Constant Comments
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
The Commentariat -- December 4
Maureen Dowd writes a pretty good column on the history of Newt Gingrich's writings & remarks on matters racial. My column on Dowd's is up now at the New York Times eXaminer. The eXaminer front page is here. ...
... Also in NYTX, see Alex Kane's interview of Adbusters Editor Kalle Lasn; he talks about New York Times writers smearing Occupy & Adbusters as anti-Semitic (and one of those NYT writers was Our Mister Brooks, a tidbit I noted in an earlier NYTX column), then refusing to print Lasn's rebuttal.
** Max Blumenthal in the Exiled Online: "Israeli occupation forces ... trained U.S. police for a coordinated crackdown on 'Occupy' protests.... The Israelification of America’s security apparatus, recently unleashed in full force against the Occupy Wall Street Movement, has taken place at every level of law enforcement, and in areas that have yet to be exposed.... The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) is at the heart of American-Israeli law enforcement collaboration.... Through its Law Enforcement Education Program (LEEP), JINSA claims to have arranged Israeli-led training sessions for over 9000 American law enforcement officials at the federal, state and municipal level.... Some of the police chiefs who have taken part in JINSA’s LEEP program have done so under the auspices of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).... PERF gained notoriety when [its director Chuck] Wexler confirmed that his group coordinated police raids in 16 cities across America against 'Occupy' protest encampments. As many as 40 cities have sought PERF advice on suppressing the 'Occupy' movement.... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has positioned itself as an important liaison between American police forces and the Israeli security-intelligence apparatus." Read the whole article, which Kate M. called to my attention. ...
... See also this Democracy Now! "discussion on policing and the Occupy Wall Street movement with Chuck Wexler, director of [PERF] ... and with Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle." Video & transcript...." ...
... Norm Stamper in The Nation: "US police forces have become increasingly militarized, and it’s showing in cities everywhere.... The paramilitary bureaucracy and the culture it engenders — a black-and-white world in which police unions serve above all to protect the brotherhood — is worse today than it was in the 1990s. Such agencies inevitably view protesters as the enemy. And young people, poor people and people of color will forever experience the institution as an abusive, militaristic force—not just during demonstrations but every day, in neighborhoods across the country." ...
... To your left: what the well-dressed, militarized riot policeman will be wearing when s/he confronts you.
For you masquerade fans, the New York Times depicts more Riot Cop Fashion Design through the Years here. Or what not to wear when attempting to impersonate an officer. It's so outre.
A brief overview by Chi Birmingham & Alex Vitale is here. Even the writers' names sound like those of fashion designers.
Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times (Dec. 1): "Citing extensive abuses of troubled borrowers across Massachusetts, the state’s attorney general sued the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders on Thursday, seeking relief for consumers hurt by what she called unfair and deceptive business practices. In addition to creating a new and significant legal headache for the banks named in the suit — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and GMAC Mortgage — the Massachusetts action diminishes the likelihood of a comprehensive settlement between the banks and federal and state officials to resolve foreclosure improprieties." ...
... Justin Elliott of Salon: "Coakley’s suit comes just as Occupy Wall Street organizers are planning a campaign focusing on the foreclosure crisis that will likely feature eviction defenses, protests at banks and the like. The Occupy Our Homes project is launching on Tuesday."
Neela Banerjee of the Los Angeles Times: "Environmentalists and other nations say U.S. policy changes raise questions about whether it is committed to substantially cutting emissions and aiding developing nations in their efforts to do so."
Nick Miroff & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Arrests of illegal migrants trying to cross the southern U.S. border have plummeted to levels not seen since the early 1970s, according to tallies released by the Department of Homeland Security last week, a historic shift that could reshape the debate over immigration reform.... Experts say ... it appears that the historic flood of Mexican migration north has slowed dramatically."
Dafna Linzer & Jennifer LaFleur in the Washington Post: "White criminals seeking presidential pardons over the past decade have been nearly four times as likely to succeed as minorities, a ProPublica examination has found."
Perpectual War, Con'd. Glenn Greenwald: "Given the theories used to justify Bush/Cheney powers — ones that were just repeated almost verbatim by Obama lawyers when asked about the Awlaki assassination — how can anyone coherently have objected to the Bush/Cheney Guantanamo detention system but support Obama’s assassination powers now?"
... The underlying AP story by Matt Apuzzo: "U.S. citizens are legitimate military targets when they take up arms with al-Qaida, top national security lawyers in the Obama administration said Thursday. The lawyers were asked at a national security conference about the CIA killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and leading al-Qaida figure. He died in a Sept. 30 U.S. drone strike in the mountains of Yemen. The government lawyers, CIA counsel Stephen Preston and Pentagon counsel Jeh Johnson, did not directly address the al-Awlaki case. But they said U.S. citizens do not have immunity when they are at war with the United States."
The Little King & His Enforcer. Alex Pareene of Salon: "The mayor of New York and his police commissioner reveal just how comfortable they are with autocracy."
Glenn Thrush of Politico: Newt Gingrich joins Team Obama in attacking Mitt Romney.
Right Wing World
Justin Elliott takes a look back at Newt's "impressive record not only of flip-flops, but also of policy positions that are profoundly unorthodox, some would say outlandish."
Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: Mitt Romney "says he learned about expanding employment during his time heading a private equity firm. But under his leadership, Bain Capital often maximized profits in part by firing workers."
Steve Benen takes a fond look back at his favorite Herman Cain moments. CW: They're pretty funny, until you remember a whole buncha people said they were going to vote for this guy for president.
News Ledes
ashington Post: "The Occupy D.C. campaign, largely peaceful since its launch two months ago, turned confrontational Sunday when police detained about two dozen protesters during a tense day-long standoff in McPherson Square. It marked the first-ever arrests at the group’s base camp in Washington, and it resembled clashes between police and Occupy protesters in other cities across the country."
New York Times: "Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery."
New York Times: "Telling Italians that the fate of their country and the euro was at stake, Prime Minister Mario Monti unveiled a radical and ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases on Sunday, including deeply unpopular moves like raising the country’s retirement age."
New York Times: "The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, is expected to offer a new plan on Monday for extending the payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits that otherwise would expire this month, a fellow Democratic senator said on Sunday."
Reuters: "Russian voters dealt Vladimir Putin's ruling party a heavy blow on Sunday by cutting its parliamentary majority in an election that showed growing unease with his domination of the country as he prepares to reclaim the presidency. Incomplete results showed Putin's United Russia was struggling even to win 50 percent of the votes, compared with more than 64 percent four years ago. Opposition parties said even that outcome had been inflated by fraud." New York Times story here.
AP: "Europe's government-debt crisis, which has dragged on for more than two years, is entering a pivotal week, as leaders across the continent converge to prevent a collapse of the euro and a global financial panic that could result.Expectations are rising that Friday's summit of leaders of the 27 countries in the European Union will yield a breakthrough."
AP: "Iran's armed forces have shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along the country's eastern border, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday. An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country's airspace by American drone aircraft."
AP: "President Barack Obama has told Pakistan's president [Asif Ali Zardari] that the NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers were not deliberate attacks and that the U.S. is committed to a full investigation." New York Times story here. ...
... Reuters: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday, again offering U.S. condolences over the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in NATO air strikes last week, the State Department said in a statement."
AP: "Facing bankruptcy, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with unprecedented cuts to first-class mail next spring that will slow delivery and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day. The estimated $3 billion in reductions, to be announced in broader detail on Monday, are part of a wide-ranging effort by the cash-strapped Postal Service to quickly trim costs, seeing no immediate help from Congress."
New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates were competing on Sunday, openly or more subtly, for the backing of former supporters of Herman Cain, a day after he suspended his presidential campaign with the defiant vow that, accusations of sexual misconduct aside, he 'would not go away.'”
The Commentariat -- December 3
My New York Times eXaminer column is on the New York Times' new comments format. I heartily suggest you read all the way to the end. Or at least read the end. No, sing the end. The NYTX front page is here. ...
... A related item by Eva Galperin & Jillian York on online anonymity is here. The item includes a rebuttal to a New York Times letter to the editor from Christopher Wolf, head of the Internet Task Force of the Anti-Defamation League, in which he wrote: "It is time to consider Facebook’s real-name policy as an Internet norm because online identification demonstrably leads to accountability and promotes civility." Be sure to read the published rebuttals to Wolf's letter, which appear on the same page.
President Obama's Weekly Address. The transcript is here:
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Deep rifts among House Republicans became evident on Friday as rank-and-file members of the caucus told their leaders that they did not want to extend the cut in Social Security payroll taxes for another year, as demanded by President Obama. Speaker John A. Boehner has told Republicans they would run political risks and could be accused of allowing a tax increase if they block the continuation of payroll tax relief." ...
... Greg Sargent: a senior Democratic aide says there will definitely be another vote next week.
Mike Gudgell of ABC News takes you inside Camp Victory, Iraq, as the last US soldier leaves the base. "... it’s a real challenge to share the stunning significance of the end of Camp Victory."
CW: I've found that you can't always trust the fact-checkers. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post is particularly bad on economics. And here's PolitiFact, nominating as its "Lie of the Year a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ad which claims, "Seniors will have to find $12,500 for health care because Republicans voted to end Medicare." ...
... The problem with the PolitiFact analysis is that the DCCC claim is true. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: Paul "Ryan’s plan ends traditional fee-for-service program and forces seniors to ultimately enroll in private coverage." I've written to PolitiFact & asked them to change their designation. In the past when I've challenged them, they have responded. We'll see what happens this time.
Jo Becker of the New York Times: "The former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, in his first extended interview since his indictment on sexual abuse charges last month, said Coach Joe Paterno never spoke to him about any suspected misconduct with minors. Mr. Sandusky also said the charity he worked for never restricted his access to children until he became the subject of a criminal investigation in 2008." CW: With video I won't be watching. ...
... Joe Nocera on the Penn State & Syracuse sexual abuse scandals and how the universities handled them: "If a university — and its community — can’t treat players and coaches the same way everyone else is treated, then what is it really teaching? Surely, the lessons it is imparting are the wrong ones."
Greg Sargent: "Wall Street executives have been quite open about the fact that they really, really don’t want to see Elizabeth Warren get anywhere near the Senate. And it looks like they’re about to ratchet up their efforts to help Scott Brown prevent it from happening — including the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce."
Right Wing World
"The Anti-Science Party." Coral Davenport of the National Journal: "Over the past year, GOP politicians have increasingly questioned or flatly denied the established science of climate change. As the presidential primaries heat up, the leading candidates have either denied the verdict of climate scientists or recanted their former views supporting climate policy.... Challenging climate science has become, in some circles, as much of a conservative litmus test as opposing taxes.... In fact, recent reports from the National Academy of Sciences show that the data and consensus on the principles of climate change are stronger than ever.... Here’s what has changed for Republican politicians: The rise of the tea party, its influence in the Republican Party, its crusade against government regulations, and the influx into electoral politics of vast sums of money from energy companies and sympathetic interest groups."
In this week's New York Times Magazine, Robert Draper profiles Mitt Romney. CW: I know I should read this. ...
Mainstream Racism
Steve Benen with more on the bogus story that President Obama is "walking away from the white working class": "I wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if racial politics played a significant part in the right’s misleading rhetoric on this. Conservatives very likely see it as in their interests to convince the white working-class that the president is “abandoning” them while appealing to minority voters and better-educated whites. Indeed, the racial subtext of Fox News’ presentation on this wasn’t exactly subtle":
Screengrab from Fox Nation. Oh, look, there's President Obama at a basketball game with all his blackety-black Affirmative Action friends, waving buh-bye to the last hard-working white person he'll ever acknowledge. Via Dave Weigel. ...
... Ben Adler of The Nation has a good overview of the proliferation of the Republicans' cynical appeal to white racial resentment. CW: it appears to me that many Republican politicians & operatives truly do not believe that any non-whites are "working class." To wit: the Newt:
... Heather of Crooks & Liars: "What's amazing is that we're supposed to believe that Gingrich actually thinks it's going to help him win the GOP primary to do something like this and go about one inch shy of just outright calling black people lazy niggers, which is what he did here. This wasn't a dog whistle. It was a siren." ...
... Charles Blow produces the statistics to debunk another of Newt's big lies. Sorry, Newt, poor kids do know what "work" means, and no, they don't think it's running drugs and shoplifting. ...
... ** Speaking of Affirmative Action, Wayne Barrett, writing in the Daily Beast, follows Herman Cain's wholly-Affirmative-abetted career. (Cain staunchly opposes AA.) CW: I know you don't care about Cain, who by the time you read this, may have dropped out of the race to spend more time with his family, but read this essay for the quality of the writing & the legwork that went into researching the story. Barrett, a long-time star of the Village Voice, has lost none of his edge. ...
... Jim Newell of Gawker on "how to blame your failed political campaign on your wife." Republican political wives are always ruining their husbands' careers.
Maggie Haberman & Alexander Burns of Politico: "Bad Newt’s coming back. The all-too-familiar character from the 1990s has only peeked out in public a handful of times so far. But already, Newt Gingrich – flush with pride over new polls showing his left-for-dead candidacy now leading the pack – is letting his healthy ego roam free again, littering the campaign trail with grand pronouncements about his celebrity, his significance in political history and his ability to transform America." With plenty of hilarious examples.
"Trump? The Republican Primary Is Now Officially a Gong Show." Joe Conason: "Marketing genius is perhaps the most appropriate way to describe Donald J. Trump's newest incarnation as the announced host -- he can hardly be called a 'moderator' -- of a post-Christmas Republican debate sponsored by Newsmax, the conservative magazine." Jon Huntsman, Jr., has the invitation to participate.
News Ledes
New York Times: GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain was scheduled to make "an announcement" at 11 am ET but has postponed it until an unspecified time this afternoon. ...
... Update: So I just ran a live video of a speech by Cain, who said he was "suspending" his campaign. And quite a bit of other stuff. God was mentioned. And we the people. And his wife. And then more stuff. Here's the CBS News story.
New York Times: "Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke sternly on Friday to America’s closest ally in the Middle East, telling Israel that it is partly responsible for its increasing isolation and that it now must take 'bold action' — diplomatic, not military — to mend ties with its Arab neighbors and settle previously intractable territorial disputes with the Palestinians."
Reuters: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu "has cancelled government-sponsored television advertisements calling on expatriates to return, after some American Jews complained that the message denigrated their lifestyles. The spots, aired on Israeli channels that are often viewed by emigrants, featured dramatized scenes of Jewish assimilation in gentile settings. In one, an Israeli couple looks dismayed to hear their grandchild mention celebrating Christmas abroad." Haaretz story here. The Haaretz story has embedded videos, but the first one -- which I guess is the Christmas one -- "has been removed by the user."
AP: "Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was being treated at a hospital in South Dakota after falling and hitting his head on the pavement outside a library bearing his name.
The Commentariat -- December 2
My New York Times eXaminer column on David Brooks' paean to the superiority of the German culture is here. (Either Brooks is getting sicker & sicker, or I'm just reading more closely.) The NYTX front page is here.
The Lighting of the National Christmas Tree (Thursday evening):
... AND on that happy note: "The Senate Wants the Military to Lock You up without a Trial." Spencer Ackerman of Wired: The Senate has included an amendment in the defense spending bill, which allows "the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without a trial.... The detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners."
... Update. Jeremy Herb of The Hill: "The Senate passed a $662 billion Defense bill Thursday evening after a long fight over how the U.S. military detains terror suspects. The bill passed overwhelmingly 93-7, following an agreement reached late Thursday afternoon to add compromise language on the detention of U.S. citizens and terror suspects on U.S. soil.... It is not clear whether the change will satisfy the White House, which has threatened to veto the Defense bill over the detainee provisions. The Obama administration expressed its opposition to the use of military detention within the United States, but also had concerns over the legislation tying the hands of federal law enforcement by mandating military custody and prosecution of al Qaeda members. The administration also opposes restrictions on transferring Guantanamo detainees."
Paul Krugman on how the Very Serious Europeans are killing the euro.
Karen Garcia on the two-tiered world of New York Times commenters and Obama supporters. CW: I'll probably have something on the Times' "trusted commenters" in tomorrow New York Times eXaminer. I just felt obligated to let Brooks have it today (see above).
Brian Stelter of the New York Times: "Whatever the long-term effects of the Occupy movement, protesters have succeeded in implanting 'We are the 99 percent,' referring to the vast majority of Americans (and its implied opposite, 'You are the one percent' referring to the tiny proportion of Americans with a vastly disproportionate share of wealth), into the cultural and political lexicon." ...
... Occupy the Office. Print story here, with additional audio:
Jonathan Chait of New York magazine explains the arithmetically different ways a presidential campaign treats the Electoral College and a specific demographic, because -- here's a surprise -- the right wing, including the Wall Street Journal editorial page, is making up stuff. So, no, no matter what you hear in Right Wing World, Obama is not abandoning white working class Americans. CW: Maybe Chait could also start vetting David Brooks' columns & save him some embarrassment.
Greg Sargent: "The [Karl] Rove-founded group Crossroads GPS has run ads falsely insuinating that [Elizabeth] Warren backs the violence of protesters, and national Republicans have called on her to repudiate the protests.... A new poll just out from the University of Massachusetts suggests this conservative line of attack has yet to bear fruit. The poll finds that Warren has edged ahead of Scott Brown among registered Massachusetts voters, 43-39, though that’s within the margin of error. What’s more interesting is what the internals tell us about whether each side’s message is resonating."
Right Wing World
The public ... still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem. -- Pollster Frank Luntz, advising GOP governors on how to "message" Occupy ...
... More on Luntz's words of wisdom from Greg Sargent. ...
... AND more yet from Seth Michaels of Working America: "Remember, when you hear talking points like those touted by Luntz, what you’re really hearing is anxiety and desperation. It’s the anxiety and desperation of the 1 percent and their political allies, who know that a message about economic fairness resonates with voters and threatens their control over our politics and our economy. Take these talking points for what they are—calculated falsehoods, and a cheap, transparent attempt to use real economic worries to support the same old 1% agenda."
"Mister One Percent." MoveOn.org is running this ad in Iowa;
Charles Pierce of Esquire assesses Willard & Newt: Willard "come[s] across like Eddie Haskell with a hedge fund. Newt's reversals come within the overall currents of his apparently depthless self-regard."
News Ledes
Presidents Obama & Clinton announces a $4 billion investment in energy efficiency upgrades for commercial buildings:
ABC News: "With his chances for winning the GOP nomination sliding by the day, Herman Cain’s team today launched a 'Women for Cain' campaign, chaired by his wife Gloria, in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to salvage his candidacy. The embattled candidate said this afternoon that he’s going to make an announcement Saturday to 'clarify' what his next steps are."
AFP: "Facebook said Friday that it plans to hire thousands of employees over the next year and add an engineering team to its office in New York."
New York Times: "Chancellor Angela Merkel [of Germany] on Friday called for swift action to amend European treaties to address the underlying causes of the debt crisis that has shaken Europe and jeopardized the future of the common currency."
Politico: "Tired of waiting, the House Agriculture Committee moved Friday to subpoena former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine to testify regarding the collapse of MF Global and the loss of customer funds belonging to farmers who relied on the futures broker.... Hours later, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, announced she would also seek a vote in her panel next week to compel her former colleague to appear."
New York Times: "House investigators examining the 2008 push by Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. to take the Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama found 'probable cause' that Mr. Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, directed one of his supporters to raise money for Rod Blagojevich, who was then the Illinois governor, in exchange for the appointment to the Senate, a detailed investigative report released Friday shows." The report (pdf) is here.
AP: "U.S. officials gave Pakistan soldiers the wrong location when asking for clearance to attack militants along the border last weekend, Pakistani military officials said Friday. The strike resulted in the deaths of 24 soldiers and a major crisis in relations between Washington and Islamabad."
ABC News: "The morning after the Senate defeated Democratic and Republican plans to extend the payroll tax cut, President Obama issued a Grinch-like threat to Congress to pass a payroll tax cut before the holiday recess or 'we can all spend Christmas here together.'” See also Saturday's Commentariat.
The Hill: "Unemployment dropped to 8.6 percent in November, its lowest level in nearly three years.The steep drop — the jobless rate was 9 percent a month ago — is good news for Democrats and President Obama, who is counting on a recovering economy to help him win a second term." New York Times story here.
Washington Post: "The Senate late Thursday rejected competing partisan visions for extending a temporary tax break that benefits virtually every American worker, clearing the way for more serious negotiations over how to cover the cost of the tax cut. All but a handful of Democrats voted in favor of their party’s proposal, but in a surprising turn, more Republicans voted against the GOP plan than in favor of it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted this week that a majority of his conference would vote for the party’s plan to extend the payroll tax cut."