The Commentariat -- January 14, 2012
The Commentariat is open for comments.
President Obama's Weekly Address:
... The transcript is here. Mark Landler & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday announced an aggressive campaign to shrink the size of the federal government, a proposal less notable for its goal — the fight against bloat has been embraced by every modern-day president — than for the political challenge it poses to a hostile Congress. Mr. Obama called on lawmakers to grant him broad new powers to propose mergers of agencies, which Congress would then have to approve or reject in an up-or-down vote."
Bill Moyers Is Back! You can catch his entire show online at BillMoyers.com. Many PBS stations are also carrying the show, though it doesn't appear to be on their regular primetime schedule. I tried the Moyers program schedule finder and it didn't work, so alternatively, you can go to the PBS station program finder. (The PBS page automatically went to my local station; it might do the same for you.) The segment below -- which leads Moyers' first show -- is truly compelling:
Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson on Winner Take All Politics from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Josh Lederman of The Hill: "Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) sent Democrat Elizabeth Warren a letter on Friday challenging her to join him in denouncing outside groups, who have already spent millions on attack ads in the race. Rather than ignore the challenge, Warren called Brown on his cell phone — and sent him a letter proposing a meeting between the two campaigns to reach an 'enforceable agreement' to rein in the outside groups. Now the Brown campaign says it will dispatch its campaign manager to meet with his counterpart in Warren's campaign."
Jason Zinoman of the New York Times: Stephen "Colbert is a serious performer playing a silly character, while the media and political world are deeply silly but pretending to be serious. That was never more clearly illustrated than in the most triumphant part of his show on Thursday, when the respected [???] Politico writer Mike Allen offered a (mock?) serious analysis of his prospects, citing polls and strategy.... You’ve heard of fantasy baseball? This is fantasy politics. And it’s perfectly suited to a cycle in which journalists spent weeks obsessing over the political future of the host of 'The Apprentice.'”
Right Wing World
Mitt Romney -- American Populist, a/k/a Lie of the Day. I'm concerned about the poor in this country. We have to make sure the safety net is strong and able to help those who can't help themselves. I'm not terribly worried about the very wealthiest in our society; they're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the vast middle class of our nation, the 90 percent of Americans, the 95 percent of Americans who are having tough times. -- Mitt Romney
In a barely audible caveat, Romney added, "That's why I plan to drastically lower taxes on rich people like me and raise them on the poor and middle class." CW: Well, that's what I heard anyway. Brian Beutler of TPM has the lowdown on Romney's tax plan from hell. (I also linked this a couple of weeks ago.) ...
... ** "Untruths, Wholly Untrue and Nothing but Untruths." Paul Krugman: "... is there anything at all in Romney’s stump speech that’s true? It’s all based on attacking Obama for apologizing for America, which he didn’t, on making deep cuts in defense, which he also didn’t, and on being a radical redistributionist who wants equality of outcomes, which he isn’t. When the issue turns to jobs, Romney makes false assertions both about Obama’s record and about his own. I can’t find a single true assertion anywhere."
... Steve Benen: "Last week, I launched a new Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the Republican frontrunner’s most offensive falsehoods from the previous week. Last week was a Top 5 list, but thanks to two debates and a victory speech, we had enough examples to fill a Top 10 list." CW: Benen's list is worth a read. And Benen doesn't even mention Romney's claim he cares more about the poor than the rich. ...
... Here's one Romney lie Benen cites: "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney asserted that federal low-income programs are administered so inefficiently that 'very little of the money that’s actually needed by those that really need help, those that can’t care for themselves, actually reaches them." But Jared Bernstein posts this bar graph from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities that disproves Romney's claim:
... Matea Gold, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "As Mitt Romney defends his record running a private equity firm, he frequently points to a fast-growing Indiana steel company, financed in part by Bain Capital, that now employs 6,000 workers. What Romney doesn't mention is that Steel Dynamics also received generous tax breaks and other subsidies provided by the state of Indiana and the residents of DeKalb County, where the company's first mill was built. The story of Bain and Steel Dynamics illustrates how Romney, during his business career, made avid use of public-private partnerships, something that many conservatives consider to be 'corporate welfare.' It is a commitment that carried over into his term as governor of Massachusetts, when he offered similar incentives to lure businesses to his state. Yet as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination, he emphasizes government's adverse effects on economic growth.... Another steel company in which Bain invested, GS Industries, went bankrupt in 2001, causing more than 700 workers to lose their jobs, health insurance and a part of their pensions. Before going under, the company paid large dividends to Bain partners and expanded its Kansas City plant with the help of tax subsidies. It also sought a $50-million federal loan guarantee." Thanks to Dave S. for the link. ...
... Dana Milbank compares Willard to Al Gore & John Kerry, all millionaires who would be president. ...
... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Romney asserts that President Obama wants to 'fundamentally transform America,' turning the country 'into a European-style entitlement society.' In fact, Romney and his Republican presidential rivals have a far more radical transformation in mind. They envision a dramatically shrunken federal government and a dangerously unraveled social safety net.
Scott Powers of the Orlando Sentinel: "Saying he does not want false claims made on his behalf, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich on Friday morning called on a 'super PAC' that supports him to withdraw commercials it ran in South Carolina criticizing Mitt Romney and his old company Bain Capital. Gingrich made the call to a crowd of supporters at his new Orlando campaign headquarters, saying there is no way he can legally contact Winning Our Future to make the request directly."
Si vous êtes un républicain, il est important d'être ignorant. CW: Newt Gingrich runs an ad against Mitt Romney with a French accordian music soundtrack the ad claims Romney is just like John Kerry because they both speak French. (Romney was a Mormon missionary in France for two years.) The funniest part is that in the ad clips, Romney speaks first-year -week high school French with an American accent, and Kerry says "Laissez les bons temps rouler," a Cajun construction familiar even to Americans who haven't struggled through that difficult first week of French class:
Horse Race. Richard Stevenson of the New York Times: neither Obama nor Romney is very appealing to white working-class voters, but they are critical to the 2012 race. If you're interested in the horse race, this is a pretty good analysis of this demographic. ...
... Horse Race. Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "... a series of recent Quinnipiac University surveys in key swing states shows that as Romney enters the general election, blue-collar whites are inclined to trust him to revive the economy more than President Obama -- whom they have resisted since his emergence as a national candidate in 2008."
Gail Collins on the billionaires' campaign of 2012.
News Ledes
Reuters: "A U.S. judge on Friday, in a victory for the Obama administration, upheld new federal rules requiring gun dealers in four states bordering Mexico to report the sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles, despite a challenge by the gun industry."
Reuters: "Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro-zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area." ...
... Reuters: "Ratings downgrades in the euro zone by S&P underline why Europe must seal a pact to tighten fiscal rules quickly and get its permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday."
New York Times: "President Ma Ying-jeou [of Taiwan] was re-elected by a comfortable margin on Saturday, fending off a fierce challenge from his main rival, Tsai Ing-wen, who criticized his handling of the economy but also sought to exploit fears among voters that his conciliatory approach toward China was eroding the island’s sovereignty."
AP (via the NYT): "Mohamed ElBaradei, a former top United Nations nuclear official and a Nobel Prize winner, said Saturday that he was pulling out of the presidential race in Egypt to protest the military’s failure to put the country on the path to democracy."
Reuters: "Small Iranian military motorboats approached U.S. vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz twice last week but the Pentagon said the interactions were not seen as hostile, even at a moment of heightened tensions between the two countries."
Politico: "Following a hearing in Richmond [Friday], U.S. district judge John Gibney ruled against Rick Perry's challenge to the Virginia ballot rules. In his opinion, Gibney says Perry, and the other candidates who joined the challenge, waited too long to bring the suit.... The decision means Perry, as well as Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman, will not appear on the ballot in the state's March 6 primary."
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Reader Comments (6)
We need to be fair. The idea that Romney and his competitors comments that are not correct are lies is unfair. It assumes that they actually checked the facts before they opened their mouths. No, in most cases I think it's just some combination of narcissistic driven stupidity, sloppy 'professionalism' or just plain dumb. In other words, calling it a lie is giving them way too much credit.
@ Marie. You are quite right about Said’s not using the term “truthiness”–– (way before Colbert’s time) I just used that myself since we were bandying that word about. Sorry if it sounded as if Said said it. The essay I am referring to is from the book “Blaming the Victims” and the essay is “The Essential Terrorist.”
“Mr. Colbert is a serious performer playing a silly character, while the media and political world are deeply silly but pretending to be serious."
--Jason Zinoman, New York Times
Well, via RealClearPolitics, here’s a clip from “The Daily Show” offering further proof that “the media and political world are deeply silly but pretending to be serious:”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/13/
daily_show_exposes_liberal_columnists_hypocrisy_on_civil
_discourse.html
marie:
thanks for the heads up on the bill moyers show. it's on tonight in my area, so others should check the link for their areas. i definitely don't want to miss it.
I have mixed feeling about Moyers. He can be (and often is) thoughtful but also quite doctrinaire and ideological. I have been exposed to a lot of ideology during my long life and I cannot absorb it any longer.
The fact that he is not 100% welcome on some PBS stations is not surprising. Here in Southern California I am not even sure we have one any longer for most likely unrelated reasons.
So the news of Moyers return are of not much interest to me.
@Ladislav Nemec: Thank you for your contribution. You really caused me to wonder if I understand what "ideology" is. I guess if you think of "fairness" as an ideology, then Moyers could be considered "too ideological." But I think of ideology as a philosophical POV as to what the best means is to achieving the most "fairness" for the most people. I think if some definition of "fairness" isn't the basis for an ideology, then it isn't really an ideology; it's a pathology.
It is certainly possible, for instance, to believe that fairness is best achieved through an unfettered, every-person-for-herself free enterprise system. This, I guess, is close to a libertarian POV. Empirical evidence, of course, is not kind to such a view.
It is also possible to believe that some form of government-assisted capitalism will achieve the most good for the most people, even if some end up more equal (or more favorably or "fairly" treated) than others. This could lead you to a conservative POV that suggests it is "unfair" for rich people to be taxed at a higher rate than poor people. That hasn't worked out too well, either.
But those are rudimentary ideologies, in my view, and a lot of people hold them. I happen to think those people have not examined the evidence and have not thought things through. I would except, of course, those who have thought things through and who directly benefit from such an ideology, or in their case, pathology.
When I watched the Moyers segment embedded above, I saw no hint of an ideology. Rather, Moyers and his guests presented evidence of how our current system works. Moyers and the guests made quite clear that "all sides" in our government had contributed to the economic inequality we are experiencing today. I didn't see a hint of conservative- or liberal-bashing.
I won't really look at "doctrinaire," another label you ascribed to Moyers, but I didn't see much of a doctrinaire attitude in the piece, either, unless of course you mean a "fairness doctrine," and here of course I am not talking about the equal-time requirement that used to be imposed on electronic media.
I consider Moyers' segment a true public service, one that people of all ideological stripes should heed and deplore -- and want to do something drastic to correct.
Your thoughts, please.
Marie