The Commentariat -- November 5

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square for this weekend.

Vice President Biden delivers the Weekly Address. The transcript is here:

Candice Choi of the AP: "It's moving day for bank customers. A grassroots movement that sprang to life last month is urging bank customers to close their accounts in favor of credit unions by Saturday. The spirit behind 'Bank Transfer Day' caught fire with the Occupy Wall Street protests around the country and had more than 79,000 supporters on its Facebook page as of Friday. The movement has already helped beat back Bank of America's plan to start charging a $5 debit card fee." ...

... Stuart Pfeifer & E. Scott Reckard of the Los Angeles Times: When Kristen Christian [of Echo Park, California,] learned that Bank of America Corp. planned to charge her a $5 monthly debit card fee, she did what many people do these days when they get mad: She ranted on Facebook. What followed was an illustration of the power of social media. Her Facebook post urging friends to abandon big banks unwittingly blossomed into a national campaign." Here's Christian's Bank Transfer Day event page. ...

BUT. Simon Van Zuylen-Wood of The New Republic: unless you're carrying an average balance in the neighborhood of $25,000 or above, the big banks will be happy to see you go; you've turned into a liability.

"What Now, Occupy?" Rick Hertzberg: "If the Occupy movement doesn’t move beyond encampments — especially encampments in public places that ordinary people normally use for recreation and relaxation without some corporation charging them admission — it will surely turn sour, and so will the public’s view of it.... It’s time for some new, creative, out-of-the-park thinking about where the movement goes from here—as new, and as creative, as the movement’s spectacular in-the-park beginning." CW: well, Rick, didn't Kristen Christian's out-of-the-park thinking hit it out of the park? (See links re: Bank Transfer Day above. Well, it's true Christian got a little assist from the out-of-touch geniuses at Bank of America.)

"The Shrillionaire." Karen Garcia: "... the most powerful person in New York..., Michael Bloomberg, appears to be finally losing it, big-time, over a street protest in the backyard of his fiefdom.... The very thought of non-rich people getting attention in his back yard is obviously causing a major attack of oligarchic angst and a shattering blow to his sense of entitlement." But don't worry, the Villagers have lit their torches for Baron von Bloomberg. Garcia just got her "invitation from the White House's favorite Democratic think tank, The Center for American Progress, to listen to Bloomberg give the freaking keynote address on how to reduce the deficit at its 'American Action Forum' next week.... The gazillionaire who just blamed Congress for the biggest banking fraud in American history will now proceed to advise Congress how to make amends and slash Medicare, Medicare and Social Security." CW: it will be interesting to see if & how Think Progress, an outlet for the Center for American Progress, will cover the von Bloomberg edict. ...

... Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: "Bloomberg’s main attraction as a politician has been his ability to stick closely to a holy trinity of basic PR principles: bang heavily on black crime, embrace social issues dear to white progressives, and in the remaining working hours give your pals on Wall Street ... whatever they want.... Bloomberg, with this preposterous schlock about congress forcing banks to lend to poor people, may yet make himself the face of the 1%’s rank intellectual corruption." Read Taibbi's whole post. It's the best explanation anywhere (better than Krugman's!) of who's to blame for the home mortgage crisis and why. ...

... Nick Paumgarten of the New Yorker: Jon "Corzine’s downfall is an update on Icarus, an illustration of hubris. It reminds us that leverage kills, that it is dangerous to pick up nickels in front of a steamroller.... If the firm did indeed use hundreds of millions of dollars of its customers’ money to prop up its own liquidity, in its waning hours, someone, perhaps even the former C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs and Governor of New Jersey, could wind up in jail."

Bill Clinton: Be Nicer to Fat Cats. Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post: "President Obama and his Democratic allies made two key political missteps in recent years, according to former president Bill Clinton in a new book to be released Tuesday. First was not raising the federal debt ceiling in the first two years of the president’s term, when Democrats still had a majority in Congress, and then failing to devise an effective national campaign message during the midterm elections of 2010. Clinton also suggests, obliquely, that Obama’s criticism of Wall Street has been too harsh and counterproductive. The 42nd president periodically surfaces with cheerful tips on how he managed the economy and offers these observations....” ...

... Dana Milbank: "Chris Matthews ... has written a compelling blueprint for President Obama’s reelection. But it doesn’t mention the current president. Matthews’s new book, “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero,” ... [is] about the Machiavellian Kennedy, the political street fighter who with his brother encouraged opponents to believe they were 'dangerous enemies' who preferred to be feared rather than loved.... [Obama] learned the art of Kennedy’s soaring rhetoric but neglected the kneecapping that supported it."

Ari Berman of The Nation: "The war against government workers is prolonging the recession," and I've got the numbers to prove it. ...

... Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute describes what a "good" jobs report would look like: for one thing, it would not have shown another big decrease in government jobs, one of President Obama's top dumb ideas. ...

... Dean Baker analyzes the numbers but the bottom line appears at the top of his post: "There is no reason to expect much of a drop in unemployment anytime soon." ...

... Ezra Klein writes a review of Ron Suskind's Confidence Men in the NYRB that tells you more about the Obama presidency than Suskind does. In looking at Obama's mistakes, Klein zeroes in on the President's choosing to reappoint Ben Bernanke to chair the Fed & his failure to fill the two empty seats on the Fed's board. CW: One thing he misses is the point Berman & Konczal make above: the bone-headed, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot decision to cut federal jobs, a move that shocked me at the time Obama announced it & still confounds me. 

Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits. Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more. Congress is expected to decide by year's end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states."

CW: What with Brooks' latest column from the Gasbag Gazette, here's a look back at a year-old "60 Minutes" segment on extracting natural gas (via Brilliant at Breakfast). I looked for the HBO documentary "Gasland" online, but it doesn't seem to be available unless you want to purchase the DVD. If anybody knows a source, let me know:

Right Wing World

Jonathan Chait on the Imaginary World Where Paul Ryan Lives (CW: that would be, of course, Right Wing World): "Contrary to the impression he left at [a recent] town hall, Ryan knows full well that his budget plan does nothing for the uninsured.... Much as he wants to pretend otherwise, Ryan has a health-care plan. It’s to repeal the Affordable Care Act and let the uninsured fend for themselves." What makes the reader sick himself is that Ryan tells this fairy tale to a man who has end-stage renal failure: "I'm going to let you die, but I'm standing here lying to you pretending I won't."

Mike McIntire of the New York Times: Texas Gov. Rick Perry "has accepted -- free ... more than 200 flights worth a total of $1.3 million ... from corporate executives and wealthy donors during 11 years as governor.... Although many of the trips were for political or ceremonial events — not unusual for elected officials — others involved governmental functions, including some that were of interest to the planes’ owners. As a result, a group of well-heeled businessmen has effectively helped underwrite some of Mr. Perry’s activities as governor." ...

... Gail Collins: "This is the same Rick Perry who recently told The San Francisco Chronicle that he was the sort of leader who could go to Washington and 'take a wrecking ball, a sledgehammer — whatever it takes to break up the good-old-boy corporate lobbyist mentality that is putting this country’s future in jeopardy.' On a mission like that, wouldn’t you expect him to fly coach?"

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "One part of Mitt Romney’s new fiscal plan that’s gotten less notice is his proposal to eliminate Title X, the only federal program devoted to family planning. This wades into an issue that has challenged congressional Republicans — and one that none of Romney’s competitors have touched." Even staunch anti-abortionists in Congress have been reluctant to take on Title X. CW: That is, when it comes to women's health issues, Romney is to the right of, well, everybody. This, IMHO, is worse than sexual harassment. Excuse me while I retrieve my Herman Cain ballot.

Jonathan Martin of Politico: "The attorney for one of the women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment said Friday that the then-National Restaurant Association CEO engaged in 'inappropriate behavior' and 'unwanted advances' that led to a cash payout in 1999. The woman declined to reveal her identity or detail the nature of the claim":

Charles Blow: "... this 'crisis' could help, not hurt, Cain with his base. It helps him more perfectly evoke the Christlike ideal among those on the right of persecution and perseverance. Claims that portray Cain as a predator and monster will be rejected out of hand.... It is no wonder then that they are trying so hard to resurrect Clarence Thomas’s 20-year-old 'high-tech lynching' analogy and apply it to Cain.... Rush Limbaugh who once told a black caller to 'take that bone out of your nose and call me back' slithered out from underneath his rock to defend Cain from 'racial stereotypes' of 'the real racists,' Democrats who would destroy Cain 'à la Clarence Thomas.'"

This bill opens the door for opportunists who will use the legislation to make some money. I’m certainly for civil rights, but I don’t know if this bill is fair because of what we’ll have to spend to defend ourselves in unwarranted cases. -- Herman Cain, 1991, CEO of Godfather's Pizza, on new federal anti-harassment legislation

Local News

Todd Heywood of the Michigan Messenger: the state senate, controlled by Republicans, passed "a blueprint for bullying" when they added a religious/moral exemption; i.e., it's okay to bully another kid if you have a "sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction" that the kid has it coming. The bill still must pass the state house -- also controlled by Republicans -- & if it passes there to Republican Gov. Rick Synder. ...

... This one passage ... is the entire raison d'etre of American 'conservatism,' and of the political party that it has turned into its mindless vehicle over the past four decades. Every element of the 'movement' is in there. There's religious paranoia and cultural sociopathy combining to produce a completely irrational sense of victimhood. There's the carefully chosen choice of targets, and the subsequent inflation of that target into the 'real' threat from the 'rea'" oppressors. And then, finally, there's the framing of legislation to say one thing, but mean another, while maintaining your inherent right as one of society's overdogs to do pretty much anything you want.... Without this formula, Republican politics would have no platform. -- Charles Pierce of Esquire

News Ledes

New York Times: "After a week..., about 143,000 customers served by the state’s largest electricity carrier, Connecticut Light and Power, were still without power by Saturday evening while the repair work was all but complete in most other states.... On Friday, [Gov. Dannel] Malloy (D) announced plans for an investigation into the preparation and repair efforts of Connecticut Light and Power and the state’s other major utility, United Illuminating Company, to be led by James Lee Witt, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Clinton."

New York Times: "The rancor that defined much of the last week on the Republican presidential campaign trail subsided a bit here on Saturday night, as Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain basked in each other’s company and the warm embrace of the Texas Tea Party for what was styled as an old-fashioned issues-focused debate."

New York Times: "Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators streamed into a desolate part of Foley Square on Saturday afternoon, but their slow-moving march turned chaotic as a phalanx of police officers issued orders to vacate the sidewalks — and then swept in to force the issue. One police official said that at least 20 protesters were arrested in a series of fast-moving encounters with officers outside the public square in Lower Manhattan that is hemmed in by several government buildings...."

Los Angeles Times: "Hundreds of protesters vented their frustration with Wall Street Saturday in a march through downtown L.A.'s financial district that at one point erupted into a pushing and shouting match with a counter-protester. It was part of Bank Transfer Day, a national effort to get people to move their money from large corporate banks into smaller banks or credit unions. The march was organized by a coalition of labor unions and community organizations fighting foreclosures and also drew a sizable contingent of protesters from nearby Occupy L.A." ...

... Sacramento Bee: "Credit unions in the Sacramento region and nationwide cashed in during Saturday's 'Bank Transfer Day,' a month-old movement urging consumers to transfer their money out of banks and into not-for-profit credit unions. 'We had our biggest new membership day of the year,' said Roy Worley, a spokesman for Sacramento-based Schools Financial Credit Union. 'Forty-six percent of the new memberships were from individuals stating they came in Saturday because it was Bank Transfer Day.'" ...

... AP: "A downtown Oakland branch of Wells Fargo bank closed its doors for the day Saturday as immigrant rights protesters crowded the entrance to condemn the bank’s ties to private companies that run immigrant detention centers. More than 100 protesters marched a block from the Occupy Oakland encampment to the bank branch Saturday morning. A few protesters briefly tussled with bank security guards who stood in front of the locked entrance. Police were on the scene but made no arrests."

AP: "Residents fearfully left their homes Saturday to bury their dead in northeast Nigeria following a series of coordinated attacks that killed at least 69 people and left a new police headquarters in ruins, government offices burned and symbols of state power destroyed. A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks...."

New York Times: "Andy Rooney, whose prickly wit was long a mainstay of CBS News and whose homespun commentary on '60 Minutes,' delivered every week from 1978 until 2011, made him a household name, died Friday in New York City." CBS News obituary here.

AP: "Greece's conservative opposition leader has insisted on his demand for immediate elections, snubbing a government offer to form a power-sharing coalition and extending a political deadlock in the debt-shackled country. Center-right New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras made the remarks Saturday shortly after the Socialist government called on him to join a four-month coalition aimed at securing a mammoth new European debt deal."

New York Times: "Acceding to pressure from European leaders, Italy 'invited' the International Monetary Fund on Friday to look over its shoulder to ensure that Rome is carrying out changes devised to keep the country from succumbing to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, signifying a new moment in global economic management. Even as political instability in Greece threatened to tip the crisis into a new and more dangerous phase, the unprecedented move by the I.M.F. to act as an overseer of Italy’s efforts to contain its ballooning debt underscored just how rapidly Italy was pivoting back to the center of the storm on the Continent."

Politico: "Major Gen. Peter Fuller, a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was relieved of his duties Friday after comments he made to Politico disparaging Afghan President Hamid Karzai and calling the government’s leaders 'isolated from reality.' Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, ousted Fuller following what the coalition called his 'inappropriate public comments.'”