The Commentariat -- January 1

New Year's Eve, Times Square, New York City, 2011. CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.New York Times readers pick their top political moments of 2010. The Caucus writers pick a few more.

Robert Reich has a realistic; i.e., depressing, prediction for the U.S. economy in 2011.

Filibuster "Reform." Look for a watered-down, meaningless change you can't believe in:

     ... Brian Beutler of TPM: "A handful of junior Democrats, including Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), have done an impressive job building momentum for a package of modest, but meaningful, changes to the Senate's filibuster rules. But their plan could be completely upended and replaced by even more modest reforms, if Democratic and Republican leaders successfully negotiate a bipartisan rules reform compromise. In a phone interview with me Wednesday, Udall described negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) as a 'separate track' from his own efforts." ...

     ... David Waldman of the Daily Kos has a little on the history of "negotiated filibuster reforms." ...

     ... David Dayan of Firedoglake on the elements of the Merkeley plan. ...

     ... Here's more from Beutler on how the arcane procedure for changing procedures is supposed to proceed. ...

... Speaking of the do-nothing Senate, Steve Benen has more on Chief Justice John Roberts' plea to them to get off the dime on judiciary appointments. Senate Judiciary Committee Pat Leahy concurs with Robets. And Benen opines,

... Senate Republicans will do what they've been doing -- slowing everything down, blocking as many nominees as they can. But don't forget, the Senate will have very little else to do for the better part of two years. Over the last two years, Reid and the Democratic leadership had a lengthy to-do list, and couldn't eat up the calendar on nominees. GOP obstructionism meant it took at least three days for the Senate to consider one nominee, during which time the chamber could do nothing else, so more often than not, Reid just didn't bother. But that won't be much of a hindrance in 2011 and 2012, when the entire lawmaking process goes from difficult to impossible. ...

     ... Ezra Klein on filibustering judicial nominees.

Politico's "most memorable moments" video is okay till the end, which devolves into Palinostalgia:

      ... Stephanopoulos does a much better job:

I don't call [President Obama] a socialist because he's not. I don't doubt that he was born in Hawaii because he was. I don't call him a Muslim because he says he's a Christian. And I didn't say anything about death panels because there weren't any in that health care bill. -- Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC), on why he lost his primary race to a teabagger

Irony Alert! Amy Gardner of the Washington Post profiles Gena Bell, a grassroots tea party activist who was so opposed to President Obama & all that government spending -- that she decided to take a job with the government.

Rose Aguilar in Common Dreams: the public believes myths because well-paid spinmeisters repeat them over & over again & "teach" them to members of Congress who repeat them, and reporters & interviewers seldom or never challenge the spinners.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones makes what amounts to a general apologia for liberal compromisers (oh, you may want to think President Obama here). CW: personally, I'm not buying it. I think liberals compromise because they've done a piss-poor job -- compared to conservatives -- of explaining why their programs are better than conservative programs. Liberals compromise because they have failed to gain support for causes that are good for the majority of the public.

Linda Greenhouse interviews retired Justices Sandra Day O'Connor & David Souter on civics education. The interview begins about 7 min. in:

Evelyn Rusli of the New York Times: "U.S Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ... sold his Washington D.C. home at a $1 million loss last week.... Mr. Paulson ... first put his home on the market in April.... But don’t feel too bad for the former Treasury secretary. As Reuters pointed out, the loss will barely dent Mr. Paulson’s personal fortune, last estimated at $700 million."

The Commentariat -- December 31

The New York Times has 10 videos of different events of the year in review.

Francis Battista of Best Friends Animal Society: "Now that President Obama has jumped on the Michael Vick bandwagon with an official call to Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie to congratulate him for giving the quarterback another chance, all of us here at Best Friends are waiting for a call from the White House to congratulate us for giving Vick’s dogs a second chance. I’m quite sure that the other organizations that also took on some of the canine survivors of the football star’s dogfighting operation are similarly poised." Thanks to a progressive friend for the link; she signs herself "Sanctimonious Purrrrrist."

Sam Harris in Common Dreams suggests a New Year's resolution for the rich: let's sponsor a 21st-century Renaissance right here in the U.S.A. Thanks to Kate M. for the link.

Amy Lee of the Huffington Post: "For affluent Americans outraged by ... tax cuts ... [that were] extended for two more years, a trio of ... academics has furnished a way for them to put their money where their mouth is. Their new website, giveitbackforjobs.org, invites high-income Americans to calculate the value of their tax cut under the extension and then pledge to donate that money directly to charities.... The site doesn't accept contributions directly, but links users to the charities." CW Irony Alert: what Lee & other news writers on this story don't mention is that the rich who donate to these laudable charities will end up getting tax breaks for the donations; 100% of the donation will be deducted from their earned income & they won't have to pay taxes on it. It's a double tax cut!

** Jeffrey Sachs in the Guardian: "US politics, often decried for its 'partisanship', is all too bipartisan – in its deeply dysfunctional consensus on tax and wealth.... Obama swept to power on the promise of change. So far, there has been none. His administration is filled with Wall Street bankers. His top officials leave to join the banks, as his budget director Peter Orszag recently did. Obama is always ready to serve the interests of the rich and powerful, with no line in the sand, no limit to 'compromise'."

When $65 Million Is Not Enough. Miguel Helft of the New York Times: the Winklevoss twins fight on against Time's Man of the Year.

Washington Post: "There is an 'urgent need' for Senate Democrats and Republicans to put aside their bickering and fill federal judicial vacancies, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote Friday in his annual State of the Judiciary report."

AP: "Billy the Kid, the Old West outlaw who killed at least three lawmen and tried to cut a deal from jail with territorial authorities, won't be pardoned, Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday. The prospect of a pardon for the notorious frontier figure nearly 130 years after his death drew international attention to New Mexico, centering on whether Billy the Kid had been promised a pardon from New Mexico's territorial governor in return for testimony in killings he had witnessed. But the facts of the case didn't support a pardon, Richardson said Friday on ABC's 'Good Morning America.'" The ABC News story & interview of Gov. Richardson is here.

Marcus Baram of the Huffington Post: in his new epilogue to the paperback edition of The Promise, Jonathan Alter writes (according to Baram), that "the Obama administration's perceived failure to take laser-like aim at the unemployment crisis was partly due to the dysfunctional relationship between White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, top economic adviser Larry Summers and senior adviser David Axelrod, specifically the intransigence of Summers." ...

... "The New Voodoo." Paul Krugman is on hypocrisy patrol & he gives Congressional Republicans special dishonorable mention. ...

... Ezra Klein tries to define Obamanomics, & the best he can come up with is this: "... the Obama administration sought to support or improve private markets." Krugman & Wells, whom we linked yesterday, do a better job. But they would. ...

... On the stupidity of tea party demands to attach some Article of the Constitution to every House bill, Klein does a better job. ...

... Steve Benen adds, "... all of this is part of a larger, misguided push intended to show that conservatives are the Constitution's true champions. But ... it's crazy. We are, after all, talking about a House Republican caucus with leaders who support allowing states to overturn federal laws they don't like. In recent years, congressional Republicans ... have advocated constitutional concepts that were discredited generations ago."

John Broder of the New York Times: "With the federal government set to regulate climate-altering gases from factories and power plants for the first time beginning on Sunday, the Obama administration and the new Congress are headed for a clash that carries substantial risks for both sides."

CW: since I don't read the Wall Street Journal editorial page, naturally I missed this op-ed by famed First Amendment defender Floyd Abrams in which he trashes Julian Assange & WikiLeaks. Jack Shafer's answer to Abrams is mighty fine; Shafer makes it pretty clear that the uninformed Abrams has bought into some of those "smears & misconceptions" outlined below. CW: the trouble with having too many friends in high places is that you start to believe the high-placed friends.

Julianne Shepherd & Tana Ganeva in AlterNet: "8 Smears and Misconceptions about WikiLeaks Spread by the Media."

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "Partly because of its design but also because of confusion among its users, the [State Department] database [known as Net-Centric Diplomacy] became an inadvertent repository for a vast array of State Department cables.... Unfortunately for the department, the system lacked features to detect the unauthorized downloading by Pentagon employees and others of massive amounts of data.... The result was a disastrous setback for U.S. diplomatic efforts around the globe."

Bumping the TSA. Derek Kravitz of the Washington Post: "Some of the nation's biggest airports are responding to recent public outrage over security screening by weighing whether they should hire private firms ... to replace the Transportation Security Administration. Sixteen airports, including San Francisco and Kansas City International Airport, have made the switch since 2002." ...

... Meanwhile ... Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "The air traffic controllers in the Washington region, who direct more than 1.5 million flights, have made a record number of mistakes this year, triggering cockpit collision warning systems dozens of times."

Susan Jacoby, ever the realist, has a very fine op-ed in the New York Times about what to really expect from old age.

Ginger Thompson & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Since leaving the White House, [Lanny] Davis has built a client list that now includes coup supporters in Honduras, a dictator in Equatorial Guinea, for-profit colleges accused of exploiting students, and a company that dominates the manufacture of additives for infant formula. This month, he agreed to represent the Ivory Coast strongman whose claims to that country’s presidency have been condemned by the international community.... [Davis's] role in West Africa has stoked growing criticism that Mr. Davis has become a kind of front man for the dark side, willing to take on some of the world’s least noble companies and causes."

"Man with a Movie Camera" Redux

This film deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject. (1) Because of its wonderful quality. (2) Because of its role as homage. It is directly inspired by Dziga Vertov's 1929 silent classic 'Man With a Movie Camera.' (3) Because it represents an almost unbelievable technical proficiency. -- Roger Ebert, written without irony

Here's the Vertov film:

Not that this isn't an artistic classic: