The Commentariat -- September 17

President Obama's weekly address:

    ... The transcript is here; AP story here.

Oh, it's Constitution Day, and not surprisingly the Tea Party is mucking it up. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Tea Party groups, armed with lesson plans and coloring books, are pushing schools to use the day to teach a conservative interpretation of the Constitution, where the federal government is a creeping and unwelcome presence in the lives of freedom-loving Americans. Progressive groups, accusing the Tea Party of selectively reading the founding document, have responded with a campaign to “take back the Constitution.” They are urging Americans and lawmakers to sign a pledge to honor the whole Constitution, even the parts many Tea Party supporters would prefer to ignore — say, the amendments allowing an income tax, and granting birthright citizenship. And they are trying to get people to see the Constitution not as a limit on federal power but as the spirit behind progressive laws."

"The Apotheosis of Washington," ceiling of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.... Jonathan Alter has a very good piece in the Washington Monthly on "America's Lost Decade"; i.e., the Dubya years. Alter looks both to past eras -- all the way back to "the Washington Era" -- George, that is --  & to a possible one to come: "If Perry is elected, he has pledged to 'make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.' He and his supporters may have forgotten that it was Washington [D.C.] that helped build everything from the interstate to the Internet." 

I've posted an Off Times Square comments page titled "Let's Talk about Death."

"Let's Talk about Death"

Peter Capatano of the New York Times reviews some of the commentary on Ron Paul's remarks during the most recent Republican presidential debate & the audience's "let him die" reaction: "... those who saw last week’s 'Texas death penalty cheer' — in which Rick Perry’s role in Texas’s execution rate was roundly applauded, twice, by an audience at a Republican debate — and judged it an aberration were proven wrong on Monday, when something strangely similar happened." ...

... In this MoveOn.org video, a woman named Susan Grigsby tells what happened when her then-55-year-old brother lost his job & health insurance:

... New York Times Editorial Board: "After granting a stay of execution to Duane Buck just hours before he was to be put to death in Texas on Thursday, the Supreme Court must now review the case or, at the very least, order a lower federal court to consider Mr. Buck’s plea for a new sentencing hearing. It cannot allow a terrible injustice to stand." The  state used Buck's race as proof of "future dangerousness," a requirement for a death sentence in Texas.... The gross racism in Mr. Buck’s case is proof again that the death penalty is cruel and unusual because it is arbitrary and discriminatory, as well as barbaric, and must be abolished." CW: read the whole editorial; then ask yourself where the "unworried" Gov. Rick Perry was in all this. ...

     ... Update: David Savage of the Los Angeles Times has the answer to "Where's Perry?": "Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst did not respond to pleas urging them to grant Buck a 30-day reprieve. Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was campaigning in Iowa on Thursday, leaving Dewhurst to preside over the execution. After the stay was issued, Dewhurst's office said he would have no comment. A Perry spokeswoman in Austin said, 'This is a matter before the courts.'" ...

     ... As David Dayen writes in Firedoglake: "Hanging over this is the extreme surety with which Perry touts the 'very thoughtful, very clear process' for death sentencing in Texas. That’s obviously not true in this case, and hopefully this will force a reckoning from major media on other cases."

... AP (via the NYT): "Hundreds of thousands of people are rallying behind Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis — not just because they oppose capital punishment but because they believe the state could put an innocent man to death. The case is fraught with drama: The murder of an off-duty police officer. Conflicting eyewitness testimony. Last-minute court decisions sparing a condemned man's life and global dignitaries who say they fear an innocent man could die." ...

... From last fall, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on the death penalty; NPR interview by Nina Totenberg -- audio here; transcript here. (The whole interview is pretty interesting.) ...

... CW: "I Do Not Fear Death." -- Roger Ebert in a Salon essay, which I highly recommend. It isn't often you find a meaning-of-life essay on mostly-political Websites. This would be one of those rare occasions in which you do. By coincidence, a friend asked me the same meaning-of-life questions earlier this week, & Ebert's answers are so like mine it would be creepy if I didn't feel that millions of other people of a certain age have reached the same general conclusions. Thanks to my friend Kate M. for directing me to Ebert's piece, which is excerpted from his memoir Life Itself.

Many voters seem to think that government has the power to protect them from the consequences of their sins. -- David Brooks ...

... CW: Matt Yglesias is apparently one of the few Washington-watchers on my side v. Brooks' blame-it-on-us POV. Yglesias writes, "That something along these lines has become something like the conventional wisdom in Washington is, to me, maddening." Yglesias cites "a story about bus drivers in Nevada "getting laid off as a result of state/local budget woes. Are those soon-to-be-unemployed bus drivers really suffering for their sins? ... The amazing thing about this crisis is the extent to which suffering and responsibility are completely out of proportion with one another.... The government has done immensely more to protect creditors, shareholders, and managers of major banks from the negative consequences of their sins than it’s done to protect bus drivers."

Rachel Maddow on Ronald Reagan, the GOP and Christian fundamentalism:

Matthew Dickinson on recent criticisms, direct & implied, of White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. Dickinson argues that the criticisms are unfair. Via Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post.

Steve Benen: an Iowa family finds "Obamacare" works for them.

Right Wing World

Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: Rick Perry was for TARP before he was against it. But since he lives in Right Wing World, he denies he ever favored TARP, evidence to the contrary. Shortly after Congress failed on its first vote to pass TARP, Perry -- as head to the National Governors' Association, urged Washington legislators "to leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package." In a related flip-flop, Perry once bashed Wall Street as "being run on greed"; now he favors repealing financial reform. CW: in other words, he's for whatever will get him elected, even if he has to lie about it. ...

... But maybe we shouldn't be too quick to give Perry the Hypocrisy Prize. Here's Marie Diamond of Think Progress: [House Speaker John] "Boehner had the audacity to rebuke 'too big to fail' banks [in a speech this week], despite voting to bail out those very banks and fighting tooth-and-nail against Wall Street reform."

CW: I'm not sure why the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board is just getting around to this, but better late than never: Justice Clarence Thomas's "spousal income and his ties with a real estate developer who paid for some of Thomas' air travel raise disclosure questions.... To our mind, Thomas has been too free in forming such connections. But regardless of his off-the-bench activities, he should follow — and not just make — the law."

News Ledes

"The Buffett Rule." New York Times: "President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers."

New York Times: the NYPD shut down Wall Street before a long-planned protest over the financial system could take place today.

Los Angeles Times: "The daughters of two legendary Democratic politicians have died: Kara Kennedy, the oldest child of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, and Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale." Both women had been battling cancer." Both women were 51 years of age. ...

     ... The New York Times obituary for Kara Kennedy is here. ...

     ... The New York Times obituary for Eleanor Mondale Poling is here.

Chicago Tribune: "Charles H. Percy, a brilliant businessman who represented Illinois for nearly 20 years in the U.S. Senate, once headed the chamber’s powerful Foreign Relations Committee, and harbored unrealized ambitions to run for the presidency, died early Saturday. He was 91." Washington Post obituary here.

New York Times: "The United Automobile Workers and General Motors said late Friday that they had reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract." Detroit Free Press story here, with links to related documents.

AP: "Dozens of employees at Honolulu's airport were fired or suspended after an investigation found workers did not screen checked bags for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday."

Friends in High Places. AP: "The Obama administration restructured a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private investors — including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama — moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show. Administration officials defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work."

AP: "Facing a potentially destabilizing diplomatic clash, President Barack Obama heads to the United Nations next week already looking beyond a potential vote on Palestinian statehood and toward laying the groundwork for the resumption of stalled Middle East peace talks."

New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner made an unusual appearance at a meeting of euro zone finance ministries. Mr. Geithner had been invited to offer some advice on fixing Europe’s sovereign debt and banking problems. European leaders, who have been slow to react to the root causes of the problem, emerged from the meeting dismissive of Mr. Geithner’s ideas and, in some cases, even of the idea that the United States was in a position to give out such pointers."

Everybody's a Crook. New York Times: "Federal ethics officials are expected to recommend that the Justice Department begin a criminal investigation into actions taken by David M. Becker, the former general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who determined the agency’s proposal for compensating victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme when he had a financial interest in the outcome. A possible criminal referral from the Office of Government Ethics is expected to be part of a report issued next week by H. David Kotz, the inspector general of the S.E.C...."

AP: "Revolutionary fighters struggled to regroup Saturday outside the loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid after being beaten back by fierce resistance from followers of Moammar Gadhafi, temporarily quieting one battlefield while commanders leading a second offensive tried to open a new front into Gadhafi's tightly defended hometown."

AP: "The defense lawyer for two Americans jailed in Iran moved ahead with bail arrangements on Saturday, as international efforts intensified to seal a freedom-for-bail deal for the two men, convicted of spying. Attorney Masoud Shafiei told The Associated Press he was in court, 'following up the case' of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. Shafiei said he hopes Iran's judiciary will clear the way for payment of $1 million in exchange for the Americans' release." ...

     ... NBC News Update: "A bail application for two U.S. men sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran for alleged espionage was in limbo Saturday, after it was signed by one judge, but a second judge failed to appear as expected...."

Emory Wheel: "Former U.S. President and Distinguished Professor Jimmy Carter discussed his thoughts on topics ranging from the 2012 presidential election to his love of country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson at the 30th annual Carter Town Hall Wednesday evening.... Students erupted into applause when Carter declared the 2010 Supreme Court decision allowing for unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns as 'one of the stupidest rulings ever consummated or perpetrated on the American people.'”

The Commentariat -- September 16

All Krugman All the Time. Paul Krugman in today's column: "... compassion is out of fashion — indeed, lack of compassion has become a matter of principle, at least among the G.O.P.’s base. And what this means is that modern conservatism is actually a deeply radical movement, one that is hostile to the kind of society we’ve had for the past three generations — that is, a society that, acting through the government, tries to mitigate some of the 'common hazards of life' through such programs as Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid." ...

... I've added a Krugman page to Off Times Square. Karen Garcia, Akhilleus & I have posted comments. ...

... More on the U.S. Census poverty report from the first Nobel Laureate below (and above): "It ... documents the ways in which safety-net programs have at least mitigated that damage — notably, uninsurance among children has actually fallen thanks to SCHIP and Medicaid, unemployment insurance has literally kept millions above the poverty line, and the early features of the Affordable Care Act.... But what struck me is [that] many measures of pain were rising right through the 'Bush boom', and have merely continued that rise." ...

Stephen Colbert interviews some Nobel Laureates:

"Steve Jobs is Esther Williams":

** Anthony McCartney of the AP: "A new book offering an insider's account of the White House's response to the financial crisis says that U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ignored an order from President Barack Obama calling for reconstruction of major banks. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, the incident is just one of several in which Obama struggled with a divided group of advisers.... The book states Geithner and the Treasury Department ignored a March 2009 order [from Obama] to consider dissolving banking giant Citigroup while continuing stress tests on banks, which were burdened with toxic mortgage assets. In the book, Obama does not deny Suskind's account, but does not reveal what he told Geithner when he found out. "Agitated may be too strong a word," Suskind quotes Obama as saying." Thanks to reader Bob M. for the link. ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "A new book claims that President Obama’s response to the economic crisis was hampered by a White House economic staff plagued by internal rivalries, a domineering chief adviser and a Treasury secretary who dragged his feet on enforcing decisions with which he disagreed. The book, by Ron Suskind..., quotes White House documents that say Mr. Obama’s decisions were routinely 're-litigated' by ... Lawrence H. Summers.... In this rough-and-tumble environment, the book reports, female staff members often felt bruised. At a dinner with Mr. Obama in November 2009, several top female aides — including Anita Dunn, who was the communications director, and Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers — told the president about being talked over in meetings by male colleagues or cut out altogether."

Karen Garcia comments on James Carville's panicky call for White House action, linked in yesterday's Commentariat. Garcia writes, "I couldn't help but wonder how he can, in good conscience, draw a paycheck from the same network that 'teamed up' with the Tea Party Express to present a travesty of a GOP debate Monday night." Here's the CNN clip she references.

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: President Obama has done a very good job advocating for his Jobs Act. But he needs help, & not just from his natural allies:

... where are the coalitions of business leaders, whose livelihoods depend on growth, clamoring for this? And where are all the fiscal scolds, whom Obama has tried so hard to please by demanding (unlike the previous administration) that Congress pay for new initiatives and that long-term deficit reduction remain a goal? By refusing to engage more forcefully, and more pointedly, they empower and reward the Republicans who brazenly risked the nation's credit rating -- and who refuse to contemplate tax increases, making deficit reduction impossible as a practical matter. ...

... AND What about Democrats? The New York Times Editorial Board: "Republican opposition is bad enough, but The Times’s Jennifer Steinhauer reported that many Congressional Democrats are hanging back, saying they could support one or another of the components of the jobs plan, but not the whole package.... The last thing Democrats should do now is ... cow in the face of Republican tirades against government help."

NEW. Obama Solves a Murder Case. Christine McConville of the Boston Herald: "A paroled killer’s 'Obama' bumper sticker was the break that helped cops nab the man accused of the cold-blooded murder of a Tedeschi’s convenience store clerk, jurors in Edward Corliss’ murder trial learned yesterday. 'It struck me as odd,' state parole officer Kevin Devlin testified yesterday.... 'He’s a guy from Somerville, so I was surprised he was supporting Obama,' Devlin said.... After the shocking 2009 execution, Devlin learned police were looking for a car exactly like his parolee’s and dropped the dime that led cops to Corliss."

Right Wing World

Killing Them Not-so-Kindly with His Song-and-Dance. CW: Karen Garcia's comment on today's Off Times Square has me boiling. She highlighted the story -- first reported by Seth Abramovitch of Gawker -- of Ken Snyder, one of Ron Paul's top 2008 presidential campaign manager, who -- uninsured and broke -- died of viral pneumonia at the age of 49, two weeks after Paul suspended his campaign. Paul, a physician who had a $35 million war chest, did not offer his campaign employees health insurance. When Wolf Blitzer asked Paul during this week's presidential debate whether a person should be allowed to die because he didn't buy health insurance, Paul blithely replied,

He should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself....That's what freedom is all about: taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to take care of everybody —

     ... The audience interrupted Paul with cheers, & hooted Blitzer when he pressed Paul with a follow-up question:

So did Snyder fail to "assume responsibility for himself" when he went to work for Ron Paul? Or was he just "taking his own risks" because "that's what freedom is all about"? And what kind of "personal responsibility" did Ron Paul exhibit when he chose not to provide his staff with insurance? I guess he was just exercising his libertarian "freedom." ...

... Update: In this CNN story, Paul claims he did everything he could for his longtime friend. Right. It turns out Snyder had a pre-existing condition & could not get health coverage if the Paul campaign had offered it. Even the fairly clueless Blitzer notes that under "Obamacare," Snyder would be able to get insurance, but Paul still vehemently opposes the Affordable Care Act, calling it "montrous" & "bad for your health." Paul himself doesn't have to worry; as a U.S. Congressman, he & his family are eligible for Cadillac coverage:

Note that Paul "raised" (i.e., didn't give) $50,000 to help cover his good friend Snyder's bills, which came to $400,000 for his final care. And where were "the churches" Paul said were responsible to take care of the indigent? I guess they're irresponsible, too.

Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: "At a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, [House Speaker John] Boehner articulated a hard-right line on taxes that even the most moderate of Democrats could never accept....  Tax increases? Not a chance — they 'are off the table,' Boehner said, repeating the dubious argument that planning to raise revenue many years down the road would hurt job creation now. If you’re looking for deficit reduction, Boehner barked, 'the joint committee only has one option — spending cuts and entitlement reform.'” ...

At this moment, the Executive Branch has 219 new rules in the works that will cost our economy at least $100 million. That means under the current Washington agenda, our economy is poised to take a hit from the government of at least $100 million — 219 times. -- John Boehner, in his speech yesterday ...

... Glenn Kessler, the Post's fact checker: "... the number of potential regulations [Boehner cited] is inflated, as well as the potential impact. Many of the regulations may turn out to have substantial costs, but others could have benefits, as a report on the speaker’s website makes clear." CW: the explanation here is complicated; you'll have to read Kessler's post.

NEW. Amy Sullivan of Time: Federal courts are striking down as unconstitutional state laws & amendments banning sharia law (whatever that is) & Planned Parenthood funding. Are conservative interest groups upset? Not necessarily. They "recognize the political benefit to agitating about the dangers of Planned Parenthood or sharia–a catch-all word used by people who fear Islam and Muslims. A generous description of the political upside to these campaigns would be 'framing the cultural debate.' Another one would be 'fear-mongering.' ... The strategy ... plays directly into a narrative conservative Christians have been weaving for over a generation.... For the past few decades ... many conservative Christians have viewed themselves as soldiers in a fight against government representatives who want to impose secular values on them."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "In last year’s campaigns, Republicans ripped into Democrats for failing to perform one of Congress’s most basic duties: providing money in a timely way for the operations of government. But Republicans acknowledged Thursday that they would miss the deadline they had promised to meet. They began to rush a stopgap spending bill through the House because, they said, Congress could not finish work on any of the 12 regular appropriations bills before the new fiscal year starts in two weeks, on Oct. 1.... Republicans offered several [CW: dog-ate-my-homework] reasons for missing the deadline."

NEW. John Ellis of Business Insider: Rick Perry has tried a phone-it-in technique in the two Republican debates, and showing up unprepared is not working for him. If he doesn't start doing better, he won't be the nominee.

Lee Fang of Think Progress: "... the group American Family Voices filed a formal ethics complaint against Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, regarding the “symbiotic relationship” the congressman has established between his business interests and public responsibilities. Listing Issa’s many conflicts of interest, the letter, sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics, heavily cites a New York Times piece as well as original ThinkProgress investigations." Here's a press release from the American Family Group on their complaint. Thanks to reader Jeanne B. for the link. Alexander Bolton of The Hill also has a story here.

News Ledes

President Obama signs the America Invents Act:

The Hill: "President Obama has signed legislation overhauling the nation’s patent and trademark laws, a move the administration claims will speed the patent process and spur job growth. Appearing at an event at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., Friday, Obama signed the America Invents Act into law, changing the U.S. from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file patent system." Video above.

New York Daily News: New York Mayor Michael "Bloomberg warned Friday there would be riots in the streets if Washington doesn't get serious about generating jobs."

The Hill: "House Republican leaders assessed President Obama’s jobs plan Friday in a memo to their rank and file, and they found plenty of proposals to criticize. The leaders cited trade agreements and incentives for small businesses and veterans as the ideas they liked the most, but signaled little support for proposals they said were too similar to provisions of the 2009 economic stimulus package. The Republicans also criticized, as they have repeatedly, the tax increases that the president proposes as a means to pay for his $447 billion plan."

Washington Post: "Worried that a mounting debt crisis in Europe could trip up the global economy, the Federal Reserve opened its vault Thursday to the central banks of other countries in an effort to head off a crippling shortage of dollars. The main recipient of the Fed’s money is the European Central Bank, which will in turn extend dollar loans to banks in the nations that use the euro currency." ...

AP: "UBS was under pressure on Friday to explain how its managers failed to catch a $2 billion loss due to rogue trading, with experts calling into question the Swiss bank’s ability to turn around its scandal-hit image."

AP, via the NYT: "A black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago was at least temporarily spared from lethal injection when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review his lawyers' claims that race played an improper role in his sentencing. The court on Thursday halted the execution for Duane Buck, 48, two hours into a six-hour window when he could have been taken to the death chamber. Texas officials, however, did not move forward with the punishment while legal issues were pending."

AP: "Denmark's prime minister-designate started work Friday on molding a united government from a scattered 'red bloc' of ex-communists and pro-market liberals that ousted a right-wing coalition in a parliamentary election. Social Democratic leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt, 44, is set to become Denmark's first female head of government after her alliance secured 92 seats and a narrow majority in the 179-seat Folketing."

Reuters, via the NYT: "Forces loyal to Libya's new rulers surged into the desert town of Bani Walid on Friday in a fierce attack on one of the last strongholds still in the hands of Muammar Gaddafi loyalists that could prove a major turning point in the war."

AP: "Officials in Saudi Arabia and Yemen say that President Ali Abdullah Saleh will not return to Sanaa [the Yemen capital] and will, instead, remain in Riyadh, where he has been since June recuperating from serious wounds after an attack on his compound in June.... On Thursday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement that it believes Saleh could sign a Gulf-sponsored proposal to transfer power to his vice president within a week."

The Commentariat -- September 15

Unlike Sen. Merkley (see below), I'm plumb out of good ideas, so I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square.

Senator Merkley's Excellent Idea. Greg Sargent: "Senator Jeff Merkley [D-Oregon] ... is calling on both parties to agree to submit every proposal offered by the supercommittee to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to be evaluated for the impact it will have — on jobs.... 'We need to have every proposal that the super-committee brings out to have it scored by its jobs impact,' Merkley told me.... He plans to urge Democratic and GOP leaders to agree to this standard, and hopes to build a campaign to make it happen. here’s precedent for the CBO scoring proposals for jobs impact." ...

... Steve Benen: Merkley's idea "seems like such a no-brainer, I’ll look forward to the creativity Republicans will draw upon to oppose it."

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: A CNN poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans say creating jobs is more important than reducing the deficit (65%-29%) & they trust President Obama more than Congressional Republicans to manage the economy. What's more, the poll results indicate that the most popular Obama proposals are those that require spending. ...

... BUt. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: the popularity of Obama's plan doesn't stop ConservaDems from attacking him personally and the plan itself. ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Today [Wednesday] the Democratic congressional caucus, in a dazzling display of circular firing squaddishness, unloaded on President Obama's jobs bill.... Republicans must be laughing their asses off right now. For a brief moment it looked as if maybe, just maybe, Obama had put them in a tough spot.... But now? All they have to do is lay low and let Democrats do the dirty work of undermining the bill for them." ...

... Mackenzie Weinger of Politico: "With frustration and disappointment mounting from stinging defeats in Tuesday’s two special elections and over Obama’s jobs plan, the media is [sic.] filled on Thursday with Democrats on the record publicly questioning and doubting the president and some of his policies, and a few even unleashing biting criticism." ...

... "With Friends like These...." Steve Benen: "... let this be the latest in a series of reminders — it’s easy to get frustrated with President Obama at times, but he’d be in a far better position if he had more reliable congressional allies to partner with." ...

... AP: "Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans won't support President Barack Obama's jobs plan, but he still wants them to vote on the sweeping $450 billion economic recovery effort. 'We are going to have the Republicans belly up to the bar to turn down this plan,' Reid said during a virtual town hall meeting with supporters Wednesday." CW: I guess out there in the hinterland Reid doesn't have access to new about what his esteemed Democratic colleagues are doing. ...

... CW: So James Carville has some pretty good advice for President Obama. It is not anything that Off Times Square commenters haven't said before. And don't expect Obama to listen to Carville any more than he listens to us. But Carville has a three-step "program" -- "Fire, indict, fight" -- that is right on. Carville, naturally, does not mince words.

Jason DeParle & Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times delve into the findings of the U.S. Census report on poverty.

Steve Kornacki of Salon on the perilous road Elizabeth Warren is taking in her effort to win the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Republican Scott Brown, and perhaps to save the Democrats' Senate majority. ...

... Oh, No! Ben Smith: The Massachusetts GOP issued "a press release ... which points out that Elizabeth Warren couldn't name a Red Sox player when she was asked yesterday."

Rod Nordland & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "The growing influence of Islamists in Libya raises hard questions about the ultimate character of the government and society that will rise in place of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s autocracy. The United States and Libya’s new leaders say the Islamists, a well-organized group in a mostly moderate country, are sending signals that they are dedicated to democratic pluralism. They say there is no reason to doubt the Islamists’ sincerity."

Right Wing World

As I watch the Republican debates, I realize that we are on the brink of a crazy person running our nation. I sit in front of the television and shudder at the thought of one of these creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans running my country. -- James Carville

On the Danger of Saving Your Daughter's Life. Gail Collins writes, Michele "Bachmann’s strong points are her passion and determination, while her weak ones include a rather free-floating relationship with reality.... “I had a mother last night come up to me ... she told me her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,” Bachmann told one TV interviewer after another.... Would a contender for the White House ... just blurt out something they heard from a stranger that could discourage parents from accepting vaccinations that could save their children’s lives? The Bachmann campaign did not respond to my questions about who the woman was or what the candidate did to check out the information. So I guess maybe, yeah." ...

     ... CW Note: the Times has once again held back my comment on Collins' column, but you can read it in today's Off Times Square.

Fowl Economics. Bob Reich: "... governors have as much influence over job growth in their states as roosters do over sunrises.... If governors try hard enough, though, they can create lots of lousy jobs. They can drive out unions, attract low-wage immigrants, and turn a blind eye to businesses that fail to protect worker health and safety. Rick Perry seems to have done exactly this.... Texas has ... been specializing in minimum-wage jobs. From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers there rose ... nearly 150 percent. And 9.5 percent of Texas workers earn the minimum wage or below -- compared to about 6 percent for the rest of the nation.... A few years ago Michele Bachmann remarked that if the minimum wage were repealed 'we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.' ... In short, the Perry (and Bachmann) model of job growth condemns Americans to lower and lower living standards. That’s nothing to crow about."

Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "Taking the GOP’s anti-tax ideology to its logical conclusion, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) introduced today his own 'American Jobs Act' ... which would completely eliminate corporate income taxes.... The two-page bill changes the tax code to replace any mention of the current '35 percent' tax rate with '0 percent.' Corporations are already sitting on trillions in cash, so cutting their taxes would likely do very little to help the economy, but would balloon the deficit by depriving the government of about $300 billions in revenues annually."

Local News

America's Worst Governor Favors Second Amendment over First. Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald: "A federal judge Wednesday blocked a Florida gun law that restricted doctors from asking patients about firearms. Judge Marcia G. Cooke said doctors had a First Amendment right to ask about firearms, and she rapped the state’s lawyers for failing to provide more than anecdotal evidence to show the law was needed.... Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the 'Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act' into law June 2nd vowed to appeal."

News Ledes

President Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer:

     ... New York Times: "President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to [Dakota Meyer,] a young former Marine who ignored orders to stay put and fought his way five times into an ambush in an Afghan ravine, helping to rescue three dozen comrades and to recover the remains of four dead American servicemen." ...

... President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer this afternoon. AP: "Dakota Meyer saved 36 lives from an ambush in Afghanistan and the former Marine will collect the nation's highest military honor at the White House on Thursday. While he is receiving the Medal of Honor, Meyer's slain comrades will be memorialized in hometown ceremonies at his request."

New York Times: "Worried that Europe’s debt impasse posed a growing threat to the global economy, the world’s major central banks moved Thursday to assure investors that European banks would not run short of American dollars, as they nearly did at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. The banks, in a coordinated action intended to restore market confidence, agreed to pump dollars into the European banking system in the first such show of force in more than a year."

Reuters: "President Barack Obama, yielding to pressure from his political base, has backed off a proposal to reform Social Security retirement benefits in a high-stakes deficits deal Congress needs to reach this year."

New York Times: "An armed drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency this week killed a top Qaeda operative responsible for plotting terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, two American officials said on Thursday. The killing of Abu Hafs al-Shariri occurred Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks."

New York Times: "UBS said on Thursday that a rogue trader in its investment bank had lost $2 billion, a fresh blow to the struggling Swiss bank. Police in London have arrested European equities trader, Kweku Adoboli, in connection with the case.... Shares of UBS dropped more than 8 percent on Thursday, while the broader European banking sector was up." Guardian story here.

New York Times: "The United Automobile Workers agreed early on Thursday to extend contracts with General Motors and Chrysler after the parties were unable to reach new deals by the time the old pacts expired at midnight."

Reuters: "Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron flew in to Tripoli under heavy guard on Thursday, to be welcomed by the new leaders the French and British air forces helped install in Libya, three weeks after rebel forces overthrew Muammar Gaddafi." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The leaders of Britain and France visited Libya on Thursday in a triumphal but heavily guarded tour intended to boost the country’s revolutionary leaders, whose forces were propelled to power with NATO’s help last month by routing Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his military in the most violent conflict of the Arab Spring uprisings."

AP: "The Palestinians will ask the Security Council next week [September 23] to accept them as a full member of the United Nations, the top Palestinian diplomat said Thursday — a move that comes in defiance of Washington's threat to veto the statehood bid. The remarks by Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki put an end to speculation that the Palestinians might avoid a showdown with the United States by sidestepping the Security Council and going directly to the U.N. General Assembly to seek a lesser status of a non-member observer. The U.S. does not wield veto power in the General Assembly, and a Palestinian bid there would be expected to win majority approval."

Reuters: "China's Foreign Ministry urged U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday not to resort to 'excuses' for trade protectionism after U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pushed for legislation aimed at forcing China to loosen controls on its currency."