The Commentariat -- Nov. 30, 2012

"So is that office you're renting from Tagg as nice as this one?" CLICK PHOTO TO SEE LARGER IMAGE. Is that David Plouffe there in the private dining room? And what's that in his hand? A blackjack? And what about those boxing gloves on the sideboard? -- a reminder for the history books -- and for the Loser guest -- of who knocked out whom? CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented the House speaker, John A. Boehner, a detailed proposal on Thursday to avert the year-end fiscal crisis with $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and a permanent end to Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits. The proposal, loaded with Democratic priorities and short on detailed spending cuts, met strong Republican resistance. In exchange for locking in the $1.6 trillion in added revenues, President Obama embraced the goal of finding $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other social programs to be worked out next year, with no guarantees." ...

... Lori Montgomery & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "President Obama demanded Thursday that Congress relinquish control over federal debt levels and approve at least $50 billion in fresh spending to boost the economy next year as part of a deal to avert the year-end fiscal cliff, senior Republican aides said." ...

... David Dayen of Firedoglake: "In the context of doing a deficit reduction deal at all, this is an extremely strong bid that Tim Geithner delivered to John Boehner today. Now we know why Boehner whined and cried* all afternoon." Dayen does a nice job of summarizing the key elements of the offer. ...

     * Daniel Newhauser of Roll Call: "Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Republican leaders are fuming after a late night phone call with President Barack Obama was leaked to the press, despite an agreement that it would not be, according to several GOP aides.... White House aides, however, denied that the leak came from the administration." ...

... Jake Sherman & Manu Raju of Politico: "After meeting with Geithner, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid said Democrats are still waiting for a 'serious offer' from the Republicans, urging them to move past 'happy talk' and deliver specifics on how the government would boost revenues and make spending cuts." ...

... Ezra Klein: Republicans want Medicare cuts, but since any Medicare 'reform' -- particularly the voucher system Republicans want -- will be unpopular, they "insist that the Obama administration needs to be the one to propose Medicare cuts.... Democrats find this flatly ridiculous: Given that the Obama administration would happily raise taxes without cutting Medicare.... It falls on the Republicans to name their price. But behind their negotiating posture is a troubling policy reality: They don’t know what that price is." ...

... Klein again: "Obama is ... very serious about not negotiating with himself, and his opening bid proves it. Now that [House Republicans] have leaked his initial offer, the next question is obvious: What's their offer?"

... Paul Krugman: "The same people who bet big on Mr. Romney, and lost, are now trying to win by stealth -- in the name of fiscal responsibility -- the ground they failed to gain in an open election.... Consider, as a prime example, the push to raise the retirement age, the age of eligibility for Medicare, or both.... Any proposal to avoid a rate increase is, whatever its proponents may say, a proposal that we let the 1 percent off the hook and shift the burden, one way or another, to the middle class or the poor.... So keep your eyes open as the fiscal game of chicken continues." ...

... Gene Sperling & Jason Furman on the White House blog: "Some [liars & boneheads] have suggested that limits on high-income tax expenditures could substitute for rate increases and that it would be possible to raise $1 trillion or more while keeping the top income tax rate at 35 percent. But a careful look at the math of these types of caps and limits shows that ... plausible limits raise only a fraction of the $1 trillion or more some have suggested." ...

... Here's another "explainer" -- Josh Kalven of the Huffington Post. This series of graphics is simple & comprehensive enough for the kids to understand. Thanks to Julie L. for the link:

Binyamin Appelbaum & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "... most Americans in 2010 paid far less in total taxes -- federal, state and local — than they would have paid 30 years ago.... Households earning more than $200,000 benefited from the largest percentage declines in total taxation as a share of income. Middle-income households benefited, too.... Lower-income households, however, saved little or nothing." There are interactive graphics here. CW: the authors discuss the "feelings" people have that they're paying more in taxes than the used to. But likely they "feel" this way because most earn significant less in gross income (in adjusted dollars) than they would have earned 30 years ago. Holding wages down is a great way to get people to grouse about taxes. Seriously, it is all a GOP plot. ...

... Annemarie Fertoli of WNYC: "Workers at dozens of fast food restaurants in New York City walked off the job to rally for higher wages and the right to unionize. The nation-wide campaign for unionizing fast food workers is being called the biggest such effort in the United States and will involve workers from McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Domino's and other fast food restaurants in New York." with audio. ...

... Here's some background, written before the strike by Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times. ...

... Penelope Green of the New York Times: "Multigenerational living, a throwback to the past, is a growing trend in the struggling economy, and major homebuilders are designing flexible layouts.... In fact, architectural historians, statisticians and builders themselves are pointing out that the new household -- and the house that can hold it -- is much like the old household, the one that was cast aside after World War II by the building boom that focused on small, tidy dwellings for mom, dad and their two children."

"A Liberal Moment." Tim Egan: "... here it is: a chance to shore up a battered middle class, make the promise of health care expansion work and do something about a planet in peril. Huge tasks, of course, and fraught with risk. For now, the majority of Americans have Obama's back. But should he fail, the same majority could become something much worse -- a confederacy of cynics."

Elizabeth Drew in the New York Review of Books: "The long lines [of voters] were the symbol of the 2012 election -- at once awe-inspiring and enraging.... Small-minded men, placing their partisan interests over those of the citizenry, concocted schemes to subvert the natural workings of our most solemn and exhilarating exercise as a self-governing nation." Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the heads-up.

Dave Weigel of Slate: "Shortly after 5 p.m. [Thursday], John Boehner's office released a statement pre-condemning a change to the filibuster. The key threat: 'Any bill that reaches a Republican-led House based on Senate Democrats' heavy-handed power play would be dead on arrival.'" CW: aw shucks, Boner, not even a Post Office-naming? P.S. MYOB. ...

... Weigel on why the filibuster changes might actually happen: "Democratic aides describe a small number of connected changes, which could be voted through on Jan. 3, the day the new Senate convenes. Only 51 votes are needed to set Senate rules at the start of the year. After that, it would take 67 votes." Democrats will have 53 seats, and two independents who've announced they'll caucus with them. ...

... BUT. Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) may be short on votes he needs to force changes to the Senate's filibuster rules, as nine Democratic senators sit on the fence about the proposed reforms. In addition, Sen.-elect Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) did not commit during the campaign to reforming the filibuster rules, which brings the total number of undecided Democrats who will vote on the issue next year to 10." The other nine potential Democratic balkers (more or less in order of balkiness) are Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), John Kerry (Mass.), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.) & Bill Nelson (Fla.). CW: If any of these are your Senators, call 'em or write 'em.

** Remembrances of Yellow Cake. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham … continued to pledge to block [Susan Rice's] nomination should she be appointed Secretary of State, with Senator McCain accusing Rice of deliberately 'misleading the American people.' Graham [said] her appearances on Sunday shows were 'disconnected from reality.' The episode, however, has clear echoes of McCain's and Graham's own moments of relaying bad intelligence on Sunday shows based on an inaccurate conclusion from the intelligence community. In the 2003 lead-up to the Iraq War, McCain and Graham made appearances on Sunday talks shows such as Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday, and Face the Nation where they made the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and would not hesitate to use them." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times catches on to Republicans' sudden love for Sen. John Kerry: "The Kerry boomlet adds another level of intrigue to the uproar surrounding [Susan] Rice and has real implications for the balance of power on Capitol Hill. If Mr. Kerry were nominated and confirmed, it could open the door to a return via special election of Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who was defeated this month by Elizabeth Warren. A Brown victory -- which is far from certain -- could cut the Democratic margin by one and restore to office a man who was popular with his Republican colleagues."

Amy Davidson of the New Yorker on Bradley Manning's confinement "inside this cage."

John Cassidy of the New Yorker on British PM David Cameron -- "the latest embodiment of a time-honored tradition in which British governments of the day seek to curry favor with Fleet Street's press barons."

News Ledes

Reuters: "President Barack Obama, reapplying his re-election campaign theme of protecting the middle class, heads to Pennsylvania on Friday suggesting that Republicans could spoil Christmas by driving the country over the 'fiscal cliff.' The president's road trip, visiting a factory that makes Tinkertoys, is infuriating Republicans, with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner calling it a 'victory lap' Thursday as he rejected Obama's proposals to avoid the cliff...."

New York Times: "Racing against the threat of dissolution by judges appointed by ousted President Hosni Mubarak, and ignoring howls of protest from secular opponents, the Islamists drafting Egypt's new constitution voted Friday to approve a charter that human rights groups and international experts said was full of holes and ambiguities." Al Jazeera story, with video, is here. ...

... Reuters: "Thousands of Egyptians protested against President Mohamed Mursi on Friday after an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of a new constitution in a bid to end a crisis over the Islamist leader's newly expanded powers. 'The people want to bring down the regime,' they chanted in Tahrir Square, echoing the chants that rang out in the same place less than two years ago and brought down Hosni Mubarak."

Washington Post: "Mexico's attorney general has compiled a list showing that more than 25,000 adults and children have gone missing in Mexico in the past six years, according to unpublished government documents. The data sets, submitted by state prosecutors and vetted by the federal government but never released to the public, chronicle the disappearance of tens of thousands of people in the chaos and violence that have enveloped Mexico during its fight against drug mafias and crime gangs."

Al Jazeera: "Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has criticised the forcible crackdown on protesters at a mine in the country's northwest that has left dozens injured, including Buddhist monks."

Reuters: "The ... U.S. Supreme Court [is] widely expected to decide in a private meeting on Friday to enter the legal fray raging over same-sex marriage. An announcement to take a case could come as early as Friday afternoon or Monday morning."

Washington Post: "Syria's civil war went off­line Thursday as millions of people tracking the conflict over YouTube, Facebook and other high-tech services found themselves struggling against an unnerving national shutdown of the Internet."

New York Times: "Lawmakers in Germany's lower house of Parliament easily passed the next round of financial support for Greece on Friday, despite growing doubt among members of Chancellor Angela Merkel';s coalition and opposition parties that the measures will be sufficient to resolve the Greek problem."

New York Times: "The head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, predicted on Friday that the euro zone economy would begin to recover in the latter part of next year, his confidence contrasting sharply with an official report showing that unemployment in the 17-nation bloc continues to set new records."

Guardian: "A Chinese court has jailed the nephew of the activist Chen Guangcheng for assaulting officials who forced their way into his home after his uncle fled house arrest. Human rights campaigners and lawyers immediately condemned his conviction, which followed a snap trial on Friday, with one supporter describing the case as a 'judicial farce'."

AP: "... lawyers for [former IMF chief Dominique] Strauss-Kahn and the housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, made the as-yet-unsigned [settlement] agreement within recent days, with Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon facilitating that and a separate agreement to end another lawsuit Diallo filed against the New York Post. A court date is expected next week, though the day wasn't set...."

Comments

[Kate Madison]

Pretty good news day! Palestine has gained preliminary entree to
the UN, thereby embarrassing the US and it's satellite state, Israel. I will bet AIPAC is chewing nails tonight! Love to see our myth of American "exceptionalism" dissed. Wonder if any of the Right Wing bozos noticed that all of Europe is cheering. We look like asswipes!

Secondly, Timmy Geithner seems to want to redeem himself. Could not believe that he presented Boner with a Democratic package that did not include any breaks for banksters and lots of progressive ideas! Wowzie. Who'd of thunk it? Investing in our infrastructure, instead of nation building in Afghanistan--what an original idea.

And lastly, a brag on our junior senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkely. He passed his bill urging Obama to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan EARLY. Even lots of Republicans signed. Whoa! I love this guy. He is not a spotlight seeker, but a real wonk--who happens not to be a millionaire. And a committed progressive. Except for all of the nasty winter storms, Orygon has its charms. Merkeley is one of them.

[wiswalt]

@Kate Madison--
Shouldn't that read, "... embarrassing Israel and its satellite state, the US ..."
Really. Who's creating the policy here?

[Kate Madison]

@wiswalt-

I would say AIPAC creates US policy--and has for many years, in the last couple of decades in conjunction with our trusty Neo-Cons. For sure the Likud Party is a big player, and they are mega-influential--but WE have the money, honey. Most recently, think Sheldon Adelson, who (I know) is a Bibi BFF, has bought immense influence with the Right Wingers.

[Diane]

From Marie's link to the Roll Call piece, "Republicans believe the president is more interested in raking them over the coals publicly than striking a deal privately. "

Payback is a bitch. I suspect it is no fun to have your set of diminutive cojonnes on display before the entire nation.

[Akhilleus]

Of course the height of hypocrisy in all of this fiscal speed bump wrangling and the screaming on the right about the deficit, is that a Democratic president handed over a nation in excellent fiscal health...in the black, in fact, to a fucking numbnuts Republican cowboy who drained that black ink dry through 1.) givebacks to his wealthy buddies, 2.) two, count 'em, two wars funded by red ink, and 3.) absenteeism on a grand scale where the economy was concerned, letting corporations, banks, and the financial industry do whatever the fuck they wanted, then bailing them out to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars.

Black turned into Red by the Republican Party.

How come we never hear about the fact that the same Republicans who got us into this mess now want everyone else to take THEIR advice about how to fix it, that advice being largely to do what it was that fucked us in the first place and to shut up about it into the bargain.

The MSM seems to take it for granted that Republicans, because they all have big mouths (but extremely small balls), are serious about "deficit reduction". I don't ever once recall hearing those words wedded together in a single sentence during the 8 year Bush/Cheney/McConnell fiasco in which the Right got everything it wanted. Not once.

Now, however, Granny has to suck it up for another few years, if she lives long enough, in order to make sure the Koch brothers (and Lord Rat) don't pay an additional penny in taxes, in other words, still pay taxes at a rate far lower than the 99%.

Hypocrisy, thy party is Republican.

[Akhilleus]

Old friend Charlie Pierce drops yet another gem on the reading table today, a brief consideration of one of the many insufferable year end "best of" lists, this from the far from redoubtable editors of Foreign Policy, their list of important thinkers.

Along with the absolute sham inclusion of Paul Ryan as one of the great thinkers of big fat conservative thoughts on international affairs is the appearance of teabagger wet dream, Little Randy Paul.

Whoever is responsible for this abysmal choice deserves perdition, or at the very least, a seven hour waterboarding session.

Now Rand Paul on a list with Paul Ryan, Norman Ornstein, and Dick Cheney would, by themselves, be good for an cynical chuckle or three. But to place a toxic, deluded incompetent like Little Aqua Buddah alongside the intellectual firepower of people like Martha Nussbaum, Slavoj Zizek, and Jurgen Habermas, not to mention Aung San Suu Kyi, is a revolting insult.

Big thinker? Lil' Randy couldn't think his way out a My Daily Reader puzzle with the answer sitting right next to it. To compare this sour teabagging dolt to serious people who use their minds for something more than right-wing porn further reduces the status of Foreign Policy and elevates the incessant demand that both sides be considered equally valid and important.

Can you see Gourmet Magazine (were it still alive and cooking) doing comparison using this same rule? Here we have a "foie gras de canard". And over here we have "cold shit on a stick".

One as good as the other?

At Foreign Policy they are.

[carlyle]

John McCain will not in his life time ever support Susan Rice for anything. Ms. Rice called attention to one of Johns crazier moments. He was walking through a market place in Iraq demonstrating it was safe. Out of camera he had an infantry platoon surrounding him and overhead a copter gun ship. There is a tape of this somewhere.

[Akhilleus]

So here's my standard one more then done comment; but it's a beaut.

Wingnuts run amok.

Can you picture Pat Robertson cast as a god hating bible denier??

This is how nuts Right Wing World has become. So, Pat Robertson (wasn't this the guy who called AIDS the wrath of god against those nasty old homo-sexual deviant types who didn't vote for Reagan?) has come out and said that the earth is NOT 6,000 years old, and because of that assertion he has been cast down, by creationist piggly-wigglies as a dirty liberal sodomite. You know, like all of us.

Robertson's momentary lapse into fact-based science has earned him a place on the roster of despised scientists and people with functioning brains.

Wire Marco Rubio IMMEDIATELY!!

[PD Pepe]

Today I went shopping at the local B.J's which is a big box place like Costco, but on a smaller scale. I was interested in whether they were a union store. I first asked a young lad that was manning a computer––he had no idea. I then asked a rather hefty looking woman who looked as though she was in charge of something. A curt "no" was her answer and she didn't linger for any other exchange. Then I stopped at Stop&Shop and asked the same questions and soon I had the cashier, the bagger,and the very efficient woman who is in charge of the checkout counters regale me with positive stories about their union,& their health care benefits. The reason for the inquires was learning from the news last night of Biden's trip to Costco; the head honcho there gave lots of support to Obama and treats his workers with respect and $20.40 an hour plus health care benefits. The nearest Costco for us is about 35-40 minutes away while B.J's is 10. Do we continue to put our money into a non-union store or go the extra miles to put our money where our mouth is? I'm going to leave you hanging on this one.

I'm so sick of this dithering and bull pocky re: the fiscal cliff crap coupled with Maine's senator Collins coming out and saying she still had questions about the Rice situation––"You just got out of a fucking meeting whose purpose was answering your questions and you still have questions? Huh?" I said to her while sitting on my couch trying very hard not to yell. Soon I gave up and watched "Friends" whose quirky problems were like sweet relief.

[Raul]

@Akhilleus, or... we could go against popular convention and concede that fundies can be rational (and, conversely, that rational folk can be fundie). I mean, Robertson is a pretty high-profile example of someone in whom myth resides peaceably (and profitably!) with factuality, and a highly intelligent con artist religious figure, to boot. Hewing to the (however humorous) cliche that rationality in a True Believer = evidence of insanity, temporary or otherwise, belies the evidence, I think.

Please don't get me wrong--I'm all for ridiculing Robertson in any and every fashion whenever the occasion arises, which is to say, 24/7. But, while he may be a pompous, conservative, evil, and backward blowhard, he's living in the same reality the rest of us are, albeit with a lot more dough. We need more folks on our side who can finesse media and media viewers with his skill. In fact, we had such a person in Clinton, but that was then.

Our modern notion that one can think religiously or scientifically but never both is all over the text of an 1883 book I'm reading--The Intellectual Life, sort of a self-help title by the standards of the day. It's nearly as empty as any piece of current pop psychology, only written for actual readers. Like Dawkins, et al., the author, Philip Gilbert Hamerton, presumes that intellectual and religious thought can't happen in the same brain space owing to their conflicting type, methods, etc. However, I've never found it remotely plausible that the brain, at any point in its processing of data (during or after information input), orders data according to true or false, rational or irrational. Else, why would we need tools with which to do so? The reason so many people believe laughably stupid stuff is precisely because improper ordering of data is the brain's forte and tendency; it's designed to get us through the day without being eaten, downsized, or mugged, not to ponder the age of the Earth or whether or not there's a God.

[DaveS]

Boehner chiding about seriousness; Cantor snearing about seriousness; Toomey lecturing about seriousness: Republican's squealing like stuck pigs is a good thing. Barack's got them on the ropes and he knows it.

But what I find really Ironic is the Senate minority leader complaining about his minority rights being taken away. Give 'em Hell Harry!

Hooray! I finally learned how to make hyperlinks!