The Commentariat -- Nov. 20, 2012

A coalition of unions targets Democratic Colorado Senators Mark Udall & Michael Bennet -- and in similar ads, other ConservaDems) to stand up for workers rather than cave on social safety net benefits:

... Which is a good thing because some of these ConservaDems are so bad they may not even back President Obama's pledge to ax tax cuts for the rich.

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: In their relentless quest to defeat ObamaCare despite a few little setbacks -- ObamaCare won in the Supreme Court, Obama won the election -- opponents have a new tack: challenging the right of the federal government to give tax breaks to qualifying individuals & families in states -- like Oklahoma -- that opt not to participate. "So Oklahoma officials and everybody else making this argument are essentially calling upon states to block their citizens from receiving federal tax breaks, worth as much as several thousand dollars per person." Here's Cohn on MSNBC: ...

Peter Kasperowicz of The Hill: "Nearly 100 House Republicans on Monday called on President Obama not to nominate Susan Rice as secretary of State. In a letter to Obama, the 97 Republicans said the credibility of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has been gravely wounded by her account of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya." (CW: under the Constitution, only the Senate has to give its "advice & consent.") ...

... Michael Crowley of Time: The House letter's "tortured reasoning exposes the flimsiness of the GOP‘s crusade to make Rice a scapegoat for the Benghazi tragedy.... Lacking a clear shot at Rice's actions, House Republicans have resorted to a half-baked argument about appearances. The problem, they argue, is that Rice is 'widely viewed' as incompetent or dishonest, not only at home but 'around the world.' But when you think about it, the letter also entails a certain chutzpah. If being 'widely viewed' as incompetent or dishonest is such a problem, shouldn't most of the people who signed that letter, being members of Congress and all, themselves be out of a job?" ...

... "Chugging along from Bluster to Bluster, Farce to Farce." Dave Weigel of Slate: John McCain, who has appeared on Sunday talk shows 20 times this year, "is the president-for-life of that sovereign state inside I-495: Meet the Pressistan. What better way into the [Susan Rice] story than this, a scandal that was by and for the Sunday shows?"

Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: "... the banking industry is already taking aim at [Elizabeth Warren], scurrying to curb her future clout on Capitol Hill. Lobbyists and trade groups for Wall Street and other major banking players are pressuring lawmakers to deny Warren a seat on the powerful Senate banking committee. ...

... Daily Kos has a petition asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to put Warren on the banking commission.

Right Wing World

Marco Swims with the Dinosaurs. Charles Pierce: "... most of the young phenoms of the [Republican] party are either batshit crazee, or they've been utterly intimidated by the well-cultivated base that the party has constructed completely out of people with tiny birds chirping around their heads. Here we have Marco Rubio talking creationist rot with the 2016 Iowa Straw Poll clearly in his eyes. Sad, really." ...

... Digby: Rubio "is a very slick politician and I think he's quite dangerous. That answer is the usual wingnut gibberish, but he is very good at dogwhistling to the rubes. He signals very clearly that he is on board with the whole idea that evolution should not be taught as ... science." ...

... Oh, and Rubio's BFF? Why, that Man of the Englightenment Sen. Jim DeMint (RTP-S.C.) Ed Kilgore: "... anyone who thinks of Rubio as a potential GOP vehicle for 'modernizing' the party should think again given his proud kinship to the antediluvian DeMint, the heaviest right-wing heavy of them all. You don't need to be a 'scientist, man' to spot a brontosaurus when you see one." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... when Rubio says that the question of the Earth's age 'has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow', he's dead wrong. For one thing, science and technology education has a lot to do with our future productivity -- and how are you going to have effective science education if schools have to give equal time to the views of fundamentalist Christians? More broadly, the attitude that discounts any amount of evidence ... if it conflicts with prejudices is not an attitude consistent with effective policy." ...

... Douthat, borrowing from Augustine of Hippo, agrees with Krugman! CW: Augustine was a 4th-century theologian. Only Brother Douthat could take his scientific cues from a 4th-century theologian. Still, Douthat's column, especially the last 2/3rds is worth reading. ...

... The GQ interview of Rubio, by Michael Hainey, is here.

Ed Kilgore: Paul Ryan's "main quand[a]ry may well be to determine which short-term path will best serve his long-range goal of destroying or disabling much of the progressive policy legacy of the 20th century: an austerity-flavored fiscal deal that can later be described as the first step back from the Road to Serfdom, or an ideological war leading into an old-white-voter-dominated midterm election and then 2016?" ...

... Charles Pierce: "Ryan maintains a constituency within the Beltway that seems rather impervious to the demonstrable fact that, as a national politician, Paul Ryan makes a terrific doorstop." ...

... CW: Both Kilgore & Pierce nip around the edges of why it was GOP threw Willard overboard for his "gifts" remark but are A-Okay with Ryan's explanation that his team only lost because black people had the audacity to vote, but I don't think they quite hit it. Answer (I think): Ryan is still a playah; Romney is not. If you thought Republicans were really serious this time about their latest "big tent" round of Sunday show promises, their silence on Ryan's "urban vote" comment should dissuade you -- not to mention Marco's solidarity with Jim DeMint. & his disdain for science. Nothing to worry about, folks. The Grand Old Party you have grown to abhor ain't goin' noplace.

If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government they cannot truly be considered free. -- Rep. Ron Paul, in his most recent newsletter & audio report ...

     ... Update: in the Salon piece on Paul's secession talk, linked in the citation above, Alex Seitz-Wald links to Paul's private Website. But Paul has also placed his pro-secession essay on his official Congressional Website. I would like to know why the House tolerates treasonous remarks on a site that we taxpayers support. Obviously, this totally pisses me off.

... CW: Okay, all you wingers out there who accuse President Obama of treason about once a week. Here is one of your heroes -- a man sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, a sitting member of the House of Representatives & a two-time candidate for president -- openly advocating for an act of treason. The House should at least sanction him, even if he is a short-timer.

Dave Weigel of Slate wonders how people get to be rich enough to earn at or near the highest tax bracket and still have no fucking idea how the marginal tax rate works.

Reuters: "Hostess Brands Inc agreed in court on Monday to enter private mediation with its lenders and leaders of a striking union to try to avert the liquidation of the maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread." CW: probably no coincidence that an ad accompanying this story was a link to a page that listed the four signs of an impending heart attack. ...

... James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "The real issue here is that people’s image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U.S., on how common unions are in the workforce." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... if we take seriously the idea of American citizenship as representing a common enterprise, we need to get back to the mindset in which many millions of Americans who will never join a union see a picket line, and understand they have a stake in the fight for better wages, benefits and working conditions -- and in social benefits that lift all boats. That's called solidarity." ...

... CW P.S.: Let's see how the Wal-Mart Black Friday strike/protest works out. I know I'll be honoring the picket line -- even if there isn't one.

Congressional Races

Buh-bye. AP: "Tea party freshman Allen West gave up his fight to remain in Congress on Tuesday after two weeks of recount battles in court. The first-term Republican said in a statement he was conceding the race to Democrat Patrick Murphy, a 29-year-old political newcomer." Palm Beach Post story here.

Voter Suppression -- It's Back

Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Two weeks after Barack Obama and Sen.-elect Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) carried the state of Wisconsin with the support of minorities and young voters, Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced one of his major policy proposals for the upcoming session: ending the state's 40-year old law that allows citizens to register to vote on Election Day. And with Republicans now back in control of the Wisconsin state legislature, Walker may well get his way next year."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Warren B. Rudman, who warned against soaring federal deficits as a pugnacious two-term senator from New Hampshire and who became the strongest Republican critic of the Reagan administration during the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s, died Nov. 19 at George Washington University Hospital. He was 82."

Reuters: "Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies, said on Tuesday that it failed to reach a deal in mediation with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union. The company said it will have no further comment until a hearing scheduled for Wednesday before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York."

Washington Post: "In a surprise move that shocked both sides of a years-long debate, the Church of England on Tuesday (Nov. 20) rejected an expected move to allow women bishops, preserving the church's status as one of the last bastions of male privilege in the United Kingdom." CW: a queen is one thing; a bishopess -- nevah."

New York Times: "President Obama sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East on Tuesday to try to defuse the conflict in Gaza, the White House announced." CW: that's funny. John McCain thinks only Mister Clinton can handle this. (I still think giving the Mister a dedicated role might be a good idea.)

New York Times: "Hewlett-Packard's already troubled history with deal-making just got worse. The technology giant said on Tuesday that it had taken an $8.8 billion accounting charge, in part related to accounting problems at Autonomy, the British software company it bought for $10 billion last year. The announcement comes just one quarter after another large write-down by H.P. in relation to Electronic Data Systems, which itself follows a string of deal-making missteps by the company."

AP: "President Barack Obama closed his Asian tour in diplomatic talks with leaders of Japan and China, their economic message overshadowed by security tensions over disputed waters and territories. The crisis between Israel and Hamas militants intervened, too, as Obama rushed his top diplomat straight from Cambodia to the Mideast." ...

     ... Update: "Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Tuesday to end the lethal confrontation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza on one of the most violent days yet in the conflict, as the United States sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East and Egypt's president and his senior aides expressed confidence that a cease-fire was close." ...

     ... AP Update: "Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinian journalists in their cars on Tuesday, a Gaza health official and the head of the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV said. Israel acknowledged targeting the men, claiming they had ties to militants. Later Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building that houses the office of the French news agency Agence France Presse.... No one was injured and the agency office was not damaged."

ABC News: "President Obama today said the United States and China have taken a 'cooperative and constructive approach' to their relationship, as he came face-to-face with the rising economic power that his administration is trying to counter-balance in the region. Meeting with outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, Obama reiterated his commitment to working with China, despite the tenuous relationship between the two economic superpowers."

New York Times: "In a dramatic new turn in the scandals swirling around Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper outpost, prosecutors said on Tuesday that two former top executives -- Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks — will be charged with making corrupt payments to public officials along with an an array of previous accusations." Guardian story here.

If Secessionists Wrote Their Own Declaration of Independence

By HappyPlace.com via reader Bonnie. To see a larger image, click here, scroll down a bit, then click on the Declaration. I can't stop laughing:

The Commentariat -- Nov. 19, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on Maureen Dowd's takedown of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice (also linked yesterday). ...

... On That Note -- Anne Flaherty of the AP: "Lawmakers said Sunday they want to know who had a hand in creating the Obama administration's now-discredited 'talking points' about the Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, and why a final draft omitted the CIA's early conclusion that terrorists were involved." ...

... AND Brian Knowlton of the New York Times: "The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday that she planned to investigate why the C.I.A.'s quick determination of terrorism in the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, was not reflected in the 'talking points' used days later on television by Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations. But the chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, also said she was certain that the White House had not been behind any change in the original C.I.A. language to that later used by Ms. Rice." ...

... AND all this because ...

     ... Thanks to Jeanne B. for the graphic. ...

... Un-fucking-believable. John McCain Has a Good Idea. Brendan Sasso of The Hill: "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested on Sunday that President Obama should send former President Bill Clinton to lead cease fire talks between Israelis and Palestinians." With video. ...

... BUT McCain Just Gets Crazier. Aviva Shen of Think Progress: "McCain went even further than simply opposing Rice's nomination and said that, 'until we find out all the information' on the Benghazi consulate attacks, he would not support any Secretary of State nominee." CW: needless to say, there will never be a time when "we find out all the information" on Benghazi. ...

... AND, Sad News to Report via Ben Ambruster of Think Progress. Lame Duck "Independent" Joe Lieberman is kinda breaking up with the other two amigos, John & Lindsey. Three-ways so seldom work out well. Of course, there could be more to the story (there always is). After all, Lonesome Joe, about to relinquish his Senate seat to an actual Democrat, is soon to be completely irrelevant, a forgotten footnote in the history of how the exceptional American nation got stuck with President Dubya.

... Matt Vasilogambros of the National Journal: "Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says the Obama administration deserves some credit for Israel's 'Iron Dome' missile defense system, which has protected Israelis during the rocket assaults that have taken place in the last five days."

** Paul Krugman: "... the '50s — the Twinkie Era -- do offer lessons that remain relevant in the 21st century. Above all, the success of the postwar American economy demonstrates that, contrary to today's conservative orthodoxy, you can have prosperity without demeaning workers and coddling the rich." CW: except for the Twinkie part, this has been my manifesto, too, as some readers know. ...

... Daniel Altman in a New York Times op-ed: "... the real menace for our long-term prosperity is not income inequality -- it's wealth inequality, which distorts access to economic opportunities.... Replacing the income, estate and gift taxes with a progressive wealth tax would do much more to reduce [income inequality] than any other tax plan being considered in Washington.... A flat wealth tax of just 1.5 percent on financial assets and other wealth like housing, cars and business ownership would have been more than enough to replace all the revenue of the income, estate and gift taxes.... The majority of American families would receive an enormous tax cut."

... Steven Greenhouse & Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times: "In a rare move, Wal-Mart is trying to stop a union-backed group from staging a series of demonstrations against the company on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year." CW: glad to see Wal-Mart sticking up for the big guys. It's just wrong for low-paid, part-time, no-benefits 47-percenters to pick on a company owned by THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

Bill Keller of the New York Times: Secretary of Defense Leon "Panetta proposed a budget that would cut $487 billion -- about 8 percent -- from planned defense spending over 10 years. The fiscal cliff, known to defense wonks as 'sequestration,' would cut an additional $492 billion. Most of the experts I follow think defense can be safely cut below Panetta's level." CW: Here's my cost-savings plan: let's put the generals on a diet of MREs & let them -- or their spouses -- cut their own damned lawns. Maybe showoffs like Gen. Petraeus wouldn't prance around in his medals (he wears them even on his civies) if he didn't have a valet to pin the ribbons on his jackets.

This looks like an old photo -- no comb-over -- so Petraeus probably has more medals now. But close enough.Richard Lardner of the AP: "The [FBI] probably would have ignored [Jill] Kelley's complaint had it not been for information in the emails that indicated the sender was aware of the travel schedules of [David] Petraeus and [John] Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Instead, the FBI considered this from the earliest stages to be an exceptional case, and one so sensitive that FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder were kept notified of its progress."

"'Couples' with Epaulettes." Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker comments on the Petraeus, et al., affair & novelist Philip Roth's announcement of his retirement: "As the baffling and then burlesque and then baroquely burlesque affair enveloping General Petraeus and his friends, of both sexes, fell upon us like another hurricane last week, it seemed to confirm once again Philip Roth's fifty-year-old assertion that you can't write good satirical fiction in America because reality will quickly outdo anything you might invent."

** Peter Maass in the New Yorker: "... the Petraeus case shows that among the people who have the most to lose from unchecked surveillance are the people who thought they would benefit from it -- government élites who allocate the funding and make the laws and operate the bureaucracy of surveillance. Perhaps they will start worrying a bit more about becoming the next Petraeus or [Judge Robert] Bork. Our legislators, who are not all angels, now have real skin in the game, so to speak." CW: an interesting history lesson here.

Sahil Kapur of TPM: "On the Sunday talk shows, senior Republicans, former Romney surrogates and prominent conservatives piled on their defeated presidential nominee for telling donors that he lost because President Obama bought off minorities and young voters with 'gifts.'" ...

... CW: I missed this commentary by Jamelle Bouie, which the Washington Post published Friday. But on the Romney-Jindal(and now the pilers-on) "gifts" divide, Bouie nails it: "Bobby Jindal's criticism of Romney rings hollow.... This summer, in explaining his decision to reject Medicaid funds, Jindal declared that Republicans need to 'repeal Obamacare' so that they can 'end this culture of dependence.' If there's a problem with Romney's statement, it was the language, not the sentiment.... There's something odd about this line of criticism. Voters elect and support politicians to do things for them. There's nothing illegitimate about the fact that Obama won by providing tangible benefits to people who needed them." ...

... Adam Serwer agrees with Bouie: "The Republican reaction from party leaders like Jindal is not a rejection of the worldview underlying Romney's remarks, which is extremely popular in right-wing media. It's an expression of political opportunism from politicians who want to leave their footprints on Romney's back as they chase their own ambitions. If it were anything else, you'd see Jindal telling Rush Limbaugh or Fox News, not Romney, to shut up. But you aren't." ...

... In an interesting post in which he provides more examples that support Bouie & Serwer's conclusion, Thomas Edsell examines the demographics behind the rising Democratic-leaning coalition that so frightens the Romney-Limbaugh crowd: "As Obama negotiates with Republican House and Senate leaders to prevent a dive over the 'fiscal cliff,' he will be under strong pressure from his reinvigorated liberal supporters to take a tough stand in support of tax hikes on the well-to-do and to more firmly limit spending cuts." ...

... CW: maybe they'll try a new tack, but as I see it, Republicans have two choices: (1) admit government works & should work harder for ordinary people/voters; OR (2) continue to exploit prejudices in an effort to mask their "gifts" to the rich. I might be wrong, but I don't think Option (2) is in the Republican DNA. They. just. can't. do. it.

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. -- Plutarch, via Cory Booker ...

... AND Cory Booker is off my list of Men Who Disappointed Me. Margaret Hartmann of New York: in his usual Twitter correspondence Sunday, "Booker was accused of plotting to redistribute wealth and told 'nutrition is not a responsibility of the government.' Since simply debating the merits of providing food assistance to impoverished Americans doesn't fit into Booker's ridiculously hands-on approach to governing, by the end of the night he'd challenged the Twitter user to a contest in which they'd both try to live off of food stamps for a week."

Congressional Races

Welcome to Florida, State of Denial. David Adams of Reuters: "Tea Party-backed Republican U.S. Representative Allen West said he was still not ready to concede defeat on Sunday... when the clock ran out on a partial recount in South Florida. Results showing West trailing Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy by 1,900 votes were expected to be turned over to the state Division of Elections to be ratified on Tuesday. West was granted a recount of early ballots in St. Lucie County during the weekend, but officials were unable to complete the process before time ran out at midday on Sunday." ...

     ... Update. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Democrat Patrick Murphy, a 29-year-old construction company executive, gained 242 votes after the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections completed its re-tabulation, increasing his lead to more than 2,100 votes over West...."

Local News

Alex Pareene of Salon: "Democrats ought to know what sort of Democrat [New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo] is. If Cuomo allows Republicans to subvert the will of the voters of New York, so that he has an easier time cutting taxes and rolling back regulations, he shouldn't be allowed to sell himself to future primary voters as a progressive."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The European Union offered crucial support for the new Syrian political opposition on Monday, calling the group legitimate representatives for the Syrian people in a move that burnished the new coalition's credibility as it seeks more international aid to help in the fight against the government of Bashar al-Assad. The union stopped short of conferring full diplomatic recognition, as France, Turkey and several Arab countries of the Persian Gulf have done, and instead urged the coalition to develop a plan to create a 'credible alternative to the current regime.'"

Washington Post: "The nation's biggest banks provided more than $26 billion in relief to struggling homeowners between March 1 and Sept. 30, as part of a settlement earlier this year with state and federal officials over widespread foreclosure abuses, according to numbers released Monday."

Reuters: "Moody's stripped France of its prized triple-A badge on Monday, cutting the sovereign credit rating on Europe's No. 2 economy by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa, citing an uncertain fiscal outlook and deteriorating economy."

AP: "Authorities launched a homicide investigation Monday into the house explosion that killed a young couple and left numerous homes uninhabitable in an Indianapolis neighborhood. Indianapolis Homeland Security Director Gary Coons made the announcement after meeting with residents affected by the Nov. 10 blast and shortly after funerals were held for the victims, who lived next door to the house where investigators believe the explosion occurred." The Indianapolis Star story is here.

AP: "Rebels believed to be backed by Rwanda fired mortars and machine guns Monday on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Goma, [Congo,] threatening to capture one of the largest cities in eastern Congo in a development that could drag this giant Central African nation back into war."

New York Times: "After a night of sustained Israeli strikes by air and sea, the Health Ministry [in Gaza City] said on Monday the Palestinian death toll in six days of conflict had risen to 91 with 700 wounded, including 200 children." ...

... AP: "Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers traded fire and tough cease-fire proposals Monday, and threatened to escalate their border conflict if diplomacy fails. No deal appeared near."

New York Times: President "Obama arrived [in Myanmar] as the first sitting American president to visit Myanmar with the hope of solidifying the stunning changes that have transformed this Southeast Asian country and encouraging additional progress toward a more democratic system. With the promise of more financial assistance, Mr. Obama vowed to 'support you every step of the way.' The president was greeted on a mild, muggy day by tens of thousands of people lining the road from the airport -- and by further promises of reform by the government, which announced a series of specific commitments regarding the release of political prisoners and the end of ethnic violence." Washington Post story here. AP story here. ...

... AP: President "Obama is making the first visit ever by a U.S. president to Cambodia because it is hosting the annual East Asia Summit. But White House aides say the president will also raise human rights concerns in his meeting with [Cambodian Prime Minister/strongman] Hun Sen."

New York Times: "President Hamid Karzai ordered Afghan forces to take control of the Bagram prison and accused American officials of violating an agreement to hand over the facility to Afghan control, according to a statement issued by his office on Monday. The move came after what Mr. Karzai said was the expiration of a two-month grace period agreed with President Obama to complete the full transfer of the prison."

Space: "A Russian Soyuz space capsule made a rare nighttime landing in the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan early Monday, returning three astronauts to Earth after a four-month voyage to the International Space Station."