The Commentariat -- December 31

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

Bill Maher's New Rules for 2012, in the New York Times Sunday Review.

Time magazine's Top Political Gaffes of 2011. Must-see video.

The White House Year in Photos. Photos by White House photographer Pete Souza. Pundits often complain that President Obama is "cool," "distant" or "aloof." That's not my impression:

"The President greets a woman following a ceremony to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11 at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa. The President and First Lady greeted virtually every family member that attended the ceremony." -- Pete Souza, White House photographer

New York Times Editors: "After they took power in January, the hard-line Republicans who dominate the House reached for a radical overhaul of American government, hoping to unravel the social safety net, cut taxes further for the wealthy and strip away regulation of business. Fortunately, thanks to defensive tactics by Democrats, they failed to achieve most of their agenda. But they still did significant damage in 2011 to many of the most important functions of government, and particularly to investments in education, training and transportation that the country will need for a sound economic recovery."

Nullification -- When One Senator Can Shut Down a Federal Agency on a Whim. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Republicans are refusing to allow votes on President Obama's nominee to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and on his nominees to fill vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. In both cases, the Republican refusal is explicity aimed at shutting down these agencies.... Republicans make no bones about why they're doing this.... Since, in practice, a single senator can place a hold on a nominee, this means that a single senator is now able to shut down an entire agency of the federal government simply out of dislike for what it's doing." ...

... For Example. Peter Landers of the Wall Street Journal: "The Obama administration's confirmation troubles have come to this: It can't get the Senate to accept its nominee for public printer of the United States."

If you're a college sports fan, or even if you're not, read Joe Nocera's column on the N.C.A.A. cartel. "How can the labor force that generates so much money for everyone else be kept in shackles by the N.C.A.A.?" That "labor force" is, of course, the athletes themselves.

Former Sen. Arlen Specter (R/D-Penn.) does stand-up comedy at a Philadelphia club. Kinda corny, definitely blue, and pretty amazing. Via The Hill:

Right Wing World

Mitt Romney -- Poster Boy for the Buffett Rule. Josh Marshall of TPM: Willard won't release his taxes because "It seems virtually impossible that Mitt Romney doesn’t pay the sort of effective tax rate that would make people’s eyes pop when compared to middle income and even relatively wealthy (by normal standards) people who pay considerably higher rate.... Issues of income inequality and particularly tax policy are right at the top of the political agenda in 2012." ...

... Mitt's son Matt isn't helping any:

This is how the Romney campaign thinks it's going to win the Republican primary: by pandering to the dead-ender fringe of extremists who still question where the president was born. -- Jim Messina, Obama for America campaign manager

Boo-hoo. Molly Ball of The Atlantic: Frank Luntz makes Republicans sad and blue. CW: have you ever seen a Republican shed tears for anyone other than himself?

When Is a Gynecologist a Misogynist? When He's Ron Paul: Employee rights are said to be valid when employers pressure employees into sexual activity. Why don't they quit once the so-called harassment starts? Obviously the morals of the harasser cannot be defended, but how can the harassee escape some responsibility for the problem? Seeking protection under civil rights legislation is hardly acceptable. -- Ron Paul, in Freedom Under Seige, 1987, reissued 2008 ...

... Pete Hamby of CNN: "In his 1987 manifesto 'Freedom Under Siege: The U.S. Constitution after 200-Plus Years,' [Ron] Paul wrote that AIDS patients were victims of their own lifestyle, questioned the rights of minorities and argued that people who are sexually harassed at work should quit their jobs."

... More New York Times op-ed art is here.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. defended his colleagues as 'jurists of exceptional integrity and experience' and said Saturday that it was a misconception that Supreme Court justices do not follow the same set of ethical principles as other judges."

The New York Times story I posted on the shortlife of a Verizon fee doesn't mention Change.org, but this story from Wireless & Mobile News does: "Verizon will not be charging 'convenience' fees for one-time bill payments made online and customers have Change.org to thank.  After a petition to stop the fee gained support, Verizon dropped the charge."

New York Times: "President Obama, after objecting to provisions of a military spending bill that would have forced him to try terrorism suspects in military courts and impose strict sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, signed the bill on Saturday. He said that although he did not support all of it, changes made by Congress after negotiations with the White House had satisfied most of his concerns and had given him enough latitude to manage counterterrorism and foreign policy in keeping with administration principles."

Los Angeles Times: "Authorities across Southern California were beefing up patrols Saturday night, hoping to catch the person or persons responsible for more than 35 fires over the last two days. Los Angeles police and fire officials were trying to determine whether the fires were the work of one arsonist or several."

New York Times: 'A pair of NASA spacecraft are slipping into orbit around the Moon this weekend to try to answer persistent questions about Earth’s celestial companion."

Reuters: "Boeing Co beat out Lockheed Martin to retain its position as the prime contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said on Friday.The U.S. Defense Department said it was awarding Boeing a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems."

Reuters: "Iran delayed promised long-range missile tests in the Gulf on Saturday and Tehran signaled it was ready for fresh talks on its disputed nuclear program. Iran's state media initially reported early on Saturday that long-range missiles had been launched during naval exercises, a move that may irk the West concerned over threats by Tehran to close off a vital oil shipping route in the Gulf. But Deputy Navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi later went on the English language Press TV channel to deny the missiles had in fact been fired."

Al Jazeera: "An Arab League observer has said he saw snipers in the Syrian city of Deraa, as protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted across the country on Friday. 'We saw snipers in the town, we saw them with our own eyes,' the observer told residents in a conversation filmed and posted online.... Activists said hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across the country after noon Muslim prayers on Friday."

Reuters: "China's central bank governor argued in comments published on Saturday that Beijing does not control the yuan's flow across borders as tightly as some think and that it is natural for the currency's trading band to be widened over time. Zhou Xiaochuan said in an interview ... that China did not fare badly on an International Monetary Fund measure of currencies' convertibility under the capital account. But he stopped short of calling for a fully convertible currency."

Guardian: "Los Angeles police are seeking a serial arsonist suspected of starting 21 fires in Hollywood in just four hours on Friday night, damaging buildings and cars throughout the area. An arsonist is thought to have started the fires by setting vehicles alight. The flames then spread to nearby houses, including one in Hollywood Hills once occupied by the Doors singer Jim Morrison, which inspired the song Love Street."

The Commentariat -- December 30

My column at the New York Times eXaminer is up. It's another Krugman v. Brooks day. The NYTX front page is here.

Also, I've been feeling miffed that with so many conspiracy theories floating around Right Wing World, the left has no conspiracy theories of its own. I invite you on Off Times Square to come up with a few to sort of balance things out.

"Keynes Was Right." Paul Krugman: "The bottom line is that 2011 was a year in which our political elite obsessed over short-term deficits that aren’t actually a problem and, in the process, made the real problem — a depressed economy and mass unemployment — worse. The good news, such as it is, is that President Obama has finally gone back to fighting against premature austerity — and he seems to be winning the political battle."

Peggy Orenstein, in a New York Times op-ed, on gender-specific toys: "... the environment in which children play and grow can encourage a range of aptitudes or foreclose them. So blithely indulging — let alone exploiting — stereotypically gendered play patterns may have a more negative long-term impact on kids’ potential than parents imagine. And promoting, without forcing, cross-sex friendships as well as a breadth of play styles may be more beneficial. There is even evidence that children who have opposite-sex friendships during their early years have healthier romantic relationships as teenagers. Traditionally, toys were intended to communicate parental values and expectations, to train children for their future adult roles. Today’s boys and girls will eventually be one another’s professional peers.... How can they develop skills for such collaborations from toys that increasingly emphasize, reinforce, or even create, gender differences? What do girls learn about who they should be from Lego kits with beauty parlors or the flood of 'girl friendly' science kits that run the gamut from 'beauty spa lab' to 'perfume factory'?" CW: the "Riley" video, which Orenstein mentions, is in the December 28 Commentariat. ...

... "Your Modern Republican Party: It Makes Mississippi Look Liberal." Joan Walsh of Salon: "There is no freedom or equality for women without reproductive freedom. Having been raised a Catholic, I understand religious objections to abortion, and my only answer is, by all means, don’t have one. Work to make them less common."

"What the Frack?" Chris Nelder in Slate: "The recent press about the potential of shale gas would have you believe that America is now sitting on a 100-year supply of natural gas. It's a 'game-changer.' A 'golden age of gas' awaits, one in which the United States will be energy independent, even exporting gas to the rest of the world, upending our current energy-importing situation. The data, however, tell a very different story. Between the demonstrable gas reserves, and the potential resources blared in the headlines, lies an enormous gulf of uncertainty."

Right Wing World

Scammer of the House. Tim Murphy of Mother Jones does a nice job of summarizing the complicated, crooked, tax-evading scams Newt Gingrich cooked up in the 1990s, which ultimately earned him a fine & helped force him out of Congress: "... he used a network of consulting firms, educational institutions, and even a charity for inner-city teens to promote a set of clearly partisan political goals designed to sweep Republicans into power in Washington. Gingrich's web of interconnected organizations formed the early prototype for the multimillion-dollar public and private network he established after leaving public office, known now as 'Newt Inc.'" CW: I suppose this isn't fair, but Newt is my image of a Republican Congressman -- a nasty, megalomaniacal professional grifter. 

Ron Paul Isn't the Only Crazy Conspiracy Theorist Running for President:

Michele Bachmann is up against not only the other candidates, but up against President Obama, who has Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube in its back pocket. I believe that helped him win the last election. No president should have the monopoly of those companies in their back pocket. -- Jonathan, a radio talkshow caller ...

... I absolutely agree, Jonathan. We have seen, whether it is the head of Facebook or Google, it is clear there is an alliance with the Obama administration, as well as with NBC. -- Michele Bachmann

Update: Yippee! Another Bachmann Conspiracy Theory! John McCormick & Lisa Lerer of the Washington Post: "Michele Bachmann pressed her allegations that the former head of her Iowa presidential bid was bribed by the campaign of rival Ron Paul to endorse him, even as one of her own aides denied the charge. The aide who issued the denial later quit Bachmann’s campaign, the candidate said." Bachmann is a gift who keeps on giving.

Meteor Blades of Daily Kos: Ron Paul changes his story on the newsletters -- again:

There were many times I did not edit the entire letter and other things were put in. I was not aware of the details until many years later. These were sentences that were put in, eight or 10 sentences. It wasn’t a reflection of my views at all. It got in the letter and I thought it was terrible. -- Ron Paul, yesterday

Ron Paul’s characterization of the newsletters as only containing ‘eight to ten sentences’ that can be characterized as ‘offending’ is preposterous. As anyone can see from the scans of the newsletters available on the TNR website or posted elsewhere, the documents contain pages upon pages of bigoted statements and outright paranoia. -- Jamie Kirchick, The New Republic ...

... Update: Dave Weigel has a full transcript of Paul's remarks yesterday re: the newsletters.

Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: the beloved Ron Paul breakfasts alone. "He's just a cranky old man who wants to eat his eggs in peace before he sets out to save the world."

Ron Paul could see all the rioting black people in Israel from his house if it were not for the glare off his tin foil hat. -- Sparks69, commenting on the breakfast story

Rick Santorum's brilliant plan to end poverty: (1) graduate from high school, (2) get married. CW: why didn't Krugman think of that? ...

... Amy Sullivan of Time: "... all of the potential darlings of the Christian Right – Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain – have foundered. While [Rick] Santorum was busy visiting every county in Iowa, his opponents each took time from their Fox News appearances and book tours and movie screenings to enjoy a race up the polls, only to fall Wile E. Coyote-like off the cliff. The only reason social conservatives had for not making Santorum their first choice was the belief that one of the other candidates had a better chance of winning the nomination. But now that all of them are long-shots, why not embrace the guy with whom they identify most?" Sullivan answers that one.

AND Rick Perry Is Still Ignorant. Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry admitted Thursday that he didn’t know about the Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, a case decided while he was governor which struck down the state’s anti-sodomy law and similar laws in 13 others." Oh, BTW, "The Texas governor referenced Lawrence v. Texas in his 2010 book Fed Up!, calling it one of the court cases in which 'Texans have a different view of the world than do the nine oligarchs in robes.'” ...

... Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "As TPM’s Pema Levy notes, Perry defended the law in 2002 when the high court took up the case, saying, 'I think our law is appropriate that we have on the books.' When his state lost, he called the justices 'nine oligarchs in robes.' [CW: of course not all 9 oligarchs concurred with the majority decision. Scalia wrote an unintentionally hilarious dissent.] Perry attacked the decision in his 2010 book and even ran on a platform of opposing 'the legalization of sodomy' during his 2010 reelection bid." CW: Perry must be on drugs. He cannot really have forgot all that.

Stan Collender of Capital Gains & Games grades the GOP presidential candidates on their deficit reduction plans. And these guys have the gall to criticize Obama.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Egypt’s military rulers privately signaled a retreat on Friday in a crackdown on organizations that promote democracy and human rights..., even as the authorities in Cairo tried to discredit the organizations with accusations of suspicious activity. The country’s de facto leader, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and other senior officials pledged to halt the raids against the organizations, to allow them to reopen their offices and to return documents, computers and other property seized on Thursday...."

New York Times: "Verizon Wireless bowed to a torrent of criticism on Friday and reversed a day-old plan to impose a $2 bill-paying fee that would have applied to only some customers."

Al Jazeera: "The United States is pushing ahead with a weapons deal with Iraq despite the near breakdown of the coalition government. Reports suggest the deal is worth nearly $11bn and includes advanced fighter jets and tanks. The sale comes despite warnings that the country may be falling deeper into sectarian strife after an arrest warrant was issued for the Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi."

Reuters: "Israel killed the leader of an al Qaeda-inspired faction in the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing him of involvement in firing rockets and a planned attack on the Jewish state from the neighboring Egyptian Sinai. The deadly air strike was Israel's second against a Salafi Islamist militant this week. Militants identified him as Momen Abu Daf, chief of the Army of Islam...."

Haaretz: "Amid a verbal row with the United States over blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route, Iran proclaimed on Friday that it will start testing long range missiles in the Persian Gulf."

Doing the Wrong Thing. Reuters: "Spain's centre-right government will announce billions of euros in savings measures on Friday, using its first decrees since sweeping to power at November elections to give the nation a foretaste of tougher austerity to come."

New York Times: North Korea announced on Friday that there would be no change in its policy under its new leader, Kim Jong-un, striking a characteristically hostile posture with a threat to punish President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea for 'unforgivable sins.'"

AP: "Fox Latin America has apologized for a poll on whether Jews killed Jesus Christ that one of its staffers put on a Facebook page promoting the National Geographic Channel's Christmas special. The poll asked readers who they think is responsible for the death of Christ: Pontius Pilate, The Jewish People or the High Priests." CW: I didn't even know there was a Fox Latin America, but I'm not surprised they're as dumb as the donkey he rode in on (as the story goes).

The Commentariat -- December 29

My column in the New York Times eXaminer: "Did the New York Times publish a 'lazy rewrite' of a 2008 Reason magazine story? Both of the former Reason reporters – Julian Sanchez and Dave Weigel – say so. Sanchez ... calls New York Times reporters Jim Rutenberg and Serge Kovaleski “a couple of indolent hacks … too desperate to give the appearance of being real reporters to provide a reference and do original work.'” ...

NYTX Editor Chris Spannos: "The New York Times has experienced a dramatic series of changes closing out this year and that seem to cast the shadow of instability over the “paper of record” as it enters into 2012. This month alone delivered news of massive changes including CEO Janet Robinson’s departure from the Times, as well as more than ten buyouts of long-time columnists and editorial staffers. If this news wasn’t enough, the Times also recently announced the sale of 16 local papers that made up its regional media group, and the Newspaper Guild of New York has strongly expressed worker dissatisfaction with Times managerial practices. The Times put icing on its own cake yesterday when it mistakenly sent 8.6 million confusing e-mails notifying recipients that they, the subscriber, had requested cancellation of their own home delivery service." CW: this is a TERRIFIC article, and of course I don't say so just because Spannos mentions ME. The NYTX front page is here.

Paul Krugman: "... the debt we create is basically money we owe to ourselves, and the burden it imposes does not involve a real transfer of resources.... Talking about leaving a burden to our children is especially nonsensical; what we are leaving behind is promises that some of our children will pay money to other children, which is a very different kettle of fish." With graphs! CW: you'll have to read the post. I didn't understand it when Dean Baker wrote about this the other day, but I think I get it now. Oh, bottom line: David Brooks is wrong again.

Denver Post Editorial Board: "... more than 80 years after the federal government issued the first television station license, the [Supreme] Court remains a TV-free fortress. Justices over the years have provided various explanations for this aversion to allowing a camera (and yes, it would probably be a single unobtrusive instrument) in the courtroom — explanations that seem increasingly shopworn as time passes.... We hope the court's longtime ban on TV cameras during arguments will give way to a more enlightened policy." ...

... Linda Greenhouse on the factors that influence judges and justices, and what the public thinks these factors are. It's complex!

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones on "the slippery slope of drone warfare." CW: this is something many of us have been thinking about since the targeting killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki (along with his young son and others). ...

... Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic: "Drones are a perfect weapon for a democracy. One gains all of the political credit for killing the country's enemies, and none of the blame for military casualties.... But I wonder about ... what [the victims' families] think of [a] country [that] executes children a world away with a joystick. I wonder about their anger. But mostly I wonder about the secrecy here at home."

Right Wing World

** James Kirchick of The New Republic in a New York Times op-ed: "... there is one major aspect of [Ron Paul's] newsletters, no less disturbing than their racist content, that has always been present in Paul’s rhetoric, in every forum: a penchant for conspiracy theories.... Paul has frequently attacked the alleged New World Order that 'elitist' cabals, like the Trilateral Commission and the Rockefeller family, in conjunction with 'globalist' organizations, like the United Nations and the World Bank, wish to foist on Americans.... Paul has not just marinated in a stew of far-right paranoia; he is one of the chefs.... Ron Paul is a paranoid conspiracy theorist who regularly imputes the worst possible motives to the very government he wants to lead." ...

... Mike Konczal on how the Ron Paul newsletters for "white dudes" translates into today's Tea Party belief that social welfare is fine for hardworking white people but not for those Other undeserving freeloaders.

"Feel Free to Ignore Iowa." Gail Collins on the Iowa caucuses: "On Tuesday, there will be a contest to select the preferred candidate of a small group of people who are older, wealthier and whiter than American voters in general, and more politically extreme than the average Iowa Republican." ...

... On the Other Hand... Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The 'skip Iowa' strategy has been tried many times, from Al Gore in 1988 to John McCain in 2000 to Wesley Clark in 2004 to Rudy Giuliani in 2012, and it’s never worked yet."

Matt Bai profiles Newt Gingrich for the New York Times Magazine. CW: I didn't read much of it.

News Ledes

The Hill: "New light bulb efficiency standards will begin phasing in on Jan. 1 despite intense opposition from conservatives, who have blasted the rules as a textbook unnecessary federal regulation. While Republicans secured inclusion of a measure blocking funding for enforcementof the standards in a year-end spending bill, energy efficiency groups say the provision will have little practical impact. The Energy Department rules will nonetheless go into effect at the start of 2012."

New York Times: "Fortifying one of its key allies in the Persian Gulf, the Obama administration announced a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia on Thursday, saying it had agreed to sell F-15 fighter jets valued at nearly $30 billion to the Royal Saudi Air Force."

Reuters: "A week after settling a landmark federal discrimination case, Bank of America Corp's Countrywide unit was ordered to face a lawsuit by a Hispanic couple who said it applied excessive pressure to refinance their home on terms they did not accept and could not afford. In an opinion by a prominent Republican-appointed judge, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California said a lower court was wrong to dismiss the complaint by Victor and Belen Balderas, who claimed they could not read the English language loan documents they signed."

If you're wondering if your Sears or K-Mart store has been flagged for closure, the AP has a partial list of stores to be closed.

New York Times: "Egyptian security forces stormed the offices of 17 nonprofit groups around the country on Thursday, including at least three democracy-promotion groups financed by the United States, as part of what Egypt’s military-led government has said is an investigation into “foreign hands” in the recent outbreak of protests.... The raids were a stark escalation in what has appeared to be a campaign by the country’s military rulers to rally support by playing to nationalist and anti-American sentiment here. But for the military rulers to suggest that American government funding may have played a role in the recent unrest is remarkable, in part because the Egyptian military itself receives $1.3 billion in annual American aid."

Bloomberg News: "Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits over the past month than at any time in the past three years, a sign the U.S. labor market is on the mend heading into the new year.... . Applications ... rose for the first time in a month in the week ended Dec. 24, climbing by a more-than- forecast 15,000 to 381,000." ...

... Bloomberg: "The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes rose more than forecast in November as falling prices and low borrowing costs boosted demand."

Washington Post: "Against the backdrop of persistent questions about his conservative credentials, [Mitt] Romney drew enthusiastic crowds as he rumbled across eastern Iowa in a bus making the case that he is the most electable Republican in the field. A Time-CNN poll released Wednesday put Romney at the front of the pack despite his decision to spend relatively little time in Iowa, where a conservative GOP electorate has resisted his candidacy. Romney had 25 percent support, compared with Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) at 22 percent and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) at 15 percent. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), who was the front-runner just a month ago, trailed with 13 percent in the Time-CNN poll."

Washington Post: "With the Iraq war over and troops in Afghanistan on their way home, the U.S. military is getting down to brass tacks: culling generals and admirals from its top-heavy ranks. Pentagon officials said they have eliminated 27 jobs for generals and admirals since March, the first time the Defense Department has imposed such a reduction since the aftermath of the Cold War, when the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted the military to downsize."

New York Times: "North Korea declared on Thursday the young heir Kim Jong-un supreme head of the country, as tens of thousands of people rallied in Pyongyang one day after the funeral of his father, Kim Jong-il, to swear their allegiance to the dynastic transfer of power."

New York Times: "Turkish airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the Kurdish border region with Iraq on Thursday in what the army said was an operation aimed at separatist fighters. Local villagers said the dead were instead young diesel smugglers who had been misidentified by the Turkish military."

Reuters: "Syrian security forces shot dead 17 protesters Thursday, six of them in a city being visited by Arab League monitors checking on President Bashar al-Assad's compliance with a pledge to stop a military crackdown on popular unrest."