The Commentariat -- Dec. 14, 2012

Comments are open. In the spirit of the season or something, be nice. When appropriate.

Tim Egan, on the merits of a liberal arts education. Egan notes that Rick Scott (RTP-Fla.), America's Worst Governor, could use some. Education, that is.

Frank Rich on Michigan, too-big-to-jail & Prop 8.

AND Good News, Reefer Nation:

Cliff Notes

Same Ole, Same Ole. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Speaker John A. Boehner met with President Obama at the White House on Thursday evening to try to bridge a vast gap between the parties on taxes and entitlements like Medicare and Social Security. The meeting broke up after about an hour with no immediate sign from either side that there had been a breakthrough."

Here's a bit of good news. Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he has been told that raising the Medicare eligibility age is 'off the table' in deficit talks, limiting the scope of entitlement reform." CW: Our thanks to all the wonks who ran the numbers & repeated ad nauseum what a stupid idea it was to ever put upping the age "on the table." And love that "context" from Bolton about "limiting the scope of entitlement reform." It appears the "context" here comes from GOP talking points.

Paul Krugman: "This is not a negotiation in the normal sense, in which each side makes proposals and they dicker over the details; instead, Republicans are demanding that Obama read their minds and produce a proposal they'll like. And Obama won't do that, for good reason: he knows that they'll just pronounce themselves unsatisfied with whatever he comes up with, and are indeed very likely to campaign in 2014 attacking him for whatever cuts take place."

** David Atkins in Hullabaloo: "Any story about who should 'sacrifice' given [economic] realities must contain ... context, or the journalist tells a gross lie of omission. When the poor and elderly on fixed incomes are asked to give up needed benefits in exchange for pittance tax increases on the wealthy, it's not a fair trade. It's not even close to a fair trade. Good journalism tells the truth by providing context."

CW: the Washington Post Editors write another "soak the poor" editorial, blaming Democrats for being so rigid about "entitlements" that they're unwilling to make the poor & middle class pay for more tax breaks for the wealthy. Maybe the Post editors should be required to add a disclaimer to the bottom of their deficit-hawk editorials; something like "This editorial comes to you courtesy of Pete Peterson."

Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "Washington's efforts to tame the federal deficit, state officials fear, could end up further whittling away the federal aid that states depend upon...." CW Solution: just send aid to the states where governors & legislatures don't rail against "out-of-control government spending." Too bad, Red States (and Florida, too).

Oops! Stupid Democrats Falling for Stupid Republican Tricks. Jennifer Haberkorn & Manu Raju of Politico: "A growing number of Democrats in the Senate are ready to offer up a key concession on Medicare to try to reach a deal on the fiscal cliff: higher premium payments for wealthy seniors.... even though Democrats are open to [means testing], they are saying no to increasing the eligibility age on Medicare; no to touching Social Security; and no to cutting into Medicaid programs that cover the poor and disabled. Many of these concerns were voiced directly by liberals to White House economic adviser Gene Sperling in a closed-door Senate Democratic lunch on Thursday." CW: why is this a trick? Because Republicans want nothing more for "entitlement" programs to be means-tested. Right now Social Security & Medicare are popular because everybody benefits or anticipates benefits. But make these programs means-tested & Republicans will treat them as gifts/"redistribution of wealth" from "responsible" people to blah people & other ne'er-do-well 47 percenters.

In 1982, Ronald Reagan sat down with the Democrats and they had a deal -- a $3 cut in spending for every dollar they raised in taxes. Guess what? They raised the taxes, and they never cut the spending. -- Oft-repeated story told during "fiscal cliff" negotiations

CW: I'm not always a fan of the Washington Post's fact-checker Glenn Kessler, but he does a masterful job here. I'd give him four thumbs up for this:

It is time to abandon this myth. Reagan may have convinced himself he had been snookered, but that belief is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the deal he had reached. Congress was never expected to match the tax increases with spending cuts on a 3-to-1 basis. Reagan appeared to acknowledge this in his speech when he referred to outlays (which would include interest expenses), rather than spending cuts. In the end, lawmakers apparently did a better job of living up to the bargain than the administration did. -- Glenn Kessler

More Stupid GOP Tricks. N. C. Aizenman of the Washington Post: ideological anti-ObamaCare Republican governors have opted out of running health insurance exchanges, thus broadening the Federal government's reach in their states. Yo, Tenthers, so much for states rights!

Jeremiah Goulka, a "former Republican," on what the GOP can -- and won't -- do to make itself relevant again. Here's an interesting -- and scary -- stat from the report: "Romney would have won New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado if he had captured even slightly higher shares of the Hispanic vote and he could have won in the Electoral College if fewer than 200,000 voters in key states had switched their votes." CW: Now I don't feel so stupid for fearing, two weeks before the election, that Obama would lose. He was, technically, within 200K votes of losing. Thanks to safari for the link. ...

... Paul Krugman, on the same subject: "... Republicans have suffered more than an election defeat, they've seen the collapse of a decades-long project. And with their grandiose goals now out of reach, they literally have no idea what they want -- hence their inability to make specific demands [in the 'fiscal cliff' "negotiations"]. It's a dangerous situation. The G.O.P. is lost and rudderless, bitter and angry, but it still controls the House and, therefore, retains the ability to do a lot of harm, as it lashes out in the death throes of the conservative dream."

Driving the GOP death throes is the party's insistence upon proffering policies tied to theories that have long been disproved. Case in point: trickle-down economics. More rational beings are finally beginning to strike back -- Sahil Kapur of TPM: "On Thursday, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service republished an analysis that found no clear relationship between marginal high-end tax cuts and economic growth. The report, initially published in September, was retracted later that month after top Republican senators complained about it.The new version (PDF) stands by the larger conclusion." CW: If civil servants can stand up to McTurtle, Inc., surely the POTUS can, too. ...

... Steve Benen: "Good for the CRS. It's safe to assume McConnell's office will throw another fit -- the notion that cutting taxes on the rich necessarily boosts economic growth is a bedrock tenant of contemporary conservative thought -- but free inquiry and intellectual integrity demand that accurate government reports see the light of day.... We just can't have public offices' scholarship being stifled because Republicans find reality politically inconvenient."

Susan Rice, in a Washington Post op-ed, elaborates on her decision to withdraw from consideration for the position of Secretary of State. ...

... She doesn't mention any of this stuff: David Dayen of Firedoglake: "... the reality is that [Susan] Rice made more enemies than friends in her attempt to mend fences on Capitol Hill. And her family investments in the oil and gas industry, her long record of war advocacy and too-close-for-comfort relationship to global dictators left her without champions in her own party to beat back the various attacks. In the end, the President must not have seen this as a hill to die on. The real damage here is the perception that if the conservative noise machine makes enough noise, eventually they will succeed at their goals." ...

... CW: notice how Dayen sticks to important, substantive issues in his critique of Rice. Let us turn now to Newsweek, where Lloyd Grove never mentions these issues, but does some extensive reporting on what a bitch Rice is. (Grove used to be a gossip columnist for both the WashPo & New York Daily News.) So his hit job doesn't sound so bad, Grove finds people to say nice things about Rice, too. We'll call it a "balanced hit job." If Grove's piece seems vaguely familiar to you, you may be thinking of "analyses" of the personalities of Sonia Sotomayor & Elena Kagan after their nominations to the Supreme Court. Girls -- especially girls of color -- are supposed to "know their place" & be extra polite to the white boys who are their betters. (Kagan is actually a world-class schmoozer, so Robin Givhan of the WashPo wrote a two-page piece on Kagan's failure to cross her legs while schmoozing, "as most women do.") I expected this kind of sexism in 1972, maybe even in 1982. But now? ...

... David Sanger & Jodi Kantor of the New York Times put a much different spin on Rice's "blunt" style.

If You're Not Beat to a Pulp or Stabbed or Something, It's Not Rape. Adam Martin of New York magazine: the California Commission on Judicial performance has admonished Orange County Judge Derek Johnson for giving a light sentence to a rapist in 2008 because, he said, "if someone doesn't want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down.... The victim in this case, although she wasn't necessarily willing, she didn't put up a fight. And to treat this case like the rape cases that we all hear about is an insult to victims of rape." Orange County is the West Coast Center of Right Wing World.

John Gramlich of Roll Call: "House Republicans have quietly raised the value of a contract with a private law firm that is handling the chamber's Supreme Court defense of" DOMA. The contract's new maximum is $2 million. "Although the latest lifting of the contract cap occurred almost three months ago, House Democrats -- and the public -- were in the dark about the move until this week.... [Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi blasted House Republicans in a statement Thursday for 'wasting taxpayer dollars to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act. Hiding this contract from voters in the midst of an election season was a cynical move at best, and a betrayal of the public trust at worst,' she said. 'Republicans should not be spending $2 million to defend discrimination in our country.'"

Michael Kelley of Business Insider: "NYU student Josh Begley is tweeting every reported U.S. drone strike since 2002, and the feed highlights a disturbing tactic employed by the U.S. that is widely considered a war crime. Known as the 'double tap,' the tactic involves bombing a target multiple times in relatively quick succession, meaning that the second strike often hits first responders."

Local News -- Race to the Bottom

Actually, not so much a race as a slow, steady slog. Nick Carey & Bernie Woodall of Reuters report on how Michigan legislators -- with a little help from their deep-pockets robber-baron friends -- mustered the votes & ensured Gov. Rick Snyder's cooperation in passing right-to-work legislation in Michigan. Includes a near-death appearance from Andrew Breitbart.

This is nonsense of course, but what the hell. Daily Kos is running a petition drive urging South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to appoint Stephen Colbert to the Senate seat which Jim DeMint is vacating. Anything to annoy Southern Republicans.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new standard for soot pollution on Friday that will force industry, utilities and local governments to find ways to reduce emissions of particles that are linked to thousands of cases of disease and death each year."

New York Times: "Facing indictment for breach of trust and fraud, Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, resigned his post Friday afternoon amid mounting political pressure,upending the campaign landscape five weeks before national elections."

President Obama speaks on the school killings in Newtown, Connecticut:

Hartford Courant: "Twenty-seven people, including 18 children, have been killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to the Associated Press." The Courant is livestreaming Fox Connecticut coverage. ...

... ABC News: "More than two dozen people, mostly elementary school children, were shot and killed at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school this morning, federal and state sources tell ABC News. The massacre involved two gunmen and prompted the town of Newtown to lock down all of its schools and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said today. One shooter is dead and a manhunt is on for a second gunman." ...

... The New York Times' "The Lede" has live updates with live coverage from MSNBC. Here's the direct link to MSNBC coverage. ...

... AND here's the New York Times' main story.

Washington Post: "The United States authorized on Friday the deployment of 400 troops to man two Patriot missile-defense batteries along Turkey's border with Syria, a move that could put American troops near the front lines of the Arab country's escalating civil war. Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta signed the order authorizing the deployment of the batteries Friday morning while flying from Kabul to this military base in southern Turkey." ...

... He Didn't Say What He Said. AP: "Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday denied that a top diplomat said Syrian President Bashar Assad is losing control of his country, a statement that had been interpreted as signaling a shift in Russia's assessment of the situation."

Guardian: "A prominent Senate select committee has voted to approve a 6,000-page report of its investigation into controversial interrogation techniques adopted by the CIA during the so-called 'war on terror' that is believed to show that the methods, widely denounced as torture, produced little valuable intelligence.... The majority Democratic members of the committee were joined by one Republican senator, Olympia Snowe of Maine, in backing the report. However, lack of co-operation from the remaining Republican members of the panel could prevent the document ever seeing the light of day."

Al Jazeera: "Rival sides in Egypt's political crisis are staging rallies in Cairo a day before the first round of voting begins on a contentious draft constitution."

AP: "Nearly 4 out of 5 Americans now think temperatures are rising and that global warming will be a serious problem for the United States if nothing is done about it, a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds. Belief and worry about climate change are inching up among Americans in general, but concern is growing faster among people who don't often trust scientists on the environment."

About Comments

A reader wrote today that he misses the comments because the commenters have become his friends. I get that. But let me tell you something about his friends & mine.

They often forget they're writing in a public forum and write instead as if they've had three glasses of wine & are arguing with relatives at Thanksgiving dinner. They sometimes write things that are hurtful to other readers, occasionally taking direct hits at specific commenters. They make up stuff to “bolster” their arguments with phony “facts.” If I ask them to cut it out, some do. Others refuse: one “friend” – who happens to live in my home state and has a habit of suing individuals and public agencies for the fun of it – threatened to sue me when I deleted an outrageous comment he wrote, one that repeated something I told him he could not write on this site (because the writing of it is illegal). His “case” against me was laughable, but it would have been a pain in the ass & an expense for me to have to defend.

I don't pre-screen comments because (a) I find pre-screening sort of imperious; (b) few commenters here need careful minding anyway; and (b) pre-screening inhibits the exchange of ideas by imposing what should be an unnecessary time lag. But I saw the error of my theory this week when one commenter wrote something that could have endangered another and it was at least an hour before I read and removed the offending comment.

So, yes, I'll start up the Comments sections again in a day or two. But I do ask that commenters become their own editors. Before clicking the “Submit Comment” button, please do at least a quick re-read in which you try to see your work through your readers' eyes. It's fine to be offensive, but try a little harder to offend only public figures – or me – and do so in terms that are reasonably defensible.

-- Sister Mary Elephant

The Commentariat -- Dec. 13, 2012

I'm getting complaints that I'm boring & all the commenters are interesting. Couldn't agree more. -- Constant Weader

Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News: "Former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has emerged as the leading candidate to become Obama's next Secretary of Defense and may be nominated as soon as this month, according to two people familiar with the matter. Hagel, who served as an enlisted Army infantryman in Vietnam, has passed the vetting process at the White House Counsel's office, said one of the people. The former Nebraska senator has told associates that he is awaiting final word from the president, said the other person."

Greg Sargent: "The Senate Democratic leadership is announcing today that [Elizabeth] Warren will be given a seat on the Senate Banking Committee."

Another Big Win for Mitt. Angie Holan of PolitiFact: "Lie of the Year: the Romney campaign's ad on Jeeps made in China.... PolitiFact has selected Romney's claim that Barack Obama 'sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China' at the cost of American jobs as the 2012 Lie of the Year.... And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false."

Fabulous News out of Washington: Joe Lieberman gave his final Senate speech Wednesday. Something about compromise and bipartisanship. But the fabulous news is Joe Lieberman gave his final Senate speech Wednesday.

Felicia Sonmez & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The conservative groups that supported Michigan's new 'right to work' law -- winning a stunning victory over unions, even in the heart of American labor -- vowed Wednesday to replicate that success elsewhere. But the search for the next Michigan could be difficult. National unions, caught flat-footed in the Wolverine State, pledged to offer fierce opposition wherever the idea crops up next.... In addition, few Republican governors who could enact such legislation seem eager to bring the fight to their states." CW: I think the writers are underestimating the persuasive powers of the Koch boys. ...

... E. J. Dionne: "... the way Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and the Republican Michigan Legislature rushed right-to-work through a lame-duck session was insidious.... Snyder had avoided taking a stand on right-to-work until just last week, when he miraculously discovered that it would be a first-rate economic development measure. The law was included as part of an appropriations bill to make it much harder for voters to challenge it in a referendum. The political motivation here is obvious. Union families are the premier cross-racial Democratic constituency. Nationwide, President Obama carried union households by 18 points but non-union households by only one point -- a 'union gap' of 17 points. In Michigan, the union gap was an astonishing 32 points: Obama won union households 66 percent to 33 percent, the rest of the electorate by 50 percent to 49 percent."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Harold Koh, the top lawyer in the State Department, will step down early next year and return to teaching at Yale Law School, a department official said on Wednesday. His impending departure is part of a major overhaul in the Obama administration's national security legal policy team, including the announcement last week that the Pentagon general counsel, Jeh C. Johnson, is resigning."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "There will be no big star-studded concert on the National Mall to celebrate President Obama's second inauguration next month, several of his inaugural planners said Wednesday.... Mr. Obama, mindful of the difficult economy, has set a more low-key tone for his 2013 inaugural festivities."

Linda Greenhouse makes a compelling argument that the DOMA & Prop 8 cases the Supremes have agreed to hear are not about gay marriage but about standing; i.e., whether the parties in the cases have the capacity to bring suit as outlined in Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution. CW: so my little prediction that the Supremes will "do the right thing" may be moot; they may do nothing, thus leaving the status quo, well, status quo.

Cliff Notes

Greg Sargent: "I spoke this morning to an official familiar with the fiscal cliff talks. He tells me that ever since Republicans rejected the first White House fiscal offer, White House negotiators have been asking Republicans to detail both the spending cuts they want and the loopholes and deductions they would close to raise revenues while avoiding a hike in tax rates for the rich. According to the official, Republicans continue to refuse to answer.... How on earth can there be any progress under these circumstances?"

The "Logic" of Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age. Paul Krugman: "When I look at this whole discussion I keep thinking of a line from 'Yes, Minister': 'We must do something. This is something. Therefore we must do it.' And there's a real possibility that this kind of logic will lead to huge suffering for hundreds of thousands of older Americans.... It would inflict vast hardship on the most vulnerable, while saving the federal government remarkably little money, and would actually raise overall health spending, basically because private insurers have much higher administrative costs and much less bargaining power than Medicare...."

Boehner Forgets Who Won the Election Again. Dana Bash of CNN: "One of the reasons Tuesday night's conversation between President Barack Obama and John Boehner did not go well was because the GOP House speaker sent the White House a fiscal cliff proposal calling for a permanent extension of Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, including for incomes in the top 2%, a Democratic source said Wednesday." ...

... The Republican War on Christmas. Robert Schoeder: "With the fiscal cliff unresolved and the clock ticking, House Speaker John Boehner is telling his fellow Republicans not to make holiday-season plans, reports said." The House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said basically the same thing.

I'm getting increasingly concerned that one of the reasons the Speaker is deciding to, I think, string out these discussions is that he wants to wait til January 3 when the election for Speaker takes place. -- Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland)

Jonathan Chait: "When the only cuts on the table would inflict real harm on people with modest incomes and save small amounts of money, that is a sign that there's just not much money to save.... The spending cuts aren't there because they can't be found." And Republicans don't seem to understand this.

Oh, there are ways to cut back. Laura Gottesediener of AlterNet list seven "absurd ways the military wastes taxpayer dollars.... There are 963 generals and admirals in the U.S. armed forces....

... each top commander has his own C-40 jet, complete with beds on board. Many have chefs who deserve their own four-star restaurants. The generals' personal staff include drivers, security guards, secretaries, and people to shine their shoes and iron their uniforms. When traveling, they can be accompanied by police motorcades that stretch for blocks. When entertaining, string quartets are available at a snap of the fingers. A New York Times analysis showed that simply the staff provided to top generals and admirals can top $1 million -- per general. That's not even including their own salaries -- which are relatively modest due to congressional legislation -- and the free housing, which has been described as 'palatial.'

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post : Monday, the White House backed off its 2011 proposal to allow $17.9BB in Medicaid cuts. Kliff explains how the Supremes accidentally saved Medicaid from cuts.

Local News

Max Read of Gawker: "Steven Crowder, the frequent Fox News contributor and YouTube comedia[n]..., insert[ed] himself in the middle of a tense argument between protestors and staffers of Americans for Prosperity, the anti-union group funded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. And then he got punched in the face." Crowder was whining about it on Fox "News" yesterday, but Read thinks he should take his licks for getting "between billionaire-funded know-nothing ideologues and people whose livelihoods and stability are being threatened by the insatiable greed of the super-rich and the blind extremism of their wooden-headed political allies. In exchange, liberals will buy you a band-aid ... re-iterate that Punching Is Bad." ...

Punching is bad. -- Constant Weader ...

... Not surprisingly, it appears Crowder faked what actually happened, editing the video to make events that happened hours apart appear to be sequential.

AND Adam Sandler puts in a performance at the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief:

News Ledes

New York Times: "Susan E. Rice, the Obama administration's ambassador to the United Nations, has withdrawn her name from consideration for secretary of state, in the face of relentless opposition from Republicans in Congress over her role in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya."

New York Times: "The Swiss financial giant UBS is close to finalizing a settlement with authorities over the manipulation of interest rates, a deal that is expected to include at least $1 billion in fines. UBS is in discussions with United States, British and Swiss authorities, and an announcement could come as early as Monday...."

New York Times: "N. Joseph Woodland, who six decades ago drew a set of lines in the sand and in the process conceived the modern bar code, died on Sunday at his home in Edgewater, N.J. He was 91." Read the obit.

New York Times: "European leaders gathering [in Brussels, Belgium] on Thursday for their year-end summit meeting hailed an agreement to place euro zone banks under a single supervisor, calling it a concrete measure to maintain the viability of the currency as well as a step in laying the groundwork for a broader economic union."

New York Times: "Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia's top envoy for Syria, said on Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad's government was losing control of the country and might be defeated by rebel forces."

Reuters: "North Korea's next step after rattling the world by putting a satellite into orbit for the first time will likely be a nuclear test, the third conducted by the reclusive and unpredictable state. A nuclear test would be the logical follow-up to Wednesday's successful rocket launch, analysts said."

AP: "A nurse duped by a hoax call from Australian DJs about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was found hanging in her room and left three notes, a coroner's inquest was told Thursday."