The Commentariat -- April 13

Artwork by Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone.** "The Real Housewives of Wall Street." Matt Taibbi of Rollng Stone on the Secret, Unofficial Budget in which Ben Bernanke & people you never heard of lend billions of your money at next to zero interest to firms that don't need it, that don't deserve it (shoddy hedge funds! Muammar Gaddafi!) & that may lend it back to the government at three percent, and if you're really lucky, to you at some usurious rate. Taibbi zeroes in on a $220 million risk-free Fed loan to two socialite ladies who had almost no business experience, a tax-free Caymen Islands vanity firm & prominent bankster husbands. Thanks to reader Karen S. for the link. And, as always, thanks to Sen. Bernie Sanders for making this info. semi-accessible (Bernanke is holding back all the info he can). CW: you might find reading in this format easier, but you'll have to click thru the pages.

The Official Budget

Here are the details of the FY 2011 budget cuts from the House Appropriations Committee in a fairly annoying Scribd format. Ezra Klein put them into handy, if fuzzy, graph form, that compares the cuts to FY 2010's budget (blue) & Obama's proposed budget (green):

... Lisa Mascaro of the Los Angeles Times: "The previously undisclosed reductions stunned advocates for community health centers, foreign aid and climate change research. Among the cuts is a $500-million reduction in funding for the federal health and nutrition program for women, infants and children, known as WIC. Democrats staved off even bigger cuts, but the final package carried a decidedly Republican policy stamp." ...

... BUT. Andrew Taylor of the AP: "... the picture already emerging is of legislation financed with a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially 'score' as savings to pay for spending elsewhere, but that often have little to no actual impact on the deficit. As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber passed a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion." ...

... AND Tim Fernholz of the National Journal: "... the final cuts in the deal are advertised as $38.5 billion less than was appropriated in 2010, but after removing rescissions, cuts to reserve funds, and reductions in mandatory spending programs, discretionary spending will be reduced only by $14.7 billion." CW: That is, the White House gave Republicans bragging rights but not so much in the way of cuts, or as Fernholz put it, the administration showed "a willingness to concede on rhetoric to find gains on substance." ...

... AND Derek Thompson of The Atlantic has a handy rundown of "real" cuts & "phantom" cuts negotiated in the budget deal. He does caution that these figures are debatable; that is, some of "phantom" cuts may represent real money that could have been spent elsewhere. ...

Glenn Greenwald tells liberal pundits to get real & quit lamenting President Obama's "ineptitude"; Obama is a shrewd negotiator who is getting exactly what he wants.

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post gives President Obama & Speaker Boehner passes for exaggerating the magnitude of the budget cuts, but he gives the media two Pinocchios for letting them get away with the "biggest cuts in history" boast.

... Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: during budget negotiations, "... a handful of relatively small-bore line items affecting particular industries attracted some of the most aggressive lobbying behind the scenes, as business interests, health care providers and others fought to hold on to, or kill, proposals that affected their bottom line." One of the most inexplicable victims of that lobbying effort -- Sen. Ron Wyden's Healthy Americans Act -- which allowed some workers to opt for healthcare insurance exchanges & which had nothing to do with budgetary concerns. ...

... Alexander Bolton of The Hill: Wyden says he may vote against the budget bill. ...

... Michael O'Brien & Jordan Fabian of The Hill: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he's considering a filibuster of the budget agreement to fund the government for the remainder of this fiscal year."

The budget is a moral document. -- Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska):

Andrew Leonard of Salon: Republicans, fighting Medicare since 1964. Here's some Democratic pushback -- that worked (anybody remember President Goldwater?):

Paul Krugman suggests a VA-style public option for Medicare. He admits it won't happen because "... what would terrify the right, of course, is the likelihood that genuine socialized medicine would actually" be popular. ...

... The Progressive Change Campaign Committee asks you to "Sign the petition [to] President Obama:

If you cut Medicare and Medicaid benefits for me, my parents, my grandparents, or families like mine, don't ask for a penny of my money or an hour of my time in 2012. I'm going to focus on electing bold progressive candidates -- not Democrats who help Republicans make harmful cuts to key programs.

... If the President begins the discussion by saying we must increase taxes on the American people – as his budget does - my response will be clear: tax increases are unacceptable and are a nonstarter. We don’t have deficits because Americans are taxed too little, we have deficits because Washington spends too much. And, at a time when the American people face skyrocketing prices at the pump, energy tax hikes are a particularly bad idea. -- John Boehner ...

     ... CW: parse what Boehner says. This is not a read-my-lips statement. It depends on where Obama "begins" the conversation, he says. Just last week Boehner said he would "have the conversation" about tax hikes. And his spokesman said the statement above "doesn't preclude discussion."

Mark Ambinder of the National Journal, who has his White House sources, lays out what President Obama will say today: "Obama’s political strategy ... is to force the belligerents to deal on his terms.... Obama will set the limits now, and spend the next six months pushing hard to make sure Republicans can’t cross them. He will not accept Ryan’s proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system, nor will he endorse the breakup of Medicaid into block grants for the states. He will not accept a deficit-reduction plan that draws all of its force from government-transfer programs aimed at poor and middle-class Americans. He will not accept a plan that doesn’t ask the rich to pay more, both by raising marginal income tax rates back to pre-2003 levels for some and by lifting the cap on wages subject to the Social Security tax."

David Leonhardt of the New York Times: if Congress does nothing, the deficit will shrink -- a lot. CW: Ezra Klein made this same point the other day. The secret to the do-nothing remedy: the Bush tax cuts expire.

CW: I don't do polls, but ...

     ... SOME are too good to ignore. CNN: "Donald Trump is now tied with Mike Huckabee for first place when Republicans are asked who they support for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, according to a new national poll." ...

     ... AND there's this from Public Policy Polling, a Democratic pollster with a good rep for reliability: "PPP's newest national poll finds that after a little more than 3 months in charge House Republicans have fallen so far out of favor with the American public that it's entirely possible Democrats could take control of the House back next year." ...

     ... AND Another New Poll Just Like the Old Polls. Susan Page of USA Today: Americans "Overwhelmingly oppose making major changes to Medicare. By 2-to-1, they support minor changes or none at all to control costs, rather than major changes or a complete overhaul. Even a third of Republicans say the government should not try to control the costs of Medicare." They "Favor imposing higher taxes on families with household incomes of $250,000 and above, as Obama has endorsed: 59% support the idea, 37% oppose it."

Mitt Romney finally takes a stand on something "controversial." Kasie Hunt of Politico: "Mitt Romney forcefully said Tuesday night that he believes President Barack Obama was born in America and that 'the citizenship test has been passed.'"

Right Wing World *

Al Franken stole the Minnesota Senate election, and other nonsense from Michele Bachmann. ...

... Like this: Something else that we can do to reinforce our pro-marriage, pro-life, pro-family agenda is to limit the subject-matter jurisdiction of the courts.... We have it within our authority to decide what judges can rule on and what they can’t. -- Michelle Bachmann

Your Tax Dollars Devoted to Amateur Lit Crit. Rand Paul, still on his light-bulb kick (he opposes energy-efficient bulbs -- and toilets!) provides a Congressional Committee with a synopsis & exegesis of Ayn Rand's novel Anthem. He mispronounces "Ayn," but why quibble? Besides, the mispronunciation could be a subtle part of his pushback against the Rand Paul Birther Cabal who assert Sen. Randy is named after Ayn Rand:

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

Another "Threaten Lazy Bureaucrats Day." Wisconsin Politics: "Gov. Scott Walker says he may have to again consider laying off state employees if his collective bargaining law remains tied up in the courts for much more than the next week or two."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Barry Bonds, the former outfielder who hit more career home runs than anyone else in baseball history, was convicted Wednesday of a single count of obstruction of justice, but a federal jury here could not reach a verdict on the question of whether Bonds had lied about never knowingly using steroids during his career."

Al Jazeera: "The international contact group on Libya has agreed to set up a temporary 'trust fund' to help channel assets to the opposition Transitional National Council in Benghazi.... The group united to call on Libya's longterm leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down.... The financial mechanism being set up will allow international donations to be made directly available to Gaddafi's opponents -- possibly from frozen assets of the Gaddafi administration."

Politico: "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has had conversations with top Wall Street executives, asking how close Congress could push to the debt limit deadline without sending interests rates soaring and causing stock prices to go lower, people familiar with the matter said. Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Tuesday night that he was not aware of any such conversations."

President Obama spoke about fiscal policy earlier this aternoon. Wall Street Journal: "In a midday speech in Washington, Mr. Obama will propose a plan that includes cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare, limits on military spending and an overhaul of the tax system designed to bring in more revenue. To pre-empt criticism from lawmakers, Mr. Obama is hosting congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday morning to preview his goals." AP story here. ...

     ... Update: here's the Washington Post's story on the President's speech. New York Times story here. See video clips in left column.

Washington Post: "Egypt’s top prosecutor has ordered former President Hosni Mubarak and his sons detained for 15 days for questioning about the origins of their family’s wealth, Egypt’s state-run television station reported Wednesday. The news comes a day after the former president was hospitalized in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, just as prosecutors had moved to interrogate him and his sons regarding allegations of corruption."

Wall Street Journal: "Sens. John Kerry and John McCain proposed legislation Tuesday to create a 'privacy bill of rights' to protect people from the increasingly invasive commercial data-collection industry. The bill, labeled the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011, would impose new rules on companies that gather personal data, including offering people access to data about them, or the ability to block the information from being used or distributed."

AP: "Former Sen. Rick Santorum on Wednesday announced a fundraising committee that allows him to take the first steps toward a presidential campaign."

The Commentariat -- April 12

Read of the Week: "Paul Ryan's Slasher Novel." Michael Kinsley, in Politico, ticks off the fictitious elements of "The Path to Prosperity." (He could have started with the title.) Of "Path," Kinsley writes, "To liberals, it’s the nightmare of a madman with an ax chasing you down a long hallway. To conservatives, it’s a sweet dream of wonderland, where angels dine on Heritage Foundation press releases.... You would think, reading the document, that the only reason we have fiscal problems is the willful perversity or ignorance of everybody but Ryan."

Gene Robinson: "The far-right ideologues in the House seek to starve the federal government to the point where it can no longer fulfill its constitutional duty to promote the general welfare. I don’t mean to sound apocalyptic, but that’s what this struggle comes down to. Their inspired tactic — which has worked so well that they would be crazy to abandon it — has been to take a wildly extreme position and stick to it with the obstinacy of a mule. When Democrats offer to negotiate, Republicans increase their demands. The result is that they shift the battlefield and end up fighting on terrain so friendly that they literally can’t lose." ...

... It's Back! The Catfood Commission Has Nine Lives. As if to prove Gene Robinson's point, Lori Montgomery & Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post write, President Obama "is expected to offer support for the [Simpson-Bowles] commission’s work and a related effort underway in the Senate to develop a strategy for curbing borrowing. Obama will frame the approach as a responsible alternative to the 2012 plan unveiled last week by House Republicans, according to people briefed by the White House." ...

... Which Caught House Democrats Unawares. Suzy Khimm of Mother Jones: "Many Congressional Democrats found out about Obama's surprise speech by watching the Sunday shows.... House Democrats had already been preparing to release their own 2012 budget, under the leadership of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).... Now liberals fear that Obama may be taking the GOP bait, as he vows to make his own reforms to Medicare and Medicaid — an approach that could put a split between the White House and Congressional Democrats on entitlement reform." CW: finally we have a three-party system: Democratic, Republican-conservative (Obama), Republican-batshit-crazy (formerly called "Republican").

"Government by People Who Hate You." Economist Dean Baker in Truthout: "... the pundits call [Paul] Ryan's [budget] plan 'serious.' Yes, it is very serious. It is a serious plan for taking tens of trillions of dollars from low-income and middle-income people and giving them away as tax breaks to the rich and to the health care industry. It is about as serious as a robber with a gun pointed at your head." ...

... Neither Steve Benen, nor Greg Sargent whom he cites, explains it very neatly, but the upshot of an AP canvass in Paul Ryan's district is that his supporters have no idea Ryan's plan shifts the burden of paying for healthcare downward -- to them. Democrats really must get serious about messaging. And they cannot rely on President Obama to be their messenger. He is just not going to do the job.

** Philip Rucker of the Washington Post takes what amounts to a first look at what's actually in the budget deal Congressional leaders & the President struck last Friday. "More than half of the $38 billion in spending cuts ... would hit education, labor and health programs. Funding for federal Pell grants, job training and a children’s health-care initiative would face cuts, senior congressional aides said. A multitude of other programs — from highway and high-speed rail projects to rural development initiatives — also would experience significant reductions. But some of the worst-sounding trims are not quite what they seem, and officials said they would not necessarily result in lost jobs or service cutbacks. In several cases, what look like large reductions are actually accounting gimmicks." ...

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The budget deal struck last week amounts to a bet by the Obama administration that the loss of $38 billion in federal spending will not be the straw that breaks the back of a fragile economic recovery.... The proposed federal spending cuts ... do not amount to much by themselves, about 0.25 percent of annual domestic activity. But they join a growing list of minor problems impeding growth, economists said, including higher fuel prices and bad weather, Europe’s creeping malaise and the effect of the Japanese earthquake.... And it raises the question of how many more small cuts the president can afford." ...

... In the photo that accompanies his post, WashPo D.C. columnist Colbert King is smiling. In reality, he is livid over the federal budget deal that "threw the city under the bus.... When Barack Obama comes calling for another cheap photo-op with young, smiling D.C. faces, just say no." ...

... President Obama does a little retail policking with 8th-graders from Altona Middle School in Longmont, Colorado. The President had mentioned the students' planned visit in his remarks on the budget deal Friday night. ABC News backstory here:

Damian Paletta & Carol Lee of the Wall Street Journal: "White House officials have opened the door to a deal with Republicans that would allow the U.S. to increase its ability to borrow, potentially easing worries in financial markets that the country might default on its debt." ... 

... Because just demanding a clean bill is way too sensible. Josh Marshall of TPM: "The president needs to start saying now that Boehner and Cantor need to pass a clean no-conditions bill to raise the debt ceiling. You can't negotiate with hostage takers -- not at the local bank heist, not in the Middle East, not at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue."

What a Mess! Nick Timiraos of the Wall Street Journal: "Hopes are fading for a far-reaching settlement between regulators and banks over improper home foreclosures as some regulators press ahead to reach their own settlements with banks that others involved in the talks deem weak. The dispute pits federal regulators against state attorneys general, who are seeking stiff penalties and comprehensive changes in the way banks foreclose on homeowners and modify loans. Advocates of tougher sanctions accuse federal banking regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, with going easy on the banks."

CW: Fracking Methane. The Times moved Joe Nocera from the business page to the op-ed page, and Nocera's first couple of op-ed pieces seemed okay. Today, he gives us a column the gist of which is, "I have a billionaire friend -- Boone Pickens -- who has an idea on how to make more billions [exploit our natural gas resources], & concludes "If Congress can’t pass this thing [the Boone Pickens bill], there’s really no hope." Read the comments. Then read Tom Zeller's report, also in the Times: "Natural gas, with its reputation as a linchpin in the effort to wean the nation off dirtier fossil fuels and reduce global warming, may not be as clean over all as its proponents say."

Right Wing World *

There is zero chance that Donald Trump would ever be hired by the American people. I saw Donald Trump kind of rising in the polls and given his behavior and spectacle the last couple of weeks, I hope he keeps rising. There may be a small part of the country that believes these [birther] things, but mainstream Americans think it's a sideshow. That's not leadership, that's kind of sideshow behavior. -- David Plouffe, Obama campaign advisor ...

... I am leading a lot of polls and doing very well. I can tell you I am [the Obama campaign's] worst nightmare.... I know for a fact that I am the only candidate they are concerned with. They are very concerned because I am challenging [President Obama] as to whether or not he was born in this country where there is a real doubt. -- Donald Trump

Vanity Fair edtor Graydon Carter gets a hand-written note from Trump, which will give you a chuckle, at the Donald's expense. With facsimile of the note. This guy is so much funnier than his hair.

I just say very simply, why doesn’t he show his birth certificate? Why has he spent over $2 million in legal fees to keep this quiet and to keep this silent? -- Donald Trump, April 10, 2011

More power to him [Trump]. He’s not just throwing stones from the sidelines, he’s digging in, he’s paying for researchers to find out why President Obama would have spent $2 million to not show his birth certificate. -- Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, April 9, 2011

It is bizarre to see two possible presidential candidates give support to absurd and false claims that have been debunked time and time again. -- Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker ...

... Even at Auto Week, "the Trump card is a joker." Steven Cole Smith: "... the selection of Trump to drive the pace car for the 100th-anniversary race is just unfathomable."

RomneyCare? Whazzat? Steve Benen: Mitt Romney announced the formation of his exploratory committee yesterday. "... his sole gubernatorial accomplishment served as a blueprint for President Obama's health care policy. In fact, the timing of Romney's launch may not be entirely coincidental -- this week is the fifth anniversary of the former governor signing his health care reform measure into law in the Bay State, and it's more than possible he's hoping that launching his presidential bid will overshadow the anniversary." ...

... Stephanie Condon of CBS News: "Democratic officials in key primary states are holding 'celebrations' this week to mark the fifth-year anniversary of the health care plan Romney implemented in Massachusetts. The White House has said the nation has Romney to thank for inspiring the president's health care overhaul. The administration has called the Massachusetts plan the 'template' for its national reforms and even recruited a top Massachusetts health care administrator to help establish the new, nationwide changes."

A Joke-in-Waiting. Kevin Bogardus of The Hill: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) will head to Capitol Hill Thursday to talk about his battle with public-sector unions. Walker is scheduled to testify that morning at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on state and local government debt." Darrell Issa chairs the committee.

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

Mary Spicuzza of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The Democrat on the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers who was widely quoted as endorsing the county clerk's official ballot count that flipped the state Supreme Court winner last week said Monday that she was never told more than 14,000 missing votes from Brookfield until shortly before a Thursday news conference.... [Here's her statement.] Meanwhile, in Madison, the state's top election official referred to 'apparent negligence' by Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.... The state agency will not certify the election results until it finishes its review of what happened in Waukesha County." ...

... Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who represents the Madison, Wisconsin, area, has asked AG Eric Holder to investigate the election count.

Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "The air traffic controller who allegedly slept for most of five hours while on duty in Tennessee is on probation for an incident last year when police records say he dumped a drink on his girlfriend’s head and then pursued her to a local Waffle House, where witnesses said he brandished a handgun. The Federal Aviation Administration suspended Jonathan Keith Poindexter, 27, and is taking steps to fire him after he allegedly was found sleeping Feb. 19 on a makeshift bed in the radar room of the Knoxville airport while working alone on the overnight shift."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Thirteen alumni of a Cape Cod summer camp have reported being sexually abused there decades ago since Senator Scott P. Brown revealed that he was groped by a counselor there as a child, a lawyer said Tuesday.... The former counselors who have been accused of abuse include a 43-year-old man who committed suicide outside the camp last week.... The camp lost its accreditation on Friday and announced that it would not operate this summer while the authorities investigate abuse claims."

New York Times: "House Republicans scurried on Tuesday to secure the votes needed for a bill that would keep the government financed for the rest of the fiscal year, delaying action by one day to abide by their self-imposed rule to air all legislation publicly for three days before a vote."

Los Angeles Times: "Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss,  ... identical twins who alleged that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from his Harvard classmates — the gist of which became the hit movie "The Social Network" — cannot back out of a settlement they signed with Zuckerberg in 2008, a federal appeals court panel has ruled. The Winklevosses had sought to overturn the negotiated settlement, worth about $65 million at the time, alleging that Facebook had swindled them out of their fair share of stock. Facebook's value has risen sharply since the deal was reached."

Washington Post: "Kenneth T. Robinson, a mortgage broker, pleaded guilty [yesterday] to his role in an insider trading scheme spanning 17 years.... Based in part on Robinson’s cooperation, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission last week charged trader Garrett D. Bauer and corporate lawyer Matthew H. Kluger with collaborating in a ... scheme that netted more than $32 million since 2006 alone.... Kluger worked for some of the nation’s most prominent corporate law firms."

The Washington Post has a follow-up story on the arrest of D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and several members of the D.C. Council "at a protest on Capitol Hill, as city officials turned up the volume on their complaints about a federal spending deal that imposes controversial riders on the District."

New York Times: "France on Tuesday renewed its denials of involvement in the arrest of the strongman of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, who was captured and taken into custody by his rival on Monday, ending a four-month standoff that left hundreds dead, strained international diplomacy and dragged the country back into civil war."

M.I.A.

Paul Krugman has joined a long list of liberals who are looking for "the inspirational figure" Obama supporters thought they elected. "Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular?" Krugman asks.... "I’d say that the nation wants — and more important, the nation needs — a president who believes in something, and is willing to take a stand. And that’s not what we’re seeing." (Comments are here.) See updates below.

The Times moderators also rendered my comment M.I.A., * so here it is:

When we -- and I include myself -- weren't paying attention, we elected a President who admired Ronald Reagan, whose campaign economic advisers included bankster Robert Rubin and deregulation advocate Larry Summers, and who famously saw not Red America, not Blue America, but One America. **

That One America turned out to be pretty Red. You haven't said anything here that you and other liberals haven't been saying for a couple of years now. You mentioned months ago that Obama accepted the Republican narrative on a host of issues, even to the point of buying into the "right-wing smear" that FDR didn't act quickly to initiate his New Deal policies.

We know the President reads the papers, so begging him to pay attention isn't going to do any good. He knows what he's doing. Obama makes concessions before the first Republican bid because he wants to. He accepts what Christiane Amanpour got David Plouffe to admit were "draconian" cuts because he wants to. (See also video in yesterday's Commentariat.)

Obama proudly signed on to "the largest annual spending cut in our history" for the same reason he has consistently bent over backwards to accommodate the banksters and other big businessmen. It's the same reason he appointed tax-free GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who sent thousands of GE jobs overseas to head up his jobs commission. It's the same reason he appointed conservatives to head his Cat Food Commission. It's the same reason he wouldn't stand up for Dawn Johnsen but did stand by Tim Geithner. It's the same reason he didn't even slightly push the public option. It's the same reason his "stimulus" bill was more tax cuts than anything else. It's the same reason he has escalated Bush's loser war in Afghanistan. It's the same reason he's made nice to the Chinese, even as they crack down on dissidents & artists. It's the same reason he caved on civil trials for Gitmo prisoners. It's the same reason he hasn't done one thing about gun control, even in the wake of the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabby Giffords, when there was a darned good chance of getting even the lock-and-load crowd in the House to capitulate. Yadayadayada.

The President whom Obama most reminds me of, philosophically, is Richard Nixon. To his credit, Obama is cuter and nicer than Nixon. He probably doesn't have a personality disorder. Other than that, Barack Obama is Nixon warmed over. He wants to take us back to the 70s. Right now, we just have to hope that's the 1970s, not the 1870s, because we're regressing fast.

** We also elected a guy, who by his own account, was willing to accommodate his grandmother's benign racism. So why are we surprised when he is willing to accommodate John Boehner's overt racism,  vis-à-vis Obama's agreeing to Boehner's draconian control over majority-black Washington, D.C.?

* My comment is at #28 now.

Update: Reader John F. rebuts my comment. I don't disagree with him:

Read your comments on Krugman's column today and have to take exception with something you said.

 

Nixon was a far more liberal president than Obama. Nixon gave us the EPA, wage and price controls, relations with China, and detente with the Soviets. Nixon might well have given us national health care if Watergate hadn't intervened.

 

This is in no way intended to be a defense of Nixon. Rather, it's intended to demonstrate just how far to the right our supposedly liberal president is.

We were jobbed. Maybe Hillary will stage a primary challenge and we can get a Democrat in the White House.

Update 2: in another response to Krugman's column, Kate Madison examines the family dynamic that made Barack Obama a mediator, not a leader. 

The Commentariat -- April 11

CW: this story by David Cloud of the Los Angeles Times, titled "Anatomy of an Afghan War Tragedy," which describes in detail a drone attack gone wrong, predates the news of Pakistan's demand that NATO halt drone operations.

Here is the conclusion of Rick Hertzberg's commentary on Guantanamo prisoners:

As soon as the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reversal was announced, Peter King, the New York Republican who heads the House Committee on Homeland Security, called it 'yet another vindication of President Bush’s detention policies.' It is no such thing. Even with all the failings of the current Administration, the difference between its approach and its predecessor’s is the difference between night and day, albeit a rainy, miserable day, overcast with dark clouds. But, by elevating amnesia to official policy, the President has put himself in a poor position to make even that argument.

     ... Read Hertzberg's whole post.

Oh, More Dylan in China (see yesterday's Commentariat). Bob Dylan doesn't look like this or sing like this anymore, but MAUREEN DOWD WANTS HIM TO:

     ... Historian Sean Wilentz, writing in the New Yorker, contra Dowd: "When it comes to denouncing Bob Dylan as a sell-out, the times they haven’t changed that much in fifty years.... Whatever the facts are, Dylan knows very well — as I tried to tell Dowd when she interviewed me for her column — that his music long ago became uncensorable. Subversive thoughts aren’t limited to his blatant protest songs of long ago."

CW: over the weekend, a few readers asked me to link to articles that specified exactly what had been cut in the Big Budget Deal. As I told them, nobody had written any such articles because the legislation has yet to be written, & all the "details" we were getting came from politicians' talking points. Today, Janet Hook of the Wall Street Journal writes, "Republicans and Democrats continued to haggle over how to spread nearly $39 billion in cuts across a multitude of government programs behind the deal that averted a government shutdown last week." See, they ain't done yet. Oh, and here's a kicker: GE is still lobbying to get a huge contract for building (in Boehner's district!) an unnecessary alternative engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.

New York Times Editors: "The federal government survived the hostage crisis created by House Republicans, but emerged staggering from the deal struck Friday night. The compromises were damaging, the amount of money cut from a sickly economy was severe, and the image of Washington as a back-alley dogfighting garage will not soon fade.... President Obama actually patted himself on the back for agreeing to the 'largest annual spending cut in our history.' He should have used the moment to explain to Americans what irresponsible cuts the G.O.P. demanded just to keep the government open."

The Ryan proposal could be the foil Obama needs. I hope every vulnerable Republican in Congress signs on to the Ryan plan to kill Medicare, because we will beat ’em like a bad piece of meat. I would not focus on Ryan personally — he is a pleasant enough fellow, it seems to me — but rather on the fact that he is the GOP’s point person on the budget, and his budget would end Medicare as we know it. -- Paul Begala, Democratic political operative ...

... Carol Lee & Damian Paletta of the Wall Street Journal: "President Barack Obama will lay out his plan for reducing the nation's deficit Wednesday, belatedly entering a fight over the nation's long-term financial future. But in addition to suggesting cuts — the current focus of debate — the White House looks set to aim its firepower on a more divisive topic: taxes." ...

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "There is a time to bring opposing parties together. And there is a time to choose sides. I hope Obama realizes this is one of the latter."

... Radical Surgery. Karen Garcia: in his address on budget cuts, scheduled for Wednesday, Doctor Obama will administer anesthesia and use a scalpel, which is so much more grown-up than the bold, machete-weilding methods of young Doctor Ryan. ...

... In a USA Today op-ed, Speaker John Boehner promises to keep his meat cleaver at the ready for future spending battles, because, you know, that's what "the American people want," (CW: despite what those unreliable polls say). ...

... Matt Yglesias: there should not be a battle over raising the debt ceiling -- with the usual Democratic concessions to Republicans -- because nobody really thinks raising the debt ceiling is a bad idea. ...

... BUT Politico: "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), fresh off the budget talks, told donors this weekend that if Obama wants an up or down vote on the debt ceiling he’s not going to get it." ...

... E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post: during a sparsely-attended Tea Party event in Washington, D.C., last week, "... it became clear that the government ... was being held hostage by a band of fanatics who (1) represent a very small proportion of our population; (2) hate government so much that they relished the idea of closing its doors, no matter the cost; and (3) have neither respect nor patience for the normal democratic give-and-take between competing parties and points of view.... In our repertoire of dysfunction, we are on the verge of adding shutdown abuse to abuse of the filibuster in the Senate.... Obama ... needs to declare that he will no longer bargain with those who use threats to shut down the government or force it to default on its debt as tools of intimidation." ...

... CW: I'm not exactly a huge fan of executive fiat, but if Congress fails to pass a "clean bill" raising the debt ceiling, President Obama should declare a national emergency & either raise the debt ceiling himself or guarantee our creditors (China!) we'll pay our bills. It's also possible Fed Chair Ben Bernanke could "unofficially" raise the debt ceiling. I'm with Yglesias (& Dionne) -- no new concessions. Period.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: the June 2008 "bitterly divided" Supreme Court decision in "Boumediene v. Bush established the role of the judiciary in wartime, and seemed to settle important issues about separation of powers." But since then, "not a single release has come as the direct result of a judicial order." And "a string of rulings has gone against the detainees.... The Obama administration has fought all attempts by lawyers for detainees to have the Supreme Court review those rulings. And ... the court last week turned away three detainee challenges arising from Boumediene."

Eileen Sullivan of the AP: "The U.S. government has prevented more than 350 people suspected of ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups from boarding U.S.-bound commercial flights since the end of 2009, The Associated Press has learned."

Robert Burns of the AP: "Eight months shy of its deadline for pulling the last American soldier from Iraq and closing the door on an 8-year war, the Pentagon is having second thoughts. Reluctant to say it publicly, officials fear a final pullout in December could create a security vacuum, offering an opportunity for power grabs by antagonists in an unresolved and simmering Arab-Kurd dispute, a weakened but still active al-Qaida or even an adventurous neighbor such as Iran."

Banksters

... David Streitfeld of the New York Times: "Federal banking regulators have not officially imposed their new rules for the top mortgage servicers, but ... a wide coalition of consumer and housing groups is denouncing the legal agreements, which are likely to be published within a few days.... To some critics, the pending fixes are all but useless.... At the heart of the complaints ... is whether the servicers, which are arms of the biggest banks, may be compelled to give households fighting foreclosure a better shot at renegotiating their loans and staying in their properties." CW: gee, useless federal regs that do nothing to help homeowners and favor the big banks. What a surprise! ...

... Louise Story of the New York Times: a class action lawsuit filed by clients of JPMorgan accuses the bank of profiting from Sigma, "a troubled investment," while investors -- including large pension funds -- lost millions. Warnings about Sigma's troubles went all the way to CEO Jamie Dimon, and the plaintiffs claim "that JPMorgan workers developed a 'grand scheme' to profit from Sigma in the event of a collapse, even though employees at another part of the bank left client money invested in the vehicle."

Right Wing World *

We are in a situation where we have a safety net in place in this country for people who frankly don’t need one. We have to focus on making sure we have a safety net for those who need it.
-- Eric Cantor, on Medicare ...

... Tanya Somanader of Think Progress: "The Ryan plan does, however, provide a 'safety net' for one specific demographic. Ryan’s plan will reduce the top marginal income tax rate and the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent — a move that ... shifts the tax burden down the income scale onto the middle class. Given these priorities, it appears that, for Cantor, those in need of a safety net are America’s wealthy." With video.

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the most contested provisions of an Arizona immigration law passed last year will remain blocked from taking effect, handing the Obama administration a victory in its efforts to overturn the legislation."

Washington Post: "Mayor Vincent Gray, D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown (D) and council members Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) have been arrested by U.S. Capitol Police officers." The officials, along with other protesters, where protesting "the congressional budget deal, which includes controversial District riders."

AP: "The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama regrets his vote as a senator in 2006 against raising the debt limit — the same kind of increase he's now pressuring Congress to approve."

AP: "Japan's nuclear regulators raised the severity level of the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing the amount of radiation released in the accident."

** New York Times: "The strongman of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, was captured on Monday after a week-long siege of his residence and placed under the control of his rival claimant to power, according to French and United Nations officials."

New York Times: "Pakistan has demanded that the United States steeply reduce the number of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and Special Operations forces working in Pakistan, and that it put on hold C.I.A. drone strikes aimed at militants in northwest Pakistan, a sign of the near collapse of cooperation between the two testy allies."

Washington Post: "Violent protests continued to roil Syria on Sunday as human rights activists reported that President Bashar al-Assad was using soldiers and tanks for the first time against demonstrators and sealing off the port city of Baniyas."

Washington Post: "Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak addressed the nation Sunday for the first time since a popular revolution forced him from office two months ago, defending himself and his family against accusations of corruption."

Los Angeles Times: "A small demonstration broke out against the [African Union's] truce proposal in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi, while various spokesmen for the transitional rebel government rejected the offer.... Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told French radio that that no deal could include a future political role for Kadafi or his sons."

AP: "A strong new earthquake rattled Japan's northeast Monday just hours after people bowed their heads and wept in ceremonies to mark a month since the tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off a still-unfolding nuclear crisis."

New York Times: "A French ban outlawing full-face veils in public, the first to be enacted in Europe, came into force on Monday and seemed set to face challenges within hours. The law, approved last year, has been controversial from the start, raising questions about France’s relationship with its Muslim minority of five to six million — Europe’s largest — at a time when right-wing and anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise."