The Commentariat -- June 17

I've posted an Open Thread for today's Off Times Square. There's lots to talk about.

New York Times Editors: "Partisan brinkmanship or not, Mr. Obama ... needs to go to Congress and make his case. Congress then needs to authorize continued American support for NATO’s air campaign over Libya."

Former President Jimmy Carter, in a New York Times op-ed, reminds us that before President Reagan's "war on drugs," the U.S. had developed a sensible drug policy. Carter cites his own 1977 articulation of that policy, which he says was "widely accepted at the time." He concludes, "... the American government should support and enact the reforms laid out by the Global Commission on Drug Policy." CW: See also Rep. Hansen Clarke's remarks in the videopost in yesterday's Commentariat. In the long list of ways Ronald Reagan turned this country in the wrong direction, the war on drugs is a huge -- and too seldom-mentioned -- one.

Another Way Ronald Reagan Turned the Country in the Wrong Direction. OR Ronald Reagan -- Still Making Us Miserable. Stephanie Pappas of Live Science: Income inequality is costing Americans their happiness. "Americans are happier in times when the gap between rich and poor is smaller, a new study finds. The reason, according to research to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, is that when the income gap is large, lower- and middle-income people feel less trusting of others and expect people to treat them less fairly. The study also provides a potential explanation for why American happiness hasn't risen along with national wealth in the last 50 years. 'Income disparity has grown a lot in the U.S., especially since the 1980s,' study researcher Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia said in a statement."

Michael Grunwald of Time: "I’m thrilled the Senate voted to kill the [ethanol] industry’s fiscally and ecologically ludicrous tax credit. But it was galling — if not too surprising – to hear Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, complain that the 'ill-advised' vote would 'pull the rug out from under industry.' That’s the whole point!" Grunwald elaborates.

David Brooks writes a pretty good article about James Johnson and the Fannie Mae crisis. Since this is a Democratic scandal, he would. But the fact that Democratic paw-prints are all over it, does not make the behavior of Johnson, Barney Frank (and the unmentioned Barack Obama, who appointed Johnson to head his vice-presidential search committee) and other Democratic "leaders" any less disgusting. I hope this story, which Brooks borrows from Gretchen Morgenson & Joshua Rosner's new book Reckless Endangerment (because Brooks' columns are essentially rewrites of other people's stuff), gets more coverage in left-leaning media.

Ezra Klein: "The right way to cut Medicaid costs" is sure as hell not the Republican way.

New York Times Editors: "There is no excuse for Mr. Weiner’s behavior, but it is worth noting the cynical way lawmakers from both houses and both parties piled on to demand his resignation."

Prof. Sara Lipton, in a New York Times op-ed: "For most of Western history, the primary and most valued characteristic of manhood was self-mastery. Late antique and Roman writers, like Plutarch, lauded men for their ability to resist sexual temptation and control bodily desire through force of will and intellect. Too much sex was thought to weaken men...."

For a Feel-Really-Good post, do read Tim Egan's essay on the Canyon de Chelly.

So, here's the lede in the top story in the Chicago Sun-Times: "Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday defended the decision by his handpicked school board to cancel 4 percent pay raises for Chicago teachers, arguing that teachers have gotten two types of pay raises since 2003 while students got 'the shaft.'” ...

... AND here's a top headline from yesterday's Chicago Tribune: "Mayor Rahm Emanuel moved more than $1.8 million out of municipal bonds and into more broad-based funds in the months before he announced his run for office, according to disclosure records released Thursday that show assets between $6.2 million and $16.6 million." ...

... CW: I did not used to be prejudiced against millionaires & billionaires who ran for public office. I thought noblesse-oblige was okay. I've changed my mind. Not every millionaire or billionaire is isolated from reality. But so many of 'em are it tends to disqualify the very, very few who might know what it means to need a job or worry in your old age that you may die of starvation. In the news, we have millionaire Emanuel telling teachers an effective raise of 4% over eight years is swell, millionaire John Edwards asking billionaire Bunny Mellon to give him some more millions & millionaire Mitt Romney jokingly complaining he's unemployed:

I’m also unemployed. -- Mitt Romney, to some unemployed Floridians ...

... William Gibson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Romney was speaking light-heartedly, but Democrats called [the remark] a clueless and insensitive reference in a state with a double-digit unemployment rate." ...

... Joshua Green of The Atlantic: "Mitt Romney's Weirdness" is becoming the conventional wisdom that will likely haunt the candidate. ...

... BUT. Michael Scherer of Time is more forgiving. He also provides the provenance of the "I'm unemployed" joke, which is a little funnier, completely appropriate, and obviously prepared & vetted by Romney's staff:

It’s nice to be so warmly recognized. I’m not always recognized where I go, by the way. The other day I made a phone call. I was trying to dial for dollars, trying to help some of our friends around the country. I called a big executive’s office. His assistant answered the phone. I said, ‘I’m Mitt Romney, can I talk to’ what-his-name-was. And she said, ‘What’s the name of your company?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I’m currently unemployed.’ -- Mitt Romney, speaking at a New Hampshire campaign event

... AND. Ezra Klein: Romney's analysis of the economy is worse than his jokes about the economy. ...

... ALSO. Matt Yglesias makes perhaps the most obvious, but otherwise unmentioned, point of all: "Mitt Romney Is Not Unemployed." Yglesias explains why. CW: the important distinction Yglesias makes is one that I'm not sure Mitt -- or many national politicians -- get. At all.

... MEANWHILE, Karen Garcia finds the first draft of Barack Obama's Dinner with the President sweepstakes announcement. ...

BUT ... Looks as if the President Isn't All Bad. Peter Wallsten & Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: It was supposed to be the White House’s latest make-nice session with corporate America — a visit by Chief of Staff William M. Daley to a meeting with hundreds of manufacturing executives in town to press lawmakers for looser regulations. But the outreach soon turned into a rare public dressing down of the president’s policies with his highest-ranking aide. One by one, exasperated executives stood to air their grievances on environmental regulations and stalled free-trade deals." CW: so what I'm thinking is that if these guys -- who could not care less about the environmental impact of their factories and even less about the economic impact of their cheesy wages -- are unhappy, then Obama is doing something right. ...

... BUT, BUT. Matthew Jaffe of ABC News: "The frustrations and the fears that progressives feel about President Obama were on full display Thursday as thousands of them flocked to Minneapolis for the sixth annual Netroots Nation conference." ...

... Read more about the Netroots Nation conference here. They're livestreaming a good chunk of the proceedings.

On seizing debate opportunity re: healthcare: Me 0, Mitt 1. On doing healthcare reform the right way as governor: Me 1, Mitt 0
-- Tim Pawlenty, always ready with a pithy, tweety comeback -- four days later

Local News

Do you want to drink pee? -- Portland, Oregon, Water Bureau Administrator David Shaff, on why the bureau drained a city reservoir after a man was caught on camera urinating into it

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Senate Intelligence Committee is looking into allegations that a CIA official in the Bush administration was asked to gather personal information on [Prof. Juan Cole,] a prominent critic of the Iraq War, in order to discredit and 'get' him.... 'The Committee is looking into this,' Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the intel committee, said in a statement.... 'Depending on what we find, we may take further action.'”

AP: "Syrian security forces fired on thousands of protesters Friday, killing a teenage boy and at least 15 other civilians as accounts emerged of more indiscriminate killing and summary executions by the autocratic regime of President Bashar Assad, activists said." Al Jazeera print, video stories here.

Reuters: "The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth on Friday and warned Washington and debt-ridden European countries that they are 'playing with fire' unless they take immediate steps to reduce their budget deficits." ...

... Washington Post: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed down Friday from insisting that private investors be made to shoulder part of any further bailout for Greece, easing fears of an imminent Greek default but raising the possibility that she could face rebellion at home."

AP: "The United Nations endorsed the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people for the first time ever Friday, passing a resolution hailed as historic by the U.S. and other backers and decried by some African and Muslim countries. The declaration was cautiously worded, expressing 'grave concern' about abuses because of sexual orientation and commissioning a global report on discrimination against gays."

** AP: "The Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution advocating a path to legal status for illegal immigrants. The resolution was passed on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the nation’s largest protestant denomination in Phoenix. It also calls on Southern Baptists to reject bigotry and to minister to all people, regardless of immigration status. The language is similar to the immigration reform principles President Obama has outlined." CW: this is revolutionary. And it could matter.

Reuters: "U.S. regulators could file civil fraud charges against some credit-rating agencies for their role in developing mortgage-bond deals that helped bring about the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Journal said the Securities and Exchange Commission was reviewing the conduct of companies including McGraw Hill's Standard and Poor's and Moody's Investors Service owned by Moody's Corp on at least two mortgage-bond deals."

AP: "Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou replaced his finance minister Friday in a broad cabinet reshuffle to counter widespread anger over tough new austerity measures essential to prevent Greece from a disastrous default. The critical position which has been held by George Papaconstantinou since the debt crisis began in late 2009, will now be taken over by Evangelos Venizelos, a Socialist heavyweight who challenged Papandreou for the party leadership four years ago."

New York Times: "Syria’s most powerful businessman, a confidant and cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, announced on Thursday that he was quitting business and moving to charity work, Syrian television said. The move, if true, would suggest that Mr. Assad was so concerned about the continuing protests that he would sacrifice a relative to public anger."

The Sleaziest Man Alive. Or Ever. ABC News: "Just weeks before federal prosecutors charged John Edwards in a six-count felony indictment, ABC News has been told, the two-time Democratic presidential candidate requested millions of dollars from Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon, the banking heiress whose financial support of Edwards is at the center of the criminal case."

Wall Street Journal: police removed a heckler who works for shock jock Howard Stern from Anthony Weiner's press conference yesterday & issued a disorderly conduct summons to a freelance photographer previously convicted of manslaughter.

The Commentariat -- June 16

This Is Not a Movie. But this speech is as dramatic, moving & cynamatic as ever came from any actor in any film. This is Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.) speaking at one of Peter King's anti-Islam committee hearings. The subject here: prisoner "radicalization"; i.e., becoming Muslim. Here's the story by Benjy Sarlin of TPM:

Nicholas Kristof sees "our lefty military" as a good model for society: after all, it has low income disparity, great educational, healthcare and daycare benefits, high racial integration and a true sense of camaraderie. ...

... I've opened a comments page for Kristof's column on Off Times Square.

** Prof. Juan Cole responds to James Risen's New York Times report that the Bush Administration asked the CIA to obtain damaging information about him (Cole): Retired CIA official Glenn"Carle’s revelations come as a visceral shock.... Carle is taking a substantial risk in making all this public. I hope that the Senate and House Intelligence Committees will immediately launch an investigation of this clear violation of the law by the Bush White House and by the CIA officials concerned. Like Mr. Carle, I am dismayed at how easy it seems to have been for corrupt WH officials to suborn CIA personnel into activities that had nothing to do with national security abroad and everything to do with silencing domestic critics." Risen's story, also linked in today's Ledes, is here. ...

     ... CW: I'm sorry the Weiner resignation is going to push the Cole story to the sidelines, because I think the Bush Administration's attempt to dig up dirt on a university professor to discredit his criticism of their policies is a lot more important than Weinerpix. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Twitter claims its first major political casualty." ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM is disgusted with the Democratic leadership's calls for Weiner's resignation & efforts to strip him of his committee seats. ...

... BUT Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "Weiner’s colleagues turned on him almost certainly because he lied, and because of how he lied — because of the very specific lie that he told.... Claiming to have been hacked when it wasn’t true was too specific a lie. It meant that colleagues who were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt repeated that lie.... And while they might have been willing to forgive Weiner for misbehavior, it’s a lot harder to forgive him for tricking them into telling lies to their own constituents." ...

... CW: SO I tend to agree with attorney Jonathan Turley's take on the Weiner affair, who makes several points I've made myself & some legal ones that I haven't. ...

... What Matters to the Media. Brian Beutler of TPM has a terrific video (below) & print report on Nancy Pelosi's regular Thursday presser. All the networks were breathless on the run-up to the press conference & all cut to it as soon as she stepped up to the podium. But the minute she said she would not make any remarks about Weiner but would speak about "jobs..., Medicare and the middle class," the networks cut away. The evidence:

     ... In case you thought you were watching news of importance to the nation when you tuned in to your favorite news channel, this should disabuse you of that idea.

Louise Story of the New York Times: "Regulators overseeing financial reform are delaying many of the planned changes in the $600 trillion market for complex securities known as derivatives< because they are running drastically behind schedule in writing their new rules. The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday that market participants would not have to comply with many aspects of derivatives reform scheduled to take effect in mid-July. It declined to specify how long the delay would be in the equity derivatives it oversees. The announcement follows a similar statement on Tuesday from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, although that agency imposed a year-end deadline for many of the changes in the derivatives it oversees."

Glenn Greenwald on the illegality of U.S. participation in the Libyan war: "The growing bipartisan pressure on the White House today forced the President to once again offer a painfully ludicrous justification for why he is permitted to wage this war in Libya: namely, that the U.S. role is so limited that it does not require Congressional approval.... It is also worth noting that the War Powers Resolution, on its face, is not triggered by a 'war,' but rather 'any case in which U.S. Armed Forces are introduced into hostilities.'" ...

... We’re not engaged in hostilities, we’re just launching courtesy bombs! -- Translation of the Administration's Libya justification by John Cole of Balloon Juice

Fred Schulte, et al., of the Center for Public Integrity: "More than two years after President Obama took office vowing to banish 'special interests' from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests or attended numerous elite White House meetings and social events...." ...

... Jay Carney's truly lame responses:

Dana Milbank: "In formal settings — news conferences, or Monday night’s debate — [Mitt] Romney is confident and competent. But in casual moments, such as Tuesday morning’s retail politics in New Hampshire, his weirdness comes through — equal parts 'Leave It to Beaver' corniness and social awkwardness." Read Milbank's column for the details. Romney sounds like the kind of guy whose comments would cause you to get up & move to another table.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The House approved large cuts in food aid for the poor and various agriculture programs on Thursday after a steely weeklong debate that pitted Democrats against Republicans, and farm-state members against those within their own party who vehemently oppose certain types of farm aid. At the same time, the Senate voted 73 to 27 to end tax credits and trade protection that benefit the corn-based ethanol industry, with broad bipartisan backing. As a practical matter, the measure ending federal ethanol benefits will probably not become law because it is part of a larger measure that is likely to fail." The House vote probably won't go anywhere, either.

Los Angeles Times: California "Gov. Jerry Brown issued a historic veto of the budget approved by Democratic lawmakers hours after they passed it, opening wide a rift within his own party and throwing the state's financial future into limbo. The Democrats had pushed through the spending plan Wednesday, relying heavily on crafty accounting to patch over the state's deficit, after the governor's talks with Republicans on a tax package faltered. On Thursday morning, Brown called the budget 'unbalanced.'"

The New York Times has obtained from court papers some fairly mundane statements Dominique Strauss-Kahn made following his detention.

... Contains audible crude remarks from at least one member of the crowd.

** Politico: "Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will resign from his seat in Congress, heeding calls from President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and dozens of other congressional Democrats, sources confirm to POLITICO." New York Times story here. ...

     ... Updated Times lede: "Representative Anthony D. Weiner, an influential Democrat who had been considered a leading candidate to be the next mayor of New York City, said Thursday that he was resigning from Congress following revelations of lewd online exchanges with several women."

** New York Times: "A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him. Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.... Mr. Carle, who retired in 2007, has not previously disclosed his allegations. He did so only after he was approached by The New York Times, which learned of the episode elsewhere."

New York Times: "Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s No. 2, is assuming the leadership of the organization, less than two months after Osama bin Laden was killed by American special forces, the group said in a statement posted online Thursday. Mr. Zawahri, 59, an Egyptian who long served as second in command to Bin Laden, had been expected to inherit leadership of the terrorist organization after Bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2. 

Dennis Kucinich: "Congressmen Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Walter Jones (R-NC) today [Wednesday] led a bipartisan group of 10 Members of Congress to file a suit in federal court against President Barack Obama to challenge the commitment of the United States to war in Libya absent the required constitutional legal authority."

Time: "Notorious hacker group LulzSec isn't pulling punches — it now claims to have taken down the CIA's website just today, Wednesday afternoon."

The Commentariat -- June 15

"The President's Speech" -- the Movie. So nearly three million people watched this video before I got around to it. Fortunately, a reader's octogenarian cousin is hipper than I am, & the reader clued me in. Thanks to both of them:

I've got another Open Thread on Off Times Square today, the last few have been so terrific. If you've been away, read Monday & Tuesdays' comments to catch up. The exchange has been a pleasure and has lots of followers.

** Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: French cognitive social scientists have developed an "argumentative theory of evolution" which concludes that the purpose of reasoning is not to help "us to get better beliefs and make better decisions." Instead, “It was a purely social phenomenon. It evolved to help us convince others and to be careful when others try to convince us,” says Hugo Mercier, one of the French scholars. "Truth and accuracy were beside the point." CW: this really helps explain how Republicans, especially, but politicians in general, persuade with lies. The article is fascinating, and helps explain why we can't "win" our discussions with our conservative friends.

Tom Friedman highlights the teaching of Michael Sandel, a political philosopher who uses the Socratic method to teach his course & lead other discussions. Friedman says he & Sandel are close friends, which of course is a strike against Sandel, but I'm keeping an open mind. PBS has videos of Sandel's course online, & I'll give them a whirl when I get a chance -- like late next week.

"So No One's Responsible?" New York Times Editors: "With Justice Clarence Thomas writing for a 5-to-4 majority, the Supreme Court has made it much harder for private lawsuits to succeed against mutual fund malefactors, even when they have admitted to lying and cheating."

"Down the Memory Hole." Jared Bernstein: "Listening to the Republican debate..., I was once again struck by the extent to which these folks are stuck in a tattered old box when it comes to economic policy. Deregulation, supply-side tax cuts, turn the entitlements over to the market, etc.... the very agenda that got us into this mess."

Mark Bittman has more on farmworker slavery in Southwest Florida. This is not just a local story, as Bittman reveals, because major grocery chains all around the U.S. are refusing to give farmworkers a penny a pound more for their back-breaking labor, even tho Wal-Mart & some of the fast-food chains have acquiesced. Bittman doesn't tell the whole story, of course. Here's one tidbit he didn't include: even after McDonald's & Burger King, et al., agreed to the penny a pound, they refused to pay the workers till enough other corporations agreed to the deal. Instead, they put their penny a pound in escrow. How to you think a farmworker spends a penny that's in escrow? Then the corporate creeps, who were still not releasing the money to farmworkers, put up signs in their "restaurants" saying they had to raise their prices because they had to pay so much more for tomatoes as a result of farmworker pressure!

Karen Garcia: Save the Desert Tortoise! ... Website! ... from Joe Biden!

Right Wing World *

Oh, if you live in the Tampa-St. Pete area, you could send the kids to Tea Party summer camp. Warning: they promise they are not "politically correct."

Tea Leaves. David Drucker of Roll Call: Republicans in Congress ponder the effects -- on themselves, of course -- of the sudden rise of Michele Bachmann's star after her good showing in Monday's Republican debate. They can't decide whether to cheer because she's not around to cause problems or worry because her popularity will shine a light on the Tea Party's failure to bring down the government.

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post does a pretty good job of debunking a Republican argument you're going to hear throughout campaign season, and which both Romney & to a worser (a good enough word, as applied here) extent, Bachmann used in Monday's debate. Romney: "Obamacare takes $500 billion out of Medicare and funds Obamacare." Kessler's answer is complicated, but here's a two-part shorthand answer you can use to counter Republican parrots: (1) The savings come from cutting payments to healthcare providers, not from cutting Medicare benefits -- that is, they don't cut Medicare benefits; they just make Medicare cheaper. (2) All but four Republican House members & most Republican Senators voted FOR the $500 billion Medicare savings because it's part of the Ryan/Republican Tea Party budget. If the way Obamacare cuts down on Medicare costs is so bad, why did all the Republicans vote for it?

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Obama administration argued Wednesday that its nearly three-month-old military involvement in Libya does not require congressional approval because of the supporting role most U.S. forces are playing there, a position that puts it at odds with some Republican leaders and the antiwar wing of its own party. The White House reasoning, included in a 32-page report to Congress, is the administration’s first detailed response to complaints from lawmakers of both parties, who say President Obama has exceeded his authority as commander in chief by waging war in Libya without congressional authorization." You can read the White House rationale here.

Politico: "More than a quarter of the Senate is calling on President Barack Obama to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan beginning with the planned initial troop reduction next month as part of a 'sizeable and sustained' effort to end the Afghan war. In a letter sent Wednesday, 26 Democrats, one independent, and two Republicans – Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky – ask the president to approve the withdrawal of a significant number of troops in July. Lee and Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Udall of New Mexico were the lead authors of the letter." The Washington Post has a draft copy of the letter with a partial list of the signers.

New York Times: "In the latest sign that the economic recovery may have lost whatever modest oomph it had, more small businesses say that they are planning to shrink their payrolls than say they want to expand them. That is according to a new report released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group that regularly surveys its membership of small businesses across America."

Reuters: "Worried that Congress will not act in time to raise the country's borrowing cap, the Obama administration is enlisting the business community to persuade lawmakers that a default will have dire consequences. Outgoing White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee is set to talk to a slew of business representatives this week...." Also, see Fed Chair Ben Bernanke's remarks below. ...

... Politico: "Robust, strongly felt exchanges marked White House budget talks Tuesday as the focus turned back onto discretionary spending and the huge divide still between House Republicans and the Obama administration’s domestic agenda. 'We’re down to the real tough stuff right now, everybody is in the room… everybody’s still in the game,' Vice President Joe Biden told reporters as he left the Capitol after the more than two hour meeting."

ABC News: "The White House responded Tuesday to House Speaker John Boehner's warning that President Obama will soon be in violation of the War Powers Resolution – three months after the president informed Congress of the start of the mission in Libya – because the White House has failed to answer ;fundamental questions regarding the Libya mission.'" In a statement, Tommy Vietor, NSC spokesman said the White House was "preparing extensive information for the House and Senate that will address a whole host of issues about our ongoing efforts in Libya...."

San Francisco Chronicle: "The Senate refused Tuesday to end $6 billion in ethanol subsidies, defeating an amendment by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that crystallized a larger ideological split within the GOP over whether removing tax subsidies is a tax increase or is a legitimate way to trim the $1.5 trillion federal deficit.... The 40-59 vote split the GOP." CW: but stay tuned. Majority Leader Harry Reid promises another vote soon. It appears many of the Democratic nay votes were motivated by procedural nonsense.

Reuters: "Hundreds of Florida homeowners suffering with tainted Chinese drywall will share $55 million in a deal that also accuses a global drywall maker of lying about the product's safety, according to court documents."

Ben Bernanke, speaking on Tuesday about the necessity to raise the debt ceiling: