The Commentariat -- March 12, 2012

By popular request, here's my column on Brother Douthat's Sunday sermon in praise of -- wise Republican voters. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

... Jonathan Chait of New York magazine: "For Douthat’s argument to work, though, you have to assume that Romney won because ... he is intelligent and well-accomplished.... I see little evidence that this is the case."

** Adam Liptak's analysis in the New York Times of the Roberts Court, and the critical decision the Court will make on the Affordable Care Act, is something of a must-read.

Thomas Edsall in the New York Times: "Instead of serving as a springboard to social mobility as it did for the first decades after World War II, college education today is reinforcing class stratification, with a huge majority of the 24 percent of Americans aged 25 to 29 currently holding a bachelor’s degree coming from families with earnings above the median income." CW: read Edsall's post, with its shocking statistics that make his point; then remind yourself that Mitt Romney does not want to help poor & lower-middle class students get college degrees. He really is one mean prick.

** Ezra Klein in the New Yorker: the bully pulpit doesn't bully anybody; in fact, it's pretty ineffectual.

Colin Moynihan of the New York Times: In New York City, "For the last few months, [Occupy] protest organizers say, police officers or detectives have been posted outside buildings where private meetings were taking place, have visited the homes of organizers and have questioned protesters arrested on minor charges. 'The N.Y.P.D. surveillance does not appear to be limited to unlawful activity,' said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.... A police spokesman did not respond to a request for comment."

Gary Langer of ABC News: "More than half of Americans for the first time expect Barack Obama to be re-elected -- but that won't make it easy: Even as expectations have moved his way, rising gas prices have dented the president's rating on handling the economy, his overall job approval has slipped back under 50 percent and he's reverted to a dead heat in public preferences against Mitt Romney."

Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker: "All the signs are that the United States military and its NATO allies have not only outlived their welcome in Afghanistan but also passed the point at which their presence is anything other than toxic." ...

... Michael Hirsh of the National Journal: "Recent events in Afghanistan, including Sunday’s horrific shooting of Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier, are not just going to alter U.S. strategy there. They are very likely to upend it. Even before the latest tragedy, President Obama was trying to expedite his way out of that quagmire, which is already the longest war in American history, as he faced a tough fight at home for re-election. Now Obama is likely to only speed things up further." ...

... Gary Langer: "Sixty percent of Americans say the war in Afghanistan has not been not worth fighting and just 30 percent believe the Afghan public supports the U.S. mission there.... A majority in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 54 percent, say the United States should withdraw its forces from Afghanistan without completing its current effort to train Afghan forces to become self-sufficient."

What Global Warming? MSNBC: "Great Lakes ice coverage declined an average of 71 percent over the past 40 years, according to a report from the American Meteorological Society." CW: No doubt part of God's plan to hold down home-heating bills in the Midwest.

Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker on the many ways attacking contraception coverage is a political loser. 

E. J. Dionne: "The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops will make an important decision this week: Do they want to defend the church’s legitimate interest in religious autonomy, or do they want to wage an election-year war against President Obama?"

David Dunlap of the New York Times: more than 100 years after expelling her, the Park Avenue Christian Church restores the membership of feminist reformer Elizabeth Bartlett Grannis.

Right Wing World

Quote of the Day. I told them they have ocular rectitis. That's when your eyes get confused with your butt, and it develops into a shitty outlook on life. -- John Boehner (R-Ohio), Speaker of the House, to the Republican caucus (CW: Peggy Noonan bleeped the word I have translated as shitty; the bowdlerization she used was "unnecessarily fecal"? Am I missing an adverb? Please advise.)

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "With two key Southern primaries on the horizon this week, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich sharpened their attacks against Mitt Romney on Sunday, as Mr. Santorum bluntly declared that his leading rival 'can’t close the deal,' and Newt Gingrich called Mr. Romney the party’s weakest front-runner since 1920."

Molly Ball of The Atlantic: actually, Mitt Romney is pretty funny. People misunderstand his dry, self-deprecating humor. Here's Mitt in 2007, explaining his hunting prowess to a group of Texans:

... Ned Martel of the Washington Post: "Dressage demands agility and finesse — and money. Ann Romney’s involvement in the sport has allowed her access to the heady world of high-level competition, but it has also exposed her to horse dealing. Two years ago, it resulted in a lawsuit against her alleging fraud in the sale of one of her horses. And that lawsuit provided testimony in which she spoke in unusual detail about the benefits — and the costs — of riding." CW: there's an exponential factor of people who can't afford to field a stable of warmbloods but can afford to go windsurfing. See John Kerry, 2004.

Digby comments on the Ken Griffin interview, which is here. (Griffin is that billionaire Chicago hedge-fund operator & Romney supporter who thinks the mega-rich don't have enough influence over politics.) "He sounds as if his political views were shaped by reading a couple of chapters of Atlas Shrugged in high school and multiple viewings of Red Dawn. In that respect I suppose he does personify the idea that absolutely anyone can become a billionaire no matter how little they know."

Local News

CW: especially if you live in Florida, you will want to read Tim Padgett's excellent summary in Time of the state government's pivot toward culture wars and away from superfluous stuff like higher education. I am ashamed to live here on Knuckledragger Drive at Neanderthal Palms Villas.

Jackie Borchardt of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News: "Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way. The Cleveland Democrat introduced Senate Bill 307 this week.... Turner said if state policymakers want to legislate women’s health choices through measures such as House Bill 125, known as the 'Heartbeat bill,' they should also be able to legislate men’s reproductive health." Via Jud Legum of Think Progress.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The outrage from the back-to-back episodes of the Koran burning and the killing on Sunday of at least 16 Afghan civilians imperils what the Obama administration once saw as an orderly plan for 2012: to speed the training of Afghan forces so that they can take the lead in combat missions, all while drawing the Taliban into negotiations to end more than a decade of constant war." ...

... Washington Post: "The Taliban vowed Monday to take revenge for the killing of at least 16 Afghan civilians by a rogue American soldier, and the nation’s parliament said people 'have run out of patience' with foreign forces. In protesting the killings, some Afghan lawmakers demanded that the U.S. soldier in custody be tried in an Afghan court, the latest sign that the incident could mark an adverse turning point in the deteriorating relationship between Kabul and Washington."

New York Times: "In another milestone in the banking industry’s recovery from the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve this week will release the results of its latest stress tests, which are expected to show broadly improved balance sheets at most institutions."

Washington Post: "A Gaithersburg, [Maryland,] Catholic priest who triggered national debate late last month when he denied Communion to a lesbian at her mother’s funeral Mass has been placed on administrative leave from ministry in the Washington archdiocese."

The Commentariat -- March 11, 2012

Daylight Saving Time (United States) begins Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 2:00 am local time, except Arizona and Hawaii. Move your clocks ahead 1 hour ("Spring forward; fall back").

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer takes a look at how the New York Times handles Mitt's Mendacity -- the candidate's propensity to telling somewhere around a lie a day. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

CW: sorry, I meant to link this a while back but forgot (I think I did link to a story on this last year). David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama's healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.... But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address."

Susn Saulny of the New York Times: "In Iowa, one of the crucial battlegrounds in the coming presidential election, and in other states, dozens of interviews in recent weeks have found that moderate Republican and independent women — one of the most important electoral swing groups — are disenchanted by the Republican focus on social issues like contraception and abortion in an election that, until recently, had been mostly dominated by the economy. And in what appears to be an abrupt shift, some Republican-leaning women like Ms. Russell said they might switch sides and vote for Mr. Obama — if they turn out to vote at all." ...

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama’s re-election campaign is beginning an intensified effort this week to build support among women, using the debate over the new health care law to amplify an appeal that already appears to be benefiting from partisan clashes over birth control and abortion."

David Catanese of Politico: "Washington Rep. Jay Inslee [D] is resigning his Hous seat to fully focus his attention on his gubernatorial campaign against GOP Attorney General Rob McKenna.... The move is a tacit acknowledgment that the Inslee campaign is not where Democrats would like it to be eight months from the open-seat election to replace Gov. Christine Gregoire."

Judd Legum of Think Progress fowards a story reported by RadioInfo.com: "When it comes to advertisers avoiding controversial shows, it’s not just Rush From today’s TRI Newsletter: Premiere Networks is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid 'environments likely to stir negative sentiments.' The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway)." ...

... Arthur Goldwag has a good post in Salon on "The Right Wing's Pornography of Resentment." Goldwag puts Limbaugh's crude weirdness in historical perspective. "Prudery and prurience often go hand in glove. Prurience and paranoia are fellow travelers as well."

There's a new storyline floating around the the Supremes' Citizens United decision (along with follow-up rullings based on Citizens) are not responsible for all that SuperPAC spending. Richard Hasen, writing in Slate, runs the numbers to refute this defense of the Court.

Nicholas Kristof: A British businessman, Robert Bittlestone, thinks he has found ancient Ithaca, and some scholars agree. Includes an interesting video.

Right Wing World

Josh Dorner of Think Progress: a billionaire Romney backer says the super-rich don't have enough influence over politics. Hedge fund billionare Ken Griffth said "that the ultrawealthy 'have a duty' to step forward and save the U.S. from what he says is a drift toward Soviet-style state control of the economy."

News Ledes

The Hill: "U.S. officials worked quickly to calm tensions after an American service member in Kandahar province opened fire on Afghan civilians Sunday, killing at least sixteen. President Obama said he was 'deeply saddened' by news of the attack, in a released statement. He said the shooting was 'tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.'" ...

... New York Times: "A United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 15 civilians, local villagers and provincial officials said." ...

     ... Story has been updated. New lede: "Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, 9 of them children, in a rural stretch of southern Afghanistan early on Sunday, igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility, Afghan and American officials said."

Washington Post: "In Wyoming, where some counties had held caucuses earlier in the week, Romney easily outpaced his rivals and won seven of the 12 delegates at stake. Santorum won three, Paul one. (One delegate went uncommitted.)"

Guardian: "A 12-year-old boy was among those reported to have been killed in Gaza on Sunday amid a spiralling round of militant rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes over the weekend that left at least 18 Palestinians dead and four people in Israel injured."

AP: "Across Japan, people paused at 2:46 p.m. — the moment the magnitude-9.0 quake struck a year ago — for moments of silence, prayer and reflection about the enormous losses suffered and monumental tasks ahead."

The Commentariat -- March 10, 2012

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here. Ann Gearan of the AP: "President Barack Obama is hitting back at Republican criticism of his energy policies and his role in controlling gasoline prices. Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to underscore his administration's work to develop alternative energy sources and increase fuel efficiency.... He accused Republicans of a 'bumper sticker' approach to solving the nation's energy problems."

I've brought this forward from yesterday, as I submitted my column late yesterday. By popular request (see yesterday's Comments), I've written a column for the New York Times eXaminer, incorporating the wisdom of Gemli. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

     ... Update: here's the new trailer for the film "On the Road":

Nicholas Kulish & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, who is French, finds herself on a collision course with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, posing a test for the unusually close relationship between the two leaders. They have opposing stances on how much money is need to protect vulnerable economies, and how it should be raised."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The fragile gains Republicans had been making among female voters have been erased, a shift that has coincided with what has become a national shouting match over reproductive issues, potentially handing President Obama and the Democrats an enormous advantage this fall." ...

... Gail Collins: "Every time a state considers a 'personhood' amendment that would give a fertilized egg the standing of a human being, outlawing some forms of fertility treatment and common contraceptives, it reinforces the argument that the current abortion debate is actually about theology, not generally held national principles. And ... every time we have one of those exciting discussions about the Limbaugh theory on making women who get health care coverage for contraception broadcast their sex lives on the Internet, the more the Republican Party loses votes, money, sympathy — you name it."

President Obama spoke at the Rolls Royce engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Virginia, yesterday:

New York Times Editors: "The oceans have always served as a sink for carbon dioxide, but the burning of fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial revolution, especially over the last 40 years, has given them more than they can safely absorb. The result is acidification — a change in the chemical balance that threatens the oceans’ web of life." CW: sounds like a hoax to me. God would never let this happen OR, alternatively, acidification is part of God's plan. See Jim Inhofe's Quote of the Day below.

Right Wing World

Quote of the Day. Genesis 8:22 [says] ... that 'as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.' My point is, God's still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla), presenting his proof that climate change is a hoax

Hey, y'all, Mitt likes them grits. He also says the federal government should run more like the Mississippi state government. CW: Yep, Mississippi is doing a great job; by per capita income, health & healthcare, & educational measures, it ranks 50th best among 50 states. But, hey, it's the most conservative (which tells you how well conservative principles translate to policy):

... Charles Blow is unimpressed with the new Cornpone Willard. "As a Southerner, I’ve never known us to find caricature endearing."

Nancy Cook of the National Journal: "One of Mitt Romney’s chief selling points as a presidential candidate is his business background and self-proclaimed ability to create jobs and boost a lagging economy.... Yet, Romney’s record from his days as Massachusetts governor paints a ... portrait ... of a politician who swept into office with big promises and a Harvard MBA but who failed to create a meaningful number of jobs for his home state and lacked a clear, concrete economic vision. Economists from Massachusetts also say Romney was never able to solve the structural problems inherent in the state’s economy — issues that now plague the country as a whole and will challenge whoever becomes president in 2013 -- such as the decline in manufacturing and the dearth of employment for less-educated, low-income workers." ...

Gov. Willard M. Aloof. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Even though he worked just a few hundred feet from them for four years, Mr. Romney displayed little interest in getting to know lawmakers and never developed real relationships with most members of the Democratic-dominated body, according to interviews with two dozen current and former lawmakers of both parties and members of the governor’s staff.... Mr. Romney wielded his veto pen as no Massachusetts governor has before or since. He issued 844 vetoes, most of which the legislature overrode, sometimes unanimously, in marathon sessions."

... Steve Benen details Willard's ten most audacious lies of the week. Why do the major media give next to no attention to Willard's unrelenting mendacity? Are they rooting for the guy? ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect asks the same question.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones anticipates a summer of racism. CW: If he's right, I think it will backfire; except for the GOP base, Americans -- including people who are, well "race-conscious" -- are disgusted by overt racism. I think it will be even worse for racists now that "race-conscious" whites are accustomed to having a black president.

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "FreedomWorks for America, the super PAC for former Rep. Dick Armey’s (R-TX) FreedomWorks USA, just released new radio and TV ads urging the defeat of longtime Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).... The new commercials note that Hatch 'voted 16 times' to raise the debt limit, allowing for $7.5 trillion of the national debt." But when Armey was in the House, he voted for more-or-less the same debt ceiling bills Hatch did. In other words, "FreedomWorks for America has invested about $500,000 into attacking Hatch for having a record that is not very different from Armey’s own." CW: purging the party of right-wing ideologues to replace them with right-wing nuts.

CW: I don't like to give Sarah Palin much attention, but what with "Game Change" being aired on HBO this weekend, we'll make an exception. Palin went on the Sean Hannity show Thursday night to assert that President Obama wants the U.S. to return to its pre-Civil War slave-holding days. I guess, like Stephen Colbert, Palin does not see skin color. That's great. And I find her charge totally credible.

Local News

** Robbie Brown of the New York Times: "The lieutenant governor of South Carolina, Ken Ard [R], resigned on Friday and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of spending campaign funds on personal expenses and fabricating donations.... Mr. Ard resigned in the morning, was indicted at 1 p.m. and then pleaded guilty at 3."

ABC News, Montgomery Alabama: the sponsor of a state senate bill requiring women seeking abortions to endure a transvaginal ultrasound screening has dropped the bill -- for now, anyway -- after protesters gathered at the State Capitol Thursday. Via the Maddow blog.

Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (RTP) has set up a legal defense fund, which suggests he is being investigated for violation of state elections laws. CW: what a shame if he were charged with or -- better yet -- convicted of -- a felony before he could be recalled.

News Ledes

Kansas holds caucuses today in the GOP presidential race. The Kansas City Star story is here. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Showing his strength among conservative voters in the heartland, Rick Santorum decisively won the Kansas caucuses on Saturday." With 99 percent of the count in, Santorum won with 51.2 percent, Romney in 2nd with 20.9 percent, Gingrich with 14.4 percent & Paul with 12.6 percent.

Ha! Guardian: "The United Nations climate chief has warned that US voters risk ceding progress to China and Europe if they opt for a presidential candidate who denies climate change. Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told an audience in London: 'The one thing [the frontrunners for the Republican candidacy] have in common is saying they do not believe in climate change, so it's very much the decision of the US electorate.'" CW: as far as I can tell, not a single U.S. news outlet has covered her remark.

The Fine Print. Reuters: "A previously announced $25 billion settlement between five major banks accused of abusive mortgage practices and government officials will be filed in federal court on Monday.... Negotiators had hoped to file a settlement on Friday, but the deal was held up at the last minute over a disagreement between Nevada and Bank of America<...."

NEW. Houston Chronicle: "Two weeks after state officials announced plans to effectively ban Planned Parenthood from a health program for low-income women, the secretary of Health and Human Services confirmed in Houston Friday that federal funding for the program in Texas will end."

Guardian: "Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people in an escalation of the worst clashes with Palestinian militants so far this year. The strikes began on Friday, when Israeli air raids killed the senior militant leader Zohair al-Qaisi, the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). Israel claimed he was targeted because he was planning an attack." Haaretz story here.

Reuters: "U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to press for a political solution to Syria's year-long uprising, but violence raged on with a major army assault on the northwestern city of Idlib." Al Jazeera story here. And here's Al Jazeera's liveblog on Syria. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "High-level diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting in Syria yielded mixed results on Saturday as President Bashar al-Assad shut the door on any immediate negotiations with the opposition and escalated a new military assault on the city of Idlib. Mr. Assad told the United Nations envoy Kofi Annan that such talks would be fruitless as long as “terrorist groups” were operating in the country."

Reuters: "Several thousand Russians gathered in central Moscow on Saturday for a rally seen as a test of the opposition's ability to mount a sustained challenge to President-elect Vladimir Putin."