The Commentariat -- October 25

I've posted an Open Thread for comments on today's Off Times Square.

Chris Matthews, Sam Stein & John Heilemann compare President Obama & Mitt Romney's approaches to governance:

... Andrew Leonard of Salon asks, "Can Obama fix Geithner's housing bust?" As Zach Goldfarb oulined in the Washington Post (see yesterday's Commentariat for link), "The responsibility for the failure to move aggressively to help struggling homeowners ... gets blamed fairly definitively on the treasury secretary. Geithner was consistently more worried about the health of the financial sector than he was about the housing sector and actively discouraged Obama from diverting resources toward helping homeowners.... [Maybe] the Obama administration is finally getting its act together and tackling the real problems. But it’s much easier to look at the plan and say 'too little, too late,' than to nod along with the mantra 'we can’t wait.'” ...

... "Can Obama fix Geithner's housing bust?" Apparently not. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times:  "The federal government’s expansion of a mortgage refinancing program could reduce the monthly payments of up to one million homeowners, but analysts said the modest scope of the plan meant it would probably do little to heal the housing market or help the broader economy." ...

... Derek Kravitz of the AP: "The Obama administration is hoping at least 1 million [underwater] borrowers will take advantage of its refinancing program under more lenient rules unveiled Monday. Homeowners who are current on their payments will be eligible to refinance no matter how much their home's value has dropped. Still, it's unclear how many borrowers will benefit. Lenders will remain under no obligation to refinance a mortgage they hold." ...

... The whole political class is just getting the memo that Ozzie and Harriet don't live here anymore. -- Dean Edward Hill of Cleveland State University, on poverty in the suburbs ...

... Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "The poor population in America’s suburbs ... rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations. The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010."

CW: maybe it's inevitable, given the realities of politics & policy, but Michael Scherer of Time makes the case that Obama has gone from being a transformational candidate to a transactional one. The hopey-changey thing? It's now he hopes he can win re-election.

Manhattan-based brand consultant David Intrator discusses the nature of the Occupy Wall Street movement. TruthDig reporter Alexander Reed Kelly tells how he met Intrator. Share this one with your conservative friends! Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link:

New York Times Editors: "... Community Board 1, which represents residents and businesses in Lower Manhattan, is expected to vote Tuesday evening on a resolution that endorses the right to protest and opposes 'the use of excessive and unnecessary force by the City of New York' or the owners of the park, Brookfield Properties. (The resolution also endorses the extension of the 'millionaire’s tax' in New York State to soften cuts to education and other services.) The community calls on everyone involved, including protesters and elected officials, to address the problems this event has created around the park." CW: hope they also suggested port-a-potties & other sanitation aids. ...

... Arun Gupta of Salon: In three deindustrialized cities [-- Allentown, Pennsylvania, Youngstown Ohio, & Toledo, Ohio --] Occupy protesters find friendly cops, determination and despair." ...

Richard Cohen, who is the Washington Post's idea of a liberal -- i.e., he's a David Brooks-type blowhard -- goes looking for anti-Semitism in Zuccotti Park & can't find any of it, despite the best effort of wingers, especial Bill Kristol, to decry OWS as an anti-Semitic movement. "The smear is in deadly earnest, a reminder that the devious tactics of the Old Left have been adopted by the New Right. (No accident, maybe, that the practitioners are the descendants of lefties.)" Cohen still thinks Occupy Wall Street is a stupid diversion, "a conspiracy to have left-leaning writers make jackasses of themselves by imparting grave and grand meaning to what is little more than a vast sleepover."

Brian Beutler of TPM: a report issued by the Government Accountability Office "implies ... that ... repealing ObamaCare would consign us to swift, ugly fiscal and health care crises. The health care reform law will extend subsidized private health insurance to millions of Americans, paid for with new taxes and Medicare savings. But it also included numerous demonstration projects and reforms intended to rein in the growth of health care costs, and thus Medicare spending. Some of them have great promise — if they can survive." CW: this is something the CBO & independent economists have also emphasized: if you want the deficit to skyrocket while killing off & sickening millions of Americans, let Republicans repeal the ACA. Every Republican candidate for president has promised to do that -- Mitt Romney claims he would do so on his first day in office, evidently figuring he can just executive-order a Congressional law out of existence.

One More Time. In case you were still thinking maybe Joe Nocera was half-right (his half-witted column is here) about Democrats being responsible for the bad blood in the Senate on accounta Teddy Kennedy's picking on that nice Robert Bork, Driftglass should shut down your last lingering pro-Nocera brain waves.

Right Wing World

The "I'm Crazier than You" Primary, Con'd. Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has released an economic plan full of long-held conservative goals, including personal accounts for Social Security, an optional flat tax, major spending cuts and a series of tax cuts. The 'Cut, Balance and Grow' plan, which Perry first unveiled in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and will formally announce in a speech in Gray Court, South Carolina on Tuesday, puts Perry to the political right of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the front-runner in the GOP presidential race." Perry's Wall Street Journal op-ed is here. ...

     ... Update. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Rick Perry’s decision to embrace a flat tax as a central part of his economic plan, as several other Republican candidates have, is providing an opportunity for President Obama’s campaign. The president’s advisers are eager to characterize the advocates of a flat tax as shills for the wealthy in the United States.... That’s just what his campaign argued in a new memorandum issued Tuesday morning by Mr. Obama’s policy director, James Kvaal. Kvaal's memo is here (pdf). ...

... Perry Bacon & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Welcome to Rick Perry 2.0. The Republican Texas governor is retooling his presidential campaign, shuffling staff and touting a bold but controversial new tax plan, hoping to rebound from a recent plunge in the polls." ...

... Yep. And as part of his "retooled" campaign, Perry thinks it's "fun" to remind his troglodyte base that Obama might not be a legitimate president because he was born in the black African nation of Kenya. Who wouldn't want a president with such a great sense of humor?

... Dana Milbank: "If at first you don’t secede, try the birther movement. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who more than once has dipped his cowboy boot into the secessionist swamp, has found a new outlet for his fringe instincts. The Republican presidential candidate has revived questions about President Obama’s birth certificate." ...

... What a Chump! Steve Kornacki of Slate: "Flirting with birtherism has always been an awful play for a politician with national ambitions, an easy way to get yourself tagged as a fringe figure.... That Perry has faded so badly in the polls this fall is a direct result of the skepticism and even hostility from GOP elites that his performance has provoked." ...

... So Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post wonders, "how long can Romney refrain from embracing the crazy?"

AP: "Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann’s former New Hampshire staffers say they were deceived and treated as second-class citizens before they quit in frustration last week. In a news release, the five former staffers said ... they could not continue working for her because her national campaign team had been 'rude, unprofessional, dishonest, and at times cruel' to them and 'abrasive, discourteous, and dismissive' of the state’s voters."

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "Republicans are objecting to new infrastructure spending because they don't want the top 1/500th of American taxpayers to pay an average of 1/217th more of their income in taxes." ...

    ... Greg Sargent has more detail here.

Their storyline is that there must be some villain out there who’s keeping this administration from succeeding. -- Mitch McConnell, on Democrats

... After running through more than a year's worth of McConnell's promises to sandbag the President, Steve Benen thinks he knows who the villain is. ...

... Here Lewison rolls the videotape. "So Mitch McConnell went on CNN's State of the Union yesterday and claimed Republicans haven't been obstructing efforts by Democrats and the Obama administration to take action on the jobs crisis. Either he was lying through his teeth, or there's a really good Mitch McConnell impersonator on YouTube who's been saying the exact opposite for the past three years:

Senate Republicans Call for More Gridlock. Jamison Foser of Media Matters: "... after years of gridlock caused by Republicans filibustering nearly everything — even jobs bills in the middle of an unemployment crisis ... two Republican senators, Jeff Sessions (AL) and Olympia Snowe (ME), want to make it harder for the Senate to pass important legislation. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Sessions and Snowe propose requiring a supermajority for passage of appropriations bills." CW: remember, Olympia Snowe is a "moderate" Republican.

More Expanding Fish Stories from Senator Marco: Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "National Public Radio has raised more questions about the biography of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who told a reporter two years ago a story of his family’s departure from Cuba that does not mesh with his current accounts." Rubio told NPR's Robert Siegel in 2009 that the Castro government held Rubio's mother in Cuba for nine months in 1960. No, it didn't.

Local News

Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University, in Slate: "Last week, Florida Gov. Rick Scott [CW: a/k/a America's Worst Governor] called for reductions in state appropriations for particular academic disciplines so that public universities can focus resources on producing graduates in the STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and math.... For some reason, he seemed especially concerned that Florida universities might be producing too many anthropologists.... His approach to both higher education and economic development is misguided and counterproductive. The notion that we must strip away academic programs not seemingly relevant to workforce development reflects a simplistic and retrograde view of the role of higher education in the American economy." Crow elaborates.

Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a far-reaching Florida law that requires public assistance applicants to take a drug test, saying the law probably violates a constitutional ban on unreasonable search and seizure." CW: Gov. Scott's wife owns a chain of walk-in clinics that do drug-testing. The clinic business used to belong to Scott, but rather than sell it because it created a conflict-of-interest, he "transferred" it to the Missus when he became governor.) Gov. Scott campaigned on & initiated the drug-testing law. ...

     ... Correction, via the St. Pete Times: "Scott [and I guess his wife] sold his interest in the clinic chain in April 2011. ...

... Voter Supression, Florida Style. Daytona Beach News-Journal: "Prepping 17-year-olds for the privileges and responsibilities of voting in a democracy is nothing new for civics teachers, but when [teacher] Jill Cicciarelli organized a drive at the start of the school year to get students pre-registered, she ran afoul of Florida's new and controversial election law. Among other things, the new rules require that third parties who sign up new voters register with the state and that they submit applications within 48 hours.... Cicciarelli hadn't registered with the state before beginning the registration drive. And she didn't submit the forms to the elections office on time." Thanks to Charlie Pierce of Esquire, who has a great post on this. And thanks to a reader for directing me to the Pierce blogpost.

Quinnipiac University: "Ohio voters support 57 - 32 percent the repeal of SB 5 [which slashed collective bargaining rights for public employees and is] the centerpiece of Gov. John Kasich's legislative program.... Gov. Kasich's standing is in the same negative neighborhood as SB 5, with Ohio voters disapproving of his job performance 52 - 36 percent, down from 49 - 40 percent disapproval in September's survey...."

The Ledes

The Hill: "The White House announced Tuesday that it supports passage of a House Republican bill intended to boost job creation and due up for a vote on Thursday. The bill repeals a requirement that the federal government withhold 3 percent of payments to contractors as a down payment toward future taxes owed. It was intended to increase compliance with tax laws, but the provision has been delayed repeatedly."

AP: "A federal judge blocked part of North Carolina's new abortion law Tuesday, ruling providers do not have to place an ultrasound image next to a pregnant woman so she can view it, nor do they have to describe its features and offer her the chance to listen to the heartbeat. The law was set to take effect Wednesday, but U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles' decision puts a key section of it on hold until she can hear more arguments."

Reuters: "President Barack Obama is taking steps to ease the burden of student loans, the White House said Tuesday, potentially helping millions of cash-strapped college graduates in a tough economy. Obama plans to accelerate a plan to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income, bringing it forward to start in 2012 from 2014."

Los Angeles Times: "Tuesday's pre-dawn sweep of the Occupy Oakland encampment, which resulted in about 80 arrests, came after the diverse community of protesters refused to allow police and fire officials -- as well as at least two ambulance crews -- access to the area to provide services, city officials said. Oakland had issued repeated warnings to the campers over the last week, citing an increase in public urination and defecation, rats and fire hazards from cooking. The greatest concern, however, stemmed from violence." ...

     ... San Francisco Chronicle Update: "Police fired tear gas Tuesday night into a crowd of several hundred protesters backing the Occupy movement who were seeking to retake an encampment outside Oakland City Hall that officers had cleared away more than 12 hours earlier."

New York Times: "Tunisia’s moderate Islamist political party emerged Monday as the acknowledged leader in elections for a constitutional assembly and began talks to form a unity government with a coalition of liberals in a rare alliance that party leaders hailed as an inclusive model for countries emerging from the tumult of the Arab Spring."

Washington Post: "Former Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi was buried in a secret location on Tuesday, officials of the interim government said, ending a four-day spectacle in which his bloody body was displayed to a public celebrating his gory death as a fitting end to decades of repression."

Reuters: "Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced growing pressure on Tuesday over European Union demands for swift economic reforms with a member of his cabinet warning that the government could fall over the issue. EU leaders ... have demanded that Berlusconi present firm plans for growth and reducing Italy's massive debt in time for a summit meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. However an emergency cabinet meeting late on Monday ended without agreement after Berlusconi's coalition allies in the Northern League party refused to budge on their opposition to raising the pension age to 67 years."

The Commentariat -- October 24

I've posted a comment page on Off Times Square on the world's human population hitting the 7-billion mark. Write on this or something else.

Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "President Obama pledged at the beginning of his term to boost the nation’s crippled housing market and help as many as 9 million homeowners avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. Nearly three years later, it hasn’t worked out. Obama has spent just $2.4 billion of the $50 billion he promised. The initiatives he announced have helped 1.7 million people. Housing prices remain near a crisis low. Millions of people are deeply indebted, owing more than their properties are worth, and many have lost their homes to foreclosure or are likely to do so. Economists increasingly say that, as a result, Americans are too scared to spend money, depriving the economy of its traditional engine of growth." See also today's Ledes.

"Occupy Newsrooms." David Carr of the New York Times: As their CEOs and other top executives led Gannett & the Tribune company into the ground, laid off thousands of journalists & instituted other cost-cutting measures that shortchanged their readers, their boards of directors awarded these same undeserving executives huge bonuses & golden parachutes. "As newspapers all over the country struggle to divine the meaning of the Occupy protests, some of the companies that own them might want to listen closely to see if there is a message there meant for them." ...

     ... Update: Karen Garcia has a great comment on Carr's article. I couldn't decide which part to highlight here, so read the whole comment (#105) here. ...

... Noreen Malone of New York Magazine: Occupy Wall Street, along with 72 percent of New York State voters, oppose Gov. Andrew Cuomo's push to let the state's "millionaire's tax" expire. So after OWS protesters occupied an event Cuomo was attending, he went vindictive, albeit against different protesters (because who cares? those anarchists are all the same): "This weekend, he tried to get Albany's mayor, his friend and fellow Democrat Jerry Jennings, to kick Albany's protestors out of a city park at the official 11 p.m. closing time." Jennings eventually declined Cuomo's "request," citing precedent.

Michael Holden of Reuters: "Those who took part in Britain's worst rioting for decades this summer were young, poor, and less educated but contrary to claims by politicians, only a minority were gang members, official data released on Monday showed.... Prime Minister David Cameron blamed 'criminality,' saying that street gangs were at the heart of the problem, and rejected accusations that government austerity measures had alienated youths in poorer communities."

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: "Bank of America is shifting a huge collection of Merrill Lynch derivatives contracts onto its own federally-insured balance sheet," and the Fed is encouraging BoA to do so. That is, when these instruments go belly-up, taxpayers will bail out BoA -- again. At the same time, "Barack Obama is apparently expressing willingness to junk big chunks of Sarbanes-Oxley in exchange for support for his jobs program." That is, "companies are saying they can't attract investment unless they can hide their financials from investors," & Obama is willing to go along with the subterfuge. "If anyone thought OWS has already done its job, and Washington has gotten the message already, think again."

I believe from the bottom of my being that we’ll eventually have to restore Glass-Steagall. The only question is, How much agony do we have to go through before we do it? We know the solution, but do we have the will? -- former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) ...

... James Stewart of the New York Times: nobody likes the Volcker Rule, as written, including Paul Volcker. CW: this is a slightly complicated, but readable, article that will reinforce your impression that Dodd-Frank is a huge pile of unenforceable verbiage.

M. J. Lee of Politico: "The Treasury Department is making a full-fledged effort to knock back Republican claims that overregulation is slowing down economic growth." You can read the Treasury blogpost, by Jan Eberly, here.

Jared Bernstein in a New York Times op-ed: small business are not big job creators, no matter what politicians repeatedly tell you. ...

... James Surowiecki of the New Yorker makes the same point, albeit using different data.

Dave Weigel, a libertarian, defends Teddy Kennedy against Joe Nocera's charge that Teddy unfairly maligned Judge Robert Bork, & this was the cause of the everlasting breakdown of commity in the Senate. Actually, Weigel points out, Teddy's critique of Bork's theory of law was right on. CW: half the time, Nocera has no idea what he's talking about. The other half of the time, he's telling you how great his super-rich business acquaintances are. Weirdly, he recently described himself as a liberal. No. Joe Nocera is not a liberal. In my comment on this particular wrong column, I blamed Reagan for nominating Bork, not Democrats for excoriating Bork's legal theses. Other commenters also call out Nocera's ridiculous claim.

Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "If the Supreme Court decides to review President Barack Obama’s health reform law, it will also have to choose which issues it wants to hear — and that decision could have a significant impact on the law’s final fate." Haberkorn provides a handy overview of each of the six cases the Court could hear. ...

... AND Part-Timers Don't Count. Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "The news came as a shock: Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, would not offer health benefits to new part-time employees.... Only 16 percent of employers offer health insurance to part-timers.... The health-care law that Congress passed last year is unlikely to change that. While part-time workers will have access to new, subsidized coverage on the individual market, the Obama administration’s signature legislative achievement provides little incentive for employers to cover workers who are not full-time staff." CW: in other words, the ACA is another incentive for employers to classify more workers as part-timers -- as if they didn't do this enough already to avoid providing benefits & decent wages.

New York Times Editors: Last week California "unveiled the country’s first comprehensive, statewide cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.... Beginning in 2013, the program places a steadily declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions from 600 power plants, refineries and other sources that produce most of the state’s emissions.... California provides proof that bold action on a large scale is still possible even though Washington remains sadly gridlocked."

... Prof. Joel Cohen, in a New York Times op-ed, on the exploding world population. The article is chockful of scary statistics. "... we need to measure our growth in prosperity: not by the sheer number of people who inhabit the earth, and not by flawed measurements like G.D.P., but by how well we satisfy basic human needs; by how well we foster dignity, creativity, community and cooperation; by how well we care for our biological and physical environment, our only home." ...

... Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "As the global population reaches the 7-billion mark..., ecological distortions are becoming more pronounced and widespread. Sometimes local needs are depleting water, fish and forests; other times food and fuel needs in one region of the world are transforming ecosystems in another. Under either scenario, however, expanding human demands are placing pressure on resources, particularly on world water supply and fisheries."

Right Wing World *

Mitch McConnell: it's wrong to make millionaires pay for programs that benefit firefighter, teachers & construction workers, even though the overwhelming majority of Americans think they should:

     ... Steve Benen decodes McConnell's thesis: First, he shifts the discussion to small businesses, but "the number of businesses affected is ridiculously small, making McConnell’s claim patently dishonest.... The GOP line doesn’t address the underlying problem because, as McConnell explained yesterday, Republicans don’t care about the underlying problem. What matters is the integrity of conservative ideology, not keeping teachers and cops on the job."

E. J. Dionne: "Republicans have boxed themselves into ... the idea that government can do any good. Thus they have confined themselves to endless fiddling with the tax code. Almost everything conservatives suggest these days is built around the single idea that if only government took less money away from the wealthy, all our problems would magically disappear.... 'Tax the poor' is a lousy political slogan. That’s why Cain’s 9-9-9 plan and Perry’s flat tax are doomed to fail." ...

... AND Richard Oppel & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "As several leading Republican presidential candidates embrace a flat tax as a core campaign position, one contender stands out in not doing so: Mitt Romney, who has a long record of criticizing such plans and famously derided Steve Forbes’s 1996 proposal as a 'tax cut for fat cats.' Lately, though, his tone has been more positive. 'I love a flat tax,' he said in August." CW: I love it when Mitt finds something else to reverse himself on. For every policy, Mitt has at least two positions, usually three: the old one, the new one and the newest one. ...

... CW: If you want to know all the gory details of Mitt's great success at Bain Capital (and if making money is your definition of success, it was a great success), Bejamin Wallace-Wells of New York Magazine has 'em. My eyes glazed over by page 4.

* Where 75 percent of the 99 percent are unfair to millionaires.

News Ledes

President Obama spoke at campaign events in Los Angeles, California, this evening. AP: "President Barack Obama waded into the domain of the stars Monday as he hit the California fundraising circuit in one of his busiest donor outreach trips of the season."

President Obama met with homeowners at a private residence, then made remarks about the housing situation. See video above. The AP story is here. The transcript is here:

President Obama spoke at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, this afternoon. Bloomberg News: "President Barack Obama raised campaign cash in one of the states hardest hit by the recession, telling about 300 supporters in Las Vegas that he has kept his promises even as his agenda remains unfinished."

Salon: "Around 4 a.m. Sunday morning, a bottle of Gatorade containing an explosive chemical concoction was hurled into Occupy Maine’s home base in Portland’s Lincoln Park — causing a small but dangerous explosion. No one was injured, and the Portland police are actively investigating the incident." Portland Press Herald story here.

Guardian: "Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, has announced that the whistleblowing website is suspending publishing operations in order to focus on fighting a financial blockade and raise new funds. Assange, speaking at a press conference in London on Monday, said a banking blockade had destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks' revenues. He added that the blockade posed an existential threat to WikiLeaks and if it was not lifted by the new year the organisation would be 'simply not able to continue'."

New York Times: "With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: 'We can’t wait' for lawmakers to act.... Mr. Obama will kick off his new offensive in Las Vegas, ground zero of the housing bust, by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages...." ...

... AP: "Fewer U.S. companies expect to hire new workers in coming months, as business economists grow increasingly pessimistic about the overall economy's growth in the coming year. Nearly 85 percent of economic experts surveyed expect the economy to grow at a meager 2 percent or less over the next 12 months, according to the National Association for Business Economists. In July only 23 percent of the survey's respondents predicted such slow growth."

New York Times: "Millions of Tunisians cast votes on Sunday for an assembly to draft a constitution and shape a new government, in a burst of pride and hope that after inspiring uprisings across the Arab world, their small country could now lead the way to democracy.... Results are expected to be tallied within days."

AP: "The U.S. has pulled its ambassador out of Syria over security concerns, blaming President Bashar Assad's government for the threats. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that Ambassador Robert Ford returned to Washington this weekend after 'credible threats against his personal safety.'"

Reuters: "U.S. and North Korean negotiators began a two-day meeting in Geneva on Monday, the second such encounter since six-party talks on nuclear disarmament collapsed more than two years ago. The session, which follows talks in New York in late July, is aimed more at managing tensions on the divided Korean peninsula than resuming stalled regional talks on ending the North's nuclear programs."

Al Jazeera: "Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has swept to a landslide re-election in Argentina's presidential election, winning more than 50 per cent of the vote with most ballots counted. Kirchner, a centre-leftist who succeeded her late husband as president in 2007, had claimed 53 per cent of votes with 75 per cent of results returned, with her main rival, socialist candidate Hermes Binner, trailing far behind on 17 per cent."

AP: "Afghan and NATO coalition forces killed or captured about 200 insurgents in eastern Afghanistan during two operations targeting the lethal Haqqani network, which has links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, the U.S.-led coalition said Monday." ...

... Guardian: "The US reacted with dismay on Sunday after the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, said that he would side with Pakistan in the event of any war with America.... The remark, which went further than other Karzai outbursts critical of the US, was viewed negatively not only in the US but in Afghanistan where opponents accused him of hypocrisy given Kabul's difficult relationship with Pakistan."

Reuters: "Deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim was shown in video footage broadcast on Sunday smoking, nursing wounds and making dismissive remarks to his captors, apparently shortly before his death last week."

The Commentariat -- October 23

Prof. Alexander Stille in a New York Times op-ed: "... one dispossessed group after another — blacks, women, Hispanics and gays — has been gradually accepted in the United States, granted equal rights and brought into the mainstream. At the same time, in economic terms, the United States has gone from being a comparatively egalitarian society to one of the most unequal democracies in the world. The two shifts are each huge and hugely important: one shows a steady march toward democratic inclusion, the other toward a tolerance of economic stratification that would have been unthinkable a generation ago."

Gretchen Morgenson & Louise Story of the New York Times: "While American financial institutions have sought to limit any damage by reducing their loans and thus lowering their direct exposure to Europe’s problems, the recent rescue of the Belgian-French bank Dexia shows that there are indirect exposures that are less known and understood — and potentially worrisome." ...

... Good luck figuring out this dizzying New York Times graph demonstrating the interconnections between U.S. and European banks.

Contrary to earlier indications, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports Occupy Wall Street and welcomes protesters from around the world:

I've never brought a whiff of my political activities into the work I've done for NPR World of Opera. What is NPR afraid I'll do — insert a seditious comment into a synopsis of Madame Butterfly? ... This sudden concern with my political activities is also surprising in light of the fact that Mara Liaason reports on politics for NPR yet appears as a commentator on FoxTV, Scott Simon hosts an NPR news show yet writes political op-eds for national newspapers, Cokie Roberts reports on politics for NPR yet accepts large speaking fees from businesses. -- Lisa Simeone ...

... Andrew Jones of Raw Story: "National Public Radio (NPR) has continued its decision to remove itself from anything associated with Lisa Simeone after her participation in an anti-war protest in Washington. The network will no longer distribute 'World of Opera,' a show Simeone hosts.... WDAV, the station that produces 'World of Opera,' refused to drop the radio music personality and will distribute the show on its own starting November 11th. Earlier in the week, Simeone was fired from the radio documentary program 'Soundprint,'" which is independently produced by airs on some 35 NPR affiliates.

Jeffrey Fleishman & Alexandra Sandels of the Los Angeles Times: Tunisia, which "inspired revolution across the Arab world, is facing another bellwether moment that may again foreshadow what happens throughout the Mideast in the intensifying battle between secularists and Islamists over the role of religion in shaping public life." See also today's Ledes.

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "For decades, Germany’s role in Europe has been to supply the cash, not the leadership. With fresh memories of war, the continent was cautious about German domination — and so were the Germans themselves. But the economic crisis has shaken Europe’s postwar model, and Germany increasingly calls the shots. As countries struggle to pay their debts, only Chancellor Angela Merkel has enough money to haul them out of trouble. And the price Merkel is demanding — more control over how they run their economies — is setting off alarm bells in capitals across the continent."

Right Wing World

Still a Cold Fish. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Ever since he stepped onto the national stage, [Mitt] Romney has been criticized as being unable to connect with voters — partly because of past positions out of step with many in his party and partly because of what some say is a wooden, detached personality.... When voters exposed themselves emotionally, Romney offered little empathy. When they sought his support for their causes, Romney didn’t show them that he cared. Romney was scripted when he could have been spontaneous. He was boardroom cool when he could have been living room warm."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "On the campaign trail, [Herman Cain] talks up his business experience, casting himself as a 'problem solver' and Washington outsider. But the role that helped propel Mr. Cain into politics was that of an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist. From 1996, when he left the pizza company, until 1999, Mr. Cain ran the National Restaurant Association, a once-sleepy trade group that he transformed into a lobbying powerhouse. He allied himself closely with cigarette makers fighting restaurant smoking bans, spoke out against lowering blood-alcohol limits as a way to prevent drunken driving, fought an increase in the minimum wage and opposed a patients’ bill of rights — all in keeping with the interests of the industry he represented." ...

... Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: in an effort to blunt widespread criticism of his 999 tax plan, Herman Cain made a speech in Detroit, Michigan, on Friday in which he "offered new details on his tax plan that he says would reduce taxes both for people who are poor and businesses that invest in low-income areas like Detroit.... But ... millions of Americans would still likely face a tax increase under Cain’s proposals." ...

... Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: Among those new details is a description of the "opportunity zones" Cain envisions: "for a jurisdiction to qualify, it would have to adopt a number of conservative policies that may seem unpalatable to liberals, including eliminating the minimum wage, instituting school vouchers, and declaring the area 'right-to-work' – or non-union." So if you want a job in Detroit, don't expect to get paid a big fat minimum wage or be allowed to join a union. BTW, "Two days after admitting that this facet of his plan was secret, Cain now claims that those criticizing his plan 'didn’t read it.'” Well, no, they didn't read what wasn't there. CW: in this short post Garofalo manages to expose Herman Cain as one nasty human being.

"Birthers Eat Their Own." Dana Milbank: "The people who brought you the Barack Obama birth-certificate hullabaloo now have a new target: Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a man often speculated to be the next Republican vice presidential nominee. While they’re at it, they also have Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana and perhaps a future presidential candidate, in their sights. Each man, the birthers say, is ineligible to be president because he runs afoul of the constitutional requirement that a president must be a 'natural born citizen' of the United States. Rubio’s parents were Cuban nationals at the time of his birth, and Jindal’s parents were citizens of India.... This suggests they were going after Obama..., not because of the president’s political party [but] ... because of his race.... [They rely] on a rather expansive interpretation of 'natural born.'” ...

... Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post: "Following an article in the Washington Post stating that the senator had embellished the story of his family’s arrival from Cuba to the United States, Sen. Marco Rubio’s Senate Web site biography has now been changed.... But as of Friday night, the day the Post story was published and about 24 hours after he conceded it was inaccurate, the senator updated the second sentence of his Web site biography to clarify that his parents arrived in the U.S. in 1956."

Pat Garofalo: In the speech House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) chose not to give when he realized the University of Pennsylvania would allow poor people to attend, he would have said, "Be nicer to rich people." Garofalo has the details. CW: evidently Leader Cantor doesn't actually want to tell us peasants we should be nicer to poor people; he just wanted to reassure a toney crowd that he would continue to be nice to rich people.

News Ledes

Star-Ledger: the Justice Department has closed a five-year-old corruption probe of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) brought by then-U.S. attorney (now New Jersey governor) Chris Christie during the height of Sen. Menendez' 2006 re-election fight.

Bloomberg News: "Bobby Jindal, a Republican who championed stronger ethics laws in his first term as Louisiana governor, won re-election against nine other candidates in an open primary, according to the Associated Press. Jindal earned 65.8 percent of the vote in yesterday’s ballot, negating the need for a November general election, according to the AP, which declared him the winner. Tara Hollis, a Democrat and schoolteacher making her first bid for public office, came in second with 17.9 percent of the vote, with 100 percent of precincts reporting." Times-Picayune story here.

New York Times: "The leader of the transitional government declared to thousands of revelers in a sunlit square here on Sunday that Libya’s revolution had ended, setting the country on the path to elections, and he vowed that the new government would be based on Islamic tenets."

New York Post: "Filth-ridden Zuccotti Park is a breeding ground for bacterial infection loaded with potential health-code violations that pose a major risk to the public, an expert who inspected the area warned. 'It’s like Walmart for rats,' Wayne Yon, an expert on city health regulations, said yesterday.... He noted the lack of lavatory facilities, as neighbors repeatedly complain about protesters defecating in the area and the stench of urine." ...

... Chicago Tribune: "Chicago police arrested about 130 Occupy Chicago protesters starting about 1 a.m. today after the group returned to Grant Park for the second weekend Saturday night and tried to maintain a camp in the park after its official closing time. Police estimated that the crowd that showed up for a rally earlier in the evening peaked at around 3,000 people by the time protesters arrived Congress Plaza at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway after a march from Federal Plaza in the Loop." ...

... Elsewhere around the Nation World:

     ... Washington Post: "Numerous local and federal agencies are involved in what has been described as 'sensitive and delicate' discussions about the future of the Occupy DC camp in McPherson Square downtown, but as of now the protest will be able to continue, Park Service officials and police said Saturday. With the number of tents in the park growing and with protesters vowing to stay into winter, officials with the National Park Service, Park Police, District mayor’s office, U.S. Attorney’s office, D.C. Attorney General’s office, District police department and Interior Department have been in constant contact about the situation." ...

     ... AP: "Police say 11 Occupy Cincinnati protesters were arrested early Sunday after refusing to leave a downtown square." ...

     ... ABC News: "A crowd of 100 protesters, some from New York City’s Occupy Wall Street movement and others from Occupy New Haven, came together in a show of solidarity on Saturday afternoon on General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt’s front lawn in New Canaan, Conn. Many of those who came from New York were responding to an invitation posted on Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly web site that read: 'In the land of the free they tax me but not G.E!'” ...

     ... AP: "Protesters camped out in front of Oakland City Hall in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement showed no signs of going away Saturday despite warnings from city officials that they were breaking the law and should not stay there overnight." ...

     ... ** CBS Sacramento: "Most of the Occupy protests have been in large cities, but now part-time protestors are showing up in smaller cities." CW: this story & the accompanying video feature Off Times Square contributor Elizabeth Adams. I can't get the video up on Reality Chex, but I've asked the station to check their code.

     ... CBS News: "Albuquerque police subdued a 48-year-old man who lunged with a knife at a group of protesters gathered Friday evening near the University of New Mexico in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. About 100 people were in the area when Miguel Aguirre - described by police as a homeless man who also was drunk - pulled out a knife and attempted to stab several protesters. No one was injured." ...

     ... UK Telegraph: in London, the dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, who originally welcomed Occupy London protesters, has done an about-face & has asked the 250 protesters who are occupying its churchyard to leave.

CNN: "Under pressure and amid threats of candidates boycotting the state, the Nevada Republican Party pushed back the date of its caucus to February 4. The state's GOP central committee voted in overwhelming favor of the new date on Saturday."

AP: "An autopsy confirmed that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi died from a gunshot to the head, the country's chief pathologist said Sunday, just hours before Libya's new leaders were to declare liberation and a formal end to an eight-month civil war to topple the longtime ruler's regime." ...

... Washington Post: "Nearly 7,000 prisoners of war are packed into dingy, makeshift jails around Libya, where they have languished for weeks without charges and have faced abuse and even torture, according to human rights groups and interviews with the detainees. The prisoners will pose an early test of the new government’s ability to rein in powerful militias and break from the cruel legacy of Moammar Gaddafi...."

AP: "Tunisians began voting Sunday in their first truly free elections, the culmination of a popular uprising that ended decades of authoritarian rule and set off similar rebellions across the Middle East."

Reuters: "European Union leaders piled pressure on Italy on Sunday to speed up economic reforms to avoid a Greece-style meltdown as they began a crucial two-leg summit called to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis."

AP: "Saudi Arabia’s ruling monarchy moved into a critical period of realignment Saturday after the death of the heir to the throne opened the way for a new crown prince: most likely a tough-talking interior minister who has led crackdowns on Islamic militants but also has shown favor to ultraconservative traditions such as keeping the ban on women voting ... Sultan’s half brother, Prince Nayef."