The Commentariat -- October 30

The Washington Post has a whole page of stories & info about Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear. ...

... Here's a post-event AP story. ...

... Sanity More Popular than Insanity. CBS News: "An estimated 215,000 people attended [the] rally..., according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News." CBS commissioned the same company, AiRPhotoLive.com, to estimate the crowd size at the Stewart-Colbert rally & a'at Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' rally in August. That rally was estimated to have attracted 87,000 people." ...

... Canadian TV: "In an impassioned 15-minute speech, Stewart told a crowd estimated to number at least 250,000, that their presence has restored his sanity. 'We live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies,' [Jon] Stewart said. 'But unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country's 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems. But its existence makes solving them that much harder.' Stewart's speech was capped off with a short rendition of 'America the Beautiful' by Tony Bennett before the show's many entertainers sent the crowd home with The Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There," led by Mavis Staples." ...

... The New York Times' liveblog is pretty good. ...

... AND for some fair & balance coverage, here's Fox "News"' headline: "Stewart's Rally for 'Sanity' Draws Insane Crowd."

... Stewart's final remarks:

... C-SPAN has video of the entire three-hour-plus rally here. ...

... Christian Science Monitor: "Comedy Central has provided no details about the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert 'Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.' But the park service permit lays out the schedule minute-by-minute." Performers include Jeff Tweedy & Mavis Staple, Sheryl Crow & the Roots. ...

... Mike Isaac of Forbes has an interesting story about how the rally was conceived & how the idea took hold -- on the Internet. ...

... James Burnett of Rolling Stone: according to scientific analysis! of Internets chatter, the Stewart-Colbert rally was already working prior to the event.

... In the New York Times, Tobin Harshaw reprises some of the print media's commentary on the rally. ...

... Alex Parker of US News: Democrats & progressives hope to capitalize on the rally. ...

... CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews sat down with Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" correspondent John Oliver the day before Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity" on the National Mall. With video. ...

... It would be wrong to ignore the Fear side of this equation, so here is Stephen Colbert, bravely sitting down with five men who scare the crap out of him:

Dana Milbank: "The [Republican] party is sorely in need of grown-ups.... There are weak leaders who, frightened by the Tea Party radicals, have become unquestioning followers of a radical approach.... There are no authority figures to say 'no' to the angry, the rude and the violent. With a House leader determined not to compromise, and a Senate leader whose top national priority is the defeat of the president, things won't get any better after Tuesday."

Think the negative campaign ads this year are "the worst ever"?"Attack ads are as American as apple pie." Produced by ReasonTV:

Peter Wallsten of the Wall Street Journal: "Florida independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist personally lobbied Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek to exit the race this week, offering him a cross that had been a gift from his sister, Mr. Meek said Friday." And yes, the story gets weirder from there.

Talk about Voter Intimidation. Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: the owner of a McDonald’s restaurant in Canton, Ohio, inserted a political pamphlet, printed on McDonald's letterhead, into workers' pay envelopes "urging them to vote for the Republican candidates for governor, Senate and Congress, or possibly face financial repercussions.... A spokesman for McDonald’s USA, the parent company, said: 'It was an unfortunately lapse in judgment on [the franchise owner's] part...'" & did not represent McDonald's policy. The owner appears to have violated an "Ohio statute that prohibits political material from being attached to wage envelopes."

Washington Post: "Native-born Americans lost more than a million jobs while foreign-born workers gained hundreds of thousands of jobs as the country emerged from a painful recession, according to a new analysis of economic trends.... The report does not explain why foreign-born workers are doing so much better than native-born workers."

Doug J. at Balloon Juice: "Jonah Goldberg calls for Julian Assange’s murder.... If you don’t think that the right is serious about using violence to take power, you’re not paying attention." ...

... Alex Pareene's take (Salon): Jonah Goldberg wonders why real life can't be more like the movies. Jason Bourne should have killed Julian Assange by now.

Japan Redux. Martin Fackler & Steve Lohr of the New York Times: "... in the current political climate, with Republicans ... preaching fiscal austerity, the prospect of more federal stimulus spending seems remote, and it is unclear if monetary policy alone will be enough to restore healthy growth.... Partly as a result, some economists now predict that it could take years or even a decade for the American economy to regain the levels of employment and vigor achieved before the 2008 crisis. The growing political pressure for cuts in federal spending — along with plunging consumer confidence and companies that seem more intent on cutting costs and hoarding cash than investing in new growth — have led economists to talk of the United States’ entering a grim new era of austerity."

Robert Worth of the New York Times: Yemen has become a base for attacks on the U.S. & has been using an English-language Website & magazine to recruit Americans:

These are people with both access to explosives and knowledge of how the United States works. And in Yemen, you can walk into a local branch of FedEx and mail something to the U.S. You can’t do that in Somalia or in rural Afghanistan. -- Princeton Prof. Bernard Haykel

Air Cargo -- a Security Weak Spot. Mike Brunker of MSNBC: "U.S. authorities on Friday said they were tightening screening of air cargo in the wake of incidents in which packages from Yemen containing explosives triggered a worldwide security scare. But aviation insiders say that even with the additional measures, only a small percentage of the air freight originating overseas is likely to be examined before it arrives at U.S airports." Related AP story here.

Andrew Pollack of the New York Times: "Reversing a longstanding policy, the federal government said on Friday that human and other genes should not be eligible for patents. The new position could have a huge impact on medicine and on the biotechnology industry."

The Commentariat -- October 29

From earlier this afternoon:

     ... Here's the transcript of the President's remarks. ...

     ... Update: you can watch the full briefing by John Brennan & Robert Gibbs here.

CW: I don't run these Paeans to the President every week, but a few days before the election, I guess I'd better:

Vote! Michael Moore: "... come this Tuesday, the right wing -- and the wealthy who back them -- plan to take their collective boot and bring it down hard on not just the head of Barack Obama but on the heads of everyone they simply don't like."

Vote! Paul Krugman: "... future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness."

Vote! Scott James of the New York Times: the November 2 election is critical to California gays. "Meg Whitman and Steve Cooley, Republican candidates for governor and attorney general, respectively, have pledged that if elected they will defend Proposition 8 in the current case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The state [under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger & AG Jerry Brown] currently does not defend the measure.... Gay men and lesbians should be motivated to vote, but they might not be aware of the stakes, according to political analysts. The apathy could also be due to the traditional drop in political fervor during nonpresidential election years, although another feeling is also fueling the ambivalence: betrayal."

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post on why Anita Hill's testimony matters. Marcus discusses Clarence Thomas's repeated & extensive sexual harrassment of Hill, then Thomas's testimony:

In his famous 'high-tech lynching' statement, Thomas allowed for no possibility of an innocent misunderstanding. He testified 'unequivocally, uncategorically, that I deny each and every single allegation against me today that suggested in any way that I had conversations of a sexual nature or about pornographic material with Anita Hill, that I ever attempted to date her, that I ever had any personal sexual interest in her, or that I in any way ever harassed her.' To acknowledge that Hill may have told the truth is to accept that Thomas may have lied—repeatedly and under oath. If Hill testified truthfully, Thomas committed perjury.

     ... CW: it isn't just Hill's testimony that matters; it's Thomas's, too. Where are the House members, Democrat & Republican, who will bring impeachment proceedings against Thomas?

Lisa Murkowski lumps Joe Miller in with the brownshirts (and she's right):

CW: Zach Carter has an interesting post in the Huffington Post that suggests there's a likelihood that people in the Treasury Department, including possibly the top guy, are trying to undermine Elizabeth Warren. I linked cold to the New York Times article on Warren's deputy Raj Date, but Carter says it's a highly unfair hit-piece.

Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve is all but certain next week to begin a multibillion-dollar effort to coax the recovery along, but privately, Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman, worries that more is needed to turn the sluggish economy around and revive employment."

Death by Conservatives. New York Times Editorial Board: "In the case of Jeffrey Landrigan, convicted of murder and executed by Arizona on Tuesday, the system failed him at almost every level, most disturbingly at the Supreme Court. In a 5-to-4 vote, the court’s conservative majority allowed the execution to proceed based on a stark misrepresentation. ...

... Speaking of the Supremes: Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... after Justice David Souter announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, Laurence H. Tribe, the prominent Harvard Law professor, wrote a two-page letter to President Obama that bluntly laid out his views about several justices and potential nominees." Tribe recommended the President appoint Elena Kagan. Here's Tribe's letter (pdf).

Michelle Obama talks to Ellen Generes about bullying:

     ... London Telegraph story here.

Manu Raju of Politico: "In the last 10 years, spanning two terms of George W. Bush’s administration and the first two years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the federal government has dished out more than $1 billion to the deceased, according to a new report by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn...." CW: a billion dollars over ten years is a drop in the bucket, but if chasing down undeserving heirs keeps Dr. No busy, we should all be pleased.

CW: that special interest were behind the Arizona illegal immigration law isn't really news to us, but it's a reminder. Laura Sullivan of NPR: "NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry. The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison.... And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them." With audio report.

Michelle Moves Markets. David Yermack in the Harvard Business Review: "Michelle Obama creates an unprecedented amount of value for the companies that make and sell the clothes she wears.... The stock price gains of the companies whose clothes she wore in public appearances—29 brands in all—are cumulative abnormal returns. That is, the returns cannot be attributed to normal market variations." Via Time. The accompanying slide show is good, tho ads pop up throughout. Here one page, no ads:

First Among First Ladies The second factor is her position. Yermack believes consumers place extra weight on the implicit endorsements of public figures who are never paid to support a brand. First ladies’ choices have influenced fashion for centuries. Frances Folsom Cleveland popularized bare-shoulder gowns and dresses without bustles. Jackie Kennedy’s sense of style also influenced a generation. Still, Obama’s power to move markets seems to be stronger than any of her predecessors.Sabah Haider of the Christian Science Monitor on how Iranians get Cheerios & Heinz ketchup despite the sanctions.

Raphael Satter of the AP: "Updated training for Britain's annual crop of 3,500 trainee detectives will include pointers on how to track criminals on micro-blogging site Twitter and mine Facebook pages for witnesses, a spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency said Friday."

Here's part of the letter I just got (October 29, 9:30 am ET) from Kendrick Meek:

Dear Marie,

In the past 12 hours, you've probably heard a lot about Charlie Crist's latest attempt to push me out of this race.

Let me be clear -- I'm in this race until 7 p.m CT/8 p.m ET on Election Night.

President Clinton never asked me to drop out. Since the first day after my primary victory, Crist has been dead set on trying to push me out of this race because he only cares about advancing his own political career.

Instead of simply writing a $10,000 check, I was the first statewide candidate to qualify for the ballot by petition. Over 140,000 Floridians added their names to our cause. For me, this race is about taking a stand for the middle class.

Help me fight back by rushing $35, $50, or more to my campaign....

       ... See links to the backstory on the Florida page or in Thursday's news, while it's still up. I had planned to vote for Meek, but I guess I'll be voting for that smarmy Charlie Crist. Had Meek been willing to drop out, he & President Clinton probably could have extracted some conditions from Crist. But no. Now, if Crist wins, he can do whatever he likes.

       ... Update: I got a recorded robo-call this afternoon from President Clinton urging me to vote for Alex Sink, the gubernatorial candidate. Not a word about Meek or any of the other Democratic candidates.

       ... ** Wall Street Journal Update: "Florida Gov. Charlie Crist would caucus with Senate Democrats if he wins Florida’s three-way U.S. Senate contest on Tuesday, a close advisor told Washington Wire Friday.... Crist spokesman Danny Kanner has denied that Mr. Crist had agreed to caucus with Senate Democrats as part of any deal with Mr. Clinton or Mr. Meek." CW: this is a big deal.

Campaign Ad Roundup

David Chen of the New York Times highlights some, well, "different" campaign ads that are running around the New York region. I tracked down a few of Chen's picks:

Here's John Orzel, a Democrat seeking a State Senate seat in the Binghamton, New York, area:

Jerry Labriola, a Republican who is challenging Representative Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut, thinks he's the Old Spice man:

     ... Here's the Old Spice ad Labriola is knocking off:

Donkeys! Democratic Rep. John Adler of New Jersey, on his opponent's "farm":

CW: I've gone to New Orleans for my entry for weirdest political ads, & what a surprise, it's a spot for parish coroner!  Dwight McKenna is seeking to unseat nine-term incumbent Frank Minyard: