The Commentariat -- January 29, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden on the decision to raid the Osama bin Laden compound in Pakistan:

Quote of the Day. When they [the Church] have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the Candlestick, etc., and made His Garden a wilderness as it is this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and Paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world, and all that be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the World. -- Roger Williams, 1644, "Mr. Cotton's Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered" ...

... In the comments to yesterday's Commentariat, contributor Fred Drumlevitch links to this New York Times story of Cranston, Rhode Island high school student Jessica Ahlquist who successfully sued to have a prayer removed from her school auditorium. In a state founded on religious tolerance by Roger Williams who was the first in the Americas to write of the principle of separation of chuch & state, Ahlquist's suit engendered hate mail and threats to the point she requires a police escost to school. Read the whole story, and don't skip the last paragraph. When contributors like Carlyle predict doom and gloom, I think of young people like Jessica Ahlquist, Daniel Denvir (who wrote a post I linked yesterday), and Ezra Klein of the Washington Post. And I don't worry. Much. ...

... On the other hand, a friend sent me this yesterday: "Billy Graham was returning to Charlotte after a speaking engagement and when his plane arrived there was a limousine there to transport him to his home. As he prepared to get into the limo, he stopped and spoke to the driver. 'You know' he said, 'I am 87 years old and I have never driven a limousine. Would you mind if I drove it for a while?' The driver said,'No problem. Have at it.' Billy gets into the driver's seat and they head off down the highway. A short distance away sat a rookie state trooper operating his first speed trap. The long black limo went by with him doing 70 in a 55 mph zone. The trooper pulled out and easily caught the limo. He got out of his patrol car to begin the procedure. The young trooper walked up to the driver's door And when the glass was rolled down, he was surprised to see who was driving. He immediately excused himself and went back to his car and called his supervisor. He told the supervisor, 'I know we are supposed to enforce the law. But I also know that important people are given certain courtesies. I need to know what I should do because I have stopped a Very Important Person.' The supervisor asked, 'Is it the governor?' The young trooper said,'No, he's more important than that.' The supervisor said, 'Oh, so it's the President.' The young trooper said, 'No, he's even more important than that.' The supervisor finally asked, 'Well then, who is it?' The young trooper said, 'I think it's Jesus, because he's got Billy Graham for a chauffeur!'"

... Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "Online, and soon in big-box stores, you can buy a device no bigger than a cigarette pack, attach it to a car without the driver’s knowledge and watch the vehicle’s travels — and stops — at home on your laptop. Tens of thousands of Americans are already doing just that, with little oversight, for purposes as seemingly benign as tracking an elderly parent with dementia or a risky teenage driver, or as legally and ethically charged as spying on a spouse or an employee — or for outright criminal stalking.... Sales of GPS trackers to employers and individuals, for a multitude of largely unregulated uses, are growing fast, raising new questions about privacy and a legal system that has not kept pace with technology.”

How You're Making Vulture Capitalists Super-Rich. James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: how private equity firms like Bain Capital screw everybody -- except themselves -- and make millions and billions by stressing companies and playing generous tax loopholes. CW: yeah, they're crooks, but it's all legal. P.S. Thanks, Congress. Thanks to Victoria D. for the link.

Right Wing World

Fake Nice Guys Finish Second. Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times on how the Romney team decided to pull out all the stops against Gingrich, then did it. It's the plan they'll be using in the general election. ...

... AP: "Just how rich is Mitt Romney? Add up the wealth of the last eight presidents, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Then double that number. Now you're in Romney territory. He would be among the richest presidents in American history if elected — probably in the top four." Only George Washington was definitely richer, though Romney is "small potatoes" among today's ultra-rich Americans.

Harold Holzer in the Washington Post: Newt Gingrich wants to debate President Obama Lincoln-Douglas-style, but the Lincoln-Douglas debates were not all that great. The two men behaved badly AND bored their audiences. CW: Frankly, that sounds right up Newt's alley. ...

... Prof. John Pitney, in a Washington Post op-ed piece, predicts Gingrich would not fare too well in a Lincoln-Douglas-type match-up against Obama, though there are pitfalls for Obama, too.

Mike McIntire & Michael Luo of the New York Times profile Sheldon Adelson, the moneybags who is bankrolling Newt.

Local News

CW: Party affiliation doesn't seem to mean much in Pennsylvania. David Catanese of Politico: "The two top finishers in the Pennsylvania Republican Party's U.S. Senate endorsement vote both have deep ties to the Democratic Party." Remember Sen. Arlen Specter, the one-time Democrat, long-time Republican turned Democrat? Maybe this isn't such a bad thing.

Betsy Reason of the Indiapolis Star: die-hard right-to-work opponents plan to take their protest to the Super Bowl. A bill to make Indiana a right-to-work state, which has passed in the Republican state house, is expected to pass easily in the GOP-controlled state senate and will be signed by anti-union activist Gov. Mitch Daniels.

News Ledes

New York Times: New York State "Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, plans to introduce a bill on Monday to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, a 17 percent increase. The bill also calls for the minimum wage to be adjusted each year for inflation. Mr. Silver’s action follows similar steps by lawmakers across the country: Delaware recently passed a minimum wage increase, and raises are being considered in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Jersey."

New York Times: "A march to take over a vacant building by members of the Occupy movement in Oakland, Calif., turned into a violent confrontation with the police on Saturday, leaving three officers injured and about 200 people arrested." San Francisco Chronicle story here. ...

     ... AP: "About 300 people were arrested Saturday during a chaotic day of Occupy protests that saw demonstrators break into City Hall and burn an American flag, as police earlier fired tear gas and bean bags to disperse hundreds of people after some threw rocks and bottles and tore down fencing outside a nearby convention center." ...

     ... Chronicle Update: "Oakland officials and Occupy protesters Sunday confronted the fallout from their continuing conflict, a fight that reignited Saturday with a chaotic, often violent day of demonstrations that resulted in at least 400 arrests. A day after Saturday's clashes, city officials took stock of the damage, which included injuries to three police officers and several protesters, as well as vandalism inside City Hall."

Reuters: "Thousands of Syrian soldiers moved into the suburbs of Damascus that have fallen under rebel control on Sunday, killing five civilians, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of mounting violence."

New York Times: ".Greece once again appears on the verge of reaching a deal with its private sector creditors on how much of a loss they would be willing to accept on their bond holdings."

CNN: "Rick Santorum's three-year-old daughter Isabella, who suffers from a chromosomal condition called Trisomy 18, was admitted to a Philadelphia hospital Saturday. In a statement, Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said the GOP presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania senator would cancel campaign events on Sunday morning."

Reuters: "Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich received the endorsement of former rival Herman Cain on Saturday and vowed to fight until the end no matter what happens in Florida's upcoming primary vote."

The Commentariat -- January 28, 2012

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

Maybe you're sick of the State of the Union address, but Jim Fallows -- a former presidential speechwriter, BTW -- has a terrific edition, with his own smart annotations. Click on the underlined text, and the annotations pop up. Some are pretty funny. ...

... Robert Scheer writes an excellent reality check on President Obama's SOTU address. CW: what he writes is exactly the reason I backed Obama over Hillary Clinton -- I did not want to get Clintonized again. Yet Obama, if he is Bush III on foreign affairs, is Clinton II on domestic policy. ObamaCare is fiscally-conservative HillaryCare, Dodd-Frank & its Volcker Rule is nowhere near Glass-Steagall, & Obama's Simpson-Bowles Commission belt-tightening deficit-reduction is as Clintonesque as it gets -- right down to Bowles, who was Clinton's chief-of-staff. Occupy is far from finished its work. Read Scheer, who hits other topics in the SOTU. I think the only difference between then & now is that WE are smarter this time. We must stay smart. And tough.

Diane Sawyer interviewed President Obama; the interview aired Thursday:

Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "The Commerce Department on Friday issued its quarterly report showing that the economy expanded at a comfortable rate of 2.8 percent during the last quarter of last year.... But the report and other recent economic data suggest a stark divide between the fortunes of businesses and people. Companies are thriving again, but households have come under financial stress.... The employment level is down about 6 million from its peak of about 146 million just before the downturn.... Wage increases have been modest, too.... Though consumers are spending more, they are also saving less, with the personal savings rate dropping for each of the last four quarters.... Moreover, disposable personal income is slightly lower than it was a year before in inflation adjusted dollars."

Here's the text of an e-mail I just got from my friends at Google. See the January 26 Commentariat for related new stories:

We're getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that's a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

March 1, 2012 is when the new Privacy Policy and Terms will come into effect. If you choose to keep using Google once the change occurs, you will be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Reuters: "Apple Inc has never turned 'a blind eye' to the problems in its supply chain and any suggestion it does not care about the plight of workers is 'patently false,' Apple Chief Executive Tim Cooksaid in an email to employees. Cook was responding to a report in The New York Times about working conditions at Apple's main contract manufacturer, Foxconn, in China, an issue that for years has been a thorn in the company's side." CW: Ah, good. None of those damning reports is true. And Cook is really earning his $60 million a year, isn't he?

Matthew Yglesias in Slate: "... Data released this month as part of the [International EnergyAgency]’s ltest World Energy Outlook report ... shows that in 2010 the world spent $409 billion on subsidizing the production and consumption of fossil fuels, dwarfing the word’s $66 billion or so of subsidies for renewable energy. Phasing fossil fuel subsidies out would be sufficient to accomplish about half the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions needed to meet the goal of preventing average world temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius."

David Firestone of the New York Times: in case you've forgotten, because Republicans keep lying to you about them & Newt & Willard keep sliming each other with them, Fannie & Freddie did not cause the financial crisis.

Right Wing World

** Daniel Denvir in Slate: "... the stereotyping of black government dependency ... serves the strategic end of discrediting the entire social safety net, which most Americans of all races depend on. Black people are subtly demonized, but whites and blacks alike will suffer." CW: I thought this was 40-year-old "news," but Denvir puts the history of social safety net programs together to make some very good points. For instance, I never thought of this: "On Social Security, [Rick] Santorum is making what appears to be a safe argument for reform: cutting rich people out of the program. Right now, Social Security belongs to everyone. Cutting rich people out is the first step to making it a program for the poor. Making something a program for the poor — see food stamps, Medicaid and welfare — is the first step toward eliminating it."

Mitt Romney, Candidate of the Great Vampire Squid. Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "No other company is so closely intertwined with [Mitt] Romney’s public and private lives [than is Goldman Sachs --] except Bain itself. And in recent days, Mr. Romney’s ties to Goldman Sachs have lashed another lightning rod to a campaign already fending off withering attacks on his career as a buyout specialist, thrusting the privileges of the Wall Street elite to the forefront of the Republican nominating battle." Goldman has been bankrolling Willard for decades, and now they're his biggest contributors.

Matt Viser of the Boston Globe: "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has long been critical of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, blaming the government-backed housing lenders for inducing the home-mortgage crisis and saying they have become too unwieldy.... Yet Romney has profited from investments that were made in both government entities.... And unlike most of Romney’s financial holdings, which are held in a blind trust that is overseen by a trustee and not known to Romney, this particular investment was among those that would have been known to Romney."

Local News

Campbell Robertson & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A close look at some of the clemency applications of the nearly 200 others who were pardoned [by outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi] reveals that a significant share contained appeals from members of prominent Mississippi families, major Republican donors or others from the higher social strata of Mississippi life." Barbour issued "more than 10 times as many pardons as his four predecessors combined."

News Ledes

New York Times: "NBC News is asking that the Romney campaign remove from its ads any references to material from the network in response to a new commercial that consists almost entirely of old footage of its former news anchor, Tom Brokaw, reporting on Newt Gingrich’s legal troubles.... The Romney campaign said Saturday that it ... was reluctant to take the ad off the air because it believes it falls within the provisions of the fair-use doctrine...." Here's the ad:

Here's the campaign ad which NBC wants the Romney campaign to take down:

Reuters: "The Justice Department issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions as part of a new effort to investigate misconduct in the packaging and sale of home loans to investors, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday. Holder declined to provide specifics, including the names of the firms."

New York Times: New York City "Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Friday that 'The Third Jihad,' a film depicting many American Muslim leaders as extremists, 'should not have been shown' to New York City officers. The film was played on a loop for officers during 2010 in a waiting area outside a counterterrorism training course, Mr. Kelly said. He placed responsibility for the decision to show the film on a sergeant, whom Mr. Kelly did not identify."

Guardian: "The head of the Arab League monitoring mission in Syria has said violence has risen significantly in the country in recent days, as the UN prepares to debate a resolution on the crisis next week. The flashpoint city of Homs has again been the focal point of clashes, which are thought to have killed at least 100 people since Wednesday. Activists in the besieged city reported a massacre had taken place at the hands of regime forces on Thursday."

Guardian: "Four current and former employees of the Sun newspaper and one serving police officer have been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into police corruption. The Metropolitan police have also launched a search at News International's headquarters in Wapping in a bid to secure any potential evidence relating to suspected payments to police by journalists."

Reuters: "Greece and its private creditors head back to the negotiating table on Saturday to put together the final pieces of a long-awaited debt swap agreement needed to avert an unruly default."

David Brooks' One Percent Solution

Because of some unavoidable delays in posting at the New York Times eXaminer over the next several days, I've posted my column for today's NYTX here. I'll probably take this down after the column goes up at NYTX. I'll transfer any comments over; I'll give the commenters credit, naturally, but the comments willl have to go above my name.

New York Times columnist David Brooks is disappointed: President Obama did not devote his State of the Union address to a “grand plan” to dispense with the old, the sick and the poor once and for all.

Brooks begins today's column pining for the good ole days when it appeared the deficit hawks on the Simpson-Bowles Commission would prevail upon the Congress and the President to slash the deficit by cutting spending on what the right characterizes as “entitlement programs.” As Robert Greenstein and James Horney of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities wrote, “Budget cuts account for 69 percent of the savings” in Simpson-Bowles' most recent proposal. Those cuts come largely, though not entirely, from “non-security discretionary spending”; that is, from social safety net programs. Worse,

The plan also relies on reductions in scheduled Social Security benefits for most of the changes it proposes to ensure the program’s long-term solvency. Those benefit cuts outweigh the proposed revenue increases by 2 to 1 over 75 years — and by 4 to 1 in the 75^th year. This does not represent a balanced approach to Social Security reform.

Using the most conciliatory language possible, Greenstein and Horney write that Simpson-Bowles “raises question as to whether the funding for this part of the budget would be adequate to meet critical national needs in the decade ahead.”

Brooks also longs for the “big ideas” proposed by the fiscally-conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a foundation funded by the multi-billionaire hedge-fund operator Pete Peterson. The foundation is devoted to scaring Americans about the “gargantuan” national debt and pressing the need to end Social Security and other social safety net programs, the better to protect the wealthy – like Peterson. “Peterson money is everywhere,” Eric Kingson, co-director of Social Security Works told Benjamin Sarlin of the Daily Beast. “They've managed to insinuate themselves as centrists when what we have in my mind is a really far-out anti-government conservative perspective.” Sarlin documents how Peterson influenced the Simpson-Bowles Commission and how he has used his money to insinuate his views into media coverage of the budget deficit. Economist Dean Baker asked, “Do you have to work for Pete Peterson to be cited on budget issues in the Washington Post?” The question is rhetorical. Post coverage, as Baker documents, suggests that the answer is “yes.”

Brooks complains that in President Obama's speech, “There was nothing big, like tax reform or entitlement reform,” He credits Republicans, by contrast, for speaking “with epic alarm about the nation’s problems. They are unified behind big tax and welfare state reforms that would purge Washington and shake things up.” Yes, they are. Never mind that the drumbeat of this epic alarm and the militant, anti-government unity of the GOP are what have forced the nation into the sorry state it is today. The Occupy Wall Street movement fingers Wall Street, of course, but bought-and-paid-for politicians are responsible for allowing Wall Street and other big corporate interests to tank the economy and turn the American dream into an impossible dream for ordinary Americans.

Brooks further complains that President Obama's SOTU speech contained “a series of modest proposals that poll well.” It's an election year, Mr. Brooks. In election years, first-term Presidents do not use their major speeches to promote policies that voters abhor. The U.S. Constitution requires that presidents “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Although not Constitutionally required to speak on the state of the union annually, all modern presidents have done so. Therefore, “necessary and expedient measures” would be those measures that the president could reasonably expect the Congress to enact in the course of the coming year. In any presidential election year, with any Congress, even one of the president's own party, it is only reasonable to expect the Congress to adopt “modest proposals” – ones that would carry the nation through to the next presidency and next Congress. When the House of Representatives is controlled by the extraordinary do-nothing, Republican Tea Party, as it is today, the President would be a blithering fool if he asked such a Congress to adopt the “sweeping proposals” that are indeed necessary to return the federal government to the sound fiscal policies of the post-World War II boom years. The Congress is not going to act on such proposals.

In general, modern first-term presidents have used their election-year State of the Union addresses to set the themes of their campaigns for a second term. Franklin Roosevelt used his 1936 SOTU speech “to attack critics of the New Deal.” The theme of Ronald Reagan's 1984 speech was “There is renewed energy and optimism throughout the land.” Bill Clinton used his 1996 address to announce that “the era of big government is over.”

Brooks concedes that President Obama also had “some big themes in the speech.” Brooks doesn't mention the big themes because President Obama's overarching views do not sit well with David Brooks. As Helen Cooper of the New York Times wrote in her report on the President's address, Obama called for “an economy 'built to last,'” a phrase that comes “from the auto industry he helped save.” The President, Cooper wrote, “sketched out, albeit vaguely, what he called a blueprint for economic growth in which the wealthy play by the same rules as ordinary Americans.” David Brooks does not want the wealthy to have to play by the same rules the rest of us do. He prefers, instead, the Simpson-Bowles-Peterson prescriptions to slash spending at the expense of the needy and maintain relatively low contributions from the wealthy and super-wealthy. Economic fairness, where “everybody gets a fair shot” – one of President Obama's “big themes” – is anathema to a Brooksian worldview.

President Obama's other “big themes” were national unity and “reclaiming the American values” that led to the post-World War II boom. As I outlined in a previous column titled “A History Lesson for David Brooks,” these are precisely the values – and government policies – that the conservative movement, of which Brooks is a part, has for decades fought tooth-and-nail and by every means possible to dismantle. President Obama used his bully pulpit to try to bully an obstreperous, calcified Congress into taking a few small steps for humankind toward a massive course change that will eventually undo the disastrous, decades-in-the-making policies that have moved us away from the “American promise” the President hopes to restore. David Brooks says he longs for “transformational..., ground-shifting” policies. So does President Obama. But Brooks wants the “transformation” to put the final nail in the coffin of fairness and equal opportunity for success.

Thanks largely to the influence of Occupy Wall Street, President Obama at long last wants the nation to shift again toward a set of policies that foster an environment in which “everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.” As President Obama said in his State of the Union address, “The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive.” It is an epic clash that pits President Obama against David Brooks and his ilk. It is Obama and Occupy vs. One Percenters like Pete Peterson who use their vast resources to set all the rules in their own favor. It is fundamental fairness vs. greed.

Is an epic clash big enough for you, Mr. Brooks?