The Commentariat -- December 1

CW: The New York Times has rolled out its full "Trusted Commenter" program. For info on the program, here's the Times' help page, and here's a note from Jill Abramson, the Times' executive editor on the program. Abtramson's note is open for comments on the new program, and they are snarky! If you've commented since the full system went up, please share your experience on today's Off Times Square, whether you're "trusted" or "mistrusted."

It's getting to be retrospective time, so here's a funny one: GQ's depiction of the least influential moment of the year. The who's who is here:

The Debt Ceiling. GQ. Art by Victor Juhasz.

** Eliot Spitzer in Slate: while telling the public, the market, their own shareholders & the Congress that they were solvent & didn't need TARP money, the big banks borrowed $7.7 "— one-half of the GDP of the entire nation.... This was perhaps the single most massive allocation of capital from public to private hands in our history, and nobody was told.... So where are the inquiries into the false statements made by the bank CEOs?... In addition to the secrecy, what is appalling is that these loans were made with no strings attached, no conditions, and no negotiation to achieve any broader public purpose." The banks made about $13 billion in profits on these near-zero-interest loans. Spitzer suggests some appropriate paybacks to the public. ...

... Judy Woodruff of PBS "News Hour" interviews Bob Ivry, one of the Bloomberg News reporters who broke the story of our $7.7-billion gift to Wall Street. Thanks to Haley S. for the link to the video & to the Spitzer post:

... Dean Baker: "The [Washington?] Post ran an article ... with the headline: 'big banks got $13 billion in undisclosed Fed loans.' ... This $13 billion was effectively a gift from the taxpayers to J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and other large banks. It was not a loan as the Post headline implies." ...

... Nicholas Kristof gets a Florida mortgage banker on the record -- and it's one disgusting record.

Dean Baker in TruthOut: "The deficit is the agenda of the One Percent." A very interesting essay, with a clever idea that would help reduce healthcare costs, and it's so-o-o free market-y!

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Responding to a plan by Senate Democrats to pay for [a one-year extension of the] payroll tax holiday by enacting a surtax on wealthy individuals, Republicans outlined a counter-proposal that would extend the current two-year pay freeze for federal workers by an extra year, trim the federal workforce by 10 percent and means test programs such as Medicare and unemployment insurance so that benefits are reduced for higher earners." ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones on why Republican obstructionism on policy matters like the payroll tax holiday work: "When it comes to domestic policy, there's virtually nothing the president can do without congressional approval. The American public, however, rather famously seems not to understand this, and Republicans know it perfectly well."

"We Regret Those Deaths." Glenn Greenwald in the New York Times eXaminer on the New York Times Editors' jingoistic tilt in the way they refer to U.S. & NATO deaths, on the one hand, and Afghan & Pakistani deaths on the other.

Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Environmental groups and elected officials have warned Barack Obama that America was emerging as the spoiler of the UN climate summit in Durban, unless there is a big shift in its negotiating stance. In two separate, but strongly worded rebukes, Obama heard from some of his closest allies that his administration was not living up to his election promises on climate action."

Mitt, et al., to Public: MYOB. Stephen Braun of the AP: "Romney's selective policy toward public access and preservation of his executive records raises stark questions about how transparent his administration would be if he were to become president.... Other leading candidates for the presidency — incumbent Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Rick Perry — have touted their commitment to transparency, but their administrations also have been selective at times in the records they disclose. They have limited, stalled or denied access when it suited their purposes."

Right Wing World

The latest in the GOP presidential race from NBC News:

Martin Bashir of MSNBC hosts a fairly good segment on Cain, et al.:

Brian McGrory, former Romney fan, of the Boston Globe: "Mitt Romney has yet again relinquished his role as the adult in this race, the serious-minded reformer who soars above the fray to tell it like it is. Romney, yet again, is just another politician willing to sacrifice what’s left of his integrity for a vote."

... What a Difference a Presidential Campaign Makes. There are a lot of people who say, ‘you know Governor, I don’t like this idea that people are going to be required to buy insurance. This is America. They should be free.’ Well, they are going to get free health care if they don’t buy insurance. I don’t think it is appropriate to say individuals have a choice of saying I don’t want to buy insurance even though I can afford it and I want to make somebody else pay for it. That’s not American. -- Mitt Romney, 2006

Mike McIntire & Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: for a guy who insists he wasn't a lobbyist, Newt Gingrich sure did a lot of the same things a lobbyist does -- and he made millions doing it. ...

     ... Citizen Gingrich. Jim Rutenberg: "Newt Gingrich said on Wednesday night that his advocacy with state and federal legislators for policies that would help his paying clients was in keeping with his role as a citizen, and was not evidence that he ever acted as a lobbyist." CW: The fact that corporations paid me millions to do my civic duty is simply evidence that corporations are people, too, and they are committed to making sure all Americans participate in this great democracy of ours.

... The Ron Paul campaign hits Newt Gingrich's hypocrisy:

     ... Ben Smith: "Ron Paul's gleefully vicious video attacking Newt Gingrich ... is rooted in a fifteen-year old relationship in which Paul has been, characteristically, typecast as the purist against the compromising Gingrich." CW: I wonder if well-paid historian Newt remembers why Paul doesn't like him.

Herman Cain explains international relations. This is not a spoof. It's from his actual Website:

Ben Smith sez the Cain map reminds him of this one:

News Ledes

President Obama on World AIDS Day:

Bloomberg News: "More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits during the holiday- shortened week, signaling limited recovery in the labor market. Jobless claims climbed by 6,000 to 402,000 in the week ended Nov. 26 that included the Thanksgiving holiday."

New York Times: "Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, hinted Thursday that the bank might be willing to step up its support for the European economy if political leaders take decisive steps to prevent future debt crises. Mr. Draghi stopped well short of offering a European version of the massive securities purchases that the Federal Reserve has used to try to stimulate the U.S. economy."

New York Times: "Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt’s first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the most significant step yet in the religious movement’s rise since the start of the Arab Spring."

AP: "President Barack Obama is renewing the U.S. commitment to ending HIV and AIDS on Thursday, setting goals for getting more people access to life-saving AIDS drugs and boosting spending on treatment of the virus in the U.S. by $50 million dollars. Senior Obama administration officials said the president will set a goal of getting antiretroviral drugs to 2 million more people around the world by the end of 2013. In addition, the U.S. will aim to get the drugs to 1.5 million HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent them from passing the virus to their children."

Not Officially Sorry. New York Times: "The White House has decided that President Obama will not offer formal condolences — at least for now — to Pakistan for the deaths of two dozen soldiers in NATO airstrikes last week, overruling State Department officials who argued for such a show of remorse to help salvage America’s relationship with Pakistan, administration officials said."

New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on Thursday that the United States would loosen some restrictions on international financial assistance and development programs in Myanmar in response to the country’s nascent political and economic reforms." ...

... AP: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is meeting with opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee) on a historic visit to Myanmar."

AP: "Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday thanked U.S. and Iraqi troops for sacrifices that he said allowed for the end of the nearly nine-year-long war, even as attacks around the country killed 20 people, underscoring the security challenges Iraq still faces."

The Commentariat -- November 30

In my column in today's New York Times eXaminer, I have an "exchange" with former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller about his view of the paper. The NYTX front page is here.

CW: Mostly because it annoyed me, I didn't link Jonathan Chait's long New York magazine article wherein he examines the sorry history of "liberal disappointment" in Democratic presidents. It is worth reading if you have a grain of salt handy. ...

... BUT even if you don't read Chait, do read Katrina vanden Heuvel's rebuttal in the Washington Post: "The biggest liberal groups in the country lined up to help pass [President Obama's] agenda. They stayed loyal even as his aides cut deals they found deplorable.... He faced unified Republican obstruction, not liberal opposition. Powerful corporate lobbies were able to purchase sufficient conservative Democrats ... to dilute, delay and sometimes defeat reform. Progressives in Congress criticized the limitations, but produced votes when it was time to get something passed.... If anything, Obama was hurt because progressives were too loyal rather than that they were too critical."

David Dayen of Firedoglake: The Office of Comptroller of the Currency, which is mostly useless, has found that ten major lending institutions have unlawfully foreclosed on as many as 5,000 active-duty service members, in violation "of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, in particular the restriction on foreclosing on active duty military while they are overseas. The scandal has led to an extreme degree of restitution from the banks, which have been camo-washing their reputations by providing settlements of up to $117,000 per wrongful foreclosure.... Violations of the SCRA carry with it potential sentences of up to a year in prison."

CW: Don't kid yourself that Congressional Republicans (and no doubt some bank-financed Democrats) are whacking just the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because Elizabeth Warren is so mean or something. They are working overtime (or, rather, having their staffs work overtime) to dismantle the entire financial regulatory framework, such as it is (and it's already a revolving-door joke with the "regulators" making nice to the "regulated" who will soon employ said regulators at 10 times their current salaries. Public service, my ass). See, fer instance, Charles Pierce's remarks on funding cuts for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which is tasked under Dodd-Frank with regulating derivatives trading. (The Politico backstory is here.)

Greg Sargent shows how the payroll tax cut, proposed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats would benefit 113 million Americans, but Republicans are caterwauling that paying for it with a surtax on the super-rich "amounts to a job-killing tax hike on small businesses." Not only is that not true, the tax itself would in no way be a hardship on the 345,000 rich people who would pay an additional 3.25 percent, only on that part of their income that was over $1MM. ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "The anti-tax crowd is boxed in.... Are Republicans going to deny the average working family a $1,500 tax break in order to spare millionaires a modest increase? That $1,500 or so, multiplied by every paycheck in America, would have a huge effect on economic growth next year, widely estimated as between 1.5 and 2 percentage points. The tax increase would affect only a tiny fraction of small businesses with employees, despite the endless Republican claims that it would stifle job creation." ...

... Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: "The GOP has, time and again, blocked any legislation that would increase taxes by the slightest amount on the ultra-wealthy, even with tax revenue at a 60 year low, taxes on the rich the lowest they’ve been in a generation, and income inequality out of control.

Right Wing World

Maureen Dowd is back on her game today, for the first time in a long time, with an "Essence of the Newt" piece. She doesn't cover any new ground (though her borrowing from Barney Frank's news conference yesterday is good), but she nicely puts together a string of outrageious hypocrisies that defines the leading GOP contender du jour.

Charles Pierce of Esquire: "Herb Cain, could have the slimmest chance of being elected president of the United States is a better measure of the depth of this country's problems than the Consumer Price Index is."

After running a now-notorious ad which cut a remark by Barack Obama so as to completely change the meaning of what he said, Mitt Romney had the gall to go on Fox "News" and complain about Democratic oppo ads that portray him as a flip-flopper: "There's no question but that people will take snippets, things out of context, and show there are differences, which there are not." I ran an extended DNC Mitt v. Mitt on the November 28 Commentariat. Here's the 30-second version:

No-Information Governors. It turns out those oft-mocked "low-information" swing voters may be better informed than Republican governors:

I don’t read newspapers in the state of Ohio. Very rarely do I read a newspaper. Because ... reading newspapers does not give you an uplifting experience.... I have found my life is a lot better if I don’t get aggravated by what I read in the newspaper. -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich

No. -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott, when asked if he read Florida newspapers

Via Steve Benen. CW: these governors will never pay a political price for boasting about their willful ignorance. They are just showing their base they are not "elitists." Besides, when everybody is a know-nothing, how would the know-nothing voters ever find out their governor was Know-Nothing-in-Chief?

Perry Ups Voting Age, Election Day. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "At a town hall meeting at the Institute of Politics at New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm’s College Tuesday, Rick Perry asked that all of the college students in the crowd who will be 21 by Nov. 12 support his bid for the presidency.... The voting age in the United States is, of course, 18. And the 2012 election will be held on Nov. 6, 2012." With video.

I repudiate, and I call on the President to repudiate, the concept of the 99 and the 1. It is un-American, it is divisive, it is historically false…. You are not going to get job creation when you engage in class warfare because you have to attack the very people you hope will create jobs. -- Newt Gingrich

[Religious right activists] are the majority in the country who must stand up and take this nation back from the ‘minority elite’ who are ruining it. -- Newt Gingrich

Translation by Steve Benen: ... when it comes to the economy..., we’re all one people, and we must pay no attention to the wealth that divides us. When it comes to the culture war, we’re not one people, and those who believe ... should target and defeat those Americans who disagree. If a right-wing voice rails against the 'minority elite,' he’s speaking the truth. If an Occupy activist rails against the 'minority elite,' he’s an un-American radical.

Local News

Elizabeth Hartfield of ABC News: "On Monday night the United Wisconsin coalition, the committee organizing the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, announced that it had collected 300,000 signatures since the recall kicked off on Nov. 15. The signature-gathering process has moved very quickly so far.... United Wisconsin will need to collect 540,208 signatures by Jan. 17 in order to get a recall of Governor Walker on the ballot."

News Ledes

President Obama speaks on the American Jobs Act in Scranton, Pennsylvania:

Reuters: "Stocks surged on Wednesday after major central banks agreed to make cheaper dollar loans for struggling European banks to prevent the euro-zone debt woes from turning into a full-blown credit crisis. The Dow posted its best day since March 2009 after the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other major central banks stepped in to head off escalating funding pressures that threaten the key arteries of the world's financial system."

Reuters: "Nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, the U.S. mission in Iraq is fast winding down with only 13,000 troops left in the country. Hundreds are departing each day until the end of 2011."

New York Times: "The police broke up large Occupy encampments in Los Angeles and Philadelphia early on Wednesday, arresting hundreds of protesters who had been camped out for the past two months and who had remained in public squares beyond city-mandated deadlines this week." Los Angeles Times story here, with video. Philadelphia Inquirer story here. ...

     ... Inquirer Update: "Occupy Philadelphia protesters gathered for a general assembly Wednesday evening outside Police Headquarters at Eighth and Race Streets. About 100 protesters marched to the police building from Rittenhouse Square late Wednesday afternoon."

Philadelphia Inquirer: "A feisty President Obama warned that the economy would suffer a 'massive blow' if Republicans block his proposal to extend an expiring payroll-tax cut, rallying supporters at a campaign-style rally in ... [Scranton, Pennsylvania]."

AP: "Britain ordered all Iranian diplomats out of the U.K. within 48 hours and shuttered its ransacked embassy in Tehran on Wednesday, in a significant escalation of tensions between Iran and the West. The ouster of the entire Iranian diplomatic corps deepens Iran's international isolation amid growing suspicions over its nuclear program. At least four other European countries also moved to reduce diplomatic contacts with Iran." Guardian story here.

New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived [in Naypyidaw, Myanmar,] on Wednesday to measure the depth of the political and economic opening that the country’s autocratic, military-dominated government has unexpectedly begun.

ABC News: "The latest person to accuse former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky of sexual abuse also claims that Sandusky threatened to hurt the boy’s family if he ever told anyone about the abuse. Sandusky’s newest accuser, who is now 29, had not told anyone about the abuse until he read about the grand jury presentment charging Sandusky with 40 counts of child molestation over 15 years, his lawyer Jeff Anderson said today. Until that time, he had thought he was the only victim."

Politico: "A deal between Boeing and its Machinists union Wednesday could quiet GOP attacks against the Obama administration and National Labor Relations Board about the fate of a South Carolina 787 Dreamliner plant. If the tentative deal is ratified allowing the Boeing’s new 737 MAX aircraft to be built in Renton, Wash., the union said it will withdraw its grievances against the aerospace manufacturer over the South Carolina plant, potentially putting an end to a seven-month, highly charged labor debate."

The Commentariat -- November 29

If it's Tuesday, it must be time to deal with David Brooks. My column in the New York Times eXaminer is here. The NYTX front page is here.

** Poll of the Month. "Fox 'News' -- Making Americans Ignorant 24/7." Fairleigh Dickinson University: "Sunday morning news shows do the most to help people learn about current events, while some outlets, especially Fox News, lead people to be even less informed than those who say they don’t watch any news at all.... People who watch Fox News ... are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government than those who watch no news at all.... Exposure to Sunday morning news shows helps respondents on" a question about the Occupy movement. "Listening to NPR also helps, but the biggest aid to answering correctly is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart...." ...

... In our Continuing Education series dedicated to making sure Reality Chex readers are way better informed than Foxbots, we bring you Jon Stewart lecturing on "competitive shopping":

** Dahlia Lithwick profiles Justice Elena Kagan in New York magazine.

Joe Nocera writes an excellent column explaining why Germany has screwed up the European Union & rendered the collapse of the euro almost inevitable. He also makes a good argument about why they should have known better & why they'll be sorry.

Half of them think like Michelle Bachmann and the other half are afraid of being primaried by someone who thinks like Michele Bachmann. -- Barney Frank, on Congressional Republicans

Paul Kane of the Washington Post profiles Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who announced his retirement today. See also Monday's Ledes. ...

... Charles Pierce of Esquire, who was a Boston reporter, writes a fine remembrance of Frank's career.

Garrett Epps of The Atlantic with the News from Brownbackistan. How teenager Emma Sullivan stood up to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. The First Amendment lives, even in Brownback's Kansas. CW: Read Epp's essay; he gives you more than the she said/he said.

E. J. Dionne calls out so-called "moderate" pundits like Tom Friedman of the New York Times and Mark Miller of the Washington Post (without naming them) for the third-party advocacy. "We need moderation all right, but a moderate third party is the one way to guarantee we won’t get it."

Right Wing World

"Here We Go Again." CNN: "An Atlanta businesswoman accused GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain of having had an affair with her that lasted 13 years, an Atlanta television station reported Monday."

      ... Here's the original report from Dale Russell Atlanta's Fox5 TV. Update: the interview of Ginger White:

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: Michele Bachmann claimed last week that she had never said "anything inaccurate" during the Republican presidential debates. "The record clearly shows that Bachmann has said many inaccurate statements during the debates, sometimes repeatedly."

Glenn Kessler: Grover Norquist appeared on "Press the Meat" this weekend and made up stuff. "Norquist has every right to his opinions on the dangers of excessive government spending and taxation, but he needs to come up with a better set of facts to make his case. His description of recent budgetary history bears little relation to the historical record. His comment on the stimulus bill was also highly misleading."

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "A judge on Tuesday sentenced Dr. Conrad Murray to four years behind bars -- the maximum punishment possible -- for his part in Michael Jackson's death, saying the doctor’s role in the singer’s fatal overdose was 'money-for-medicine madness.' In blistering and lengthy remarks, Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor lambasted Murray for failing to express any remorse for the pop star’s death and suggesting in a recent documentary that Jackson bore responsibility for his own demise." With video.

New York Times: "Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived [in Baghdad, Iraq] on Tuesday for a historic visit meant to inaugurate a new relationship between the United States and Iraq, just weeks before the last American troops are scheduled to leave the country."

Washington Post: "Businessman Herman Cain told senior members of his campaign on a conference call this morning that he is reassessing whether or not to remain in the Republican presidential race. On the conference call, which National Review listened to and transcribed, Cain denies the allegation of an affair with an Atlanta woman named Ginger White, which came to light on Monday, but acknowledged that the 'firestorm' had caused a rethinking."

New York Times: "The AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, said on Tuesday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to reduce labor costs and shed a heavy debt burden."

Guardian: "Dozens of Iranian protesters have forced their way into the British embassy in Tehran, tearing down the Union flag and throwing documents from the windows."

Guardian: "The former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain has been told by the Metropolitan police that they are investigating evidence that his computer, and those of senior Northern Ireland civil servants and intelligence agents, may have been hacked by private detectives working for News International [Rupert Murdoch's company]. The suggestion that the minister's computers, containing sensitive intelligence material, may have been compromised is the most serious sign yet that newspaper malpractice extended far beyond the hacking of mobile phone voicemail, into the realm of other electronic data." ...

... Guardian: Rupert Murdoch's son "James Murdoch has seen off a revolt by nearly a third of BSkyB's independent shareholder to be reappointed as chairman of the satellite broadcaster at the company's annual general meeting.Provisional figures announced at the meeting in London on Tuesday gave him 81.24% of the vote, with 18.76% against."

Al Jazeera: "Egypt's first free elections for decades have entered a second day, with turnout so far described as 'very high'. Logistical problems plagued many polling stations on Monday but the first day of voting passed mostly peacefully. Egyptians are voting to create the first democratically elected assembly in the country's history."