The Commentariat -- Nov. 28, 2012

NEW. Bryon Tau of Politico: "President Barack Obama will host Mitt Romney at the White House on Thursday for their first meeting since the election. 'Romney will have a private lunch at the White House with President Obama in the Private Dining Room,' White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement."

Jake Sherman of Politico: "After a day of meetings closed to the public, the House Republican Steering Committee announced an all-male slate of committee chairs.... The chairs for the House Ethics Committee and House Administration Committee have yet to be chosen.... Rep. Paul Ryan was the only lawmaker to obtain a waiver to bypass House GOP rules to remain as a chairman for a fourth term. He will lead the Budget Committee again. House Democrats are likely to have five women as ranking members committees." CW: make that all white men. I'm not sure, but I think that's all Christian white men. Hallelujah, brothers. You look just like America. If about 4/5ths of us would self-deport.

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "For a second straight day Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opened the chamber by engaging in a nearly hour-long feud over Reid's emerging proposal to eliminate some filibusters.... Reid's proposal, which he has only sketched out briefly in public, would eliminate the filibuster vote that is needed to formally begin debate on legislation. He would allow for a final filibuster vote, thus making the chamber run more efficiently.... A still-undefined portion of his proposal would mandate that if legislation does not get the required 60 votes to end filibusters, the 40-something senators in the minority would have to maintain a 'talking filibuster' akin to the version of the 1939 classic 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'" ...

... Greg Sargent: "... what really matters is that Reid stepped way out on a limb in the direction of exercising that nuclear option"; that is, changing the rules by majority vote. "Reid lambasted McConnell for a newly unearthed quote from 2005 in which McConnell endorsed -- in principle -- the [nuclear option].... What happened today is that Reid, in effect, put his finger on the nuke button. It's hard to see how he pulls back now." ...

... CW: Remember that Reid opposed filibuster reform in 2010, perhaps because he believed the convention wisdom that Democrats would lose their Senate majority in 2012. What a difference an election makes. Thank you, Sen. Patty Murray. ...

... Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "Mitch McConnell has a theory of why there are so many cloture petitions these days. It's ... that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been using obscure procedures to deny Republicans the right to offer amendments, leaving them no option other than to avail themselves of the right to filibuster.... Republicans do have some legitimate complaints about amendments. But that has nothing to do with their 1993 decision to force cloture votes on all major issues, or the 2009 decision to shatter Senate norms and insist on a full 60-vote Senate." ...

... Harry Reid is really showing some spine -- finally. Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid laid down a firm marker Tuesday: raising the debt ceiling has to be part of a deal on the fiscal cliff." ...

... More Good News from Sargent: "I'm told that representatives of major unions and progressive groups met privately this morning with senior Obama administration officials at the White House -- and were pleased with what they heard.... One person at the meeting ... came away convinced that the White House would ultimately prove willing to go over the fiscal cliff if necessary.... White House officials also signaled in the meeting that they are going to insist that Republicans agree to resolve the need to raise the debt ceiling as part of the fiscal talks -- and won't abide a separate fight over it...." ...

... On the Other Hand ... Kate Madison sends this horrible news from Robert Reich: "... leading those negotiations for the White House is outgoing Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner." CW: Reich has insider knowledge of Geithner, and -- like me with my outsider knowledge -- Reich has a low opinion of Wall Street's Man in Washington. Quelle surprise! Looks like the post-election Obama is just like pre-election Obama. ...

... More Bad News. Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Ladies and gentlemen, coming soon to your city or town (if they have not been there already, and maybe even if they have) are the latest odd couple of politics: the 67-year-old Democratic straight man, Erskine B. Bowles of Charlotte, N.C., and his corny 81-year-old, 6-foot-7 Republican sidekick, Alan K. Simpson of Cody, Wyo." CW: besides calling these two an "odd couple," Calmes ledes with a sentence calling them an "improbable buddy act." There's nothing "improbable" or "odd" about two old self-righteous, attention-seeking deficit hacks hawks going on the road with their fear-mongering dog-and-pony show. And they are mostly preaching to the converted: when they come to my neck of the woods, they're speaking on Sanibel Island -- where the swells keep themselves safe from us riffraff via a $6 toll bridge. If Bob Reich's news isn't bad enough, we learn through Calmes that "On Tuesday, Mr. Bowles and corporate executives he helped recruit to a 'Fix the Debt' campaign met privately at the White House with six senior administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner." See this report (also linked Monday) by the Institute for Policy Studies on Fix the Debt a/k/a "a Trojan horse for massive corporate tax breaks." ...

... BTW, President Obama & Republicans are also going on the road to promote their visions of Fixing the Debt. The problem is that none of these road shows -- including the President's -- is a strong advocate for saving social safety net programs & two of them openly favor cutting them to the quick. ...

... A Short Course on the "Fiscal Cliff" a/k/a the "Austerity Crisis" by Washington Post bloggers. ...

... Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "Deep divisions among Senate Democrats over whether cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid should be part of a plan to slow the government's mushrooming debt pose a big obstacle to a deal for avoiding a potentially economy-crushing "fiscal cliff," even if Republicans agree to raise taxes." ...

     ... CW: The best reason to go over the cliff: the Senate in particular, & to a tiny extent the House, will be more liberal come January. Not only will there be more Democratic Senators, they will be, on average, more progressive: think Kent Conrad v. Elizabeth Warren, Ben Nelson v. Tammy Baldwin.

Ed Kilgore: "The remarkable ability of conservatives to drag American politics to the Right by taking extremist positions and then offering to 'compromise' by accepting policies deemed conservative the week before last is hardly a new thing.... But the MSM keeps taking the bait, which is why we now have Lindsay Graham and Saxbe Chambliss being lionized for making fake concessions to stop America from plunging over a fake 'fiscal cliff.'" ...

    ... CW: Kilgore essentially backs up my critique of Frank Bruni, which appears in today's New York Times eXaminer. ...

     ... DITTO Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "The 'compromise' [Republicans] are offering is no compromise at all, really. And what they want in return from Democrats -- which they are keeping intentionally vague -- shows very clearly that they haven't yet quite accepted the idea that elections have consequences.... The party that lost the election ... doesn't get to dictate terms.... [Obama had] better not forget, and he'd better not let the Republicans forget, that he just won an election in which the American people were given a clear choice -- and they made it." ...

     ... AND now, Bruni's own newspaper. New York Times Editors: "True flexibility means acknowledging that tax rates for the rich have to go up, and then negotiating how much and which ones. But, so far, Republicans have been just as closed to that reality as they have been for years, ignoring both the election results and the plain arithmetic of deficit reduction."

** Mark Bittman of the New York Times: "The Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program, better known as SNAP and even better known as food stamps, currently has around 46 million participants, a record high. That's one in eight Americans.... as it stands, the number should be higher: many people are unaware that they're eligible for SNAP, and thus the participation rate is probably around three-quarters of what it should be." In a footnote, Bittman writes: "... it's cuts that are on the agenda, not expansion. Cuts ... are not only cruel but counterproductive." Bittman goes on to explain how food banks work & what they're doing. An excellent, informative piece.

** Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "... the very essence of the Wal-Mart system is to employ thousands upon thousands of workers through contractors and subcontractors and sub-subcontractors, who are compelled by Wal-Mart's market power and its demand for low prices to cut corners and skimp on safety. And because Wal-Mart isn't the employer of record for these workers, the company can disavow responsibility for their conditions of work.... Tens of thousands of American workers labor under similar arrangements." ...

... Jon Stewart comments:

** Jonathan Chait of New York: "The Republicans' long-term dilemma has generally been framed in racial terms, but it's mainly a generational one. The youngest generation of voters contains a much smaller proportion of white voters than previous generations, and those whites in that generation vote Republican by a much smaller margin than their elders. What's more, younger voters supported President Obama during the last two election cycles for reasons that seem to go beyond the usual reasons -- social issues like gay marriage and feminism, immigration policy, or Obama's personal appeal -- and suggest a deeper attachment to liberalism. The proclivities of younger voters may actually portend a full-scale sea change in American politics." ...

... More on our numb and dumb MSM from Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "From House Speaker John Boehner, on President Obama's request to raise the debt ceiling: 'There is a price for everything.' ... It's gobsmacking. Ever since the election, Republicans have been acting as if financial catastrophe is purely a problem for the president.... If he doesn't want markets to panic, then he needs to cough up some goodies. What's even more gobsmacking is that nobody in the press seems to find this at all out of the ordinary.... Remarkable."

Elisabeth Bumiller & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Two and a half weeks after Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced an inquiry into e-mail exchanges between Gen. John R. Allen of the Marines and a Tampa socialite, some 15 investigators working seven days a week in the Pentagon inspector general's office have narrowed their focus to 60 to 70 e-mails that 'bear a fair amount of scrutiny,' a defense official said."

AP: "Hundreds of millions of dollars from Kabul Bank were spirited out of Afghanistan -- some smuggled in airline food trays -- to bank accounts in more than two dozen countries, according to an independent review released on Wednesday about massive fraud that led to the collapse of the nation's largest financial institution. The report, which was financed by international donors, offers new details about how the men at Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861 million in fraudulent loans in what the International Monetary Fund has called a Ponzi scheme that used customer deposits and operated under nascent banking oversight in the war-torn country."

News Ledes

Guardian: "US Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday that it has temporarily suspended BP and its affiliates from new contracts with the federal government, citing the oil company's 'lack of business integrity' associated with the disastrous 2010 Gulf oil spill. Two weeks ago, BP agreed to plead guilty to charges involving the deaths of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which exploded and sank in April 2010, setting off the nation's largest offshore oil spill. BP will also plead guilty to lying to Congress about how much oil was spewing from the blown-out Macondo well."

New York Times: "The European Commission on Wednesday approved a payment of €37 billion, or $48 billion, from the euro zone bailout fund to four Spanish banks on the condition that they lay off thousands of employees and close offices as part of their restructuring."

Guardian: "Richard O'Dwyer, the university student who created a website which linked to programmes and films online for free, has reached an agreement to avoid extradition to the US over copyright infringement allegations.... The 24-year-old Sheffield Hallam undergraduate has signed a draft "deferred prosecution" agreement in the past two days which requires him to travel to the US and pay a small sum of compensation but will mean he will not face a trial or criminal record.... In June, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launched a campaign with the Guardian in defence of O'Dwyer...."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 27, 2012

My column in the New York Times examiner is on Frank Bruni's love letter to "responsible" Republicans like Lindsey Graham & John McCain who have supposedly distanced themselves from Grover Norquist. My column is kind of a rehash of what we've been saying on Reality Chex, with a little from Marvin Schwalb, a little from Akhilleus, etc.

Robert Pear of the New York Times on the conflicting positions of various parties to the deficit reduction talks. "Mr. Obama and some Democrats in Congress say they are willing to squeeze savings from Medicare by trimming payments to drug companies, hospitals and other health care providers. They have generally ruled out structural changes that would increase costs for a typical beneficiary." CW: let's hope that's right. ...

... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "... while the GOP's rhetorical shift [on raising tax revenues] represents a break from their dogged opposition to revenue increases during previous budget negotiations, their public 'concessions' closely mirror the kind of policies voters overwhelmingly rejected: tax reform that does not increase marginal tax rates on the richest Americans, but includes eliminating tax loopholes and steep entitlement cuts that closely mirror the policies included in Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) budget.... The pitch is very similar to the plan presented by Romney, which was supposed to boost growth while lowering taxes and making up the revenue from closing loopholes...." ...

... Steve Benen: "... on the one hand, Republicans would get the tax rates they want. On the other hand, Republicans would also get the entitlement changes they want. And because Grover Norquist doesn't like it, this is considered the reasonable GOP offer. Democrats, after a very successful election cycle, are being asked to accept a deal in which Dems concede on tax rates, concede on entitlements, and accept the reward of Romney's revenue plan? This is what passes for bipartisan compromise in late 2012?" ...

... Leigh Ann Caldwell of CBS News: "White House spokesman Jay Carney said [Monday] that Social Security is one entitlement program that should be addressed on a 'separate track.' ... It's a similar position taken by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill, the number two Democrat in the Senate, on Sunday.... But Republicans have insisted that reforming entitlement programs, including Social Security, which constitute more than one-third of federal spending, must be part of the equation...." ...

... BUT, if we're to believe David Plouffe, we're also going to have to assume that President Obama dismisses Keynesian economic theory. Zeke Miller of BuzzFeed: "Obama senior adviser David Plouffe ... [says] President Barack Obama is committed to achieving the elusive 'big deal' on taxes and spending he and Speaker of the House John Boehner have tried to strike for more than 18 months." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times (Nov. 27 @ 6:09 am): "Mr. Obama will meet with carefully selected small business owners, middle-class taxpayers and corporate leaders over the next couple days, then fly to Pennsylvania on Friday to tour a toy manufacturer that he argues will be hurt if automatic tax increases take effect at the end of the year." ...

     ... More from Ken Thomas of the AP on Obama's PR tour. ...

... CW: last week I linked to a story that mentioned a proposed "tax bubble" that -- by removing the marginal tax system -- would hit the moderately wealthy but not the super rich. Frankly, I don't see this as a real problem because I can't imagine even this Congress would be stupid enough to enact such a tax structure. Nate Silver explains how it would work in detail (with charts!). "It is hard to see the economic rationale for creating a bubble in the middle of the tax code." ...

     ... Dean Baker follows up on Silver's post. And Baker nails Republicans for their hypocrisy on proposing this plan: "The Republicans had highlighted the fate of small business owners who they like to call 'job creators.' This policy would imply a higher tax rate on the vast majority of the job creators, while leaving the very rich little affected.... This proposal would seem to imply that the Republicans were willing to nail the job creators to benefit the very wealthy." CW: Who could have guessed all that talk about helping "job creators" was a ruse? ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones tells the story of what really happened in the Bush tax-cuts showdown of 2010. CW: Corn is right: Obama got more out of the Republicans than he lost even though he was in a much worse bargaining position than he is today. At the time, I ran links to a couple of stories on how the numbers actually worked out, but the narrative was always "Obama caved."

Today's Edition of Corporations Are People, My Friend

Another Reason Not to Shop at Wal-Mart. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "Two days after Saturday's fire at a Bangladeshi garment factory that killed at least 112 people, Walmart was neither confirming nor denying that the factory was one of its contractors.... But pictures taken after the fire showing clothes from Walmart's Faded Glory label appear to settle that question.... The Bangladeshi factory lacked enough emergency exits, and some of the 112 people ... died ... jumping out of the eight-story building.... Walmart had given the factory an 'orange' safety rating in May 2011, which means that even by Walmart's low standards, there were significant risks." In an update, Clawson writes, "Walmart is now claiming that it had severed ties with Tazreen, only to have a supplier with whom they had contracted subcontract to this factory in violation of Walmart policies, and that the supplier has been terminated." CW: allow me to remind you that the Walton family owns as much wealth as the lower 40 percent of Americans. Up with how much of this will we put?

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "Hostess ... failed because the people that ran it had no idea what they were doing. Every other excuse is just an attempt by the guilty to blame someone else." An excellent, brief rundown of Hostess management's epic failures & their depraved indifference to their obligations to their employees.

Brian Montopoli of CBS News: "United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice will meet with senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday to answer questions about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya. CBS News has learned her appearance will include a morning meeting with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has been among her biggest critics since her initial remarks on the attack." ...

     ... UPDATE. Mark Landler & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, conceded on Tuesday that she incorrectly described the attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, in September as following a spontaneous protest, rather than being a terrorist attack. But she said she based her statement on the intelligence available at the time and did not intend to mislead the American public. Ms. Rice's acknowledgment, in a meeting on Capitol Hill with three Republican senators who had sharply criticized her earlier statements in a series of television interviews after the attack, seemed to do little to quell their anger." ...

      ... NEW. Charles Pierce: Graham & McCain "are a pair of cowards, with a feckless rookie in train, and they are playing dangerous games with the country's security. They hereafter should be ignored and, if Graham goes through with his threat of putting a hold on Rice's nomination, Harry Reid should move his desk out onto Constitution Avenue, and no Democrat should cooperate with this clown ever again." ...

     ... NEW: Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "Instead of focusing their needed attention on the deadly security lapses at the consulate in Benghazi, McCain and crew continue their petty nitpicking of Rice's statements."

... Pierce didn't take to MoDo's advice to President Obama any more than I did. ...

... Andrew Rudalevige in the Monkey Cage on the value of schmoozing with the enemy. Also read the comment by Norm Ornstein.

... AND Pierce throws Young Douthat to the gray wolves. ...

... CW: I'm with P. D. Pepe. If had listened to Greggers instead of letting Charles Pierce do it for me, there would be a stylish pump sticking out of my busted teevee. The American tragedy is that millions of Americans don't understand that that Greggers' Gang are nothing but shills for the suits in the suites upstairs.

Voter Suppression

Dara Kam & John Lantigua of the Palm Beach Post: "A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.... Former GOP chairman [Jim Greer] and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law's main purpose: GOP victory." ...

... Charles Pierce: "OK, Eric Holder, it's time.... Ball's in your court."

Right Wing World

Bruce Bartlett's confessions of a reformed supply-sider is getting a lot of attention & is an interesting read, particularly because of his claims about the right's reactions to his "evolution." ...

... Krugman gives him kudos.

CW: In case you think Republicans aren't really racists but just exploit the racism of their despicable constituents, Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect highlights a piece by David Brooks' favorite "conservative intellectual" Charles Murray. Murray "reasons" that Asian-Americans are all alike & blacks & Latinos don't have desirable values.

Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: Birther-in-Chief "Donald Trump says the Republican Party needs to be more appealing to minorities if it wants to survive into the future." CW: to my great surprise, the Donald blamed the negative tone on Mitt Romney & took no responsibility for his own racist antics. ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "... in case you've forgotten, this is the same Donald Trump whose demagoguery compelled President Obama to reveal his birth certificate in a press conference, and who offered to give $5 million to charity if Obama would release his college transcripts and prove that he is 'qualified' (read: not an affirmative-action beneficiary) to be president."

News Ledes

New York Times: "With public pressure mounting, President Mohamed Morsi appeared to pull back Monday from his attempt to assert an authority beyond the reach of any court. His allies in the Muslim Brotherhood canceled plans for a large demonstration in his support, signaling a chance to calm an escalating battle that has paralyzed a divided nation." CW: hmm. The headline in this Guardian liveblog is "Morsi refuses to back down." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Egyptian opposition forces rallied across the country Tuesday in the biggest show of dissent against the country's first democratically elected leader since he precipitated a political crisis last week with an apparent bid to assume near-absolute power."

Reuters: "New York state and New Jersey need at least $71.3 billion to recover from the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy and prevent similar damage from future storms, according to their latest estimates."

New York Times: "Finance ministers from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund patched up their differences over a bailout for Greece early Tuesday with a spate of measures bringing closer the release of long-delayed emergency aid. The parties reached the deal after their third meeting in three weeks aimed at finding alternative ways of giving Greece relief in light of opposition by creditors like Germany and the Netherlands to so-called haircuts that would involve forgiving some Greek debt."

New York Times: "Two of the most senior figures at the British Broadcasting Corporation said on Tuesday that there had been 'basic' and 'elementary' failures of the organization's journalism when it wrongly implicated a former Conservative Party politician in sexual abuse, compounding a scandal that cost the BBC's director general his job and plunged the organization deeper into crisis."

Guardian: "Europe's debt crisis remains a far bigger threat to the world's economy than the 'fiscal cliff', according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In its latest report the economic think tank says an escalation in the ongoing European crisis could drag Europe into a deep recession in the next two years and the US along with it."

Reuters: "Online sales jumped on Cyber Monday, sending e-commerce retailers' shares higher and suggesting strong growth from earlier in the holiday shopping season is continuing for now. Sales on eBay Inc's online marketplace were particularly strong and Amazon.com Inc continued its rapid holiday shopping season growth, according to early Cyber Monday data...."

Reuters: "Forensic experts took samples from Yasser Arafat's buried corpse in the West Bank on Tuesday, trying to determine if he was murdered by Israeli agents using the hard-to-trace radioactive poison, Polonium."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 26, 2012

Brought forward from yesterday's Commentariat: My column for the New York Times eXaminer is elegantly titled "Pat Some Butts, Barry -- Maureen Dowd." Clearly, this is My Week of Going Classy. ...

... A Lesson for Maureen Dowd: Here Was a Hero. U.S. Airman Reis Leming, who saved Britons during a storm & flood in 1953, died November 4 at age 81.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: President "Obama's aides are trying to harness the passions that returned him to the White House, hoping to pressure Republicans in Congress to accept tax increases on the wealthy. The president's strategists are turning first to the millions of e-mail addresses assembled by the campaign and the White House."

John Schriffen of ABC News: Today is "Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year. Shoppers are expected to spend more than $1.5 billion today, up 20 percent from last year.... It has already been a big holiday weekend with a record $59.1 billion spent at U.S. stores and websites.... Online sales on Thanksgiving Day, traditionally not a popular day for online shopping, rose 32 percent from last year to $633 million.... And online sales on Black Friday were up 26 percent from the same day last year, to $1.042 billion. It was the first time online sales on Black Friday surpassed $1 billion."

Welcome to Your Newer, Friendlier GOP

Oink, Oink. In an appearance on Fox "News" yesterday, perpetual Sunday talkshow guest Sen. John McCain [R-Az.] hinted he would back off his attacks on U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, Ian Millhiser of Think Progress reports. CW: it occurs to me that what really ticked off McCain was the fact that Rice appeared on all five major Sunday shows, probably pushing him out of his usual seat at a few of the network shows. He isn't a racist, sexist pig; he's a camera hog. ...

... Writing before McCain "softened his stance" on Rice, John Heilemann of New York predicted that President Obama would nominate Rice for Secretary of State & the Senate would confirm her. Heilemann listed five reason for his prediction. Reason 4. "Because McCain is being a jackass -- and Obama is sick of it." ...

... For the good of the country, it's time to fetch a butterfly net for McCain.... It's a measure of the fallen state of the GOP that this bitter, ever-more-incoherent hothead is now the party's only elected official with a voice on foreign affairs -- unless you count his boot-licking Sancho Panza, Lindsey Graham. -- Frank Rich

... Oh, and here's McCain urging his party to STFU on women's health issues: "There is no doubt whatsoever that the demographics are not on our side and we are going to have to give a much more positive agenda. [...] And as far as young women are concerned, absolutely. I don't think anybody like me, I can state my position on abortion, but, to -- other than that, leave the issue alone." Igor Volsky of Think Progress has the story. Volsky notes that Romney adviser Dan Senor conceded last week "that the GOP's focus on women's health hurt them in the election and criticized Republicans who pulled the party into 'a really idiotic debate' about contraception." CW: You'd almost think that all that crap high-minded talk about religious freedom was not really a principled stand but was rather an excuse to accuse President Obama of being a serial baby-killer. ...

... Anne Flaherty of the AP: "The White House could finally have its chance to close the books on its Benghazi public relations disaster, as key Republicans signal they might not stand in the way of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to become the next secretary of state.... One senior GOP Senate aide said Sunday that Republicans hadn't united against Rice and were not convinced she was worth going after." ...

... AND here we have Sen. Sancho Panza Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggesting "that he could conceivably abandon the [Grover Norquist] pledge as part of a deal to avoid going over the so-called 'fiscal cliff.'" Now, remember, this is all a ploy Republicans are using to gut the social safety net. Via Travis Waldron of Think Progress. ...

... So thanks, Dick, for falling into the trap. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News: "Sen. Dick Durbin said today that his Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate should be willing to address entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid in deficit reduction negotiations." ...

... So let's see what Paul Krugman says about the "fiscal cliff": "Now yet another organization, Fix the Debt, is campaigning for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, even while making lower tax rates a 'core principle.' That last part makes no sense in terms of the group's ostensible mission, but makes perfect sense if you look at the array of big corporations, from Goldman Sachs to the UnitedHealth Group, that are involved in the effort and would benefit from tax cuts. Hey, sacrifice is for the little people.... But if the U.S. government prints money to pay its bills, won't that lead to inflation? No, not if the economy is still depressed." ...

... Apropos of Krugman's column, contributor Calyban links to the overview of a report by the Institute for Policy Studies: "The Fix the Debt campaign has raised $60 million and recruited more than 80 CEOs of America's most powerful corporations to lobby for a debt deal that would reduce corporate taxes and shift costs onto the poor and elderly. This report focuses on the Fix the Debt campaign's corporate tax agenda and in particular the windfalls the campaign's member corporations would reap from a territorial tax system. We also analyze the savings the Fix the Debt campaign's CEOs have derived from the Bush tax cuts and how many of them received more in compensation last year than their corporations paid in federal income taxes." Download the report at the linked page. ...

... Criminal Journalists Practice Economics without a License & without a Clue. The geniuses at ABC "News" do not read Krugman. Digby digs up this graphic, which ABC "News" went to some expense to compile. They must have rooms-full of Very Serious Elves over there at the Owned & Operated by the Fantasyland Division of the Walt Disney Company ABC "News" who whiz around copying down what billionaire deficit hawk Pete Peterson says. Here's the top and the bottom of the chart,

     ... The whole scary graphic is worth a look. You're ruined! Here's what Digby has to say about it. Digby liberally borrows from ...

... Economist James Galbraith who explains to dummies -- who, needless to say, include the VSEs at the WDC's O&O ABC -- why "the fiscal cliff is a scam ... a mechanism for rolling back Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." ...

... Robert Kuttner of American Prospect, writing in the Huff Post, has another good piece explaining conservatives' fiscal cliff ruse: "... so much the better for the Republicans if they can trick the Democrats into sharing responsibility for [cuts to popular social safety net programs]. A further piece of mischief is the premise that we somehow need a 10-year budget deal that reduces the projected deficit by something like $4 to $5 trillion. We don't.... If we get a recovery with something close to full employment, the deficit naturally comes down.... President Obama holds a very strong hand.... If the president is too determined to get a deal to appreciate what a strong hand he has, then it is up Democrats in Congress and the progressive community ... to make sure that Obama doesn't follow Republicans off their cliff."

... Fortunately for Pete Peterson, the New York Times and the White House are giving him a boost. The Times now has a special livebloggish thing titled "Debt Reckoning -- The Fiscal Deadline in Washington." In a scary entry by Peter Baker (at 6:11 am, Nov. 26) we learn "Americans could spend nearly $200 billion less next year on cars, clothes, furniture and other consumer products than they would otherwise if automatic tax increases take effect as currently scheduled, the White House warned in a report issued Monday morning.... The White House released it as part of an effort to turn up the pressure on Congress, which has barely a month to reach an agreement with President Obama on how to avoid the tax and spending changes or risk sending the nation back into recession." ...

     ... NEW. Robert Reich: "This kind of fear-mongering [by the White House] plays into Republican hands." ...

... There are billionaires & billionaires. Warren Buffett in a New York Times op-ed: "I support President Obama's proposal to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for high-income taxpayers. However, I prefer a cutoff point somewhat above $250,000 -- maybe $500,000 or so. Additionally, we need Congress, right now, to enact a minimum tax on high incomes."

... BTW, Krugman backs up "Adam Davidson for some much-needed mythbusting about the supposed skills shortage holding the US economy back." CW: As I noted the other day, Davidson doesn't seem to get macroeconomics, but he does understand that if businesses won't pay highly-skilled workers decent wages, they should quit complaining that they can't find highly-skilled workers. ...

... And in pretty easy-to-understand terms, Krugman explains to us non-economists how economic modeling works -- or is supposed to work if the model isn't designed "to support a predetermined political or policy position." ...

... Just as a reminder that your Newer, Friendlier GOP is composed of the same old pre-election throwbacks, Republican Senators are so fit to be tied over tweaks to the filibuster rules by which they effectively shut down the Senate during much of Obama's first term that they're threatening to shut down the Senate over any changes to filibuster rules. Obstruction is what they do.

Astronomer Neil deGrasse discusses the End of the World on December 21, 2012 & people who didn't take enough science in school. Via Digby:

New York Times Editors: "There are now 166 men held at Guantánamo, 76 fewer prisoners than when Mr. Obama took office. Only a handful of those remaining have been charged with any crime or legal violation.... Civil liberties, human rights and religious groups are now urging Mr. Obama to veto the military authorization bill for the 2013 fiscal year if it contains any language that denies the executive branch the authority to transfer Guantánamo detainees for repatriation or settlement in foreign countries or for prosecution in a federal criminal court. They make a powerful case...."

Serge Kovaleski & Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: how a small-time crook & congenital liar made the film "Innocence of Muslims" that sparked riots in Islamic countries.

Rick Hertzberg is a bit late to the game with his commentary on the election, but reading Hertzberg is always a pleasure. Plus, I learned something I didn't know: that gerrymandering doesn't account for all of the Republicans' advantage in the House. And his report on the Wall Street Journal's takes on the elections of 2004 & 2012 is just precious.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Mary L. Schapiro, who overhauled the Securities and Exchange Commission after the financial crisis, announced Monday that she was stepping down as chairwoman of the agency.... Ms. Schapiro will also relinquish her position as one of the five members of the agency's commission.... The White House announced on Monday that President Obama was naming Elisse B. Walter, a commissioner at the S.E.C., as the new chairwoman.... Ms. Walter's appointment does not require Congressional approval because the Senate previously confirmed her as a commissioner."

The Never-Ending Story. Politico: "The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to examine the constitutionality of the health reform law's employer requirements and mandatory coverage of contraceptives without a co-pay. The move could open the door for President Barack Obama's health law to be back in front of the Supreme Court late next year."

New York Times: "Cracks appeared on Sunday in the government of President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, as he faces mounting pressure over his sweeping decree seeking to elevate his edicts above the reach of any court until a new constitution is approved. Mr. Morsi's justice minister began arguing publicly for a retreat. At least three other senior advisers resigned over the measure. And it has prompted widening street protests and cries from opponents that Mr. Morsi, who already governs without a legislature, was moving toward a new autocracy in Egypt...." ...

     ... The Guardian has a liveblog. Morsi will meet with judges to try to work out a compromise.

New York Times: "Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced Monday that he would soon 'leave political life,' after a half-century career in the military and government that included two years as prime minister. Coming days after the end of a weeklong air blitz on the Gaza Strip and eight weeks before Israelis head to the polls, Mr. Barak's move is the latest to show the disarray in Israel's center-left bloc."

Guardian: "UBS has been fined £30m [$47.5 million] by the UK's Financial Services Authority -- and could see its investment banking activities hampered by the Swiss regulator -- after the former trader Kweku Adoboli was jailed for fraud. Adoboli, a relatively junior City trader who almost destroyed UBS through increasingly reckless illicit deals, was jailed last week for seven years after being convicted of what police describe as the biggest fraud in UK history."

Al Jazeera: "The 18th United Nations climate change conference (COP18) has opened in the Qatari capital."

AP: "A natural gas explosion that injured more than 20 people and damaged 42 buildings in Springfield, [Massachusetts]'s entertainment district was blamed on a utility worker who accidentally punctured a high-pressure pipeline while looking for a leak. The president of the gas company involved says the employee followed proper procedure and protocol."