The Commentariat -- November 8

If you live in Ohio, be sure to vote today. Andy Kroll of Mother Jones on why labor is likely to win this one, while unions had less success in Wisconsin. Politico story here. ...

... AND Washington Post: "Virginians go to the polls today to elect state senators, state delegates, county supervisors and school boards." ...

... Ballot Box: In fact, "There are three states holding state legislative elections [today]. A total of 434 seats will be won in Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia." The New Jersey Star-Ledger story is here: "Voters in the Garden State will also have their say on whether New Jersey should pursue legalized sports betting." Also on the ballot in Mississippi today is the odious "personhood amendment," which defines life as beginning at conception and would make all abortion illegal in the state.

... AND there are local elections in North Carolina. One that has received national attention is the Wake County (Raleigh) school board runoff, pitting Tea Party candidate Heather Losurdo, who is backed by the "Pope Machine," against Democrat Kevin Hill. NPR story here. ...

David Catanase & Alex Isenstadt of Politico have a tip sheet on "what to watch for on election night." It's Politico, so take it with a grain of salt, but it should serve as a handy guide.

Foreclosure. Artist Unknown. Sand sculpture, Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Photo by "The Doktor."John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: the public sees Barack Obama as a weak leader because he is a weak leader.

Glenn Thrush of Politico: "Embattled White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will hand off some day-to-day responsibilities to presidential confidante Pete Rouse after coming under fire from West Wing officials for his management style and ineffectual relationship with Congress, according to administration sources.... Rouse, a longtime Hill aide once known as the '101st Senator' for his stature among congressional heavyweights in both parties, will assume a far greater role in legislative affairs — easing growing tension between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who complained to President Barack Obama personally about Daley’s performance, according to congressional sources."

Steve Benen illuminates the Republicans' idea of a "balanced" deficit-reduction deal: it's unclear "how much revenue would the GOP be prepared to accept ... but all of it would come from limiting tax deductions [like the one on second homes], and none of it would come from actually increasing anyone’s taxes. In exchange some undetermined amount of revenue, Democrats on the super-committee would be expected to accept massive spending cuts, including cuts to entitlements, and Dems would have to agree to make all of the Bush tax cuts permanent. That’s just crazy."

Right Wing World

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.... The voter file was set up by the Kochs 18 months ago with $2.5m of their seed money, and is being developed by a hand-picked team of the brothers' advisers.... In classic Koch style, the project is being conducted in great secrecy." ...

     ... CW: the reader who sent me this link wrote, "Sinclair Lewis once said 'when fascism comes to america it will wrapped in the flag and bearing a cross.' If he were alive today he might substituted cross for 'corporate logo'."

“You Want a Job, Right?” Juana Summers & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "A Chicago woman accused Herman Cain of sexually inappropriate behavior Monday, claiming at a news conference that the presidential candidate pushed her to perform a sex act in exchange for his help in landing a job while he ran the National Restaurant Association. In stepping forward, Sharon Bialek, a middle-aged single mother who appeared with celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred in New York, became the first woman to speak on the record about what she claims happened over a decade ago." ...

... New York Times story here. Money quote:

In an interview after Ms. Bialek’s news conference, Joel P. Bennett, a lawyer for one of Mr. Cain’s anonymous accusers, said that Ms. Bialek’s claims were 'very similar' in nature to the incident that occurred between his client and Mr. Cain. CW: that is, I guess, Cain allegedly tried to force Bennett's client to give him a blow job in exchange for some "favor."

     ... Here's a partial transcript of Bialek's statement. CW: As probably hundreds of thousands of women could tell you, Bialek's account is oh-so plausible. It has happened to us. ...

... Lisa Lerer of Bloomberg News: "Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain denied a former employee’s allegation that he groped her after she sought his help in finding a job in 1997." ...

... Ben Smith: In 1999, Bialek had a child by a media executive who filed a paternity suit against her, a case that was ongoing for a decade. The media executive now works for News Corp. CW: somehow Rupert Murdoch gets into every story. ...

... Susan Archer of ABC News: Herman Cain appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night, joked about the accusations against him (because sexual assault is hilarious) and said he would hold a press conference today. CW: watch for the smearing of Sharon Bialek. ...

... Reid Epstein of Politico: "Offering a vigorous denial of Sharon Bialek’s sexual harassment accusations for the first time, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain said he didn’t remember the Illinois woman and said he has never acted inappropriately around any woman." CW: Cain also said "God didn't make little green apples and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime." You can watch Cain's "vigorous denial" here; I'm just not going to post it here. ...

     ... Also, Cain held a news conference today which you can view here on C-SPAN. ...

     ... James Grimaldi of the Washington Post: "One of the women who accused GOP presidential contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s said she wants to go public -- now that her name has been revealed -- and hold a joint news conference with all of the women making similar allegations. Karen Kraushaar, 55, an employee with the Treasury Department’s inspector general office, said she never wanted her name to be made public as one of Cain’s accusers. But a news organization published her name Tuesday and she now says she is ready to go before cameras." New York Times story here.

... AND this guy should be taken off the air. NOW:

Think Progress: 99 facts you should know about Mitt Romney, with links to sources. CW: I'd call it 99 reasons to despise that lying creep.

News Ledes

New York Times: "United Nations weapons inspectors released a trove of new evidence on Tuesday that they say makes a 'credible' case that ' has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device' and that the project may still be under way. The long-awaited report relies on evidence of far greater scope and depth than any the International Atomic Energy Agency has made public before, and represents the harshest judgment the agency has ever issued in its decade-long struggle to pierce the secrecy surrounding the Iranian program." The report (pdf) is here.

New York Times: "Joe Paterno’s tenure as coach of the Penn State football team will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks, in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal that has implicated university officials.... The board of trustees has yet to determine the precise timing of Mr. Paterno’s exit, but it is clear that [he] ... will not survive to coach another season."

AP: "Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and 'it must never happen again.' Facing tough questioning by Senate Republicans, the attorney general said in remarks prepared for a hearing Tuesday that he wants to know why and how firearms that should have been under surveillance could wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels."

Washington Post: "Joe Frazier, 67, the former heavyweight boxing champion who was known for his fighting spirit, powerful punch and intense rivalry with Muhammad Ali, died Monday night in a hospice in Philadelphia. He had been suffering from liver cancer."

Washington Post: "With his nation swept up in a mounting debt crisis, Italy’s embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is scrambling to shore up his political base ahead of a vote in Parliament later Tuesday that could expose just how much support he has lost within his ruling coalition and set the stage for a confidence vote on his government. Berlusconi, facing intensifying calls to resign, is vowing to hold on even as larger Italy overtakes tiny Greece as the focus of Europe’s debt crisis." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "Silvio Berlusconi's closest coalition ally, Umberto Bossi, told him to resign on Tuesday in what could be a mortal blow to the Italian prime minister before a crunch vote in parliament. Bossi, head of the devolutionist Northern League, said the 75-year-old media magnate should be replaced by Angelino Alfano, secretary of the premier's PDL party." ...

     ... AP Update: "Italian Premier Minister Silvio Berlusconi said for the first time Tuesday that he would resign once parliament approves economic reforms, and Greek politicians said they were close to agreeing on a new government to lead their country through painful cutbacks."

Haaretz: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy told U.S. President Barack Obama last week he was fed up with dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and considered him a liar.... 'I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar,' Sarkozy told Obama...." ...

     ... BBC News: "'You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day,' Mr Obama replied." ...

     ... CW: the original report, which is in French, is here. According to the report, Sarkozy said, "Je ne peux plus le voir, c'est un menteur."

The Commentariat -- November 7

Zaid Jilani of Think Progress has posted a video of Oakland police shooting a protester with a rubber bullet as he filmed them on November 3. It is astonishing video. You can hear the filmmaker asking police, "Is this okay?" He is clearly standing behind some demarcated line, as are all the other protesters. This guy is doing nothing except videotaping the line of police who are standing some 50 feet away from the protesters. Unless something occurred outside of camera range, there appears to be absolutely no provocation for the shooting. None:

Alec MacGillis of The New Republic, in the Washington Post: Occupy Wall Street "needs some new destinations.... Here ... are other culprits in need of occupation":

Bill Clinton, for lowering the capital gains tax after Reagan raised it.
Harvard, for tuition bloat.
Wal-Mart, for union-busting.
Towers Watson, the biggest corporate compensation consultants.
Tysons Corner, home to thousands of government contractors.

Hope Yen of the AP: "The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt. The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday. While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation." CW: let's see how fast Republicans can get to the mic to tout this stunning disparity as an excuse to cut Medicare & Social Security.

The central paradox of financial crises is that what feels just and fair is the opposite of what’s required for a just and fair outcome. -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ...

Translation: You Occupy Wall Street naifs don't understand that saving Wall Street at your expense was good for you. 

Fact: There’s a very popular conception out there that the bailout was done with a tremendous amount of firepower and focus on saving the largest Wall Street institutions but with very little regard for Main Street. That’s actually a very accurate description of what happened. -- Neil Barofsky, former TARP watchdog

Comment: I suspect that negotiations between [New York Times reporter David] Leonhardt and Treasury were required before Geithner’s quote became on-the-record. Which does make me wonder what they thought that they were saying here. -- Felix Salmon

"An Inconvenient Fact." Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "During Obama’s tenure, Wall Street has roared back, even as the broader economy has struggled.... Behind this turnaround ... are government policies that helped the financial sector avert collapse and then gave financial firms huge benefits.... For example, the federal government invested hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in banks — low-cost money that the firms used for high-yielding investments on which they made big profits.... Neither the Bush administration nor the Obama administration, for instance, compelled banks to increase lending to consumers...."

... In Defense of Sunlight. Paul Krugman: "... a large part of our political class, including essentially the entire G.O.P., is deeply invested in an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels, and actively hostile to alternatives. This political class will do everything it can to ensure subsidies for the extraction and use of fossil fuels, directly with taxpayers’ money and indirectly by letting the industry off the hook for environmental costs, while ridiculing technologies like solar.... Nothing you hear from these people is true. Fracking is not a dream come true; solar is now cost-effective. Here comes the sun, if we’re willing to let it in." Musical accompaniment suggested by the author:

How Money Corrupts Washington. Lesley Stahl interviews Jack Abramoff:

      ... CBS News has some Web extras here.

... Ironically, Canadian Prof. Gil Troy, writing in the New York Times, says the U.S. has a swell presidential election process. He argues, among other points, that "Considering that Procter & Gamble spent $8.7 billion in 2008 peddling detergents and razors, spending $4.3 billion for the 2008 campaign appears a reasonable price to pay for democracy." Good grief!

Military Math, by Mike Fiore: (Via Susie Madrak of Crook & Liars. Read her post, too: "... Democrats are compulsively cooperative with their oppressors.")

Sadly, Krugman finds it necessary to explain to wingnuts what "hypocrisy" means. In case you know some wingnuts, you might recommend this post to them. ...

... Hypocrisy, Part 2, from Krugman. See also yesterday's Commentariat for the backstory on family man Joe Walsh. ...

... In the first blogpost above, Krugman mentions a 2000 review by Michael Lind of the Mel Gibson film The Patriot. Lind's thesis is that the film depicts a "hero" who is by no means a patriot; in fact, the Gibson character rejects patriotism for "amoral familism." The review is well-worth reading. CW: And, yes, Mel Gibson is a flaming A. Always was, always will be.

Justin Elliott of Salon on the broader implications of tomorrow's vote on public employee collective bargaining in Ohio.

Photo via Esquire.Charles Pierce of Esquire: "Over the weekend, some 12,000 people surrounded the White House as part of the ongoing protest against approval of the proposed XL Keystone pipeline, the engineering experiment that is supposed to bring the products of tar sands in Alberta all the way to Texas, while passing through the Ogallala Aquifer along the way.... A president already laboring under the widespread notion among his supporters that he's too ready to settle for half-a-loaf, and among his detractors that he's dilatory and uncertain, can't exactly ignore 12,000 people outside his house. He should make the call, stand behind it, and tell the country that's what presidents do."

"Reefer Madness." Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance, in a New York Times op-ed, urges President Obama to reassert himself into federal policy on enforcement of marijuana laws. Obama ran for election on a promise of not using the DOJ to override state laws allowing medical marijuana use, but federal agencies, including the DOJ, are doing just that.

"The Big Lie." Barry Ritholtz in the Washington Post: "A Big Lie is so colossal that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. There are many examples: Claims that Earth is not warming, or that evolution is not the best thesis we have for how humans developed.... Wall Street has its own version: Its Big Lie is that banks and investment houses are merely victims of the crash. You see, the entire boom and bust was caused by misguided government policies. It was not irresponsible lending or derivative or excess leverage or misguided compensation packages, but rather long-standing housing policies that were at fault. Indeed, the arguments these folks make fail to withstand even casual scrutiny.... The Big Lie made a surprise appearance Tuesday when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ... stunned observers by exonerating Wall Street: 'It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp.'” Ritholtz has a useful list of factors that actually cause the crash.

Carol Williams of the Los Angeles Times: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday will take up [a] hot-button 4th Amendment issue: whether GPS surveillance without a warrant constitutes an unreasonable search. The case, United States vs. Jones, will decide the law on GPS tracking across the country.... Court rulings since [Katz v. United States, which the Supreme Court decided in 1965] have significantly limited what people can expect to keep private. This shift has accelerated as new technologies — including smartphones and GPS — have emerged."

"They Might Be Terrorists (So Let's Blow Them Up)." -- CIA. Glenn Greenwald on U.S. drone attacks on unknown people.

Alex Rodriguez & Martin Magnier of the Los Angeles Times: "In cautious increments, nuclear archrivals Pakistan and India have been easing the pall of tension that has overshadowed the two nations in recent years.... The latest move toward rapprochement came last week, when the Pakistani Cabinet announced it would normalize trade relations with India by granting its longtime foe 'most favored nation' status."

Right Wing World

The Week That Was. David Remnick of the New Yorker: "A chronicler could profit richly from reviewing the week just experienced by those ambitious members of the Republican Party who have put themselves forward as candidates to revive a fallen nation and lead the march down Nostalgia Avenue and up to the City on a Hill.... The spectacle of the Republican field is a reflection of the hollowness in the G.O.P. itself."

Why Speaker John Boehner Is Not a "Servant of the Rich": That’s very unfair. Listen, I come from a family of 12. My dad owned a bar. I’ve got brothers and sisters on every rung of the economic ladder. -- John Boehner ...

... Translation: I cannot be a servant of the rich because I used to be poor and some of my relatives are still poor. ...

... Analysis: Non sequitur def: "an inference that does not follow from the premise...; fallacy ... resulting from the transposition of a condition & its consequent." The fallacious inference here is that poor people -- or even people who are related to poor people -- cannot grow up to be "servants of the rich." See Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

A Word of Warning from Dave Weigel of Slate: "When Republicans say they would consider tax increases, they're just pretending."

Mitt Romney, Moderate Republican. Stephen Foster of Addicting Info: "During a speech to a group of conservative activists on Friday in Washington, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said exactly what right wing extremists want to hear. Romney laid out his vision of government which includes privatizing Medicare, raising the retirement age, wiping out government agencies and jobs, making balanced budgets mandatory via constitutional amendment, and slashing funding for the arts, public broadcasting, family planning and passenger rail services. He also wants to give states more budget power." (Emphasis added):

Ha ha. Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times: The new Man-of-the-People Mitt flies coach, but is "aloof" & uncommunicative when voters politely approach him.

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald: "Social conservative pundits tend to be astonishingly obtuse when discussing race..., so it is good they rarely do so. Last week was an unfortunate exception, as one of 'their' blacks struggled to frame a coherent response to allegations that he harassed female colleagues in the 1990s.... Though accusations of sexual impropriety have beset a bipartisan Who’s Who of black and white politicians, the right wing came out in force to argue that people are only questioning Cain because he is a black conservative. This would be the same Cain who not so long ago said racism was no longer a significant obstacle for African Americans. This would be the same right wing that is conspicuous by its silence, its hostility or its complicity when the injustice system imposes mass incarceration on young black men, when the number of hate groups in this country spikes to over a thousand, when the black unemployment rate stands at twice the national average, when the president is called 'uppity' and 'boy.'” ...

... Sexual harassment is hilarious (and people pick on Mike Huckabee unfairly):

CW: I'll admit I didn't link to articles about this story or embed the video because I can't stand Rick Perry sober let alone high (or appearing so). But to make up for my lapse, here's Perry explaining what happened in that weird speech in New Hampshire last week:

News Ledes

The Hill: "The White House is not expected to comply with a subpoena issued by House Republicans for documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee to the failed solar firm Solyndra."

Los Angeles Times: "Michael Jackson's personal physician has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for causing the pop icon's 2009 death by a powerful surgical anesthetic. The verdict against Dr. Conrad Murray comes after a jury of seven men and five women  deliberated for about nine hours over two days. The 58-year-old cardiologist, who was charged with the lowest possible homicide offense, faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison and a minimum sentence of probation. Murray now also faces the probable loss of his medical license."

President Obama met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen this afternoon. AFP story here.

President Obama spoke about the American Jobs Act at noon:

New York Times: "Greeks awaited word on Monday on the formation of a unity government under a new leader after Prime Minister George A. Papandreou and his chief rival agreed to create a transitional administration to oversee the country’s debt-relief deal with the European Union and then hold early elections. Mr. Papandreou agreed to resign once the details are completed."

New York Times: "An imminent report by United Nations weapons inspectors includes the strongest evidence yet that Iran has worked in recent years on a kind of sophisticated explosives technology that is primarily used to trigger a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials who have been briefed on the intelligence. But the case is hardly conclusive.... The Obama administration, acutely aware of how what happened in Iraq undercut American credibility, is deliberately taking a back seat."

Reuters: "Two journalists close to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he could resign as early as Monday, immediately boosting bond and stock markets."

Reuters: "Thousands of protesters opposed to a new oil pipeline from Canada to the United States circled the White House grounds on Sunday to press President Barack Obama to reject the project for environmental reasons. Opponents to TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude produced from oil sands, have dogged the president for months, arguing that the carbon emissions produced in the process of extracting oil from the sands would exacerbate climate change."

New York Times: "Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and a university administrator, Gary Schultz, will step down amid a sexual abuse scandal involving a former football assistant, the university announced early Monday morning."

The Commentariat -- November 6

Thomas Edsall in a New York Times op-ed: "The Republican Party ... has reverted to the penny-pinching of an earlier era, the green eyeshade Grand Old Party of Herbert Hoover and Robert Taft..., evident in the first budget passed by the Republican-controlled House — the Paul Ryan 'path to prosperity' budget with $4 trillion in cuts — and the subsequent Aug. 2 debt ceiling agreement. The new embattled partisan environment allows conservatives to pit taxpayers against tax consumers, those dependent on safety-net programs against those who see such programs as eating away at their personal income and assets.... The sociologist and political scientist Theda Skocpol and her colleagues ... found that opposition to government spending was concentrated on resentment of federal government 'handouts.' ... The conservative agenda, in a climate of scarcity, racializes policy making, calling for deep cuts in programs for the poor.... The politics of austerity are inherently favorable to conservatives and inhospitable to liberals.... Austerity feeds on itself... Retrenchment, in effect, becomes a noose, choking off prospects for growth."

Profs. Roger Backhouse & Bradley Bateman, in a New York Times op-ed: economists have lost the vision thing; Occupy Wall Street might help them look at macroeconomic systems more comprehensively.

News is what people want to keep hidden. Everything else is publicity. -- A U. Texas journalism professor of Bill Moyers' ...

... ** Moyers speaks at the 40th anniversary of Public Citizen. The Nation has published an adaptation of the speech. (Thanks to a reader for the link.) The speech & adaptation each contain material not contained in the other, so it's worth watching and reading:

     ... The Public Citizen site is here. See also videos of speeches by Rep. Donna Edwards, Ralph Nader & Jim Hightower.

Eliot Spitzer, in Slate, lists five goals he thinks Occupy Wall Street can agree to advance:

1. Call for a full rollback of the Bush tax cuts for all those above $1 million in annual income.
   
2. Demand true accountability on Wall Street.
   
3. Demand that a financial service transaction fee be imposed.
   
4. Start a petition drive in every state demanding that the state municipal governments stop using Goldman Sachs for advice and underwriting until Goldman Sachs returns the $12.9 billion dollars it received, from the taxpayers, as a part of the AIG bailout.
   
5. Demand that the New York Fed have 'public' board members who truly represent the public.

William Galston of the Brookings Institution makes the in a New York Times op-ed that voting should be mandatory, a move that besides enforcing participatory democracy could reduce governmental polarization. He cites the effectiveness of mandatory voting in Australia and suggests experiments in implementing mandatory voting begin at the state level.

Jodi Kantor of the New York Times has more (see yesterday's links) on former President Clinton's new book Back to Work. "... the former president has been so frustrated at what he sees as the current one’s failure to explain his economic policies that he has literally decided to write his own version of the story.... His private critique...: incredulity that the president and Democratic leaders did not raise the debt ceiling during the 2010 lame-duck session; bafflement that many beneficiaries of Mr. Obama’s policies 'didn’t even know about' his actions; and frustration about the lack of a powerful Democratic message in the midterm elections." CW: Clinton is right about each of these. For instance, Most Americans -- especially "real" ones -- profess abhorrence of the stimulus bill, yet they have no idea that it gave each of them his own personal tax break. I've heard most of Obama's speeches, and I'm not sure he's ever directly said -- "I gave you a tax break. Almost every Republican voted against it." He should have said that 200 times.

** When an Ear of Corn Isn't Just an Ear of Corn. Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: You're paying more for commodities like corn, wheat & copper because of Wall Street commodities futures speculation. "The financialization of the economy continues undeterred, creating a bubble in commodities just as it did with houses and office buildings. The industry is still engaged in clever games to circumvent regulation, increase risk and find the cracks between one regulatory agency and another.... You can bet what’s left in your 401(k) that there’s about to be a commodities bubble — one that will generate big fees for Wall Street and leave a mess for everyone else." CW: read this column against the backdrop of GOP cries for reducing/eliminating regulation.

Teacher, poet Taylor Mali recites his poem "What Teachers Make":

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "Republican state lawmakers in the Upper Midwest have been remarkably successful this year in stripping public employees of their bargaining rights, but that campaign could slam to a halt on Tuesday when Ohio voters get a chance to weigh in. Unions and business groups have poured a huge amount of time and money into a referendum on whether to overturn Senate Bill 5, signed into law in March by Gov. John Kasich. The measure bans negotiations on health benefits for public employees, including police officers and firefighters, and makes it virtually impossible to bargain on staffing or to collect dues properly." ...

... Paul West of the Los Angeles Times: "An aggressive Republican drive to weaken the labor rights of government workers appears to have crested, at least in Ohio, where voters are expected to throw out a far-reaching anti-union law this week. The referendum over collective bargaining for public employees, potentially the most important contest in off-year elections around the nation, is being closely watched for clues about shifting voter trends in a state expected to play its usual outsized role in next year's presidential contest."

"Combat by Camera." David Cloud & David Zucchino of the Los Angeles Times: "The decision to fire a missile from one of the growing fleet of U.S. drones is made as ground commanders, pilots and analysts at far-flung military installations analyze video and data feeds from the combat zone and communicate through voice and text messages. The system is far from foolproof.... Multiple missteps led to the drone killing of U.S. troops in Afghanistan."

CW: Why was it the House of Representatives needed to reaffirm that the U.S. motto is "In God We Trust"? According to the resolution, which passed 396-9, ""Whereas if religion and morality are taken out of the marketplace of ideas, the very freedom on which the United States was founded cannot be secured." More than 9 MoC's should have had the guts to vote against a resolution that endorses religion. Jerks. Michael Shermer, writing in the Los Angeles Times: "What is troubling ... is the implication that in this age of science and technology, computers and cyberspace, and liberal democracies securing rights and freedoms for oppressed peoples all over the globe, that anyone could still hold to the belief that religion has a monopoly on morality and that the foundation of trust is based on engraving four words on brick and paper.... It's up to us to secure our freedom through enlightened secular policies with practical social applications rather than faith-based hope in empty mottoes reflecting an era gone by."

Dean Baker takes another swipe at the Washington Post's Social Security hit job of last weekend (the following links are to cited material): "If there were ever any doubts that 'Fox on 15th Street' was a fitting label for the Washington Post, Patrick Pexton, the paper's ombudsman removed them with his defense of the Post's front page piece on Social Security last Sunday."

Right Wing World

Philip Elliott of the AP: "Republican presidential contender Herman [Cain] on Saturday vowed to answer no more questions about decade-old sexual harassment allegations and blamed journalists for the claims that have dogged his campaign. Growing agitated with reporters after a one-on-one debate with rival Newt Gingrich, the former business executive suggested the reporters who asked questions about the allegations were unethical. Asked if he planned to never answer questions about the incidents, he was certain. 'You got it,' he snapped, even as the allegations leave plenty of doubts about Cain's candidacy."

Tea Party Family Values. Lee Fang of Think Progress: "... the Family Research Council, a social conservative advocacy nonprofit headed by CNN pundit Tony Perkins, has awarded [Illinois Republican Rep. Joe] Walsh a 100 percent rating as a 'True Blue' member of Congress. The FRC said it gave the honor to Walsh because of his 'unwavering support of the family.'" As of July, Walsh, "a Tea Party freshman in Congress, owed $117,000 in unpaid child support to his ex-wife. Walsh ... has continued to refuse to pay his ex-wife to support his children.... As Marie Diamond noted ... a few months ago, 'Walsh also rejected the congressional health insurance plan for his family on principle, much to the chagrin of his current wife, Helene, who had a preexisting condition and needed surgery while the couple was uninsured.'"

Yay! The Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity stands up against crony capitalism. Stephen Lacey of Think Progress: "Keep in mind, the ad below lamenting 'political favors' is being run by groups that have paid tens of thousands of dollars to sit down directly with other corporations and policy makers to write state laws, then engage in aggressive campaigns to get those laws passed. Welcome to the 2012 campaign season — bought and sold by the 1%." (Thanks to reader Jeanne B. for the link.):

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Police arrested about 20 demonstrators on the streets around Woodruff Park late Saturday as the Occupy Atlanta protest took an unexpected turn onto Peachtree Street." ...

... Los Angeles Times: "Police were called to two violent incidents at Occupy Los Angeles on Friday, adding to questions about the protest and its future. In the morning, a woman was arrested at the encampment outside City Hall after she set another person's clothes on fire, police said. In another incident hours later, a woman was arrested after protesters said she struck a man with a tent pole. Both were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.... City officials say ... up until now protesters at Occupy Los Angeles have been mostly peaceful."

AP: "Nicaraguan president and one-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega appears headed for victory Sunday in an election that his critics say could be the prelude to a presidency-for-life. Since returning to power in 2007, the 65-year-old Ortega has boosted his popularity in Central America's poorest country with a combination of pork-barrel populism and support for the free-market economy he once opposed."

AP: "Guatemalans rattled by soaring violence choose Sunday between two right-leaning presidential candidates: a former general who promises law and order and a tycoon-turned-political populist whose proposals include more social programs and zero tolerance on crime. Polls show Otto Perez Molina, 61, a retired general and former military intelligence director running for the right-wing Patriotic Party, at least 10 to 15 points ahead of Manuel Baldizon, 41, of the Democratic Freedom Revival party."