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The Commentariat -- December 5
New York Times artwork.Cleopatra biographer Stacy Schiff, in a New York Times op-ed, recounts "Cleopatra's Guide to Good Governance." CW: it appears the Republicans have been reading Schiff's biography; they're already good at her Lesson No. 1: "obliterate your rivals."
Frank Rich makes the case that President Obama is suffering from Stockholm syndrome. ...
... Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun, in a Washington Post op-ed: "To many liberals and progressives, the president's unwillingness to veto any measure that includes continued tax relief for billionaires is the last straw, building on a record of spinelessness that includes his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, abandonment of a public option for health-care reform, refusal to prosecute those who tortured in Iraq or lied us into that war, and unwillingness to tax carbon emissions." Rabbi Michael's solution: "a real way to save the Obama presidency: by challenging him in the 2012 presidential primaries with a candidate who would unambiguously commit to a well-defined progressive agenda and contrast it with the Obama administration's policies."
Manu Raju of Politico: "New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is wasting little time assuming his new power in the Senate leadership over the Democrats' message, seizing the reins of the tax debate by sharpening attacks against Republicans and effectively intensifying the partisan rancor in the upper chamber." ...
... Steve Benen lays out the case for "Why Compromise with These Guys Is Impossible, Part MCCXVII." ...
... Aw, but here's that nice Mitch McConnell talking about compromise:
... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: Newt Gingrich says, in effect, "let rich people decide how long their tax cuts last." Then, "In practically the same breath that he proposes giving a massive tax cut to Paris Hilton, he [Gingrich] also suggests that 'we change the entire [unemployment benefits] program into a worker training program and not give anybody money for doing nothing.'” With video which I can't watch.
... Nate Silver looks at the probabilities in the tax standoff game.
Paul Krugman, in a post about the Obama Administration's "attempt to downplay the terrible jobs number," draws this conclusion: "top management has gone missing."
The House had a dramatic election. We picked up seats in the Senate. Some of us thought, maybe we could pick up two or three more, but we made some pretty poor choices when it came to candidates. -- Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, in a Senate floor speech
Matt Bai of the New York Times: "What makes [the debt commission's] case for sacrifice so much harder to embrace, perhaps, is that it goes to our national psyche, threatening our self-image as a land with limitless potential. While past generations have readily sacrificed for national greatness, debt reduction — at least in the gloomy way its advocates argue for it — feels like a call to sacrifice in the name of our national decline. CW: Bai says it ain't necessarily so; I say it's a call to sacrifice in the name of oligarchy.
The Editors of the Washington Post do not like the film "Fair Game." They write, "'Fair Game,' based on books by [Joe] Wilson and his wife [Valerie Plame], is full of distortions -- not to mention outright inventions." ...
... Matt Duss of the Wonk Room refutes some of the WashPo editors' claims & suggests, "Maybe the Washington Post’s editors should try reading their own paper." ...
... AND Dennis G. of Balloon Juice really lambastes WashPo editorial page editor Fred Hiatt: "Today he goes after a movie because the film shines a light on the big lie Fred defends.... Perhaps the fact that a Hollywood movie is more honest about the War (and life) than Hiatt’s Editorial page is what really sets the rat bastard off."
James Glanz & John Markoff of the New York Times: Cables "from American diplomats ... made public by ... portray China’s leadership as nearly obsessed with the threat posed by the Internet to their grip on power — and, the reverse, by the opportunities it offered them, through hacking, to obtain secrets stored in computers of its rivals, especially the United States. Extensive hacking operations suspected of originating in China, including one leveled at Google, are a central theme in the cables. The operations ... were aimed at a wide ... array of American government and military data...." ...
... Eric Lichtblau & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Nine years after the United States vowed to shut down the money pipeline that finances terrorism, senior Obama administration officials say they believe that many millions of dollars are flowing largely unimpeded to extremist groups worldwide, and they have grown frustrated by frequent resistance from allies in the Middle East, according to secret diplomatic dispatches." ...
... Eric Lichtblau: "... dozens of State Department cables ... revealed the deep distrust of some traditional European allies toward what they considered American intrusion into their citizens’ affairs without stringent oversight.... When the ordered a halt in February to an American government program to monitor international banking transactions for terrorist activity, the Obama administration was blindsided by the rebuke." ...
... David Samuels of The Atlantic deplores the attacks on Julian Assange: "It is dispiriting and upsetting for anyone who cares about the American tradition of a free press to see Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Robert Gibbs turn into H.R. Haldeman, John Erlichman and John Dean.... And American reporters, Pulitzer Prizes and all, should be ashamed for joining in the outraged chorus that defends a burgeoning secret world whose existence is a threat to democracy." ...
... Career Counseling. Robert Mackey of the New York Times: "Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, which grooms future diplomats, has confirmed ... that it did send an e-mail to students this week warning them to avoid posting comments online about the leaked diplomatic cables, if they ever hope to work for the State Department." ...
... Lolita Baldor of the AP: "It will take several more years for the [U.S.] government to fully install high-tech systems to block computer intrusions, a drawn-out timeline that enables criminals to become more adept at stealing sensitive data.... As the Department of Homeland Security moves methodically to pare down and secure the approximately 2,400 network connections used every day by millions of federal workers around the world, experts suggest that technology already may be passing them by."
Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: a Senator's long good-bye is apt to be a lonely one.
In a well-argued essay appearing in the Washington Post, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend tears apart Sarah Palin's attack on President John Kennedy's Houston speech on the separation of church and state. What a shame Palin is too fucking dumb to understand Townsend's explanation of basic American principles. ...
Meanwhile, in Texas: We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it.
-- John Cook, Texas Republican Executive Committee
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