The Commentariat -- August 26

I've put up a Krugman page on Off Times Square with lotsa links, including this one to today's column, titled "Bernanke's Perry Problem." Karen Garcia, Kate Madison & I have all posted comments. BTW, yesterday's thread was particularly good, my own contributions nothwithstanding: intelligent people sharing useful insights about difficult subjects. I highly recommend your reading it through. ...

     ... Update: it appears the Times moderators have again dumped Madison's and my comments on Brooks, so you'll have to read them on Off Times Square. Also, read some of the comments to Krugman's column; they're quite good.

... Neil Irwin of the Washington Post: The "Jackson Hole ... symposium, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, occupies a unique place in the world of economic policy. It brings together most of the globe’s top central bankers and many of the planet’s smartest economists."But not Paul Krugman. See also today's Ledes for Ben Bernanke's effect on in ternational markets.

Via Ezra Klein.

Jennifer Agiesta & Laurie Kellman of the AP: "Americans are plenty angry at Congress in the aftermath of the debt crisis and Republicans could pay the greatest price, a new Associated Press-GfK poll suggests. The poll finds the tea party has lost support, Republican House Speaker John Boehner is increasingly unpopular and people are warming to the idea of not just cutting spending but also raising taxes — anathema to the GOP...."

Tim Egan of the New York Times: "As president, [Obama has] been a sober, cautious, tongue-shackled realist — a moderate Republican of the pre-crazy, pre-Tea Party era. Having failed to come up with a Big Idea to guide his presidency, he will sink or swim now on strengths that don’t lend themselves to large rallies or passionate enthusiasm. Sobriety and moderation, by definition, are boring."

Karen Garcia on "a scandal within a scandal": How Iowa AG Tom Miller and New York Fed member Kathryn Wylde are both stymying New York AG Eric Schneiderman's efforts to hold financial institutions accountable for the mortgage debacle.

Ezra Klein: "Most people think that the Obama administration 'owns' Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so it can basically tell them to do whatever it wants. That’s not how it works. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the control of the newly created Federal Housing and Finance Authority. The FHFA is ... an independent agency, and right now it’s under the care of acting Director Edward DeMarco, a holdover from the Bush administration. Senate Republicans blocked the Obama administration’s nominee, Joe Smith, after he expressed some support for using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to heal the housing market. Any plan [to help underwater homeowners] would either need to go through him or through Congress. And both DeMarco and the Republicans in Congress seem mostly interested in limiting Fannie and Freddie’s short-term losses so they can be spun off from the government."

CW: Prof. Cornel West, in a New York Times op-ed, makes some good points about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., before he goes over-the-top, as he almost invariable does, and ends by warning us to be "coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle." (And you can bet the Times editors ratcheted down whatever was in West's first draft.) Here's one of West's more worthy observations:

The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King’s prophetic legacy. Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the [Obama] administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable. ...

... Roger Simon of Politico: "In the case of the King memorial, the controversy is whether the enormous statue of one of the greatest figures in American history should be stamped 'Made in China.' The 'Stone of Hope' statue of Dr. King was sculpted in China by a Chinese sculptor out of Chinese granite and shipped to the United States where it was assembled by Chinese workers. The Chinese workers were paid nothing -- which would seem to me to violate not only Dr. King’s principles but also U.S. anti-slavery laws -- though they were hoping to get paid something when they returned to China."

Greg Sargent has more on Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's "misguided ... crusade to get American business leaders to withhold political donations from all incumbents in Congress, to pressure them to produce a deficit reduction plan that deals with entitlements and revenues." Sargent writes, "As it turns out, Schultz is a big donor to the Democratic Party.... Democrats are far more in agreement with Schultz [on deficit control].... Punishing both parties equally for their current positions isn’t likely to produce the outcome Schultz wants." CW: or, I would wager, punishing Democrats much more than Republicans, etc.

Jennifer Huget of the Washington Post: "Based on trends, half of the adults in the United States will be obese by 2030..., according to a report released Thursday on the international obesity crisis in the British medical journal the Lancet. Those changes include making healthful foods cheaper and less-healthful foods more expensive largely through tax strategies.... A team of international public health experts argued that the global obesity crisis will continue to grow worse and add substantial burdens to health-care systems and economies unless governments, international agencies and other major institutions take action to monitor, prevent and control the problem. Changes over the past century in the way food is made and marketed have contributed to the creation of an 'obesogenic' environment in which personal willpower and efforts to maintain a healthful weight are largely impossible, the report noted." CW: you can read the reports, published in the Lancet, beginning here, but you have to create a Lancet account.

Will Wilkinson of The Economist: "[Steve] Jobs's wealth, like that of other billionaire barons of the information age, was built in no small part upon an intellectual-property regime that I and many others believe to retard progress while concentrating massive rewards upon a privileged few, generating unfair and unproductive inequality." Wilkinson then goes on to "forgive" Jobs his success, and his refusal to share it a la Gates & Buffett because of the "the elegance of the Apple devices ... [which] offered the mass market dazzling technical progress with the sort of tastefully luxurious sheen usually reserved for the seriously well-to-do."

Seth at Enik Rising: don't confuse correlation with causation: a case study. Via Jonathan Bernstein.

Right Wing World

What Not to Read. Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times reviews Dick Cheney's memoir: "... the memoir — delivered in dry, often truculent prose — turns out to be mostly a predictable mix of spin, stonewalling, score settling and highly selective reminiscences. The book, written with his daughter Liz, reiterates Mr. Cheney’s aggressive approach to foreign policy and his hard-line views on national security, while sidestepping questions about many of the Bush administration’s more controversial decisions, either by cherry-picking information (much the way critics say the White House cherry-picked intelligence in making the case to go to war against Iraq) or by hopping and skipping over awkward subjects with loudly voiced assertions."

Welfare Queens, 2012 Edition. CW: here's something President Obama should put in his arsenal, but won't. Ed Kilgore of The New Republic: Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry & Michele Bachmann have been attacking what were Republican-(including Reagan!)-led programs to aid the working poor. "Work is no longer enough, it seems, to avoid the moral taint of being a 'welfare bum.' And the cruelest irony of all is that, for so many, the work’s not available anyway.

CW: I think this may be the very first flat-out admission that Republican Tea Party policy is to take the U.S. all the way back to the Gilded Age:

Except for the Reagan Administration, to be quite frank, both Republicans and Democrats established a role for government in America that said yes we will have a free economy, but we will also have a strong government, which through regulations and taxes will control the free economy, and through a series of government programs, will take care of those in our society who are falling behind. That was the vision crafted in the 20th Century by our leaders. These programs weakened us as a people. -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), in a speech at the Reagan Library

CW: Since Nancy Reagan was sitting in the front row, future Republican vice-presidential nominee Rubio could hardly diss her husband. Or, as Jonathan Chait notes,

Rubio hilariously excludes Reagan from the pattern of presidents who accepted a government role in the economy. Conservative mythology insists that Reagan must always be correct, so Rubio lauds him for rejecting the twentieth century model of government, even though Reagan very much accepted the broad contours of the post New Deal state. Indeed, Reagan liked to boast that he voted for Franklin Roosevelt....

Photo via Politico.... Maggie Haberman of Politico: "David Limbaugh, the conservative author and brother of Rush, tweets an image you're likely to see again.... Perry spokesman Mark Miner emailed this response: 'A picture is worth a thousand words.' As we reported recently, Perry himself also questioned on the stump the fact that Obama had never served in the military.... Obama was not actually 22 in that photo, he was in college." Haberman also links to this photo of Mitt Romney at around the same age:

That's Romney on the right. Photo via the Boston Globe.... This Globe caption accompanying the photo: "The main task of missionaries was to teach people about Mormonism, in the hope that they would choose to convert. The most common method of travel for the missionaries was the bicycle, and many of the missionaries in France rode motorized bikes."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The contenders in the GOP field appear to be spending most of their time with those they think could be the solution to the country’s economic hardship (business owners) rather than those who are most directly experiencing the hardship (people out of work)." CW: note that this is a straight news report, not an opinion piece; i.e., this is the way it is.

News Ledes

President Obama on Hurricane Irene:

     ... www.Ready.gov

New York Times: "The State Department gave a crucial green light on Friday to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from oil sands in Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast."

New York Times: "An arson attack on a casino in northern Mexico on Thursday that left 52 people dead has thrown a spotlight on the growth of gambling houses throughout the country and their role in organized crime. In what President Felipe Calderón called an act of 'true terrorists,' armed men in four vehicles — a Mini Cooper leading sport utility vehicles and a pickup truck — calmly drove up to the Casino Royale in Monterrey at midafternoon, dashed inside, ordered people to get out and set it ablaze with a flammable liquid."

New York Times: "The hurricane warning that was put into effect in North Carolina on Thursday was extended by the National Hurricane Center to Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey on Friday morning, indicating that preparations for the storm should be completed as soon as possible."

New York Times: "President Obama will cut short his Martha’s Vineyard vacation because of Hurricane Irene and return Friday night, as he urged Americans along the Eastern Seaboard to take precautions against the potentially 'historic hurricane' making its way toward the coast this weekend." See his statement above. ...

... Weather Channel: "Hurricane Irene is likely to be the most impactful hurricane to hit the East Coast in at least several decades! The latest computer model guidance confirms this extraordinary threat and the first hurricane warnings and hurricane watches have been issued for the East Coast." ...

     ... Update: "As Hurricane Irene bears down on the U.S. East Coast, its inital rain bands are already rotating into the Carolinas bringing intense rain squalls complete with gusty winds." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Hurricane Irene was starting to spray the North Carolina coast early Friday afternoon as it headed for a destructive march up the Eastern Seaboard in an unusually broad path that could affect 55 million people."

AP: "A car laden with explosives detonated outside the United Nations' main office in Nigeria's capital Friday, flattening one wing of the building and killing an undetermined number of people."

Al Jazeera: "Rebel reinforcements have streamed into the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to join in the fight against Muammar Gaddafi loyalists, who are putting up strong resistance in some pockets of the city. Fighters from the port city of Misrata have joined fellow rebels who spearheaded the weekend assault that saw the Libyan capital swiftly overrun and Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound falling to the rebels." ...

... Al Jazeera's liveblog on Libya is here.

AP: "World stock markets were unsteady on Friday as jittery investors waited to see whether Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would promise new steps to help the U.S. economy ward off another recession. Bernanke is due to deliver a highly anticipated speech at a conference later Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming." CW Note: see Krugman's column, linked in the Commentariat, on Bernanke's anticipated speech. ...

     ... No Surprises, No Nothin'. New York Times Update: "The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Friday that the economy is recovering and the nation’s long-term prospects remained strong, an upbeat assessment that offered little indication of any plans for additional measures to boost short-term growth. ...

     ... Update: the Times story has a new lede: "The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Friday that the political battle this summer over the federal government’s borrowing and spending had disrupted financial markets 'and probably the economy as well.'”

     ... NEW. Here's the text of Bernanke's speech, provided by the Federal Reserve.

New York Times: "The National Labor Relations Board issued new regulations on Thursday that require companies to put posters on their bulletin boards that inform employees about their rights to unionize under federal law.... Noting that many workers are unaware of these rights, the board said the new regulations are aimed at making it easier for workers to exercise their rights....  under the National Labor Relations Act, which sets rules for unionization efforts.... Business groups were quick to criticize the new regulations, which they said were part of the board’s pro-union tilt under President Obama." CW: Does this sound to you like a rule a Republican-appointed NLRB would issue. It's another reason for progressives to vote for Obama.

New York Times: "In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent [Ali Soufan] who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda.... Some of the scores of cuts demanded by the C.I.A. from Mr. Soufan’s book ... seem hard to explain on security grounds. Among them ... is a phrase from Mr. Soufan’s 2009 testimony at a Senate hearing, freely available both as video and transcript on the Web."

The Commentariat -- August 25

Sorry for the delays in posting, which were caused by major technical difficulties. Since I didn't look at anything for five or six hours last night, I posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square. ...

... Update: See the very fine post by FromTheHeartland in today's Off Times Square about cuts in Medicaid and other healthcare safety-net programs in, well, the Heartland. FTH also zeroes in on the media's sloppy reporting of data, in this case, misinterpreting and vastly underreporting the true reduction in healthcare services. Once again, commentary on Off Times Square beats what you'll find in mainstream media outlets.

E. J. Dionne: "... no good Obama deed goes unpunished." Especially if you've been critical of Obama's Libya policy, read this. (I've been --and still am -- critical of his refusal to ask for Congressional approval, tho not of the overall policy.)

A Worthy Campaign. Mike Allen of Politico: "President Barack Obama's reelection campaign on Thursday announced 'Project Vote,' a campaign-within-a-campaign that is aimed at increasing registration and participation among Democratic base constituencies — including young voters, seniors, African Americans and Hispanics, plus Native Americans and gay and lesbian voters."

Kevin Drum: "Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has gotten a lot of press for his campaign to get CEOs to halt all political contributions until politicians in Washington DC stop their insane bickering.... And for some reason they've decided that Republicans will cave in on this if they announce their intention to withhold all political contributions to both parties this year. Seriously? My guess is that the GOP leadership is laughing its ass off over this." CW: some while back, when one of the NYT lunkheads -- don't recall if it was Nocera or Friedman, but they're peas in a pod -- wrote a fawning column on this brilliant "plan," & I wrote a comment saying it was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard. The Times responded by refusing to publish my comment.

Rachel Maddow talks to Jared Bernstein about a jobs program that some Republicans -- like Tea Party darling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) -- might buy:

Crazy Scott Brown Operative. Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe: "Eric Fehrnstrom -- a senior campaign adviser to US Senator Scott Brown" admitted he has been tweeting unflattering and racy remarks under the twitternym "CrazyKhazei, which he pretended were tweets by Brown Democratic opponent Alan Khazei." Fehrnstrom didn't volunteer that he had perpetrated a hoax; rather, spokesmen for the Massachusetts Democratic party discovered Fehrnstrom when he accidentally "sent out a 'CrazyKhazei’'-type tweet Tuesday from his Twitter account." Creep. ...

... Krugman, Master of Disaster. Dave Weigel of Slate: another fake Paul Krugman hoax, and the genius pundits on the right fall for it. No, Real Krugman did not tweet: "... we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage." Krugman responds on his own blog. Thanks to Bob M. for the link.

David Pogue of the New York Times on Steve Jobs' remarkable impact on "a stunning range of industries." ...

... Here's a New York Times interactive page on Jobs' patents. ...

... Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post on Jobs' resignation as Apple CEO.

It Depends on What the Meaning of "Power" Is. Forbes names "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women." Really? Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook is #5, entertainer Beyonce Knowles is #18, & Nancy Pelosi is #52? Really? No. 1 is German Chancellor Angela Merkel & #2 is Hillary Clinton, so they probably got those right.

If We Could Talk with the Animals. Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "Orangutans, gorillas, flamingos and red-ruffed lemurs [at Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo] acted strangely before humans detected the historic magnitude-5.8 earthquake. Now the question hovering over the zoo is: What did the animals know, and when did they know it?" CW: I used to have Nubian goats who knew a storm was coming before I did.

Right Wing World *

Teabaggers Bag the GOP. Dave Weigel of Slate: "Tea Party candidates won't win any [primary] elections next year because mainstream Republicans now spout the same ideas."

"Know-Nothings Opt for Scary New Frontrunner." Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: "It’s official: Rick Perry is the 'frontrunner' for the Republican presidential nomination.... A new Gallup poll has the Texas governor with the support of 29 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, compared to only 17 percent for heretofore 'frontrunner' Mitt Romney. A Public Policy Polling survey also came in ... with similar results.... Gallup conducted the poll from August 17 to 21. The 17th was just four days into Perry’s campaign, but by then the candidate had already managed to suggest that Ben Bernanke ... was 'treasonous,' imply that President Obama doesn’t love America, and speculate that climate science was an elaborate, cynical fraud."

* Where Know-Nothings are the deciders.

News Ledes

Boston Globe: "Nearly 10 years after a worldwide clergy sexual abuse crisis erupted in the Boston Archdiocese, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley today released a long-awaited roster of 159 archdiocesan clerics who have been accused of sexually abusing children. But O’Malley’s action was immediately criticized by Attorney General Martha Coakley and advocates for clergy abuse victims because it lists only those priests who have already been publicly accused, and omits the names of dozens of accused priests from religious orders and other dioceses, as well as those who left the priesthood before accusations were leveled againt them."

New York Times: "The Security Council committee that monitors sanctions against Libya agreed on Thursday to unfreeze $1.5 billion in Libyan assets for emergency aid to the country, where rebel forces that have ousted Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are confronting a humanitarian crisis as they attempt to establish security and form a new government."

New York Times: "Rebels intensified their hunt for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his sons on Thursday, engaging in an intense fight with loyalists in a neighborhood of apartment blocks near his former Tripoli fortress, as Western officials said NATO was actively helping in the effort to find the elusive leader. But in a new taunt, Colonel Qaddafi urged Libyans in a brief audio broadcast to cleanse Tripoli of the insurgents, whom he called 'rats, crusaders and unbelievers.'”

Buffett Bails out BoA. New York Times: "Warren E. Buffett comes to the rescue, again. On Thursday, Berkshire Hathaway, run by Mr. Buffett, announced plans to invest $5 billion in Bank of America, a vote of confidence for the beleaguered financial firm. The conglomerate has agreed to buy 50,000 preferred shares that will pay a 6 percent annual dividend. Bank of America has the option to buy back the shares at any time for a 5 percent premium."

New York Times: "The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but ... plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and cost next to nothing. One proposal would allow millions of homeowners with government-backed mortgages to refinance them at today’s lower interest rates, about 4 percent, according to two people briefed on the administration’s discussions who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about the information."

Al Jazeera: "Rebel reinforcements have streamed into the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to join in the fight against Muammar Gaddafi loyalists, who are putting up strong resistance in some pockets of the city." With video. ...

... Al Jazeera's liveblog on Libya is here. ...

New York Times: Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over 'the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction' — expressed misgivings.."

New York Times: Naoto Kan, the embattled Japanese prime minister, is likely to step down by early next week, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday, a long-expected resignation that will nevertheless bring uncertainty to a country still reeling in the aftermath of its natural and nuclear disasters.

The Commentariat -- August 24

Tom Friedman, against all odds, comes up with half a plausible thesis: President Obama is "off his game." ...

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

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "Rick Perry is looking increasingly like the Republican favorite for President- he led in the Iowa poll we released this morning and he leads by double digits in the national poll we'll release tomorrow. The biggest beneficiary of Perry's rise? It might be Barack Obama. In our first national poll pitting the two Obama leads Perry 49-43.... It's a different story for Obama ... against Romney. There he can only achieve a tie at 45%, and because there are a lot more undecided Republicans than Democrats in all likelihood Romney would come out ahead if voters had to go to the polls and really make a decision today." ...

For all of you progressives who think it would be great to have someone other than Obama at the top of the Democratic ticket, Nate Silver looks at statistical data and the histoical record to demonstrate "Why Another Democrat Wouldn’t Do Better Than Obama in 2012." Silver, I should tell you, is almost never wrong.

** "A Sales Tax on Wall Street." Economics Prof. Nancy Folbre in the New York Times: "... a sales tax on Wall Street of 0.5 percent could raise up to $175 billion in tax revenue a year, even if, by discouraging frequent trades, it cuts the total number of transactions in half.... Speculative purchases of stocks, bonds and other financial instruments in the United States go untaxed but for a tiny fee (less than a half-cent) on stock trades that helps finance the Securities and Exchange Commission.... President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany recently announced plans to introduce a [sales] tax in the 27 nations of the European Community.... Wall Street hates it, because it would cut into trading profits. But proponents like Dean Baker ... assert that it would primarily affect short-term 'noise traders' and discourage speculation.... Less speculation could lead to less volatility in prices, encouraging long-term investors." CW: surely Republicans will go for it! Folbre doesn't say so, but this tax would mostly hit the rich. Thanks to Doug R. for the link.

Henry Blodgett of the Business Insider: "Why is Bank of America's stock tanking? Because the market thinks Bank of America is worth much less than Bank of America's management says it is.... After observing the government's behavior during the financial crisis, the obvious bet would be that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is even now cooking up some new bailout scheme that, per usual, will save the bank and hose taxpayers. But Americans certainly have gotten sick to death of bailouts, so maybe that isn't such a foregone conclusion this time.... UPDATE: In an extraordinary move, Bank of America has issued a statement addressing some of the 'claims' in this post. In addition to taking a shot at me personally...," BoA disputed some of the figures Blodgett cited. ...

     ... Blodgett has a follow-up post here. ...

... And Then There Were Three (Big Banks, That Is). Douglas McIntyre of 24/7 Wall Street: "There is a rumor circulated on Wall St. that JP Morgan ... will take over Bank of America ... within the week. The government will support the deal with a $100 billion investment in preferred shares issued by the combined entity. Alternatively, the government may guarantee the value of a large pool of Bank of America assets. The word is that Treasury Secretary Geithner has discussed the transaction with JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. The 'merger' would completely destroy the value of BAC’s common shares."

Leila Fadel and Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "With rebel fighters celebrating in the streets of Tripoli on Tuesday, opposition leaders in this eastern Libyan city now face tough questions about how they will guide the country through what is expected to be a tumultuous transition."

Mackenzie Weinger of Politico: "The vast majority of members [of Congress] lack an academic background in business or economics, according to a study by the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit group that takes a conservative stand on fiscal issues. Only 13.7 percent majored in business or accounting, and 8.4 percent have an economics degree.

PolitiFact: "Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-Ohio] says Wall Street hedge fund managers pay a lower tax rate than a typical sheet metal worker or a teacher."

Right Wing World

Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "Republicans like to complain that Democrats practice “class warfare” and “the politics of division,” as House GOP leader Eric Cantor argued on this page Monday. What the Republicans’ position on the payroll tax makes high-definitionally clear is their own class warfare on working- and middle-class Americans. Their double standard couldn’t be more obvious: Tax cuts for the wealthy are sacrosanct; tax cuts for everyone else don’t really matter. Norquist, Cantor, Ryan, Camp, the Journal editorialists and the whole Republican crew give hypocrisy a bad name." ...

... "Boundless Cynicism." Jim Fallows: "Through the artificial debt-ceiling 'crisis,' through the Moonie-like spectacle in Iowa of candidates (including Mr. Sanity, Jon Huntsman) raising hands to promise never to accept any tax increase, the Republican field has been absolutist and inflexible about not letting any revenue increase, in any form, be part of dealing with debts and deficits. Except, it now turns out, when the taxes are those that (a) weigh most heavily on the people who are already struggling, and (b) would have the most obvious 'job-killing' effect if they went up."

Getting It Backwards. Jim Tankersley of the National Journal: "Want a textbook example of Washington spin at its fiercest? ... [A] press release from House Speaker John Boehner’s office ... proclaim[ed]: 'Majority of economists say spending cuts needed to reduce deficit, not tax hikes.' Punchy headline. Convenient harmony with Republicans’ anti-tax message. Also, not true. In fact..., a wide majority of [survey] respondents believe the federal government should reduce its budget deficit with a combination of spending cuts and, at least in small part, tax increases. Only 12 percent said the deficit should be reduced 'only with spending cuts.'"

** Walter Shapiro in The New Republic writes a tour-de-force on "Rick Perry: The God-Fearing, Know-Nothing, Pistol-Packing Embodiment of Liberals’ Worst Nightmares." ...

Another option would be to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution (providing the power for the income tax) altogether, and then pursue an alternative model of taxation such as a national sales tax or the Fair Tax. -- Rick Perry, urging repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, which provided for a federal income tax

Jonathan Chait of The New Republic: Perry, of course, wants to devolve virtually all the functions of the federal government to the state level. That would, among other things, result in a far more regressive tax code. Consider the Texas tax system:

Texas relies heavily on its sales tax.... The poorest 20% of Texans paid an average of 6% of their income in sales tax, while the top fifth—households with an income of roughly more than $126,000 — paid 1.3%... [citation from the Wall Street Journal].

Perry's hatred of redistribution puts him perfectly in step with the current Republican Party, for whom opposition to the (downward) redistribution of wealth is the lodestar."

The Lord High Executioner. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "In his nearly 11 years as the state’s chief executive, [Gov. Rick] Perry ... has overseen more executions than any governor in modern history: 234 and counting. That’s more than the combined total in the next two states — Oklahoma and Virginia — since the death penalty was restored 35 years ago.... As the 2012 presidential race unfolds, Perry’s record will inevitably become part of the debate in a country where the number of death sentences handed down continues to fall and some states are renouncing executions.... [Perry] vetoed a bill that would have spared the mentally retarded, and sharply criticized a Supreme Court ruling that juveniles were not eligible for the death penalty.... And Perry’s role in the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham — who supporters said should have been at least temporarily spared when experts warned that faulty forensic science led to his conviction — is still the subject of investigation in Texas." ...

... CW: You thought Dubya was a poor student? Here's Rick Perry's Texas A and M transcript. Note the "D" in Principles of Economics. It was probably a gift:

Click for larger image.

I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. -- Rick Perry ...

... Getting It Backwards. Brad Plumer of the Washington Post: "It’s not just that Perry’s wrong. In many ways, the field of climate science is moving in precisely the opposite direction that he’s suggesting.... Much of the climate science that’s been published since 2007 appears to have strengthened the consensus, not weakened it." ...

... PolitiFact: "Perry's remarks give the impression that the science of global warming is in dispute, that some scientists feel one way, and some scientists feel another way. He says that skepticism is growing. In fact, our research shows that's not the case. We found that there is solid consensus among the major scientific organizations and that the skeptics seems to be small minority."

Alex Pareene of Salon on how bad a Ron Paul presidency would be for the nation, especially with a Republican Congress. CW: If you're feeling even a teeny bit depressed, you probably should not read Pareene's post; the scenario he envisions is disastrous.

Steve Kornacki of Salon: "How to make Sarah Palin disappear: ... if you're tired of all of the media oxygen that the former half-term Alaska governor still manages to consume, then you really should be hoping that Palin actually does get into the [presidential] race: It may be the best way of making her disappear for good. Why? Because a presidential campaign would almost certainly end in defeat for Palin. And not just any kind of defeat -- epic, humiliating defeat, the sort of disaster that might once and for all convince the political and media worlds that the empress has no clothes."

AND the East Coast Earthquake Is Obama's Fault. Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: "... So often, the president’s critics — on left and right — commentate as though Obama has some sort of magic button available for use at his sole discretion that can fix the economy, lower gas prices, instantly vaporize Moammar Gaddafi, rig congressional votes and, perhaps, prevent earthquakes — if only the president weren’t too busy doing other things to use it!" ...

... Media Matters: "Conservatives Can't Decide If Obama Was Too Busy Golfing Or Biking To Stop The Earthquake." ...

... Maureen O'Connor of Gawker: Earthquake hits near D.C.; Obama misses golf putt. "Finally, someone figured out why God sent an earthquake to the East Coast: To punish Barack Obama for vacationing." ...

He’s not deserving of criticism for the common cold on up. -- Jeb Bush, on President Obama ...

... Dan Hirschhorn of Politico: "Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned the Republican presidential hopefuls against ideological intransigence and knee-jerk opposition to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, saying they risk turning off middle-of-the-road voters."

News Ledes

NBC News: "Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since Jan. 17, resigned as chief executive of Apple Wednesday, saying he could 'no longer meet my duties and expectations.' Interim CEO Tim Cook was immediately elevated to CEO, while Jobs, 55, will stay on as chairman of the board." Includes CNBC video report.

New York Times: "The Congressional Budget Office sharply reduced its projection of total deficits over the next decade in the wake of the recent deficit-reduction deal between President Obama and Congress, yet it warned that the extension of Bush-era tax rates and other policies would more than offset those savings." The CBO budget summary report is here; the page includes a link to the full report.

New York Times: "Rebel fighters scoured Tripoli on Wednesday in their continued search for an elusive and defiant Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a day after they crashed through the gates of his fortresslike compound, running madly across its sprawling lawns, ransacking its barracks for weapons and carting off mementos of his 42-year dictatorship.... Colonel Qaddafi, in an address broadcast early Wednesday over a local Tripoli radio station, called his retreat from the compound 'tactical.' ... He blamed months of NATO airstrikes for bringing down his compound and vowed 'martyrdom' or victory in his battle against the alliance. It was the second such address by Colonel Qaddafi, 69, since his forces lost control of Tripoli." ...

... AP: "Supporters of Moammar Gadhafi have resumed attacks on rebels who say they control most of the Libyan leader's sprawling government compound."

... Al Jazeera's liveblog is here. ...

... Al Jazeera: A senior figure in Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) has urged all Libyans to come together to rebuild the country. Addressing a press conference in Qatar on Tuesday, Mahmoud Jibril said "Libyans need to heal and be united together, from every city and every neighbourhood. After the transition and elections, people who suffered injustices will regain their rights,' he promised." ...

... Reuters: Libyan rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Wednesday to discuss prospects for a political transition in a post-Muammar Gaddafi era."

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Irene gained strength Tuesday night and is now approaching major hurricane status (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale).... Hurricane Irene will track across the Bahamas the next couple of days on a path towards the East Coast of the U.S. Friday into the weekend."

     ... Updated story here. 

New York Times: "When the Federal Reserve chairman [Ben Bernanke] speaks at an annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyo., this Friday, markets will be searching for something, anything, that indicates whether more stimulus is on the way."

Washington Post: "Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading foreclosure settlement negotiations with the nation’s largest banks on behalf of all 50 states, abruptly removed New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from the coalition’s executive committee Tuesday, saying he had 'actively worked to undermine' the group’s efforts in recent months."