The Commentariat -- Dec. 6, 2012

News Flash: Michael O'Brien of NBC News: "South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, an influential Republican who has helped prod his party rightward, will step down from his seat in January to become the next director of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank."

Cliff Notes

Quinnipiac University: "American voters give President Barack Obama a 53 - 40 percent job approval rating - his best score in three years - and by a wider 53 - 36 percent they trust the president and Democrats more than Republicans to avoid the 'Fiscal Cliff,' according to a Quinnipiac University poll...."

Devin Dwyer, et al., of ABC News: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, "President Obama's lead negotiator in the 'fiscal cliff' talks, said the administration is 'absolutely' willing to allow the package of deep automatic spending cuts and across-the-board tax hikes to take effect Jan. 1, unless Republicans drop their opposition to higher income tax rates on the wealthy."

Josh Marshall of TPM: "House Republicans are saying they'll regroup around the debt limit and force the president's hands when they have all the power -- probably late next month or in early February. This assumes a replay of 2011.. But the President says he won't negotiate under any circumstances. And his top advisors say he&'s adamant on the point -- not just because of the current impasse but to take hostage taking over the national debt off the table for good."

Molly Hooper of The Hill: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) warned his conference on Wednesday that leaders are 'watching' how the rank and file vote to determine committee assignments, according to sources in a closed-door meeting. Boehner addressed the firestorm over the removal of four lawmakers from plum committee assignments at the weekly GOP conference meeting."

Lori Montgomery & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A growing chorus of Republicans is urging House leaders to abandon their staunch opposition to higher tax rates for the wealthy with the aim of clearing the way for a broad deal that would also rein in the cost of federal health and retirement programs." CW: sounds choreographed to me.

Dana Milbank: "Right now, [Speaker Boehner] is hoping to lead his fractious GOP to an orderly surrender. The question is no longer whether Republicans will give on taxes; they already have. All that remains to be negotiated is how they will increase taxes, and whether they will do it before or after the government reaches the 'fiscal cliff.'" Read it and gloat.

Here's Frank Rich on the fake fiscal cliff, etc. He seems to be hoping that at his next stay at a Marriott, Mitt Romney will be the concierge & Ann Romney will bring him fluffier towels. Hey, it could be good for the Romney marriage -- a little hanky-panky in Room 207, etc. Ann could learn that one need not be Leader of the Free World to have fun. Thanks to MAG for the link.

If you don't like Rich's take on the fiscal cliff, here's Montgomery Burns (no relation) to give you the rich person's perspective:

... But some top CEOs are breaking with Mr. Burns & supporting a tax hike for the wealthy, as Ryan Grim & Sabrina Sidiqui of the Huffington Post report. ...

... Here's President Obama, pitching his deficit reduction plan to some of those CEOs & urging them to pressure their Republican friends not to create another debt ceiling crisis:

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Through phone calls, White House invitations and old-fashioned political flattery, Mr. Obama has dispensed with some of the populist language of the campaign trail to appeal to corporate America's palpable desire for certainty. In groups and one by one, the president is making a case to business leaders that siding with him will put the nation back on a firm fiscal footing and unleash the economy.... White House officials have been encouraged by what they describe as a more positive reaction than expected."

Sahil Kapur of TPM: "The possibility that Democratic and Republican leaders will agree to slowly increase the Medicare eligibility age to 67 is creating strange bedfellows: liberals -- both in and out of Congress -- and the health insurance industry. The reason: hiking the Medicare eligibility age would throw seniors aged 65 and 66 off Medicare and into the private market, forcing insurers, who will soon be required to cover all consumers regardless of health status, to care for a sicker, more expensive crop of patients."

Gail Collins on Republican Senators who voted down the disabilities treaty: "The big worry was, of course, offending the Tea Party. The same Tea Party that pounded Mitt Romney into the presidential candidate we came to know and reject over the past election season. The same Tea Party that keeps threatening to wage primaries against incumbents who don't do what they're told. The Tea Party who made those threats work so well in the last election that Indiana now has a totally unforeseen Democratic senator. The threat the Republicans need to worry about isn't in the United Nations." ...

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "For the first time in U.S. history, white men are in the minority of the House Democratic caucus and Nancy Pelosi doesn't want you to forget that." ...

... Oh, let's take one more look at the House GOP leadership:

In response to criticism, Boehner later appointed a white lady to head up the secretaries' pool or something like that. ...

... Erik Loomis of Lawyers, Guns & Money on "the coming Republican coalition" and how Republicans are going out of their way to win over -- well, maybe crazy white Christian bigots. Hard to say.

The Democratic Governors Association celebrates, well, themselves. They did have a few surprising wins in November:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) likes the middle class. He said so in a speech Wednesday night. Thirty-five times, by Dave Weigel's count. But, also according to Weigel, everything Rubio said about helping the middle class was already on the regular GOP menu. ...

... Oh, and now Marco believes in science, too. Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, Mr. Rubio told Mike Allen of Politico: 'There is no scientific debate on the age of the earth. I mean, it's established pretty definitively, it's at least 4.5 billion years old.'" Then he does an Olympics-class backtracking pretzel flip, where he pretends he didn't say what he said a few weeks ago. CW: most of the news agencies that covered Marco's marvelous move called the word from Marco the Science Guy a "clarification."

New York Times Editors: states should invest in citizens, not big corporations. "... targeted [corporate] incentives ... are little more than transfers of wealth to a handful of powerful corporations from all other taxpayers, including other businesses. If the problem is excessive tax burdens on businesses in general, then the solution is broad tax reform that also benefits small business owners, who are more likely to stick around ... and who are unlikely to hopscotch around the country in search of a bigger tax break."

Ryan Reilly of TPM: "Sen. Barbara Boxer plans to introduce an election reform bill designed to prevent long lines at polling places on Wednesday... The LINE Act ... would require the attorney general to set national standards for a minimum number of voting machines, poll workers and other resources during federal elections by Jan. 1, 2014. The goal would to be prevent voters from having to wait more than an hour to vote at any polling place in the country."

MAG is right. Charles Pierce writes a fierce & funny putdown of Brother Ross Douthat.

James Risen, et al., of the New York Times: "The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.... The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from Qatar and other countries."

Paul Waldman of American Prospect: "It ain't easy being Fox.... It needs to simultaneously cater to the establishment, to the Tea Party, to the elite, to the base, and to everyone in between. That can be a difficult juggling act. Fox plays a much more central role in the conservative movement than MSNBC does in the liberal movement, which is good for business, but it also brings complications. But don't worry about Karl Rove. He'll be back on the air before you know it, telling conservatives why their victory is inevitable."

Local News

Scott Keyes of Think Progress: Two Democratic Florida legislators have introduced bills to extend early voting to 14 days -- which is what it was before Gov. Rick Scott (RTP) took over -- and to allow local elections officials to extend hours & voting venues. Republicans control the state legislature, so good luck with that. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Resignations rocked the government of President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday as tanks from the special presidential guard took up positions around his palace and the state television headquarters after a night of street fighting between his Islamist supporters and their secular opponents that left at least 6 dead and 450 wounded." ...

... Reuters: "Egypt's Republican Guard restored order around the presidential palace on Thursday after fierce overnight clashes killed seven people, but passions ran high in a struggle over the country's future. The Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, criticised by his opponents for his silence in the last few days, was due to address the nation later in the day, state television said."

New York Times: "A new round of diplomacy on the conflict in Syria will begin on Thursday afternoon when Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy, hosts an unusual three-way meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov."

Washington Post: "Afghanistan's national intelligence director [Asadullah Khalid] was badly wounded in a brazen suicide bombing in the Afghan capital Thursday afternoon. Officials described the attack as an assassination attempt and said the bomb exploded as the director was greeting a visitor at his private guest house."

New York Times: "For the first time in years, Apple will manufacture [some] computers in the United States, the chief executive of Apple, Timothy D. Cook, said in interviews with NBC and Bloomberg Businessweek."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 5, 2012

Cliff Notes

Meghashyam Mali of The Hill: "President Obama will appeal to business leaders on Wednesday, calling on them to press lawmakers to raise the U.S. debt limit during 'fiscal cliff' negotiations. Obama, who will meet with executives from the Business Roundtable on Wednesday, hopes to avoid another protracted fight over the debt ceiling and has sought to include it in ongoing deficit talks."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Tuesday that there is still a chance that the White House and Congress can reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, but he warned that the latest offer from House Republicans' remains 'out of balance.' In his first one-on-one interview since his reelection, Obama told Bloomberg TV that he remains firmly committed to his demand that the GOP agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans." ...

... Here's the Bloomberg story, by Julianna Goldman & Mike Dorning:

Manu Raju & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner's pitch of $800 billion in new tax revenues already has tea party-backed conservatives accusing GOP leaders of peddling a plan that would destroy job growth. Conservative outside groups are urging their party's rank-and-file to rebel and reject any new taxes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team pointedly declined to endorse the proposal." ...

... "You're Fired." Jonathan Strong of Roll Call: "With a small purge of rebellious Republicans -- mostly conservatives -- from prominent committees Monday, Speaker John A. Boehner is sending a tough message ahead of the looming vote on a fiscal cliff deal. David Schweikert of Arizona and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina were booted from the Financial Services Committee. Justin Amash of Michigan and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas were removed from the Budget Committee; Huelskamp lost his place on the Agriculture Committee as well."

Ezra Klein has a short & sour summary of what-all is in the Simpson-Bowles plan. He adds, "Republicans may want to associate themselves with Erskine Bowles, and they may want to attack Obama for not doing enough to support Simpson-Bowles, but they want nothing to do with Simpson-Bowles itself." And if Wall Street & corporate CEOs had any idea what was in it, they wouldn't like it either, their oft-repeated claims to love it notwithstanding.

Jonathan Chait of New York sees an early January deal as the most likely scenario. And he sez why -- which is mostly that's how Republicans can best save face. They really are pathetic.

Here's the "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" (WBUR) segment which contributor Janice recommends -- libruls, including Paul Krugman, talk about the so-called fiscal cliff:

     ... AND here's Stephanie Kelton's follow-up.

Matt Spetalnick of Reuters: "President Barack Obama is expected to announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense in the next two weeks, with former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel on the short list of potential choices to head the Pentagon, senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Hagel ... met the Democratic president at the White House this week to discuss a post on his national security team."

Carrie Johnson of NPR: "In a tug of war between President Obama and Congress, a federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., will hear arguments Wednesday on the legality of Obama's controversial recess appointments. The White House says it was forced to install three new members of the National Labor Relations Board in January because of inaction by Senate Republicans. But those lawmakers argue the Senate wasn't really in a recess at the time." With audio.

M. J. Lee & Patrick Reis of Politico: "Senate Democratic leaders have picked [Senator-Elect Elizabeth Warren] to fill one of the [Banking Committee]'s open spots, a Democratic source with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday."

John Bresnehan & Manu Raju of Politico: "Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet will serve as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 2014 election cycle."

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) writes an excellent op-ed in USA Today on the need for filibuster reform, & he explains why a simple majority of the Senate can change the rules for the filibustering. Spoiler: it's in the Constitution.

NEW. Kate Masur in the Atlantic on Spielberg's Lincoln film: "The compromises that Lincoln did not make are more significant than the ones he did." CW: in other words, quit listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin; she has a VSP agenda, not an accurate historical perspective. BTW, I saw a photo of her (I think) sitting in the President's box at the Kennedy Center Honors gala. I guess that's one way to make her think you're paying her some attention. It won't shut her up, though.

New York Times Editors: Megabank "UBS has reached a conditional immunity deal [for manipulating interest rates] with the antitrust arm of the Justice Department, though the department's criminal unit could still take action against the bank. Unless civil penalties are paired with high profile criminal prosecutions, they will not add up to meaningful punishment or effective deterrence."

Costas Apologizes for Being Right. Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "Bob Costas said he made a 'mistake,' violating his own rule of not trying to compress a nuanced topic into small bit of air time, with his controversial halftime commentary Sunday night on the murder-suicide committed by Jovan Belcher of the Kansas City Chiefs the day before." ...

     ... Update: Lawrence O'Donnell interviews Bob Costas. Also read the related post:

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Former President George W. Bush weighed back into the nation's volatile immigration debate on Tuesday by calling on policymakers in Washington to revamp the law 'with a benevolent spirit' that recognizes the contribution of those who move here from other countries."

Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic on Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder. BTW, I hope many of you had a chance to read Jefferson's writings on slavery which I linked earlier this week in the Comments section but not in the Commentariat itself.

E. J. Graff of American Prospect has an excellent response to Douthat's column "More Babies, Please." "We can't all be royals."

Bad News. Maureen Dowd is already obsessing over Hillary 2016.

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: Bradley Manning's civilian attorney David "Coombs addressed an audience of Bradley Manning supporters in a Unitarian church in Washington on Monday night and lashed out at the military hierarchy for allowing the intelligence analyst to be subjected to nine months of harsh suicide prevention regime against the advice of doctors. 'Brad's treatment at Quantico will forever be etched into our nation's history as a disgraceful moment in time,' he said."

Jonathan Ansfield of the New York Times: a fatal car crash cover-up led to the downfall of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Ah, Democracy!

Our Fantastic Electorate. Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "A new poll from Public Policy Polling found that an impressive 39 percent of Americans have an opinion about the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan.... Before you start celebrating the new, sweeping reach of the 2010 commission's work, consider this: Twenty-five percent of Americans also took a stance on the Panetta-Burns plan." CW: Unfortunately, Leon & I have not actually developed a deficit-reduction plan. Maybe I should call him.

Our Well-Informed Electorate. Paul Krugman: "... by a margin of almost four to one, people think that going over the fiscal cliff will cause the deficit to increase. In a way, I understand this: the VSPs have been pounding the drum over and over again about how deficits are bad, evil; now they are warning about a fiscal something-or-other, so how are people supposed to know that they're suddenly worried that we'll reduce the deficit too much?"

Our Wacko Right Wing Electorate. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.... 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union.... Since the election we've seen a 5 point increase in Democratic identification to 44%, and a 5 point decrease in Republican identification to 32%." Read the whole post as there are other interesting/odd results.

Right Wing World

Lawrence Downes of the New York Times: "Former Senator Bob Dole, 89 years old and in a wheelchair, went onto the floor of the Senate today to urge his former colleagues to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities.... One by one ... the senators approached Mr. Dole to pat his shoulder or clasp his hand.... Then he was wheeled away, and all but a handful of the Republicans bailed out on him. The treaty failed.... The vote was a triumph for Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum and others on the hard-right loon fringe, who have been feverishly denouncing the treaty as a United Nations world-government conspiracy to kill disabled children (you can look it up)." ...

... This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won't give up on this..., but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country. -- Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)

Ken Vogel of Politico: "Dick Armey left [the Tea Party group FreedomWorks] ... over a clash with a top lieutenant who Armey and others in the organization believed was using the group's resources to pad his pockets.... Armey was concerned that [FreedomWorks president Matt] Kibbe structured the deal to personally profit from the book, despite relying on FreedomWorks staff and resources to research, help write and promote it -- an arrangement he and others at the group believed could jeopardize its tax exempt status." CW: it's always such a surprise when you find out these guys are avaricious hacks.

News Ledes

One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It's the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat. It's the first thing you hear when you're born -- or before you're born -- and it&'s the last thing you hear. -- Dave Brubeck

New York Times: "Dave Brubeck, the pianist and composer who helped make jazz popular again in the 1950s and '60s with recordings like 'Time Out,' the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and 'Take Five,' the still instantly recognizable hit single that was that album's centerpiece, died on Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn. He would have turned 92 on Thursday."

New York Times: "Oscar Niemeyer, the celebrated Brazilian architect whose flowing designs infused Modernism with a new sensuality and captured the imaginations of generations of architects around the world, died on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. He was 104."

New York Times: "Angry mobs of Islamists battled secular protesters with fists, rocks and firebombs in the streets around the presidential palace for hours Wednesday night in the first major outbreak of violence between political factions here since the revolt against then-President Hosni Mubarak began nearly two years ago."

New York Times: "President Obama plans to ask Congress for about $50 billion in emergency spending to help rebuild the states ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, according to administration and Congressional officials briefed on the discussions."

New York Times: "Citigroup announced on Wednesday that it would cut 11,000 jobs, reducing its work force by roughly 4 percent in an effort to cut costs."

New York Times: "Rescue teams were trying to reach isolated villages in the southern Philippines on Wednesday after a powerful out-of-season typhoon tore through the region, leaving more than 270 people dead...."

AP: "Serbia's ambassador to NATO was chatting and joking with colleagues in a parking garage at Brussels Airport when he suddenly strolled to a barrier, climbed over and flung himself to the ground below, a diplomat said. By the time his shocked colleagues reached him, Branislav Milinkovic was dead."

AP: "Negotiators reached an agreement late Tuesday to end an 8-day strike that crippled the nation's largest port complex and prevented shippers from delivering billions of dollars in cargo to warehouses and distribution centers across the country."

Guardian: "The former Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, is on his way to the United States after apparently defecting, the Guardian has learned. Makdissi, the most senior Christian official yet to abandon Bashar al-Assad's regime, was reported on Monday to have variously been sacked or defected and to have arrived back in London, where he used to serve in the Syrian embassy."

Al Jazeera: "NASA plans to send a new rover to Mars in 2020 as it prepares for a manned mission to the Red Planet, the US space agency said on Tuesday. The announcement came a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of some of the compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life."

AP: "Jack Brooks, who spent 42 years in Congress representing his Southeast Texas district and was in the Dallas motorcade in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, has died. He was 89.... Brooks was among the last links to an era when Democrats dominated Texas politics and was the last of 'Mr. Sam's Boys,' protégés of fellow Texan and legendary 21-year Democratic House Speaker Sam Rayburn in the state's congressional delegation." CW: the last of the breed: liberal-ish Southern white Congressmen.

The Commentariat -- Dec. 4, 2012

Cliff Notes

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times (post time Dec. 4, 3:09 am): "Democratic luminaries with ties to the Obama and Clinton administrations, including two former Treasury secretaries and two former White House chiefs of staff, on Tuesday will enter the tax debate with an overhaul plan that would raise an additional $1.8 trillion in the first decade. That is $200 billion more than President Obama has proposed and $1 trillion more than Republicans in Congress support. It would mostly result from a simplification of the tax code that produces higher taxes from the wealthy, but would also involve higher taxes on cigarettes, alcoholic beverages and Internet gambling that would hit people of all incomes." Here's the plan (pdf). CW: Maybe they could have submitted it a tad sooner.

White House Hits the Reject Button. Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times: "Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said in a statement that what congressional Republicans had billed as a 'good-faith effort' to move toward compromise contained 'nothing new' and offered no specifics on how they'd achieve revenue targets included in the plan. Until the Republicans in Congress are willing to get serious about asking the wealthiest to pay slightly higher tax rates, we won't be able to achieve a significant, balanced approach to reduce our deficit,' Pfeiffer said in the statement, released two hours after details of the GOP offer emerged."

Jonathan Karl of ABC News: "Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks collapse entirely. It's quite simple: House Republicans would allow a vote on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the Senate) and offer the President nothing more: no extension of the debt ceiling, nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes. Congress would recess for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year over the debt ceiling." ...

... Because Doomsday Plan Sounds More Badass than Capitulation Plan. Jonathan Chait of New York: "The evolving Republican position appears to be a response to the recognition that the [Republican] party doesn't have any leverage to fight Obama over the Bush tax cuts and doesn't seem to know what it wants to do on spending."

While I'm flattered the Speaker would call something 'the Bowles plan,' the approach outlined in the letter Speaker Boehner sent to the President does not represent the Simpson-Bowles plan, nor is it the Bowles plan. -- Erskine Bowles ...

... New York Times Editors: "Republicans didn't even bother to assemble their own package of spending cuts and revenue increases; they did a simple copy and paste of a few proposals made extemporaneously at a hearing last year by Erskine Bowles.... Mr. Bowles quickly disavowed" authorship of the GOP proposal. "The offer was a transparent attempt to appear responsive to Mr. Obama's detailed proposal from last week, without doing any actual math or hard work."

Paul Krugman: "... the Republican 'counteroffer' is basically fake. It calls for $800 billion in revenue from closing loopholes, but doesn't specify a single loophole to be closed; it calls for huge spending cuts, but aside from raising the Medicare age and cutting the Social Security inflation adjustment -- moves worth only around $300 billion -- it doesn't specify how these cuts are to be achieved. So it's basically the Paul Ryan method: scribble down some numbers and pretend that you're a budget wonk with a Serious plan.... [See definition of 'Serious' below.] Oh, and for all the seniors or near-seniors who voted Republican because you thought they would protect Medicare from that bad guy Obama: you've been had." ...

... ** Krugman on controlling healthcare costs to rein in the deficit. Bottom line: "... pay no attention when [Republicans] talk about how much they hate deficits. If they were serious about deficits, they'd be willing to consider policies that might actually work; instead, they cling to free-market fantasies that have failed repeatedly in practice."

Josh Barro of Bloomberg News: "House Republicans are out with their response to the President's opening bid on the fiscal cliff, and it's not very impressive. Here are three big problems with the letter they sent to the White House: 1. It's not really a proposal -- it's just a set of headline numbers without specific policies.... 2. The description of tax reform makes little sense.... 3. The proposal does not fully avert the fiscal cliff.

Steve Benen: "Under the GOP plan, Republicans get the more than $1 trillion in spending cuts Obama already gave them; Republicans get the entitlement cuts they want; Republicans get hundreds of billions of dollars in additional cuts to programs they haven't identified; and Republicans get all of the Bush-era tax rates they've prioritized. This isn't a 'counteroffer'; it's a Christmas wish list written by kids without access to calculators."

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones updates his dictionary to define the latest meanings of "serious" and "unserious" proposals:

Serious (ser’ ee uhs) adj. any of a group of proposals that immiserates large numbers of ordinary people, either immediately or in the future, via cuts to broad-based social welfare programs.

Unserious (un ser’ ee uhs) adj. any proposal that slightly inconveniences rich people via modest tax increases or annoys military contractors via small cuts to the Defense Department.

CW: As Congressional Republicans continue their fight to protect the rich (their so-called counter-proposal actually lowers the top marginal tax rate) & undermine the government, keep this Think Progress headline in mind: "Corporate profits hit record high while worker wages hit record low." Pat Garofalo has the story.

** Frank Bruni: "There’s something rotten in the N.F.L., an obviously dysfunctional culture that either brings out sad, destructive behavior in its fearsome gladiators or fails to protect them and those around them from it. And while it's too soon to say whether [Jovan] Belcher himself was a victim of that culture, it's worth noting that the known facts and emerging details of his story echo themes all too familiar in pro football over recent years: domestic violence, substance abuse, erratic behavior, gun possession, bullets fired, suicide." ...

... AP: "Bob Costas'; 'Sunday Night Football' halftime commentary supporting gun control sparked a Fox News Channel debate Monday on whether NBC should fire him and a Twitter storm involving Ted Nugent, Rosie O'Donnell, Herman Cain and many more." CW: Costas' remarks should not be controversial. And the AP should not bother to report what Nugent, O'Donnell & Cain have to say about anything -- especially Nugent. ...

... NEW. Charles Pierce: "That what Costas said is reckoned to be brave -- and it was, especially judging by the hysteria it set off on the gun-happy right -- is a measure of how truncated our national discussion has become."

Louise Story of the New York Times: Pontiac, Michigan, tries to go Hollywood, but there is no happy ending -- just a lot of lost tax revenue. "Hollywood may make movies about the evils of capitalism, but it rarely works without incentives, which are paid for by taxpayers. Nationwide, about $1.5 billion in tax breaks is awarded to the film industry each year...."

Dana Milbank: Obama's "transparent" presidency has become increasingly -- and ominously -- opaque.

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "... what is not in doubt to me is Ann Romney's strong belief that not only was she going to be first lady but also she deserved to be first lady. The presidency and the role of first lady are earned. They are neither a matter of whose turn it is nor destiny. Like so many others, Ann Romney apparently had to learn this the hard way." ...

... Mitt Gets a Job. Samantha Bomkamp of the AP: "... Mitt Romney is rejoining Marriott International's board of directors."

In our continuing He-Might-Have-Been-President series, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post writes that "in spring 2011, [Fox "News" chief Roger] Ailes asked a Fox News analyst" to tell David Petraeus that Ailes advised Petraeus to "turn down an expected offer from President Obama to become CIA director and accept nothing less than the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military post. If Obama did not offer the Joint Chiefs post, Petraeus should resign from the military and run for president, Ailes suggested." The audio (top of the page) is interesting. Petraeus uses the interview to try to get Fox "News" to be more supportive of the Afghanistan war & complains -- evah so politely -- that as Fox goes after Obama they're also "unduly undermining" the war effort.

Oh, Heartbreak All Around. David Corn & Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: Dick Armey, the former House Majority Leader (RTP-Texas) "has resigned as chairman of FreedomWorks, one of the main political outfits of the conservative movement and an instrumental force within the tea party." The break-up was definitely not amicable.

Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette writes a terrific retort to the latest outraged reaction to whatever the Obamas are doing. The Horror This Time: the White House has 54 Christmas trees at a time the entire nation is about to go over the fiscal cliff! So sez Andrew Malcolm, who must have got booted from the L.A. Times because he's writing about the outrageous Obamas someplace else now. Here was Alex Pareene's take on Malcolm in 2010.

News Ledes

AP: "The Palestinians will ask the U.N. Security Council to call for an Israeli settlement freeze, President Mahmoud Abbas and his advisers decided Tuesday, as part of an escalating showdown over Israel's new plans to build thousands more homes on war-won land in and around Jerusalem."

AP: "Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher told officers who found him sleeping in his car outside an apartment complex hours before he committed a murder-suicide that he was there to visit a woman he described as his 'girlfriend,' but that she wasn't home. The apartment complex is about 10 miles from the Kansas City home Belcher shared with 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins, the mother of their 3-month-old daughter Zoey."

Washington Post: "The Senate has failed to ratify an international treaty intended to protect the rights of those with disabilities, as a bloc of conservatives opposed the treaty believing it could interfere with U.S. law. The Senate voted 61 to 38 to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, a tally that fell short of the two-thirds needed to sign on to an international treaty."

Washington Post: "Thousands of protesters massed outside the presidential palace and in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Tuesday, as Egyptians voiced their opposition to President Mohamed Morsi for a 12th straight day."

New York Times: "Calling a California law that bans gay 'conversion therapies' for minors an unconstitutional infringement on speech, a federal judge blocked the law's enforcement late Monday."

New York Times: "Fierce fighting on the battlefield and setbacks on the diplomatic front increased pressure on the embattled Syrian government as fresh signs emerged on Tuesday of a sustained battle for control of the capital.... The latest reports followed developments on Monday when a senior Turkish official said that Russia had agreed to a new diplomatic approach to seek ways to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to relinquish power...."

Star Ledger: In a "meeting with White House officials and Congressional leaders in D.C. today," New Jersey Gov. Chris "Christie asked that the federal government reimburse 100 percent of costs related to Sandy recovery, beyond the usual 75 percent or the 90 percent President Obama can authorize."

AP: "Iran claimed Tuesday it had captured a U.S. drone after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf -- even showing an image of a purportedly downed craft on state TV -- but the U.S. Navy said all its unmanned aircraft in the region were 'fully accounted for.'"

AP: "NATO foreign ministers are expected Tuesday to approve Turkey's request for Patriot anti-missile systems to bolster its defense against strikes from neighboring Syria, NATO's top official said." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "NATO agreed Tuesday to send new American-made air defenses to Turkey's volatile southern border with Syria, a boost to an alliance member on the front lines of the civil war and a potential backstop for wider U.S. or NATO air operations if Syria deteriorates further."