The Commentariat -- September 6

Joe Nocera: Rep. "Jim Cooper, a Blue Dog Democrat from the Nashville area, remembers the day when Congress still worked.... To Cooper, the true villain is not the Tea Party; it’s Newt Gingrich. In the 1980s, when Tip O’Neill was speaker of the House, 'Congress was functional,' Cooper told me. 'Committees worked. Tip saw his role as speaker of the whole House, not just the Democrats.' Gingrich was a new kind of speaker: deeply partisan and startlingly power-hungry." Read the whole column. ...

... I've posted a Nocera page on Off Times Square. ...

... CW: A Compelling Indictment of President Obama -- Joe Mason, a Country Doctor, for President (from the site Vote Third Party -- via Jim Fallows, who comments on the video):

Jon Cohen & Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high." ...

... Nate Silver: "... jobs creation estimates put forward by economists have been biased upward. Negative surprises have been about twice as common as positive ones over the past 12 years." CW: that is, don't be surprised when you read that "jobs creation was lower last month than expected." More often than not, that will be the case because economists usually overestimate jobs growth, a set-up for "failure."

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) in a Washington Post op-ed, on the goals of the deficit reduction supercommittee: "Debt and deficit reduction should be wrapped into a strong cord of job creation, budget cuts and revenue raisers. Pursuing them separately will weaken our efforts and could doom our mission." Clyburn is the third-ranking House Democrat & a member of the supercommittee. ...

... Dan Eggen of the Washington Post: "Nearly 100 registered lobbyists used to work for members of the supercommittee, now representing defense companies, health-care conglomerates, Wall Street banks and others with a vested interest in the panel’s outcome, according to a Washington Post analysis of disclosure data. Three Democrats and three Republicans on the panel also employ former industry lobbyists on their staffs. The preponderance of lobbyists adds to the political controversy surrounding the supercommittee, which will begin its work in earnest this week as Congress returns to Washington. The panel has already come under fire from watchdog groups for planning its activities in secret and allowing members to continue fundraising while they negotiate a budget deal."

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post: "Until recently, most states ... have attacked their pension problems by cutting benefits for new hires while preserving retirement packages for current employees. Others have rolled over their pension debt by taking out loans or papering them over with what some have called unrealistic projections about investment earning and life expectancy. But with states facing, by one estimate, a combined $3 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities and the economic downturn continuing to dampen government tax revenue, states are beginning to make changes once considered unthinkable — such as cutting pensions for people in retirement."

Click on image to see McFadden's other suggestions.

New York Times Editors: "... we are skeptical that the [Obama] administration has a comprehensive strategy to help build up a government that Afghans would be willing to fight for." The editors outline several problems that must be addressed.

Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Madison announced Tuesday that she is entering the 2012 race to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl. Baldwin is the first Democrat in the field and likely the front-runner for her party's nomination." Here's Baldwin's campaign site & here's her announcement video:

... AND Looks as if She's Running, Too. Noah Bierman of the Boston Globe: "Elizabeth Warren has yet to officially declare that she is running for US Senate, but the former presidential aide took another step yesterday.... Introducing Warren at the annual Labor Day breakfast yesterday, the president of the Greater Boston Labor Council compared her to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, while the state’s top union and Democratic political leaders stood and applauded her fiery keynote address at the event." You can watch Warren's speech here, but it's been recorded on ShakyCam, so maybe just listen.

Dem on the Take. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: Rep. Shelly Berkley's [D-Nev.] "actions were among a series over the last five years in which she pushed legislation or twisted the arms of federal regulators to pursue an agenda that is aligned with the business interests of her husband, Dr. Larry Lehrner."

Right Wing World

CW: I thought about covering this yesterday, but it's such a stupid story, that I'll let Steve Benen -- who shares my low opinion of it -- handle it for me. It seems Fox "News" & the usual suspects went nuts yesterday after Fox took a remark of James Hoffa, Jr.'s out of context. Not only did they wingers go into histrionics over what Hoffa didn't say, they faulted President Obama for not condemning Hoffa for saying what he didn't say. ...

     ... Or, as Dave Weigel asks, "Can we skip this little drama where conservatives pretend that Hoffa was ordering goon squads into action to pull Republican congressmen out of their homes and break their knees?"

"Al Gore's Texas Cheerleader," or How to Make the New Guy Look Good to Opposition Party Voters (and the scary music is a nice "Texas Chain-Saw Massacre" touch). Via Alex Altman of Time:

Fox "News": "Citing health reasons, veteran GOP strategist Ed Rollins stepped down as [Michele Bachmann's] campaign manager.... Speaking to CNN, where he was a contributor before the Bachmann campaign, the 68-year-old Rollins said the front-runners were now former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. He said Perry's late entry into the race slowed Bachmann's buzz and fundraising. 'I think legitimately it's a Romney-Perry race,' he said.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is supporting a plan that would keep 3,000 to 4,000 American troops in Iraq after a deadline for their withdrawal at year’s end, but only to continue training security forces there.... The recommendation would break a longstanding pledge by President Obama to withdraw all American forces from Iraq by the deadline."

New York Times: "The Obama administration said on Tuesday that it would seek to save the deficit-plagued Postal Service from an embarrassing default by proposing to give it an extra three months to make a $5.5 billion payment due on Sept. 30 to finance retirees’ future health coverage. Speaking at a Senate hearing, John Berry, director of the federal Office of Personnel Management, also said the administration would soon put forward a plan to stabilize the postal service, which faces a deficit of nearly $10 billion this fiscal year and had warned that it could run out of money entirely this winter."

New York Times: "Carol A. Bartz, >Yahoo’s chief executive, was fired Tuesday, ending a rocky two-year tenure in which she tried to revitalize the online media company."

New York Times: Richard Cordray, "the nominee to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he would make it a priority “to streamline and cut back” a mountain of regulations that has grown up over the last 30 years, which he said excessively burdened some banks and discourages them from lending money to consumers."

"Dear Mr. President." AP: "In a letter to [President] Obama Tuesday, Speaker John Boehner and House Republican Leader Eric Cantor asked the president to meet with the bipartisan leadership of Congress this week to discuss his proposals in advance of his jobs address Thursday to a joint session of Congress. The letter lists GOP proposals that have already passed the House that they said would be worthy of his consideration."

AP: "David Petraeus, the newly retired general with the megawatt media profile, was sworn in Tuesday as CIA director.... Retired last week after 37 years in the Army, Petraeus was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden...."

Washington Post: "The College of William and Mary on Tuesday announced that [former Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates has been named the school’s next chancellor, an honorary appointment that will return the former secretary to his alma mater. Gates will succeed former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, whose term ends in February."

New York Times: "Wall Street took a tumble at the opening of trading Tuesday, following a choppy day in Europe and Asia, as investors returned from the Labor Day holiday in the United States. The turmoil of recent weeks showed no signs of letting up, with gold rising to another record and the currency market jolted by action from the Swiss authorities to weaken the franc, which has soared because of its role as a haven."

AP: Wildfires have destroyed at leat 500 Texas homes. "At least 5,000 people were forced from their homes in Bastrop County about 25 miles east of Austin, and about 400 were in emergency shelters, officials said Monday. School and school-related activities were canceled Tuesday." ...

     ... Houston Chronicle: "The most destructive wildfire on record in Texas showed no signs of slowing down Monday, destroying 25,000 acres in Bastrop County and 476 homes, more houses than any single wildfire before and more than all other fires this year combined, according to the Texas Forest Service." ...

     ... Chronicle: "Firefighters continue this morning to battle a large wildfire that has blackened thousands of acres, forced hundreds of residents to flee and shut down several roads in Montgomery, Grimes and Waller counties."

AP: "The destructive remnants of Tropical Storm Lee rolled north Tuesday after spawning tornadoes, sweeping several people away, flooding roads and knocking out power to thousands across the South. More rain was expected in parts of Tennessee, where records have already been broken."

Al Jazeera: "A large convoy containing between 200 and 250 military vehicles Libyan armoured vehicles has crossed into Niger. Military sources from France and Niger told the Reuters news agency that the convoy, escorted by the Niger army, arrived in the northern desert town of Agadez on Monday. Amid the reports about the convoy, Libyan opposition fighters have been holding talks with tribal leaders in Bani Walid to enter the town peacefully. They are also negotiating with some tribes in Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown, to lay down arms." ...

... The Al Jazeera liveblog on Libya is here. ...

... Reuters: "Libyan forces plan to enter the pro-Gaddafi desert town of Bani Walid on Tuesday after reaching a deal with delegates from the town to avoid fighting, Al Jazeera television said. The pan-Arab news channel, citing the anti-Gaddafi forces, said the fighters were expected to enter the city after the deal is formalized, which would likely be around midday." ...

... Washington Post: "A chaotic and apparently ill-coordinated effort by rebels to track down Moammar Gaddafi is being led by competing factions of military commanders and bounty hunters, as well as Libyan commandos commissioned by civilian leaders. Libyans involved in the hunt say they are not getting much help from NATO, despite the alliance’s state-of-the-art electronic and aerial surveillance methods. Instead, they are relying on a deluge of human intelligence from informers and witnesses, but seem to be struggling to sift, process and share all the information that is coming in." ...

... The New York Times story, which is a comprehensive summary of reporting by other news agencies, is here. ...

... Guardian: "A Libyan rebel leader who was rendered to Tripoli with the assistance of MI6 [the British intelligence service] said on Monday that he had told British intelligence officers he was being tortured but they did nothing to help him. In a claim that will increase the pressure for further disclosure about the UK's role in torture and rendition since 9/11, Abdul Hakim Belhaj said a team of British interrogators used hand signals to indicate they understood what he was telling them."

Al Jazeera: "Turkey is 'totally suspending' all trade, military and defence industry ties with Israel, the Turkish prime minister said.... Turkey has not frozen military ties with Israel, Amos Gilad, the head of the Israeli defence ministry's diplomatic-security bureau, told Israel's Army Radio, saying that the Israeli military attache in Turkey is still serving as usual."

The Guardian has live video & a liveblog on ongoing testimony in the Rupert Murdoch phone hacking scandal. The front-page headline is "New Evidence Puts Pressure on James Murdoch [Rupert's son]." ...

... New York Times: "As the phone hacking scandal in Britain continues to gnaw at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, a parliamentary panel opened new hearings on Tuesday, seeking to determine who knew about unauthorized voice mail intercepts ordered by the now defunct News of the World tabloid."

The Commentariat -- September 5

President Obama speaks about jobs at an AFL-CIO Labor Day rally in Detroit:

     ... Here's a transcript of the President's remarks. New York Times: "President Barack Obama said Monday that congressional Republicans must put their country ahead of their party and vote to create new jobs as he used a boisterous Labor Day rally to aim a partisan barb at the GOP."

Utah Phillips sings Joe Hill's "There Is Power in a Union":

I've posted a Krugman comments page on Off Times Square. Karen Garcia & I have commented. The Times has again held back our comments, so you'll have to read them here. ...

... "Fatal Distraction." Paul Krugman, in his regular column: "... by obsessing over a nonexistent threat [the deficit], Washington has been making the real problem — mass unemployment, which is eating away at the foundations of our nation — much worse. Although you’d never know it listening to the ranters, the past year has actually been a pretty good test of the theory that slashing government spending actually creates jobs. The deficit obsession has blocked a much-needed second round of federal stimulus, and with stimulus spending, such as it was, fading out, we’re experiencing de facto fiscal austerity. State and local governments, in particular, faced with the loss of federal aid, have been sharply cutting many programs, and have been laying off a lot of workers, mostly schoolteachers. And somehow the private sector hasn’t responded to these layoffs by rejoicing at the sight of a shrinking government, and embarking on a hiring spree." ...

... Paul Krugman recommends this article by Kevin Hall of McClatchy news: "Politicians and business groups often blame excessive regulation and fear of higher taxes for tepid hiring in the economy. However, little evidence of that emerged when McClatchy canvassed a random sample of small business owners across the nation.... None of the business owners complained about regulation in their particular industries, and most seemed to welcome it. Some pointed to the lack of regulation in mortgage lending as a principal cause of the financial crisis that brought about the Great Recession of 2007-09 and its grim aftermath." ...

... But, Krugman notes the facts have no impact on the punditocracy, as economic expert Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) pontificated on ABC's "This Week" about ruinous business regulation & the NLRB, and actual (right-wing) economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin repeated his oft-told tale of doom, "We're about to be Greece!"

NEW. Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute writing in Salon, argues that Democrats should mount a primary challenge to President Obama, whom Stoller considers a disaster who has "ruined the Democratic party.... His failures have come precisely because Obama has not listened to Democratic Party voters. He continued idiotic wars, bailed out banks, ignored luminaries like Paul Krugman, and generally did whatever he could to repudiate the New Deal. The Democratic Party should be the party of pay raises and homes, but under Obama it has become the party of pay cuts and foreclosures. Getting rid of Obama as the head of the party is the first step in reverting to form."

Bob Reich in TruthOut: "The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday no jobs were created in August. Zero. Nada.... In reality, worse than zero. We need 125,000 a month merely to keep up with population growth. So the hole continues to deepen.... If this doesn’t prompt President Obama to unveil a bold jobs plan next Thursday, I don’t know what will. The problem is on the demand side. Consumers (whose spending is 70 percent of the economy) can’t boost the economy on their own. They’re still too burdened by debt, especially on homes that are worth less than their mortgages. Their jobs are disappearinig, their pay is dropping, their medical bills are soaring. And businesses won’t hire without more sales. So we’re in a vicous cycle."

Mikoto Rich & John Broder of the New York Times review actual data on whether or not environmental regulations kill jobs and whether or not offsetting factors -- gosh, like not killing people -- outweigh any loss of jobs.

To See Ourselves as Others See Us. "America's Self-Inflicted Decline." Former Australian PM Malcolm Fraser in Al Jazeera: "If the broad post-World War II prosperity that has endured for six decades comes to an end, both the United States and Europe will be responsible. With rare exceptions, politics has become a discredited profession throughout the West. Tomorrow is always treated as more important than next week, and next week prevails over next year, with no one seeking to secure the long-term future. Now the West is paying the price. President Barack Obama’s instincts may be an exception here, but he is fighting powerful hidebound forces in the United States, as well as a demagogic populism, in the form of the Tea Party, that is far worse -- and that might defeat him in 2012, seriously damaging the United States in the process." ...

... John Lanchester in the London Review of Books: "The discipline of macro-economics was born out of the study of the Great Depression, in an attempt to understand what had happened and avoid a repetition. That’s why it’s so depressing to see the developed world not just sleepwalking towards another recession, but actively embracing policies which make it more likely. Governments can’t all simultaneously cut spending while also continuing to grow their economies: it just defies common sense to think they can." CW: this is a longish essay, & longish essays on fiscal policy can be mindnumbing to many of us, but Lanchester -- a journalist & novelist -- keeps it lively. His thesis, which I presume is only partially tongue-in-cheek, is that the West would be way better off if we were all more like Belgium, which has been without a government for 15 months and therefore without a goverment like all the other Western governments that have initiated brilliant "belt-tightening" policies to strangle economic growth. Via Brad Plumer of the Washington Post, who adds a few yeah-buts, but generally supports Lanchester's thesis.

The End of the U.S. Postal Service? Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.... [Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts. The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs."

Prof. Harold Pollack on why the downwardly mobile in Chicago have tuned out politics. "But President Obama and others can lay the foundation for an angry but civil liberal populism to provide an alternative to passivity and the Tea Party." CW: as if.

Green Shoot. CW: Old news, but news to me: Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, made a statement expressing "disappointment" in President Obama's decision to table new clean-air ozone limits, and said, in a press release, "This decision leaves me with more questions than answers. To that end, I intend to hold a hearing in the Clean Air Subcommittee with White House officials to explain these actions and the possible ramifications."

A little essay from Driftglass: "From Birtherism to Death Panels, the Modern Conservative agenda in the Age of Obama has been nothing but reckless swine and calculating traitors grabbing whatever heavy object they could lay their hands on and heaving it into traffic, hoping to cause a wreck. In other words, a relentless, national program of premeditated sabotage at a time of war and national economic emergency. And don't even get me started on their fucking governors."

Right Wing World *

** Veteran Republican Congressional Staffer Mike Lofgren in TruthOut on why he retired. CW: This is perhaps the most insightful & important bit of prose written by a Republican since Dwight Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex. Lofgren doesn't have kind words for Democrats or the both-sides-do-it media phonies, but he uses his insider knowledge to expose the GOP's rotten core. Truly a must-read. Many thanks to Walt W. for the link.

Politico Live: "Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann on Sunday shifted her explanation for her poorly received campaign trail riff about a deadly hurricane and the Virginia earthquake being divine efforts to get Washington politicians to cut spending." It was "a joke"; now it's "a metaphor."

* So bad even some Republicans can't stand it.

News Ledes

AP: "While [Tropical Storm] Lee's winds have lost some of their punch, forecasters warn that its slow-moving rain clouds pose a worse flooding threat to inland areas with hills or mountains in the coming days. Flash flood watches and warnings were in effect across a swath of the Southeast early Monday, stretching from the lower Mississippi Valley, eastward to the Florida Panhandle and the southern Appalachians, according to the Hydrometeorological Predication Center."

New York Times: "Global stocks ... [are] posting steep declines [today] amid worries about the health of the U.S. economy and Europe’s sovereign debt woes."

AP: "Rebel reinforcements arrived outside one of Moammar Gadhafi's last strongholds in Libya on Monday, even as the forces arrayed against the toppled dictator gave the town a chance to surrender and avoid a fight. Thousands of rebels have converged on Bani Walid, a desert town some 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. Gadhafi has been on the run since losing his capital last month."

Al Jazeera: "Scuffles broke out inside and outside the courtroom as the trial of Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, resumed in Cairo with police witnesses expected to reveal details about a crackdown on protesters that left hundreds dead. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros said that court proceedings were halted just 40 minutes into Monday's session as lawyers for the prosecution and the defence had to be separated by police.At least 12 people were arrested outside the army academy where the trial is taking place as pro- and anti-Mubarak groups clashed, and some threw stones at riot police."

The Commentariat -- September 4

Maureen Dowd: "Just as Obama miscalculated in 2009 when Democrats had total control of Congress, holding out hope that G.O.P. lawmakers would come around on health care after all but three senators had refused to vote for the stimulus bill; just as he misread John Boehner this summer, clinging like a scorned lover to a dream that the speaker would drop his demanding new inamorata, the Tea Party, to strike a 'grand' budget bargain, so the president once more set a trap for himself and gave Boehner the opportunity to dis him on the timing of his jobs speech this week."

Frank Bruni: "Who's smarter? Barack Obama or Rick Perry? "Instead of talking about how smart politicians are or aren’t, we should have an infinitely more useful, meaningful conversation about whether we share and respect their values and whether they have shown themselves to be effective. Someone who rates high on both counts is someone to rally unreservedly around. Right now, neither Perry nor Obama fits that double bill."

** I've posted a Dowd-Bruni comments page on Off Times Square, but if you want to comment on something else, feel free.

** Economist Bob Reich, who was Labor Secretary during the Clinton Administration, writes a very good short history of American fiscal policy in a New York Times op-ed: "During periods when the very rich took home a much smaller proportion of total income — as in the Great Prosperity between 1947 and 1977 — the nation as a whole grew faster and median wages surged. We created a virtuous cycle in which an ever growing middle class had the ability to consume more goods and services, which created more and better jobs, thereby stoking demand. The rising tide did in fact lift all boats." ...

... The New York Times Editorial Board outlines what President Obama should say in his jobs speech. CW: fat chance. ...

The DeLong Confession. Economist Brad DeLong tells of giving top Obama Administration officials a talking-to in early 2010 -- you know, explaining Econ 101 to them -- and they didn't get it. DeLong admits, "... I think of my confidence in December 2008 and January 2009 that the Obama administration understood that you needed not economic policies that sounded good and polled good but economic policies that actually worked, and I wince." CW: this is a very readable post. Apparently Krugman has had the same conversation with some of these same usual suspects, with the same results. They -- and the President -- as I've said before, are not all that bright.

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "The Republican field is entering a pivotal stage as candidates increasingly move beyond criticizing President Obama and start to run against one another. The outcome of three debates in the next three weeks — starting Wednesday night, the first time Mr. Perry, Mr. Romney and Mrs. Bachmann will face each other — will influence fund-raising, shape strategy and set perceptions as the candidates hurtle toward the start of voting early next year. In both parties, there is now a sense that the president’s political frailty, underscored by the report on Friday that showed zero net job creation in August and new projections that unemployment will remain elevated until Election Day, is even greater than it appeared at the start of the summer, injecting additional energy and urgency to the Republican primary race."

"What Was He Thinking?" Juliet Eilperin & Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "President Obama’s controversial decision last week to suspend new anti-smog standards offered hints — but not the full road map — of how the White House will navigate politically explosive battles with congressional Republicans over which industry regulations to sacrifice and which ones to fight for this fall.... Most notable in the smog decision was that Obama made it himself — undercutting his own Environmental Protection Agency leadership and siding with industry officials.... And yet ... advocates on both sides are left wondering what broader strategy may be guiding the White House...." ...

... Leslie Kaufman of the New York Times: "... representatives of ... environmental groups saw the president’s actions [to drop new ozone pollution standards] as brazen political sellouts to business interests and the Republican Party, which regards environmental regulations as job killers and a brick wall to economic recovery. The question for environmentalists became, what to do next?" John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group based in New York, said "his group would resume a smog lawsuit against the government that it had dropped because it had been lulled into believing that this administration would enact tougher regulations without being forced to do so by the courts.” ...

... AND Steve Benen asks, "... even if West Wing officials sincerely believed these ozone standards would be bad the job market, why not keep this realization close to their chest, and then trade it to Republicans in exchange for something else? Why not use the rules as a bargaining chip?

Brent Budowsky, writing in The Hill, plays "If Al Gore Had Been Inaugurated": "A recent poll by '60 Minutes' and Vanity Fair found that a majority of Americans, and a majority of Democrats, do not believe things would have changed much if Al Gore had been inaugurated president in January 2001.... The Gore v. Bush poll is breathtaking." After Budowsky compils a laundry list of stuff Gore would have done differently from Bush, he writes, "It is a sad commentary about Democrats today, especially but not only President Obama, that Democrats feel so depressed and let down that they cannot tell the difference between eight years of President George W. Bush and eight years of President Gore." CW: An interesting commentary; in other words, Obama has tarnished the reputations of all elected Democrats, including Al Gore.

Oh, Great. Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "At least one in seven Afghan soldiers walked off the job during the first six months of this year, according to statistics compiled by NATO that show an increase in desertion.... At one point this summer, the pace of desertions climbed to an annualized rate of 35 percent, though it has since declined.... Afghan and U.S. military officials also said poor leadership is a main reason soldiers desert the ranks."

A New Twist in the Strange Case of Abdel-Hakim Belhadj. Patrick McDonnell & Ken Dilanian of the Los Angeles Times: "A few years ago, documents show, Belhadj was a wanted Islamic militant whom the CIA handed over for 'debriefing' to the government of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, then an ally in the fight against terrorism. Today, Belhadj is a top military commander in the provisional Libyan government and Kadafi is on the run, his government toppled, in part, by U.S. and allied airstrikes."

Right Wing World

Kevin Sack of the New York Times: "The three most prominent current or former governors running for president — Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Jon M. Huntsman Jr. — are firmly united in their commitment to repealing President Obama’s health care law. But that unanimity masks a broad divergence in their approaches to the issue while in office, spanning the spectrum of Republican positioning.... Each of the governors has vulnerabilities, and they have sought thus far to credential themselves less by their own past records than by their current opposition to what is officially known as the Affordable Care Act."

Local News

What's Wrong with This Picture: Jennifer Gollan & Sydney Lupkin of the Bay Citizen: California has been spending more and more on prisons & less and less on higher education. The result: the state now spends more on prisons than on university education. The picture:

Graphic by Bay Citizen.

News Ledes

President Obama visits New Jersey, where power still has not been reconnected since Hurricane Irene, & flood damage is rife:

... New York Times: in Paterson, New Jersey, "President Obama, surveying some of the most crippling flood damage from Tropical Storm Irene, vowed on Sunday that budgetary wrangling in Washington would not delay federal aid to stricken communities."

AP (via the NYT): "The center of Tropical Storm Lee lurched across Louisiana's Gulf Coast early Sunday, dumping torrential rains that threatened flooding in low-lying communities in a foreshadowing of what cities further inland could face in coming days." The Times-Picayune is carrying this story by the National Weather Service; includes related links. Here's the Weather Channel's main story.

New York Times: "The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats."

Al Jazeera: "Libyan fighters outside Bani Walid, a key city still controlled by supporters of toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi, have told Al Jazeera that efforts to negotiate a peaceful handover have ended. An official for the National Transitional Council (NTC) said fighters were preparing to take the town by force after talks ended on Sunday." With video. AP story here. ...

    ... New York Times Update: "Rebel forces in Libya said Sunday that they were on the verge of winning a peaceful surrender of Bani Walid, one of Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s last remaining strongholds, as thousands of rebel fighters converged on the town."

Guardian: "Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday night in Israel's biggest ever demonstration to demand social justice, a lower cost of living and a clear government response to the concerns of an increasingly squeezed middle class. About 430,000 people took part in marches and rallies across the country, according to police. The biggest march was in Tel Aviv, where up to 300,000 took part." Haaretz story here.

New York Times: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and onetime hopeful for the French presidency, returned to his native land early on Sunday morning, in a low-key coda to the international furor that erupted when he was arrested in mid-May and charged with sexually assaulting a New York hotel housekeeper."