The Commentariat -- November 11

... Mark Thompson of Time: "We have a professional military of volunteers that has been stoically at war for more than a decade. But as the wars have droned on, the troops waging them are increasingly an Army apart." CW: This is a synopsis of Thompson's cover story. It contains a link to the magazine story, which you can access if you're a subscriber (I am, but I've never bothered to hook up. I'll try to do so in the next week or so to see if my posting a link to a firewalled article allows Reality Chex readers to link through.)

The New York Times eXaminer picked up my post "New York Times to You: 'Drop Dead.'" They included a copy of the letter that the Times sent to those exemplary "Trusted Commenters." If you'd like to see the invitation you didn't get, click here. Oh, and leave a comment. Plus, I'm happy to say NYTX even gave me a byline on the front page (look now; it won't be there long), right alongside Glenn Greenwald & Matt Taibbi. Wowza!

Chris Spannos of the New York Times eXaminer interviews Prof. Henry Giroux, who held an endowed chair at Penn State, about the culture of corporatism and militarism at Penn State. Giroux mirrors my own sense of what has happened to American universities and the larger ramifications for our so-called culture. Audio only. Highly recommended. ...

... The Washington Post has the grand jury report on Sandusky here. If you can't stand to read the whole report, the section on Victim 2, which begins on page 6, is enough. Paterno knew. He knew specifically that a graduate student (identified elsewhere as now Assistant Coach Mike McQueary) saw Sandusky having anal sex with a 10-year-old in the Penn State locker room. Paterno covered it up. It would appear Paterno lied in his grand jury testimony, too. President Spanier, ironically an expert on family counselling, is implicated, too. The grand jury charged Sandusky as well as the two officials Curley & Schultz. ...

... Nancy Armour of the AP: "The school said Thursday night that there had been 'multiple threats' against McQueary, now the team's receivers coach, and he would not attend Saturday's home finale against Nebraska 'in the best interest of all.'" CW: so, this young man reported Sandusky for sodomizing a child, about which university officials did next to nothing, and people are threatening him?? This has to be the first time in history that thousands of students have stood up for the aiding & abetting of a child molester, & some have threatened the life of his accuser. There's something wrong with Pennslyvania. ...

... Andrew Sullivan is one of a few pundits who gets it right, comparing Paterno to the Pope -- two Papas who covered up child sex abuse. ...

... ** Tod Kelly in the League or Ordinary Gentlemen on the Penn State riot: "When you see these kinds of reactions in the face of such a horrific crime, it’s easy to see how this tribalism-based denial can lead to the circumstances that allowed the crimes to occur in the first place." ...

... Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Education is launching an investigation into the scandal at Penn State University to see if officials there failed to comply with a law that requires institutions of higher education to disclose criminal offenses that occur on campus each year." ...

... AND Joe Paterno has lawyered up. He'd better.

Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "... the scale of the union-led victory Tuesday in the drive to repeal Republican Gov. John Kasich's anti-collective bargaining legislation in Ohio is bound to encourage Democrats who want President Obama to pursue a class-conscious populist appeal in 2012." Brownstein analyzes the numbers that show "the repeal vote reached well into the groups that powered the Republican surge in 2010."

Paul Krugman: "With Italy following Greece off a cliff, it’s hard to see how the euro can survive.... Beware of ideologues who are trying to hijack the European crisis on behalf of their agendas." Krugman debunks the anti-socialism agenday and the austerity agenda.

Elizabeth Warren Responds to Rove Attack. (See more in Right Wing World below; also in yesterday's Commentariat.) In an interview on Boston's WCVB. The interviewers try again & again to box Warren into bad spots. They fail:

I’m a free market person. I just don’t believe in casino capitalism. -- Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) ...

... "Ascent of a Woman." Tim Egan: Sen. Maria Cantwell "has been after the lords of big finance for almost a decade, and is furious now that reforms intended to rein in the kind of car-bomb speculation that brought down the global economy have been seriously diluted.... Cantwell voted against the bank bailouts — 'turning the keys of the Treasury over to Wall Street,' she called it.

Joe Stephens & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "At a number of points in its troubled history, the solar company Solyndra faced dire financial problems that threatened its survival. Yet at each crisis, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and officials at his agency failed to take steps that critics say could have limited taxpayer losses when the company collapsed last summer. Instead, Energy Department officials monitoring the solar panel manufacturer and its $535 million federal loan stepped in with financial assistance, or worked to dispel concerns raised by industry analysts and other Obama administration staffers...."...

     ... CW: this story fits neatly into the conservative agenda of the WashPo, but I have no reason to doubt the reporting. Do bear this in mind: any taxpayer money that DOE "wasted" on Solyndra, that stayed in the U.S. via employee compensation or equipment purchase (for instance) was stimulus money, akin to food stamps or unemployment insurance. I'm not advocating for government waste; I'm just saying that in a recession, any government spending helps stimulate the economy. Ask those gung-ho GOP military enthusiasts about that.

Right Wing World

Amy Sullivan of Time on why religious conservatives, ostensibly such a powerful force within the GOP, can't find a viable presidential candidate to represent them. It turns out this group isn't really a group -- it's a melange of factions who disagree on politics and religion.

More Fake Concern for the Little Guy. Suzy Khimm of the Washington Post: though Republican presidential candidates are usually vague about what they hate the Dodd-Frank Act, "... one concrete criticism that they bring up, time and again [is] that Dodd-Frank is “a killer for the small banks.... But ... the country’s biggest lobbying group for community banks praises Dodd-Frank for helping to level the playing field by reining in big banks, while also criticizing specific provisions of the legislation.... The community banking industry isn’t pushing to repeal Dodd-Frank. Instead, it’s lobbying to change parts of the law...."

Steve Kornacki of Salon on Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS “independent advocacy” against Occupy Wall Street & Elizabeth Warren. Kornacki looks at the ad reader Julie L. pointed us to yesterday (see the November 10 Commentariat) that is running in Massachusetts "to fan the culture war flames." Kornacki writes, "voters seem to be sending a mixed message about OWS. The actual protests themselves may be losing favor, thanks to the right’s campaign and to the recent increase in reports of violence. But the issues that the protests have forced into the political debate — about Wall Street accountability, income inequality, and the decline of the middle class — all play to Warren’s advantage; she is where most voters are on these topics, and Brown isn’t." ...

... Greg Sargent, in a post titled, "Rove-founded group again blanketing airwaves with falsehoods, distortions, and sleaze," writes, "the right has responded to the protests by exploiting a cultural fault line that’s been key to our politics since the 1960s. Conservatives have elevated the protesters’ outsized tactics and violence to push the cultural buttons of blue collar whites and independents — who will be central to the Massachusetts race — in an effort to distract them from the populist message embodied by the protests and Warren’s candidacy. The new Crossroads ad — which is backed up by a buy of nearly $600,000 — takes this to an almost comical level." Read the whole post. ...

... Ari Berman of The Nation takes apart the Rove ad. AND, he writes, "... the Rove-directed campaign against her could actually boost the Warren campaign. If the Massachusetts Senate race becomes a debate between the ideology of Rove versus the ideology of Warren, Elizabeth’s got to like her chances." ...

... AND Digby gets to what went on in the "brain" behind the ad: "Karl Rove has always had a good sense of the right wing id so I'm guessing he senses this is a good line of attack.... This isn't ideological. It's sheer lizard brain tribalism." CW: Nicely put.

Herman Cain & the Politics of Race. Karen Bigsby Bates of NPR reports:

     ... A partial transcript is here. Thanks to a friend for the link. Here's he video ad by Americans for Cain, which Bates cites:

... Tabbasum Zakaria of Reuters: "[Herman Cain's] two public accusers -- [Sharon] Bialek and Karen Kraushaar -- had planned to hold a joint press conference, but on Thursday Kraushaar decided against it. ...

News Ledes

President Obama speak aboard the USS Carl Vinson docked in San Diego this evening. Following remarks, he attended the Carrier Classic.

Reuters: "MF Global fired all 1,066 of its brokerage employees on Friday, triggering anger and resentment about the firm's collapse after bad bets on European debt under former CEO Jon Corzine's leadership. How the final blow was delivered upset many staff -- with some learning by email and others through news on the television."

Washington Post: "The Securities and Exchange Commission, which failed to stop Bernard Madoff’s long-running investment fraud despite repeated warnings, has disciplined eight agency employees over their handling of the matter but did not fire anyone...."

AP: "Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary, a key witness in the child sex abuse scandal that has engulfed the school, has been placed on administrative leave. School president Rod Erickson announced the move Friday, a day after the school said McQueary would not be present when the Nittany Lions play Nebraska on Saturday because he has received threats. McQueary testified in a grand jury investigation that eventually led to child sex-abuse charges being filed against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky."

President Obama participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery this morning:

AP: "Police are investigating a fatal shooting just outside the Occupy Oakland encampment in Northern California and the apparent suicide of a military veteran at an Occupy encampment in Vermont's largest city.... A preliminary investigation into the gunfire Thursday that left a man dead suggests it resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the camp on a plaza in front of Oakland's City Hall, police Chief Howard Jordan said." ...

     ... San Francisco Chronicle Update: "Oakland police say they have no reason to believe that a man shot and killed outside the Occupy Oakland encampment had ever spent a night there, despite the claims of a camp resident who said he was her cousin and had slept in her tent. The victim, who appeared to be in his 20s, was shot in the head about 5 p.m. Thursday outside a BART station exit in Frank Ogawa Plaza, at 14th Street and Broadway. He was taken to Highland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No arrests have been made."

     ... Reuters Update: "The man who shot himself at an Occupy protest camp in downtown Burlington, Vermont, this week was 35 years old, homeless and had briefly trained to be in the Army, police said on Friday. Joshua Pfenning apparently shot himself in the head inside a tent at the encampment in City Hall Park on Thursday afternoon and later died at a city hospital.... After the shooting, police banned camping at the park because of safety concerns."

NEW. Oakland Tribune: "A day after dozens of protesters were arrested at UC Berkeley, police defended their crackdown on Occupy Cal and vowed to react the same way if demonstrators pitched tents again. The campus was relatively quiet for much of the day Thursday, but protesters were debating whether to set up their camp in front of Sproul Hall again. Previous attempts on Wednesday brought immediate responses from police in riot gear. Campus police, aided by Alameda County sheriff's deputies, had arrested 40 people by Thursday afternoon...."

Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Thursday ordered the Air Force to review whether it had been tough enough in disciplining — but not firing — three supervisors at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary.... Panetta also said he had faith in Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, despite harsh criticism from lawmakers and an independent federal agency about the credibility of the Air Force’s 18-month investigation into missing body parts and mishandled remains at the Dover mortuary, which handles the remains of American troops killed overseas."

AP: "Italy's Senate has approved economic reforms demanded by the European Union, paving the way for Premier Silvio Berlusconi to resign as early as this weekend and a new government to be formed. The Senate voted 156-12 Friday to pass the budget bill, which contained the reform measures. The lower Chamber of Deputies is expected to approve the legislation by Saturday. Berlusconi has promised to resign as soon as parliament passes the reforms." New York Times story here.

AP: "Greece's incoming prime minister is due to name his cabinet Friday, a day after being appointed to head an interim coalition government that will push through a new European debt deal and secure continued bailout funding to prevent a catastrophic default."

The Commentariat -- November 10

Prof. Gary Gutting, relying on Plato's “Republic,” which describes "five types of government -- aristocracy (rule by the 'best', that is, by experts specially trained at governance), timarchy (rule by those guided by their courage and sense of honor), oligarchy (rule by a wealthy minority), democracy (rule by the people as a whole—a “mob” as Plato saw it), and tyranny (rule by a despot answerable to no one but himself) -- notes that the U.S. incorporates all five types. Gutting says, "Current calls for 'less government' actually mean less power for elected leaders and for the bureaucracies that serve them and more power for the 'oligarchy' of millionaires and corporations.  Such calls also imply less power for the people (the democratic element), since, while elected leaders are directly responsible to those who vote, those whose power is based on wealth are not." CW: this is a little philosophical something the rank-and-file of the Tea Party have not figured out. You can bet the Koch brothers have. ...

... So today on Off Times Square we'll discuss Plato and the Koch brothers. Or whatever.

** Karen Garcia: "... here is part of what The Times moderators saw fit to publish from reader-commenter Richard Luettgen of New Jersey [commenting on Gail Collins' column in which she mentions Mitt Romney's dog Seamus, whom Romney caged in a crate on the roof of his car during a traveling vacation]:

But you continue to misinform the public about Seamus, the dog that has achieved immortality by allegedly being strapped to the roof of Mitt's car during a family jaunt to Canada. The only dogs that Mitt ever strapped to the roof of a car were Herman Cain's old girlfriends.

     ... CW: Real the whole post; it gets worse. At least one person flagged Luettgen's comment shortly after the moderators decided it was fit to print. Despite the flag, the comment remained up for hours. The moderators -- who must have been flooded with complaints (quite a number of people told Garcia they had flagged it) -- took the comment down by early afternoon. Probably Luettgen will be the Times' very next "Trusted Commenter." (Evidence suggests that he did not made the cut.) BTW: Luettgen has written nasty stuff about Garcia and me, and the Times has published it. Knowing Luettgen is a raging misogynist helps explain his antipathy to us.

Craig Whitlock & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea. The Dover, Del., mortuary, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members."

Karen Garcia found a new publication -- the New York Times eXaminer. The main page is here. The site's mission statement is here. Among its goals, to provide:

• Daily direct responses to NYT articles (that appear in both their on-line and print forms)
• Analysis and commentary on NYT coverage of topics and issues
• Critique of NYT editorial choices, standards, journalistic ethics and practices
• Provide editorials and Op-Ed’s covering labor, the environment, human rights, foreign policy, and more, providing alternative analyses to what is offered in NYT editorials
• Provide hard news without corporate bias
• Highlight and analyze Times content that is highly problematic but often found in its back pages

... Here's a story by Matthew Ingram positing that "if WikiLeaks is dying, then the New York Times is partly to blame." CW: Ingram's analysis is consistent with analyses I've read elsewhere & with my own limited observations. ...

... Julian Assange of WikiLeaks speaks with NYTX's Chris Spannos in this three-part video interview. Part 1:

     ... Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "One person who should be feeling particularly good about last night's election results in Ohio is Barack Obama. On our weekend poll, which got the final result of Issue 2 correct to within a point, Obama led all of his Republican opponents in the state by margins ranging from 9-17 points." CW: yeah, and he has labor & teachers to thank for that. He'd better remember who his friends are.

Book Review. Andrew Leonard of Slate on President Bill Clinton's Back to Work or Bill Clinton's Alternate, Unbelievable Reality: "Before Bill Clinton decided to write a book arguing the merits for smart government, he should have fessed up to how his own dumb government played a role in creating the financial crisis that put so many Americans out of work and has made it so difficult to restart economic growth."

Today in Supercommittee News. Lori Montgomery & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Democrats [on the deficit reduction supercommittee] rolled out a new framework of their own that would save about $2.3 trillion over the next decade instead of the $3 trillion in their initial proposal. The blueprint ... called for $1 trillion in spending cuts, including a $400 billion reduction in federal health programs. It also called for $1 trillion in new tax revenue, down from $1.3 trillion in the initial offer." CW: in other words, a "breakthrough" that is a nonstarter.

Simon Lazarus of Slate on the D.C. Court of Appeals decision upholding the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act and the "outsized influence of Judge Laurence Silberman," the conservative jurist who wrote the decision: "... as the conservative [Supreme Court] justices brace for their turn in the health reform wars, they are receiving pointed recommendations — from their own side of the political and ideological spectrum — to leave this battlefield to politicians and voters. As Silberman notes, deflecting still another factoid often emphasized by ACA opponents, whether Americans can be required to purchase a product or service seems 'a political judgment rather than a recognition of constitutional limitations.'” CW: if you favor the ACA, this thoughtful post should hearten you.

You Can't See the Forest for the Signs. In what will likely be a never-ending series -- "Today in Oligarchy" -- Karen Garcia homes in on horticulture, horticulture of the oligarchic variety. It seems John Thain -- who plundered Merrill Lynch just as it was about to fold & make its massive contribution to the crash of 2008 -- has donated a bit of his plunder to the strapped-for-cast Bronx Botanical Gardens. And lest you not realize where you ramble on your gambol through said gardens, John Thain has planted more Thain Family Forest signs than trees.

Right Wing World *

Karl Rove's super PAC Crossroads GPS is running this new negative ad against Elizabeth Warren. Reader Julie L. saw the ad on Massachusetts TV this morning: 

     ... CW: this kind of attack will backfire if the Occupy movement doesn't turn violent. Obviously, such ads could hurt all Democrats if Occupy turns, or is perceived to turn, violent. Ads like this one will not convert voters who see the Occupy movement as a protest against Wall Street, the unemployment situation and other oligarchical power grabs. Noah Bierman of the Boston Globe has a story here.

NotMittRomney.com  Alicia Cohn of The Hill: "A coalition of conservatives is working to organize the disparate groups opposing Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential nominee.... The new coalition is seeking to push back against the narrative that Romney is the 'inevitable nominee.' ... The group's website, NotMittRomney.com, launched this week." CW: oh, good. Let them rally 'round one of the dwarfs. You pick the dwarf. Danger: they just might pick Huntsman, the one candidate who's a bona fide hard conservative and not crazy. And he hasn't had his turn in the limelight yet.

Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "L. Lin Wood, the lawyer hired by the Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain to fend off sexual harassment accusations, has warned that any other women who might be considering coming forward with similar allegations 'should think twice.'” CW: Wood's threat was not idle. Read the report. The way the right -- including Matt Drudge & the execrable Rush Limbaugh -- is defaming Cain's alleged victims is beyond disgusting. This is historically what happens to victims of sexual battery, assault & harassment: they are victimized twice. Cain & his thugs turn my stomach. Conservative women should speak out against these misogynistic bullyboys and rally around their victims. Enough is enough. ...

... It Gets Worse. Eric Boehlert of Media Matters: After it was revealed "that single mom Sharon Bialek had sat down with her son and told him about the encounter she alleges to have had with [Herman] Cain thirteen years ago, and that her son then urged her to come forward and make her claim publicly..., Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday repeatedly turned his AM wrath on ... the 13 year-old [and portrayed him] as a villain in the Herman Cain sexual harassment saga.... Limbaugh attacked the boy as a wannabe Nazi 'brownshirt.'" With audio. ...

... James Grimaldi & Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "The women who have accused GOP contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment have agreed to hold a joint news conference to air their stories, one of their attorneys said Wednesday.... Joel P. Bennett, who represents federal employee Karen Kraushaar, 55, said in an interview that he was planning the news conference with Gloria Allred, who represents Chicago homemaker Sharon Bialek, 50. Details of the joint appearance have not yet been worked out, Bennett said."

Jeff Zeleny & Ashley Parker of the New York Times lede their story on Wednesday's GOP presidential debate with with Rick Perry's "Oops!" moment: "For any other candidate, the moment may have been quickly forgotten or easily explained. But for Mr. Perry..., it reinforced negative stereotypes about his candidacy, a point that was made clear after the debate when he made a rare trip into an adjoining room to face reporters and try to brush away what had happened."

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, whose sole talent is in the horse-race aspect of politics, picks winners & losers. Here's loser Rick Perry's "Oops!" moment:

... Dave Weigel of Slate: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. Born in a South Carolina hotel ballroom on Aug. 13, it died on the campus of Oakland University on Nov. 9, with CNBC’s debate moderators unable to avert their eyes. The cause of death: Self-inflicted injury, brought on by amnesia." ...

... Steve Kornacki of Slate: "This really has the potential to be the flub that will define all of Perry’s flubs." ...

... Lucky Mitt. Jon Cohn of The New Republic: "Perry’s flub obscured more interesting exchanges – including two moments that revealed a great deal about Mitt Romney." For one thing, tho the debate was in Michigan -- center of the American auto industry -- Romney still didin't clearly state his view of the Obama auto bailout; he's been all over the map on it. Oh health care, Romney's oft-stated position is the popular right-wing line about not letting the government get between a patient & her doctor. But Mitt couldn't explain to questioner John Harwood why it was bad for the federal government to interfere but fine & dandy for a state government to meddle. "Romney, who’s a superb debater, was actually flustered. Eventually, Romney changed the subject to Medicaid and a statement that 'Obamacare is wrong.'” CW: well, we've cleared that up.

... Josh Lederman of The Hill: "Onstage at his first presidential debate since sexual harassment allegations against him emerged more than a week ago, Herman Cain dismissed the accusations as a 'character assassination' Wednesday — and was enthusiastically backed up by the debate audience. Those in the crowd at the CNBC debate booed moderator Maria Bartiromo when she asked Cain about whether he had the character needed for the nation's highest office." CW: bear in mind that Republican debate-goers also booed a gay serviceman serving in Iraq, cheered for letting a sick, uinsured man die, & cheered for executions. (Similarly, at a campaign event, Cain supporters cheered when he said he would put up a border fence that would electrocute Mexicans trying to get into the U.S.) Add sexual assault to the List of Their Favorite Things.

Alex Pareene of Salon notices this astounding bit of right-wing "media analysis": Dan Perrin of Red State, in a post duly admired by the ever-insane CNN correspondent Erick Erickson, claims that -- and really, this is a direct quote: "The media’s obsession with the Penn State sex scandal can be explained by the fact they think it will hurt Herman Cain." CW: yep, that was my first thought, too.

President Obama hates Christians. -- Jim Holt, Gateway Pundit

... Jeremy Holden of Media Matters: "Right-wing media figures are accusing the Obama administration of seeking to impose a tax on Christmas trees; but the Christmas tree industry has been working since 2008 -- before President Obama was elected -- to partner with the Department of Agriculture and establish a marketing campaign funded by tree growers in order to promote the sale of fresh Christmas trees." ...

     ... Update. Jake Tapper of ABC News: so the Obama Administration is going to delay implementation of the tax. CW: Why?

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: In Tuesday's column, "David Brooks ... explained how [Mitt] Romney’s recent decision to unveil a plan for reforming the entitlement system 'demonstrates his awareness of the issues that need to define the 2012 presidential election.' ... Romney’s ideas ... pave the way for Wall Street’s ultimate goal – full privatization of Social Security and Medicare.... Evaluated purely on their own merits, without the implicit attachment to the taxpayer, [the big banks] actually have negative trustworthiness. And these are the people we want managing the nation’s Social Security accounts?... Advocating the turning over of Social Security management to Wall Street after the 2008 crash is a little like ... tabbing Charlie Sheen to manage the inventory of a hospital pharmacy – completely nuts, but to David Brooks, that makes Mitt Romney the 'serious” candidate.'" Thanks to reader Karen S. for the link.

The Hon. Rep. Joe Walsh (RTP-Ill.) -- dutifully following the Republican party lie line -- explains to constituents that Congress, not the banks, caused the housing market bubble & crash. Joe presents his case in such a sweet manner that you won't be surprised the right-wing Family Research Council gave him their "True Blue" Family Man award even though Walsh is more than $100K in arrears on court-ordered child support -- and he still refuses to pay. And you'll wonder how his wife ever could have left such a sweetiepie. Legally, Joe's little chat with his constituents probably constitutes harassment at the least, assault at worst:

 * Where paranoia and conspiracy theories are, like, normal.

News Ledes

Deciding Not to Decide: Election 2012. Washington Post: "The Obama administration will delay action on a controversial cross-country oil pipeline in order to assess a shift in its route, officials announced Thursday, effectively putting off a politically vexing decision until after next year’s election. The move is the latest twist in a more-than-three-year review process that has evolved from a fairly routine decision within the federal bureaucracy to a very public debate over national energy policy."

AP: "U.S. Army soldier accused of exhorting his bored underlings to slaughter three civilians for sport was convicted of murder, conspiracy and other charges Thursday in one of the most gruesome cases to emerge from the Afghan war. Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, of Billings, Mont., was the highest ranking of five soldiers charged in the deaths of the unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province early last year. At his seven-day court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, the 26-year-old acknowledged cutting fingers off corpses and yanking out a victim’s tooth to keep as war trophies, 'like keeping the antlers off a deer you’d shoot.'”

AP: "The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level since April, a sign that employers could be stepping up hiring.The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications dropped to a seasonally adjusted 390,000. It was the third decline in four weeks."

New York Times: "Lucas Papademos, a respected economist with an avuncular style, was named prime minister of Greece on Thursday. He will head a unity government that has pledged to quickly approve the tough terms of a European aid package and save the country from bankruptcy." CW: it would be nice if the U.S. would make "an avuncular ... respected economist" head-of-state.

New York Times: " After top Penn State officials announced that they had fired Joe Paterno on Wednesday night, thousands of students stormed the downtown area to display their anger and frustration, chanting the former coach’s name, tearing down light poles and overturning a television news van parked along College Avenue." CW: because harboring an alleged child sex abuser and possibly even being involved in the coverup is A-OK. And I thought all the kids cared about was academics.

AP: "James Murdoch told Parliament Thursday that he'd told the truth when he said he'd been kept in the dark about the culture of criminality at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid. In comments to often-skeptical and occasionally hostile lawmakers, Murdoch stuck to his guns, accusing his former subordinates of keeping him in the dark and misleading Parliament over the extent of the phone hacking that has shaken his father Rupert Murdoch's media empire." The Guardian has a liveblog. ...

     ... Update: Somebody Is Lying. Guardian: "James Murdoch was embroiled in a rancorous war of words with two of his former senior News of the World executives after he told MPs during a marathon questioning session that they had failed to tell him the truth about the scale of phone hacking at the paper and had misled parliament. In a two-and-a-half hour session..., the 38-year-old repeatedly denied being told three years ago about evidence that hacking went beyond a single journalist at the paper. But his account was quickly contradicted by both those executives, former NoW legal head Tom Crone and ex-editor Colin Myler."

Washington Post: "First lady Michelle Obama announced commitments from a range of companies Thursday to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014, a dramatic step-up in activity for her Joining Forces initiative. She said the show of support demonstrates to military families that 'America has your back.'”

AP: "In a shift in White House tactics on the cusp of an election year, President Barack Obama isn't shying away these days from saying that many of his policies were designed with African-Americans in mind.... on Wednesday, the White House convened a gathering of black business, political and community leaders to share a report on the multiple ways the president's agenda has benefited African-Americans. The president made a direct appeal for help on proposals 'where we don't have to wait for Congress' to act." See video below.

Al Jazeera: "Israel's Supreme Court has upheld the conviction by a Tel Aviv court of former president Moshe Katsav over two counts of rape and other sexual offences. Reading out their decision on Thursday, the three justices unanimously ruled that the disgraced president was guilty of rape and rejected his 'alternative scenarios,' Israel's army radio reported." Haaretz story here.

New York Times to You: "Drop Dead"

In its never-ending quest to classify and categorize the hoi polloi, the elite Arbiters of Worthiness at the New York Times have created a new class of Worthies.

A number of commenters received notification earlier this week that they had been designated "Trusted Commenters." The Times is publishing comments from these commenters without moderation. This means that comments from these writers will be posted hours before comments by Unworthies.

What? You're not one of the Worthies? Neither am I.

When I complained that popular commenters -- including Yours Truly -- were not among the New Worthies, I received a response which read, in part,

I don't know the details of your comment history on the times (and I don't have any way of finding out), but just so you know the invitations [to become “Trusted Commenters”] are sent out automatically based on an algorithm that takes into account a number of factors. – Aron Pilhofer, Editor, Interactive News, New York Times

One of these Algorithmic Worthies is "tom" from "pittsburgh." Today tom wrote a short, innocuous comment (on Dowd's column) that begins,

The power of the press for good, is why the constitution is important to protect. ...

... and doesn't get better. But, hey, that's how the algorithm crumbles.

Unless and until the Times sees fit to deem hundreds of us among the Worthy, I will neither comment on Times columns nor read the comments (since the Times receives revenue for every click on the comments pages). Please consider joining my boycott.