The Commentariat -- September 11

Maureen Dowd writes what we've all been saying: "When the president stays insulated with his little circle that doesn’t know how to push his messages, and he lets the nihilist Republicans go unchallenged in their crazy claims to be saving the country they’re hurting, he sets the stage for Rick Perry. It’s still impossible to sum up what Obama’s presidency is about right now, except saving his own job." ...

... I've posted a comments page on Dowd's column on Off Times Square. Write on this or something else.

Paul Krugman: "What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons."

President Bill Clinton on the heroes of Shanksville Flight 93. CW: try not to tear up:

     ... President Bush's speech is here. Vice President Biden's speech is here. ...

... Peter Kaplan of New York Magazine on New Yorkers, before and after 9/11.

Alexander Cockburn of Nation of Change: "You can find America's future in blueprints minted in business-funded think tanks 30 to 40 years ago at the dawn of the neo-liberal age: destruction of organized labor, attrition of the social safety net, erosion of government regulation and a war on the poor that will be fought without mercy at every level. Last year, the New York police stopped and questioned 601,055 people — predominantly blacks and Hispanics — and those numbers were up 13 percent for the first six months of this year.... Whoever the Republican presidential candidate may be, they face in Obama an opponent who agrees with at least half of what they say. In 40 years, I've not seen a gloomier political landscape."

Alexander Bolton of The Hill: Economists say President Obama's jobs plan could help the economy; Wall Street was unimpressed. ...

... Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "The dismal state of the economy is the main reason many companies are reluctant to hire workers, and few executives are saying that President Obama’s jobs plan — while welcome — will change their minds any time soon." ...

... Frank Rich and Adam Moss of New York Magazine assess President Obama's jobs speech. ...

... George Packer of the New Yorker: the night Obama faced off against the nihilists. ...

... Rick Hertzberg: "... Lincoln didn't have to deal with so many of the sort of people of the type we would today call 'Republicans.'”

Gory Videogame Producers Get Bog Tax Breaks. David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "Those tax incentives — a collection of deductions, write-offs and credits mostly devised for other industries in other eras — now make video game production one of the most highly subsidized businesses in the United States.... Video game developers receive such a rich assortment of incentives that even oil companies have questioned why the government should subsidize such a mature and profitable industry."

Right Wing World

Andy Borowitz: "The Department of Homeland Security said today that it was studying several 'credible threats' made to the United States government in a two-hour broadcast Wednesday night from a location believed to be the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.... In reviewing the two-hour tape, Homeland Security officials said they found threats to some of the most essential functions of the US government, from Social Security to the Federal Reserve.... But the most terrifying moment in the tape came when [one] speaker received thunderous applause from the audience after threatening to execute people." For reference, see the Commentariat of September 8 and 9; thanks to reader Bonnie for the link. ...

... That was funny. This is not -- and as unbelievable as it seems, it's true. Judd Legum of Think Progress: on the eve of the September 11 anniversary, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that in order to offset the costs of Hurricane Irene emergency relief, Republicans have written a bill that, as Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) explains: "slashes funding for grants to equip and train first responders by 40 percent. This is on top of the 19 percent cut in FY 2011. The House defense appropriations bill provides $12.8 billion to train and equip troops and police in Afghanistan — yet the House provides only $2 billion for first responders here at home." CW: No, they have no shame.

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: The wingnut blogosphere went nuts because PBS "edited" a transcript of President Obama's jobs speech -- yeah, they dild when the White House sent them an "as-delivered" update. AND PBS "edited" the speech to remove an embarrassing Obama "gaffe" about Abraham Lincoln 's founding of the GOP -- a remark which was not only accurate, it's a fact that Republicans have long embraced. Johnson writes, "The multi-level idiocy of this latest wingnut freakout is impressive. Not only did PBS have a perfectly good reason for changing their transcript, the wingnuts are completely wrong about Lincoln, too."

News Ledes

Al Jazeera: "The Taliban government in Afghanistan offered to present Osama bin Laden for a trial long before the attacks of September 11, 2001, but the US government showed no interest, according to a senior aide to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar. Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, Taliban’s last foreign minister, told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview that his government had made several proposals to the United States to present the al-Qaeda leader, considered the mastermind of the 2001 attacks, for trial for his involvement in plots targeting US facilities during the 1990s."

U.K. Telegraph: "A group of Muslim protesters set fire to an American flag outside the US embassy in London during a minute's silence to mark the moment that the first hijacked airliner hit the World Trade Center 10 years ago." With video.

NBC has a nice panoramic image of the September 11 Memorial in New York City.

See the Live Feeds above & the President's Calendar below for the public appearances of President Obama First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Biden & Dr. Jill Biden today.

The New York Times' September 11 memorials story is here. I expect it will be updated throughout the day. ...

... Here's a New York Times liveblog. ...

... New York Times: "Amid all the dignitaries who gather Sunday on the site of the World Trade Center to pay tribute to those who died there 10 years ago, two will inevitably stand out: President Obama and former President George W. Bush, whose terms in office are bookends for considering how America has changed since Sept. 11, 2001, particularly in its response to terrorism."

... The Washington Post story is here.

AP: "A decade after 9/11, the day that changed so much for so many people, the world's leaders and citizens paused to reflect Sunday. But there were also those — including a former Malaysian prime minister — who reiterated old claims that the U.S. government itself was behind the attacks."

Washington Post: "Two Afghans were killed and nearly 80 NATO soldiers were wounded after a truck packed with explosives hidden under firewood rammed into the entrance of a military base in eastern Afghanistan, military officials said Sunday. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack. In a statement on the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the militant group said Afghans became the biggest victims of response to the attacks."

New York Times: "Cliff Robertson, the ruggedly handsome actor who won an Oscar for 'Charly' but found himself frozen out of jobs for almost four years after he exposed a prominent Hollywood studio boss as a forger and embezzler, died Saturday on Long Island. He was 88 and lived in Water Mill, N.Y."

The Commentariat -- September 10

In his weekly address, President Obama marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks:

... The transcript is here. ...

... The New York Times has a special report on the decade after September 11, 2001.

Joe Nocera: "... far more than tax relief, small businesses need credit. That is what the president should be pushing for."

Charles Blow: President Obama "isn’t only battling a calcifying cynicism about the inefficacy of government in general, he’s battling the rapidly hardening public perception that he himself is a product of what I call the doughnut doctrine of leadership — soft, glazy, hollow in the middle and ideally suited for getting dunked."

President Obama discussed the American Jobs Act yesterday in Richmond, Virginia -- CW: and he held me up in traffic on I-95 South for 45 minutes:

Right Wing World

"The Execution Cheer." Peter Capatano of the New York Times has a rundown of opinions regarding Rick Perry's record as the Execution Governor, and the big cheers that went up among the audience in the Republican debate this week when Perry defended his record and "Texas Justice." ...

... The most important link Capatano makes is to Marie Diamond's Think Progress post. Diamond debunks Perry's contention that the Texas judicial system is always fair:

... during Perry’s tenure as governor, DNA evidence has exonerated at least 41 people convicted in Texas, Scott Horton writes in Harper’s. According to the Innocence Project, 'more people have been freed through DNA testing in Texas than in any other state in the country, and these exonerations have revealed deep flaws in the state’s criminal justice system.' Some 85 percent of wrongful convictions in Texas, or 35 of the 41 cases, are due to mistaken eyewitness identifications.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Egypt’s ruling military council announced a security crackdown Saturday, saying it would make full use of the country’s emergency law to ensure safety a day after an attack by protesters on the Israeli Embassy prompted Israel to withdraw its diplomats. The crisis exposed the fragility of the Egyptian government’s control of the streets as well as Israel’s vulnerability in a region reshaped by protests since winter."

New York Times: "Bells tolled 40 times here Saturday afternoon as the names were read — those of the 40 passengers and crew who died 10 years ago after terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 and, with passengers in rebellion, slammed it into a field in southwestern Pennsylvania." 

... The Hill: "In emotional speeches, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton paid tribute to the 40 passengers and crew who were killed when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., on September 11, 2001." See President Clinton's speech in the September 11 Commentariat. ...

Washington Post: "Israel airlifted its ambassador home and sought U.S. intervention with Egypt to help secure its embassy here early Saturday, hours after thousands of Egyptian protesters besieged the building, with several managing to gain entry and fling Hebrew-language documents from a balcony. Protesters knocked down a 12-foot concrete wall that had been built last week to protect the embassy, which is near the top floor of a 21-story residential building in the upscale Dokki area. At least two protesters scaled the front of the building to pull down the Israeli flag, hanging from the 20th floor. It was the second time in recent weeks that demonstrators had removed the flag." ...

... New York Times: "Israel evacuated most of its embassy staff [in Cairo, Egypt] at dawn Saturday after six members had been trapped in the embassy for hours by a mob of protesters who attacked and invaded its offices overnight. The attack was the second time in a month that an angry mob stormed the Cairo embassy and tore down its flag. Coming a week after Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador over its refusal to apologize for a deadly raid on a Turkish ship, it left Israel was facing crises in relations with its two most important regional allies, with ambassadors in neither country."

AP: "Al-Qaida may have sent American terrorists or men carrying U.S. travel documents to launch an attack on Washington or New York to coincide with memorials marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, government officials say. One U.S. official says al-Qaida dispatched three men, at least two of whom could be U.S. citizens, to detonate a car bomb in one of the cities."

AP: "A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion — all the way down to the core."

AP: "Japan's new trade minister resigned Saturday over a remark seen as insensitive to nuclear evacuees, dealing a blow to a government that took office just eight days ago in the hopes it could better tackle the daunting tsunami recovery."

The Commentariat -- September 9

I've posted a comments page on Paul Krugman's column on today's Off Times Square. Karen Garcia & I have commented.

"You should pass it right away." President Obama speaks about jobs legislation to a joint session of Congress:

... Here's the prepared text of President Obama's speech. ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Faced with a stalling economy, a hostile Congress and a disenchanted public, President Obama challenged lawmakers in a blunt address Thursday evening to enact a sweeping package of tax cuts and new spending designed to revive the stagnant job market.... Though Mr. Obama’s proposals were widely expected — an extension and expansion of the cut in payroll taxes; new spending on schools and public works projects; and an overhaul of unemployment insurance — the overall package was considerably larger than expected, with an estimated $447 billion in stimulus money." ...

... Ezra Klein has a brief overview of what's in the "American Jobs Act," the proposed bill President Obama is sending to Congress.

... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The centerpiece of President Obama’s job-creation plan, a proposal to further reduce Social Security taxes, is emblematic of a package of modest measures that some economists describe as helpful but not sufficient to lift the economy from its malaise."

"The Peasants Are Revolting." (CW: I'm seeing a double entendre there.) Paul Krugman, in a blogpost: "I don’t want to wax all sentimental about the genius of the common man. But the fact is that both the origins of this crisis and its perpetuation overwhelmingly reflect the errors of the very people now lamenting the annoyances of democracy that keep them from imposing their preferred policies." ...

... As if determined to prove themselves stupid & Krugman right, Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post reports, "More than two dozen senators (CW: the usual suspects) from both parties met privately this week to revive hopes of a grand debt-cutting bargain — exploring how to push the newly formed debt “supercommittee” to find far more than its assigned goal of $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions.... [President] Obama, too, is expected to press the [deficit reduction super-]committee to exceed its deficit-reduction goal. In his speech Thursday night, he called on Congress to increase the super­committee’s deficit-cutting goals to cover the costs of his jobs plan."

When Idiots Collide. John Amato of Crooks & Liars: Rick Santelli, Teabagger Hero, and Tom Friedman, Nobody's Hero, get into a tiff, & Santelli call each other "idiotic." "This," writes Amato, "is what you get when you put two Villagers together on one screen":

Right Wing World

The bloodthirsty crowd at the Republic debate cheers when NBC News's Brian Williams asks Rick Perry about Texas's record number of executions that have taken place during his tenure as governor:

Steve Benen: "The governor balks when presented with evidence on evolution, abstinence education, and climate change, but embraces without question the notion that everyone he’s killed in Texas was 100% guilty. The scientific process, he apparently believes, is unreliable, while the state criminal justice system is infallible. Intellectually, morally, and politically, this isn’t just wrong; it’s scary. The fact that Republicans in the audience found this worthy of hearty applause points to a party that’s bankrupt in more ways than one." ...

... Marcy Wheeler: "Brian Williams, who otherwise did a decent job as moderator, failed miserably here. How do you ask this question and not mention Cameron Todd Willingham? Not only did Governor Perry deny Willingham’s appeal for clemency even though an expert arson investigator had rebutted all the solid evidence in the case, Perry fired investigators who were about to provide Willingham’s innocence." ...

... Pro-Life Death Orgy. Glenn Greenwald: "That this death-cheering comes from a party that relentlessly touts itself as 'pro-life' and derides the other as The Party of Death -- and loves to condemn Islam (in contrast to its war-loving self) as a death-glorifying cult -- only adds a layer of dark irony."

Julie Rovner of NPR: wingers oppose federal funding of contraceptive: too expensive, frivolous, an affront to God, etc."