makana opened his suit jacket to reveal a shirt that read 'Occupy Aloha,' and played “We Are the Many,” the protest ballad he wrote. Thanks to reader Lisa for the link. In the video below, Makana describes the event:

... Here's a CNN report:

 "A Culture of Impunity." Chris Hayes of The Nation & NBC News speaks with Rick Herzberg, Elizabeth Holtzman, Victoria Defrancesco, Michael Eric Dyson & David Zirin about the Penn State scandal:

     ... CW: Taylor Branch, in a long Atlantic article published last month, argues that college athletes should be paid. I didn't read it, but generally speaking, I'd say Branch has the "solution" to the exploitation of young athletes ass-backwards. Instead of making millions & billions off the kids & then paying them for their contributions, the programs should be cut back to the ideal of the "student athlete" that Branch claims never existed.

Right Wing World

In today's column, Paul Krugman elaborates on the post we linked in Saturday's Commentariat: Mitt Romney's bright idea to privatize veterans' health care, despite the fact that the V.A. program is a phenomenally successful healthcare delivery system, and even partially privatizing it would inevitably make it worse. Why privatize? "Ideology, of course. It’s literally a fundamental article of faith in the G.O.P. that the private sector is always better than the government, and no amount of evidence can shake that credo. In fact, it’s hard to avoid the sense that Republicans are especially eager to dismantle government programs that act as living demonstrations that their ideology is wrong."

... David Atkins in Hullabaloo: "At some point the pearl clutchers and bipartisan fetishists are going to acknowledge that there is a political civil war in this country, that the right wing is going off the rails at an accelerated pace, and that these people represent a grave threat to democracy should they ever take power again."

Rick Perry's Mindless Moment. E. J. Dionne:  "Forgetting an idea at the heart of your program ... is not the same as forgetting a phone number.... Perry’s memory lapse showed that he wasn’t asserting anything that he is truly serious about because he is not serious about what government does, or ought not to do. For him, governing seems a casual undertaking.... The [conservative] movement has been overtaken by a quite literally mindless opposition to government."

Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post: "In her first televised interview ever [with Fox "News"'s Greta Van Susteren], Gloria Cain, wife of Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, sat down with her husband and said that the allegations of sexual harassment against him don’t square with the man she knows.... Cain’s wife, who is ... a registered Democrat according to her husband, has steered clear of the spotlight and has not assumed the traditional role of candidate’s wife."

CW: in case you'd like to know why Michele Bachmann says the liberal media outlet CBS News is discriminating against her -- a story I avoided all day yesterday -- Jeremy Peters of the New York Times has all the details of the scandalous disclosure that CBS would rather talk to a candidate whose poll numbers are not -- like Bachmann's -- in the single digits.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The New York City police began clearing Zuccotti Park of the Occupy Wall Street protesters about 1 a.m. Tuesday, telling the people there that the camp would be 'cleared and restored' before the morning and that any demonstrator who did not leave would be arrested." The story has been updated. Michael Moore is livestreaming here. Global Revolution has a two-camera feed here with commentary.

New York Times: "Close to 10 [would that be 9??] additional suspected victims have come forward to the authorities since the arrest of the former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on Nov. 5 on 40 counts of sexually abusing young boys, according to people close to the investigation. The police are working to confirm the new allegations.... In a phone interview with Bob Costas that was broadcast Monday night on 'Rock Center,' Sandusky said he was innocent of the charges against him and declared that he was not a pedophile. He did acknowledge, 'I shouldn’t have showered with those kids.' ... On Sunday, Jack Raykovitz, the chief executive of the [Second Mile] foundation for 28 years, resigned."

New York Times: "At a special session of the Nebraska Legislature, a state senator announced Monday that TransCanada had agreed to adjust its intended route of the Keystone XL oil pipeline to avoid the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region of the state."

New York Times: "As members of the Congressional deficit reduction panel retreated to conference rooms Monday to continue negotiations, House Republicans and Senate Democrats were putting their final touches on a series of spending bills that they hope will avert another showdown over short-term financing of the government."

AP: "The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear arguments next March over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.... The decision to hear arguments in the spring allows plenty of time for a decision in late June, just over four months before Election Day.... The justices announced they will hear more than five hours of arguments, an extraordinarily long session, from lawyers on the constitutionality of a provision at the heart of the law and other related questions about the act." ...

     ... New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals from just one decision, from the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, the only one so far striking down the mandate.... The appeals court went no further, though, severing the mandate from the rest of the law." Washington Post report here. The Supremes' cert grant is here (pdf). Also, SCOTUSblog has a good summary of the writ.

New York Times: "President Obama will be far from Washington this week meeting with Pacific Rim allies, but on Sunday he weighed in on simmering domestic issues, warning Congressional Republicans that voters will turn them out if they do not pass some of his job-creation proposals. Speaking at a press conference at the conclusion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum here, Mr. Obama also defended his policies on Iran against assaults from Republican presidential candidates and boasted of those policies’ support among foreign leaders." AP story here.

... Oakland Tribune: "Hundreds of police officers raided the Occupy Oakland tent city early Monday morning. In anticipation, protesters from Occupy Oakland had gathered overnight in the intersection of Broadway and 14th Street. Some campers started taking down their tents early." This is a liveblog, so go back for updates. ...

     ... San Francisco Chronicle Update: "About 1,000 Occupy Oakland protesters returned Monday night to Frank Ogawa Plaza, 12 hours after police evicted the movement's tent city, and debated a range of reactions from re-establishing the encampment to refocusing on community organizing. The city reopened the newly cleared plaza outside City Hall around 5 p.m. and said protesters could gather there around the clock. However, police said they would prevent camping from now on, and as the night went on, there were no tents in evidence."

... Oregonian: "... in daylight hours Sunday, after throngs of supporters had gone home to sleep..., Portland police successfully cleared the two downtown parks where protesters had camped since Oct. 6, but the evictions sparked an hourslong standoff as protesters spilled into the streets and filled Pioneer Courthouse Square into the evening." ...

AP: "The Department of Transportation said Monday it has fined [American Eagle Airlines,] a regional affiliate of American Airlines, $900,000 for keeping hundreds of passengers cooped up for hours on planes in Chicago earlier this year, a clear warning to airlines on the eve of the holiday travel season that similar incidents won't be tolerated.

NBC News: "The judge who granted bail to former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was a volunteer for his Second Mile organization, according to the biography on her former law firm's website. Sandusky was arrested on Nov. 5 and charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse of young boys over a 15-year period. Deadspin, a sports blog, reports that upon Sandusky's arraignment, prosecutors requested $500,000 bail for Sandusky. They also wanted him to wear a leg monitor. However, Judge Leslie Dutchcot freed Sandusky on $100,000 unsecured bail, meaning he’ll only have to pay if he doesn’t show up for court." Also watch Mike Isikoff's video report, which is embedded on the linked page.

AP: "Italy's premier-designate Mario Monti began talks on Monday to create a new government of non-political experts tasked with overhauling an ailing economy to keep market fears over the country from threatening the existence of the euro. Investors initially cheered Monti's appointment, though concern lingered about the sheer amount of work his new government will have to do to restore faith in the country's battered economy and finances."

New York Times: "Afghan and coalition forces may have captured a prominent spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, three Afghan officials said Monday."

Guardian: "The names of 28 News International employees appear in notebooks belonging to Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the News of the World, the Leveson inquiry into press standards heard on its first day at London's high court. Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry also heard that Mulcaire wrote the words "Daily Mirror" in his notepad, which suggests he may have carried out work for the paper." CW: and nobody gave a hint to James or Rupert Murdoch about News Corps' tactics. Right.

The Commentariat -- November 13

** The Founding Fathers Would LOVE OWS. Rick Ungar in a Washington Monthly column, on how the Tea Party-deified founders regarded corporations: "... every single investment bank on Wall Street, as we know it today, would have been illegal in the days of our founding. And ... in the early days of the nation, most states had rules on the books making any political contribution by a corporation a criminal offence.... Were they around today, our founders would not only be standing on the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street movement, they would likely be pursuing a far more strident strategy than playing some bongo drums in Zuccotti Park." The Boston Tea Party itself was, after all, a revolt against England's most powerful corporation: the East India Trading Company. Care for a cup of originalist tea, Mr. Scalia?

Jeffrey Sachs, in a New York Times op-ed: Ronald "Reagan’s [edict that "government is the problem"] was a fateful misdiagnosis. He completely overlooked the real issue — the rise of global competition in the information age — and fought a bogeyman, the government. Decades on, America pays the price of that misdiagnosis, with a nation singularly unprepared to face the global economic, energy and environmental challenges of our time.... Both parties have joined in crippling the government in response to the demands of their wealthy campaign contributors, who above all else insist on keeping low tax rates on capital gains, top incomes, estates and corporate profits." Occupy Wall Street is poised to lead a new progressive movement that will get us out of the mess Reagan got us into. Sachs has some suggestions & observations about the way the movement will do that. ...

... Karen Garcia: "I don't think we have to worry too much any more about the Democratic Party co-opting OWS. The elite of the DNC have pretty much shut up about it.... If you're paying any attention at all to the Democratic leaks out of the SuperCommittee, you're finding out that they're bending over backwards, offering cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- even permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts -- in exchange for some loopy closings of corporate tax loopholes.... But at the local level, in the cities, the encampments are under direct siege by..... Democratic mayors.... It's about time we 'Occupy the Democratic Party', too." ...

... Markos Moulitsas tells ten stories, some with videos, of big banks forcibly trying to stop customers from closing their accounts. They're pretty good stories. Since September 29, more than 700,000 customers have moved their money out of big banks to small banks & credit unions.

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "A new Obama administration policy to avoid deportations of illegal immigrants who are not criminals has been applied very unevenly across the country and has led to vast confusion both in immigrant communities and among agents charged with carrying it out."

Nicholas Kulish & Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "The window of opportunity to save the euro is rapidly closing, as the sovereign debt crisis erodes the solvency of Europe’s banks and drives up borrowing rates for even once rock-solid countries like France." ...

... Jim Fallows of The Atlantic: "I am as happy as the next person to see the well-deserved end to Silvio Berlusconi's reign in Italy. But I don't think many people can, or should, feel too happy about this second resignation of a democratically elected government (after Papandreou in Greece) because of pressure from bankers outside the country's borders." Fallows includes a letter from Piero Garau, a retired UN official who lives in Rome, who is not optimistic about the future of the euro, or really, of the E.U. ...

... AND in a somewhat Manhattan-centric analysis, Seth Meyers takes "A Closer Look at Europe":

Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers are objecting to the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to deny an anti-human-trafficking grant to a Catholic group, a dispute that reflects deep divisions over access to abortion and birth control. In late September, HHS ended funding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help victims of trafficking.... The church group had overseen nationwide services to victims since 2006 but was denied a new grant in favor of three other groups. The bishops organization ... had refused to refer trafficking victims for contraceptives or abortion. HHS officials have said they made a policy decision to award the grants to agencies that would refer women for those services."

National Service -- Could It Happen? Ryan Cooper of the Washington Monthly: "... the idea of national service, mandatory or not, has ... been coming up amongst American thought leaders across the media spectrum. [Former NBC anchor] Tom Brokaw devotes a substantial portion of his new book The Time of Our Lives to it. [PBS newsman] Jim Lehrer said recently ... he would impose mandatory national service, and Joe Klein [of Time] ... mentioned non-military national service favorably. [Actor George] Clooney personally supported the idea.... House Republicans, many of whom voted just two years ago to triple AmeriCorps’ size, are now [in the thrall of the Tea Party and] attempting to zero out the program entirely.... Before the country can expand national service, national service has to survive." ...

... A cynic's view of the appeal of national service. From "The Ides of March" (in theaters now!):

Harvard, Tuition-Free. "Justice," with Prof. Michael Sandel. This tape includes two lectures. The first is titled "The Moral Side of Murder." The second, which begins about 24:30 in, is titled "The Case for Cannibalism":

Right Wing World

If I were president, I would use waterboarding. Barack Obama is letting the ACLU run the CIA! -- Michele Bachmann, in last night's GOP candidates' debate

I do not agree with torture — period. However, I will trust the judgment of our military leaders on what is and what is not torture. -- Herman Cain, having it both ways, as usual

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran." A Old McCain Refrain Returns. Karen Tumulty & Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "With the International Atomic Energy Agency warning in a new report that Iran may be proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon, the leading Republican candidates for president accused President Obama of not being forceful enough to prevent that from happening. At the first GOP debate that focused on foreign policy, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former House speaker Newt Gingrich indicated that if either of them were commander in chief, they would be willing to use military force against Iran, if tightened economic sanctions and support for the Iranian opposition did not work to deter nuclear weapons development in the country." ...

... Roger Simon of Politico: "Nothing awful happened. Rick Perry exhibited no brain freeze (at least no more than usual), Herman Cain did not stumble badly (at least no more than anybody else), Newt Gingrich did not attack the moderators (much) and the audience booed only once (when Ron Paul opposed torture)."

Mitt Romney, Corporate Raider. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "By the green-hued yardsticks of Wall Street, the 1990s buyout of an Illinois medical company by Mitt Romney’s private equity firm was a spectacular success.... But an examination of the ... deal shows the unintended human costs and messy financial consequences behind the brand of capitalism that Mr. Romney practiced for 15 years." ...

... CW: I wonder if we can't find some way to make things worse. Count on Mitt. "Vouchers for Veterans":

Sometimes you wonder, would there be some way to introduce some private sector competition, somebody else that could come in and say, you know, each soldier gets X thousand dollars attributed to them and then they can choose whether they want to go on the government [healthcare] system or the private system and then it follows them, like what happens with schools in Florida where they have a voucher that follows them. Who knows? -- Mitt Romney, "brainstorming" with a group of veterans in South Carolina ...

      ... Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "The idea is similar to Romney’s plan for Medicare, which would allow recipients to choose a private plan instead of the classic government-run health care structure. Jerry Newberry, a spokesman for Veterans Of Foreign Wars, told TPM his group has long opposed policies along the lines of Romney’s proposal." ...

     ... Steve Benen: "Even the most conservative Republicans rarely venture into privatizing veterans’ health care benefits.... The taxpayer-financed, government-run V.A. hospitals are some of the finest medical facilities in the country.... Romney ... prefers to change this, and would apparently rather hand vets a voucher. Perhaps the inexperienced former one-term governor with no background on military policy hasn’t fully thought this through. For him to go this far on Veterans’ Day, of all days, seems remarkably tone deaf, even for him." ...

     ... Paul Krugman: "This is awesome on multiple levels. First..., the vouchers would be inadequate, and become more so over time, so that veterans who don’t make enough money to top them up would fail to receive essential care. Patriotism! Second, the VA is one of the great policy success stories of the past two decades. But the VA clearly delivers care as good or better than most civilians receive, at sharply lower cost. So naturally Romney wants to privatize it. Because let’s remember, he’s the serious Republican.... So, our serious Republican is committed on ideological grounds to demolishing successful programs and replacing them with conservative fantasies that have failed repeatedly in the past.

        "Maybe we would actually have been better off with Rick Perry, who might have left good government programs in place because he couldn’t remember what they were."

Truth in Advertising. Americans for Prosperity, the Karl Rove managed Koch Brothers front group, recently held a summit they called 'Defending the American Dream.' Based on their priorities and goals, I think a better name for their group should be 'America for the Prosperous' and their summit should have been called 'Defunding the American Dream.' -- Reality Chex reader Lisa

Dana Milbank: "The era of personal responsibility, if it ever began, has surely ended with the 2012 Republican presidential campaigns. The candidates blame the media, the elites, the Democrats, the government and each other for their problems, but never themselves.... But none has a blame game quite like Cain’s. When the allegations of sexual harassment first arose, he blamed the accusers for failing to get his 'sense of humor.' Then he blamed a 'witch hunt.' Then he claimed it was 'the Perry campaign that stirred this up.' ... Cain moved on to blame 'the D.C. culture' for his troubles, before blaming 'the Democrat machine in America.' Naturally, he blamed the media, winning cheers at the debate [last Wednesday].... Cain even played the same race card that he condemned Democrats for using, claiming that he was victimized because he’s 'a black conservative.'”

** Lies and the Lying Liars.... Steven Levingston of the Washington Post: "Of all the places you’d expect to find Bill O’Reilly’s new history'“Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever,' Ford’s Theatre — the site of the dreadful act — should rank right at the top. But you’d do better to search for the bestseller on Amazon because it has been banned from the theater’s store. The crime? O’Reilly and his co-author Martin Dugard have displayed a serial disregard for historical fact. For a purported history of the assassination..., 'Killing Lincoln' is sloppy with the facts and slim on documentation, according to a study conducted by Rae Emerson, the deputy superintendent of Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site...." Sen. Al Franken must find this hilarious.

News Ledes

Raleigh News & Observer: in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, "a police tactical team of more than 25 police officers arrested eight demonstrators Sunday afternoon and charged them with breaking and entering for occupying a vacant car dealership on Franklin Street. Officers brandishing guns and semi-automatic rifles rushed the building at about 4:30 p.m. They pointed weapons at those standing outside, and ordered them to put their faces on the ground. They surrounded the building and cleared out those who were inside. About 13 people, including New & Observer staff writer covering the demonstration, were forced to the ground and hand-cuffed."

Politico: "President Barack Obama announced Saturday that a group of Pacific Rim nations reached the 'broad outlines of an agreement' on a key trade partnership and warned Iran that the U.S., Russia and China would work together to counter its attempts to develop its nuclear capability." ...

... BUT. AP: "President Barack Obama prodded the skeptical leaders of Russia and China for support in reining back Iran's nuclear ambitious, but without winning public endorsement from either man. Neither Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nor Chinese President Hu Jintao publicly echoed Obama's push for solidarity over renewed concerns on Iran as Obama met separately on Saturday with each leader on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim economic summit here." ...

... Reuters: "Asia-Pacific leaders will call on countries on Sunday to do what they can to prop up economic growth, rallying around the common threat from Europe's debt crisis despite divisions over trade and currency policies. Fresh off a rare success in securing agreement on the outlines of a regional trade deal, the heads of the 21 nations that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will turn their attention to the more immediate problem of preventing contagion from Europe."

AP: "Anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters flooded a city park area in Portland early Sunday in defiance of an eviction order, and authorities elsewhere stepped up pressure against the demonstrators, arresting nearly two dozen. Crowds converged on two adjacent downtown Portland parks where protesters are camped after city officials set a midnight Saturday deadline to disperse. But hours later, the protesters were still there, backed by many supporters who spilled out into the streets next to camp, tying up traffic. At one point the numbers swelled to thousands but then started to thin in the early morning hours." ...

... Oregonian: "Portland police held off from sweeping two downtown parks early today as thousands of chanting people converged on the city center to support the Occupy Portland movement. A police officer was injured shortly before 2 a.m. from a projectile thrown by someone in the crowd. One person was arrested as tensions rose. At one point, police warned people that they would use chemical agents to keep control as the crowd pushed against police lines. Before then, demonstrators remained peaceful and even festive at times as officers watched and directed traffic, but didn't move to clear Lownsdale and Chapman squares." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "Occupy Portland encampments were nearly empty on Sunday as protesters packed up and left after warnings by city officials that they would be evicted over the weekend. Fewer than a dozen tents remained at two downtown parks where protesters have camped since early October as part of the nationwide Occupy Wall street movement against alleged economic injustice. City officials said they planned to put up fences around the two Portland parks to close them to protesters on Sunday afternoon."

... AP: In Salt Lake City, "police arrested 19 protesters supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement who refused to remove tents from a downtown park late Saturday but avoided the violent clashes that have occurred in other cities. Although police entered the park at sundown with a significant show of force — including a couple dozen cars, two buses for prisoner transport and spotlights — officers were not wearing riot gear or flashing batons. Instead, Chief Chris Burbank and other officers worked their way methodically from tent to tent, asking people to leave and arresting those who didn't comply." ...

... Denver Post: "Denver police in riot gear forced stubborn protesters out of Civic Center park Saturday evening, tearing down illegally pitched tents. A cloud of smoke rose — not from tear gas, but from wood smoke as the protesters' cooking fire was extinguished. Seventeen people were arrested, according to Sonny Jackson, spokesman for the Denver Police Department. Five of those arrests were made on the 16th Street Mall, where some protesters headed after the encampment was cleared. The confrontation came about five hours after Occupy Denver demonstrators marched through downtown for the sixth straight Saturday." ...

... St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "After 27 protesters spent Friday night in jail, Occupy St. Louis said Saturday it would continue to keep an around-the-clock presence at Kiener Plaza.... On Saturday night, about 10 protesters followed police orders and moved to the sidewalk surrounding the park. Another 20 people stood outside the St. Louis Justice Center awaiting the release of three protesters who remained in jail. Mayor Francis Slay's staff reiterated Saturday that it was amenable to Occupy St. Louis staying around, as long as the protesters obey the ordinances." ...

... San Diego Union-Tribune: "More than 80 self-described 'everyday, middle-class women' brought rainy-day supplies and food to Occupy San Diego Saturday.... The woman, mostly in their 40s and 50s, filled five wheelbarrows with food, tarps, blankets, socks and other items."

AP: "The Syrian government has called for an urgent Arab summit to discuss the deepening political unrest in the country. The Arab League on Saturday voted to suspend Syria over its bloody crackdown on the country's eight-month-old uprising."

Reuters: "Italy's president [Giorgio Napolitano] raced to appoint an emergency government on Sunday to face a crisis endangering the whole euro zone and replace Silvio Berlusconi who resigned as prime minister to the humiliating jeers of thousands of protesters."

The Commentariat -- November 12

The President's Weekly Address (Has Just a Hint of that "Mission Accomplished" Look). The transcript is here:

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone: "The staggering economic inequality that has led Americans across the country to take to the streets in protest is no accident. It has been fueled to a large extent by the GOP's all-out war on behalf of the rich. Since Republicans rededicated themselves to slashing taxes for the wealthy in 1997, the average annual income of the 400 richest Americans has more than tripled, to $345 million – while their share of the tax burden has plunged by 40 percent. Today, a billionaire in the top 400 pays less than 17 percent of his income in taxes – five percentage points less than a bus driver earning $26,000 a year." Oh, and Dick Cheney is even worse than you knew. Think that's impossible? Dickinson outlines Cheney's central role in creating new tax cuts for corporations & the rich. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

... Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "President Obama called the Democratic and Republican chairmen of Congress’s special deficit reduction supercommittee Friday and urged them to reach a deal...." But he also said if the supercommittee doesn't reach a compromise, Congress should allow the automatic cuts, half of which would come from the Pentagon, to go through. Obama, who has sign-off authority on the deficit reduction cuts, "made clear Friday that he would not agree" to allow a repeal of the automatic cuts. CW: this story is so unclear itself that it's hard to comprehend, but I think this is what Helderman means. I'm not sure the chart below is 100 percent current, as the GOP members of the supercommittee have made at least one new proposal in the past week, but it's close enough:

Parties no longer compete to win elections by giving voters the policies voters want. Rather, as coalitions of intense policy demanders, they have their own agendas and aim to get voters to go along. -- From A Theory of Political Parties, by Kathleen Bawn, et al. ...

... ** Ezra Klein: "'As [the authors of A Theory...] see it, political parties are basically groups of people with intense policy preferences who are trying to figure out how much they can get away with. But you can’t get away with anything if you don’t hold office. So the basic work of political parties is figuring out precisely how much of their agenda they need to sacrifice on the altar of electability.... That basically explains the dilemma the Republican Party faces right now. Its members sense that this election might end with Republicans controlling the House, the Senate and the presidency. In that event, Republicans could get away with quite a lot. So they don’t want to blow it. What a shame it would be to have wasted this opportunity on a centrist candidate [Mitt Romney] who will just end up compromising with Senate Democrats and looking to burnish his image with independents. On the other hand, it would be even worse to blow the opportunity on an extremist candidate who will scare voters into reelecting President Obama." ...

... Jamison Foser of Media Matters on how Republicans are using faux-populism to further expand income inequality. In their "populist" mode, Foser notes, some Republicans have agreed to cut minor expenditures on the rich. "While the substance of the GOP efforts is largely inconsequential, the symbolism is quite insidious. Consider the targets of the Republican faux populism: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, Medicaid. These aren't programs that contribute to the ever-widening gap between the rich and the rest of us — they are the safety net that protect the middle class from falling into poverty.... Yet Republicans seek to use the symbolism of (largely non-existent) millionaire unemployment recipients and Rolls Royce-driving Medicaid enrollees to undermine [the programs themselves].... The goal isn't to save $18 million in unemployment payments to millionaires: It's to dismantle the unemployment insurance system that protects middle-class and low-wage workers."

Complex Regulations -- A Banker's Second Best Friend. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "The 'Volcker rule' is a simple thing. Basically, it says that if you're a bank that takes deposits and benefits from federal deposit insurance, you can't also make risky trades that might blow up your bank and cost the taxpayers a bundle. Wall Street ... fought the idea in Congress, but in the end, the Dodd-Frank bill that passed in 2010 included a version of the Volcker rule in its final draft.... Last month regulators unveiled their first take on the actual implementation of the Volcker rule, and it had become a monster.... When it comes to financial regulation, fighting against new laws is merely [the banks'] first line of defense. When they lose..., the action simply moves to the regulatory agency charged with implementing the law.... Businesses don't like simple rules, because simple rules are hard to evade. So they lobby endlessly for exemptions both big and small.... Keep this firmly in mind the next time you hear someone from the Chamber of Commerce complaining about how many thousands of pages of regulations they have to comply with.... In public they bemoan complexity, but in private they fight endlessly for more of it."

Joe Nocera of the New York Times: "... in 2009, Penn State football generated a staggering $50 million in profit on $70 million in revenue.... Protecting those profits is the real core value of college football — at Penn State and everywhere else. What goes on in the typical big-time college football program constitutes abuse of the athletes who play the game. It’s not sexual abuse..., but it’s wrong just the same. For 46 years, Joe Paterno averted his eyes to the daily injustices, large and small, that his players suffered — just like Nick Saban does at Alabama and Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, and all the rest of them. When Paterno averted his eyes from Jerry Sandusky, he was just doing what came naturally as a college football coach." ...

... Nina Bernstein of the New York Times: "The Penn State scandal ... is ... emblematic of a parallel judicial universe that exists at many of the country’s colleges and universities. On most of these campuses, law enforcement is the responsibility of sworn police officers who report to university authorities, not to the public. With full-fledged arrest powers, such campus police forces have enormous discretion in deciding whether to refer cases directly to district attorneys or to leave them to the quiet handling of in-house disciplinary proceedings.... The Penn State case is expected to intensify the federal Education Department’s recent push to enforce laws that require public disclosure of such crimes and civil rights protections for victims and witnesses."

David Willman of the Los Angeles Times: "Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work. Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.... Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a 'sole-source' procurement.... The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government's specialists had earlier said was reasonable.... Smallpox was eradicated worldwide as of 1978 and is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian scientific institute and the U.S. government. There is no credible evidence that any other country or a terrorist group possesses smallpox." CW: Read the details. I'd like to see a credible defense of this.

Talking Past the Problem. Piers Morgan of CNN tries to steer Very Serious Person Colin Powell into a polite discussion about the 99 Percent. Shouldn't the VSPs just STFU?:

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is scheduled to step down as head of the government on Saturday, recalled the words of Benito Mussolini in reflecting on his "betrayal" by members of his government. CW: well, that's appropriate.

Right Wing World

The Little Cable Network that Could. Michael McAuliff of the (ugh!) Huffington Post: "An ad by Karl Rove-backed Crossroads GPS was yanked from rotation on a Montana cable show because it made claims that the network deemed false. Recently a number of ads by the well-funded conservative outfit have been declared misleading and false, but the spot targeting Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is apparently the first pulled from the air. The Associated Press reported that other outlets are still running the ad."

Herman Cain & His Supporters Think Sexual Harassment Is Pretty Funny. Holly Bailey of The Ticket: "Herman Cain is defending himself from sexual harassment allegations, but that didn't stop him from joking about Anita Hill, the college professor who made similar allegations against Clarence Thomas ... 20 years ago. A Fox News cameraduring a campaign stop in Kalamazoo, Mich., Thursday, when a supporter brought up the professor's name. 'You hear the latest news today? Anita Hill is going to come …' a man told Cain, the conclusion of his statement muffled by the crowd. 'Is she going to endorse me?' Cain joked, as he and the crowd laughed heartily." The audio is difficult to hear:

Running on Empty. Matt Bai of the New York Times: "The problem [with Rick Perry's Oops! moment] is that he didn’t seem to know the basic details of his own proposal.... It seemed the idea was not his own, but rather something he had tried and failed to memorize.... Mr. Perry violated one of the core tenets of modern politics, which is that you have to at least sustain the artifice of ownership.... There’s nothing more central to Mr. Perry’s campaign than the idea of scaling back the government in Washington ... and what he proved last night, in 60 or so agonizing seconds, is that he hasn’t thought deeply enough about it to even master the basics of his own agenda."

Rebecca Kaplan of CBS News: "Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on Friday called the Occupy Wall Street protesters who have been disrupting her campaign events 'ignorant and disrespectful.' ... Bachmann has been surprised at several events recently by groups of OWS protesters who have boisterously interrupted her stump speeches."

CW: I did not get around to reading Our Mister Brooks yesterday, but apparently he took the occasion of his Friday quotient of 800 words to make fun of the hilarious and growing inequality between the rich and the rest of us: the very stuff Tim Dickinson highlights above. Besides the obvious Herman Cain-y message: "If you're not rich, blame yourself!" the column presents a subliminal message (there always is, with Brooks): "Occupy Wall Street protesters are a bunch of whiney-babies." Fortunately for us, Driftglass has made a more thorough analysis of Brooks' official MSM prose. A sample graph:

So while both George Wallace's guest column -- 'On the Amusing Differences Between the Quadroon and the Octoroon amongst the Lower Orders' -- in the June, 1962 issue of 'Modern Confederate Bride Magazine' and Prescott Bush's 1939 essay -- 'Ten Things to Love about German National Socialism' -- were both arguably more shudderingly tone-deaf than Mr. Brooks' efforts today, had Our Mr. Brooks written his column in a powdered wig while lobbing magnums of champagne off his balcony at the homeless in his pajamas, he might have given the old boys a run for their money.

        ... Not having read Brooks, I cannot know who is the more humorous writer -- Brooks or Driftglass -- but there's a better than 50-50 chance I'd get it right on the first guess.

News Ledes

AP: "Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi resigned Saturday after parliament's lower chamber passed European-demanded reforms, ending a 17-year political era and setting in motion a transition aimed at bringing the country back from the brink of economic crisis. A chorus of Handel's 'Alleluia,' performed by a few dozen singers and classical musicians, rang out in front of the president's palace as thousands of Italians poured into downtown Rome to rejoice at the end of Berlusconi's scandal-marred reign."

AP: "President Barack Obama is heading into a day of heavy diplomacy in his native Hawaii with some of the United States' most important and complicated allies, as he starts a nine-day tour of the crucial and growing Asia-Pacific region with domestic concerns front and center. Obama ... was to meet Saturday on the sidelines of a U.S.-hosted economic summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.... Obama was to meet with leaders from eight Asian nations that are the U.S. partners in an ambitious but not-yet-completed free trade deal the U.S. hopes will one day be the anchoring pact for the region." For the President's schedule of events today, see the Politico widget further down this column. ...

     AP Update: "Placing high hopes on the economic power of Pacific rim nations, President Barack Obama on Saturday declared the Asia-Pacific region the heart of explosive growth for years to come. For businesses, he said, "this is where the action's going to be."

Reuters: "Tensions were rising at anti-Wall Street protests in three western U.S. cities on Friday as demonstrators in Portland, Salt Lake City and Oakland defied orders by police to dismantle their camps." ...

... AP: "Oakland police handed out eviction notices at an anti-Wall Street encampment and officials elsewhere urged an end to similar gatherings as pressures against Occupy protest sites mounted in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire." ...

... San Francisco Chronicle: "After an intense day of behind-closed-door meetings Friday, Oakland officials are moving forward with plans to evict Occupy Oakland from Frank Ogawa Plaza. The eviction, which has the blessing of a majority of the City Council and the reluctant concurrence of Mayor Jean Quan, is likely to come sooner rather than later." The Oakland Tribune has a liveblog here.

... Oregonian: "The mood Friday at the Occupy Portland encampment was one-third somber, one-third defiant and one-third business as usual as Sunday's deadline for campers to leave two downtown parks ticked closer. Just before noon, campers were sprucing up the park, rolling up broken or abandoned tents, collecting garbage and recyclables into huge piles and sweeping up leaves and trash. Organizers planned to have a potluck meal and concert Saturday...." ...

... Oregonian: "Occupy Mosier may have been the country's humblest [OWS spinoffs]. Set in a park-and-ride greenspace in an apple and cherry growing hamlet of 433 at a bend on the Columbia River midway between Hood River and The Dalles, organizers dubbed Mosier the smallest town to host an Occupy encampment. In this intimate setting, dozens turned out for seven days of succinct protests against corporate power, income inequality and big-money politics." ...

... Knoxville, Tennessee, News Sentinel: "Downtown [Knoxville] felt the presence of the national Occupy Wall Street movement Friday when Occupy Knoxville protesters reserved Market Square from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. At least 100 musicians, singers and actors filled The Bill Lyons Pavilion at Market Square throughout the day as part of what coordinators called a "creative protest." Others took the stage to speak about personal experiences, salute veterans in honor of Veterans Day or to host teach-ins — educational lectures about everything from sustainable agriculture to the financial crisis." ...

AP: "President Barack Obama says the Penn State sex-abuse scandal should lead to 'soul-searching' by all Americans, not just Penn State. 'Obviously what happened was heartbreaking, especially for the victims, the young people who got affected by these alleged assaults,' he told Westwood One Radio in an interview Friday night', in his first public comments on the scandal. 'And I think it's a good time for the entire country to do some soul-searching — not just Penn State. People care about sports, it's important to us, but our No. 1 priority has to be protecting our kids. And every institution has to examine how they operate, and every individual has to take responsibility for making sure that our kids are protected.'"

Reuters: "The Arab League called on the Syrian army to stop the killing of civilians on Saturday and said it was suspending Syria from the regional body in a move that turns up the heat on President Bashar al-Assad. The League will impose economic and political sanctions on Assad's government and has appealed to its member states to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus, said Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim."