The Commentariat -- April 30

I've posted an Open Thread for Saturday on Off Times Square.

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... AP Related: "President Barack Obama declared Saturday that oil companies are profiting from rising gasoline prices and urged Congress once again to end $4 billion a year in oil and gas company tax breaks." ...

... John Broder of the New York Times: "Both parties are planning legislative maneuvers this week to try to caricature their opponents as either in the pockets of the oil companies or hostile to domestic energy production."

Charles Blow: "... the right, with a new boost of energy from [Donald] Trump, is reaching for new frontiers. The language and methodology are different, but the goal is the same: to deny, invalidate and subjugate, to distract from real issues with false divisions. Trump is helping the right shape new weapons from old hatreds, forming shivs from shackles, all the while patting himself on the back and promoting his brand. But his point of pride is the right’s mark of shame." ...

     ... Update: the moderators nixed my comment on Blow -- which I thought was a pretty good one -- but you can read it on Off Times Square. Update of the Update: my comment on Blow is at #56.

Gail Collins remarks on state legislatures that can't take care of important matters -- like accepting federal grants for unemployment insurance aid -- but they're doing a great job at selecting state guns & vegetables.

Joe Nocera remarks that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting will not be all fun and games this year in the wake of the scandal and resulting resignation of his one-time heir-apparent David Sokol. ...

... Here's a related Los Angeles Times story by Walter Hamilton.

The White House Correspondents' Dinner is tonight. Dana Milbank doesn't think much of it: "The correspondents’ association dinner was a minor annoyance for years, when it was a 'nerd prom' for journalists and a few minor celebrities. But, as with so much else in this town, the event has spun out of control. Now, awash in lobbyist and corporate money, it is another display of Washington’s excesses."

Brad Johnson of Think Progress: "Dr. Kevin Trenberth, one of the world’s top climate scientists, who has been exploring for years how greenhouse pollution influences extreme weather, said he believes that it is 'irresponsible not to mention climate change' in the context of these extreme tornadoes."

This story has been around for a couple of days, & I've been ignoring it, but now that it's made the front page of the New York Times, here it is: "A group including former White House officials, union leaders and one of Hollywood’s biggest producers have joined forces to start an outside effort to help President Obama and Congressional Democrats in 2012 by using the very sort of anonymous, unlimited donations from moneyed interests that the president has so deplored. Co-founded by the former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton and with seed money from the Service Employees International Union and the film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, the group’s entrée into the early 2012 contest all but ensures that the presidential race will be awash in cash from undisclosed corporate and labor sources with huge stakes in Washington policy making."

You know, it doesn’t really matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass. -- Donald Trump, to an Esquire writer in 1991

** Donald Trump Is a Wink-Wink Racist, but He's a Forthright Sexist. Anna Holmes in a Washington Post op-ed, cites numerous instances of Trump's crassly sexist remarks & actions. His sexist remarks "spotlight Trump’s particular brand of boorishness.... Women should be sexy, but not sexual..., a willingness to relinquish autonomy over one’s fertility is both an asset and a job requirement; and female worth is quantified not by character or accomplishment but by hip-to-waist ratio. These ideas about women have explicitly political implications as well, echoing the ideology at the core of the antiabortion movement’s recently heightened assault on women’s reproductive rights... The message is clear: Women can’t be trusted to define, or control, their own bodies, so it’s up to men to do it for them." Trump recent joined the anit-choice bandwagon, even as he demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge of Roe v. Wade.

Jon Cohn of The New Republic had a great series this week on what is wrong with the Republican House/Ryan bill. I linked the first one on food stamps earlier this week, but dropped the ball on the posts that followed:

     (2) "Raising the age at which Americans become eligible for Medicare, or whatever program Republicans put in its place, would make health insurance more expensive for businesses, workers, and their employees, all while leaving one-fifth of future 65- and 66-year-olds with too little insurance or none at all." ...

     (3) "Eliminating key provisions of Dodd-Frank.... Take it away, as the Republican budget would, and costly bailouts become more likely, not less. In that sense, I guess, this really is about government spending after all." ...

     (4) "According to Adam Hersh and Sarah Ayres of the Center for American Progress, the end result of the Republican budget would be a 53 percent reduction in per capita spending on education and training, a 28 percent reduction in scientifically oriented research and development, and a 37 percent reduction in transportation infrastructure." ...

     (5) It doesn't reduce the deficit. Krugman references this "feature" in his Flim-Flam Man post, linked below under Right Wing World, & I've linked Cohn's post there, too.

Right Wing World *

Paul Ryan, Flim-Flam Man. Paul Krugman: "Jon Cohn points out that the real question about the Ryan plan isn’t whether it reduces the deficit in the right way; it’s whether it reduces the deficit at all.... The truth is that this is almost surely a deficit-increasing plan, not a deficit-reducing plan. Meanwhile, Jon Chait looks at Ryan being interviewed about his plan and sees “a stream of misleading and outright false claims”.... I don’t know when if ever the Beltway crowd will admit it, but they were, indeed, flim flammed; the man they decided was an upright, honest deficit hawk is in fact an evasive, dissembling guy who wants to use the deficit, not end it." ...

... Here are the articles by Cohn and Chait:

     ... Jonathan Cohn: "... the tax cuts in the House Republican budget would very nearly offset the spending cuts, leaving a modest $155 billion in additional savings over ten years." ...

     ... Jonathan Chait: "Paul Ryan, in an interview with CBS News, offers up the latest incarnation of his budget spin. Ryan is a very smooth front man, and has skillfully employed carefully crafted language worked out by a team of pollsters, but -- being in the position of defending wildly unpopular priorities -- he is offering up a stream of misleading and outright false claims." Chait has the video, which I can't embed because it gets screwed up every time I make a change to the page. Chait goes on to debunk all of Ryan's central claims. ...

... Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes. Jordan Fabian of The Hill: "Contrary to some of the angry scenes at certain of his town-hall meetings, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Friday that the crowds are 'overwhelmingly supportive' of his budget plan. Ryan claims that his constituents know him well and appreciate that he is trying to reduce the nation's debt and deficits with his 2012 budget plan, which is strongly opposed by Democrats."

You have to ask, 'Why are you taking care of Alabama and other states?' I know our [aid request] letter didn't get lost in the mail. -- Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas)

Jed Lewison of the Daily Kos: "So hundreds die in storms throughout the South and Rick Perry's response is to question why those states are getting federal aid instead of Texas? Funny how he doesn't mention that Texas has already gotten at least $39 million in firefighting aid from FEMA over the past two fire seasons and has already received 22 grants in this fire season alone." Odd talk, coming from "Mr. Secession himself."

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

President Obama spoke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner this evening. New York Times: "Many of President Obama’s friends and foes alike got shellacked — as expected — on Saturday night when Mr. Obama took to the stage at the gussied-up White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton. But none so much as Mr. Trump, reality television star, birther and Republican presidential aspirant. As a hair-gelled, grimly unsmiling Mr. Trump sat at a nearby table — a guest of the Washington Post — Mr. Obama ripped one punch after another at the real estate tycoon." Video under May 1 Commentariat.

Al Jazeera: "Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, the youngest son of the Libyan leader, and three of his grandchildren have been killed in a NATO air strike, a Libyan government spokesman said. Gaddafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of his 29-year-old son, Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, when it was hit by at least one missile fired by a NATO warplane late on Saturday, according to Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim." New York Times story here.

Washington Post: "Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) announced Friday that he plans to sign legislation that would prevent Planned Parenthood in the state from receiving Medicaid funds. When he does, Indiana will be the first state to take that step." CW: this is an excellent way to raise the number of unwanted pregnancies in that population of parents who are least able economically & socially to rear a child. Fucking brilliant, Mitch! You just added unfortunate, unwanted children to your welfare rolls. (I try not to comment on news stories, but sometimes I just can't help it.)

New York Times: "Soldiers fired on protesters carrying olive branches and seeking to break the military’s siege of a rebellious town in Syria on Friday, killing at least 16 people, as thousands took to the streets in what organizers proclaimed a “Friday of Rage” against the government’s crackdown on a six-week uprising, witnesses and activists said." ...

... Reuters: "The United States slapped sanctions on Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of President Bashar al-Assad on Friday in Washington's first concrete steps in response to a bloody crackdown on protests. Assad, Syria's long-serving ruler, was not among those targeted under an order signed by President Barack Obama but could be named soon if violence by government forces against democracy protesters continued, a senior U.S. official said."

Most People Want a King & Queen *

If you're a real glutton for punishment, here's the entire wedding ceremony. It runs 71 minutes (these videos look fairly good in full-screen mode):

Here's the Guardian's royal wedding page.

The two-second balcony kiss:

The carriage ride from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace:

A high point was the singing of "Jerusalem," England's unofficial anthem. Rick Hertzberg has the story & the lyrics. Here's another rendition:

The Washington Post has a liveblog with video of all the high spots. Here are the actual nuptials:

Kate Middleton arrives at Westminster Abbey:

The bridegroom wore red.  What a floozy. -- Karen Garcia

Prince William arrives:

The Prince of Wales & Duchess of Cornwall arrive:

* According to Ross Douthat.

The Commentariat -- April 29

President Obama delivered the commencement address at Miami Dade College this evening:

... President Obama delivered the commencement address at Miami Dade College this evening. Miami Herald Update: "Pledging his support for immigration reform — and describing the American ideal as a place “where you can make it if you try” — President Barack Obama delivered Miami Dade College’s commencement address Friday night to a standing-room-only-crowd of more than 5,000." Here are the President's full remarks on immigration reform.

Law Prof. Randall Kennedy in The New Republic: "Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer should soon retire. That would be the responsible thing for them to do. Both have served with distinction on the Supreme Court for a substantial period of time; Ginsburg for almost 18 years, Breyer for 17. Both are unlikely to be able to outlast a two-term Republican presidential administration, should one supersede the Obama administration following the 2012 election."

Bill Barnhart, in The Atlantic, reports on a brief but substantive interview of former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Law Prof. Dale Carpenter writes a New York Times op-ed on the history of American law and gay rights, beginning in 1961 when not even the ACLU would defend astronomer Frank Karmedy, who lost his federal job solely because he was gay.

Ben Bernanke's Big Bust. Paul Krugman: "The only way to make sense of Mr. Bernanke’s aversion to further action is to say that he’s deathly afraid of overshooting the inflation target, while being far less worried about undershooting — even though doing too little means condemning millions of Americans to the nightmare of long-term unemployment.... My interpretation is that Mr.Bernanke is allowing himself to be bullied by the inflationistas: the people who keep seeing runaway inflation just around the corner and are undeterred by the fact that they keep on being wrong.... I’d say that the Fed’s policy is to do nothing about unemployment because Ron Paul is now the chairman of the House subcommittee on monetary policy." Here's the word cloud from Bernanke's press which Krugman refers to in his column:

     ... The comments pages on Krugman and Brooks are open on Off Times Square. Since Brooks is duller than dirt today, feel free to use his page for any political subject you'd like. I've posted my comments on both Krugman & Brooks. ...

     ... Update: a couple of great comments on Brooks' column which you won't see in the New York Times as it appears the moderators have rejected them. Akhilleus does a fine job of contrasting Brooks' fawning treatment of fantasy Republican numbers and his skepticism about real Democratic data. The comments are a lot better than the column. ...

     ... Update 2: Winnie Regressivita has commented on Krugman. She is so astute! Be sure to recommend her comment at #141.

Jonathan Chait of The New Republic: for Washington elites, "the economic crisis is over," so -- tough luck, America; we've got deals to make & parties to attend.

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: the public isn't moved by discussions of fiscal policy, no matter how eloquent. "There's probably nobody better than Barack Obama at winning a debate that somebody else started, but eventually letting your opponents define the debate will catch up with you. It won't be easy, but over the course of the next few months, President Obama and his political team are going to need to come up with a strategy to go on offense and retake control of the debate." ...

... Ron Brownstein of the National Journal agrees with Lewison: "The continued strain on the groups at the core of Obama’s coalition underscores the practical stakes in his recent turn toward deficit reduction....Many liberal strategists fear that Obama could win this battle and lose the war in 2012. These critics argue that the tactical benefits of embracing greater deficit reduction come at a high cost: By agreeing that Washington must tighten its belt, the president has essentially precluded additional large-scale government efforts to stimulate growth and create jobs."

Digby, in response to a new Washington Post poll that shows 81 percent of respondents now say the deficit is a major problem: "now that the entire village has convinced everyone that the deficit is going to kill us all in our beds, when it fails to correct the economic malaise, people will lose faith in government even more! It's a twofer! How long will it take to unwind this one? I'm not sure. But it could take a very long time. And the damage it's going to create is immeasurable.

Ruth Simon of the Wall Street Journal: "Under orders from U.S. regulators, 14 financial institutions have until mid-June to lay out plans to clean up their mortgage-servicing operations — and another 60 days to make the changes. It will be a daunting, expensive chore despite the work done since the foreclosure mess erupted last fall. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said it would take a $1.1 billion charge related to the consent order and other servicing-cost increases."

Brian Stelter of the New York Times: "Lara Logan thought she was going to die in Tahrir Square when she was sexually assaulted by a mob on the night that Hosni Mubarak’s government fell in Cairo. Ms. Logan, a CBS News correspondent, was in the square preparing a report for “60 Minutes” on Feb. 11 when the celebratory mood suddenly turned threatening. She was ripped away from her producer and bodyguard by a group of men who tore at her clothes and groped and beat her body.... She estimated that the attack involved 200 to 300 men."

Mark Sherman of the AP: this year none of the Supremes is planning to retire.

Trump's Popularity Is Nothing to Laugh about. The New Republic Editors: "What Trump actually stands for is an exaggerated sense of victimhood.... His foreign policy views in essence consist of a pledge to bully other nations.... Trump’s thinly veiled accusation that President Obama benefited from affirmative action when he applied to college derives from the same theme. This time the victims aren’t Americans as a whole, they are white Americans; but the message—of anger, resentment, and victimhood—is identical.... Donald Trump has appointed himself spokesman for some of the nastiest impulses in American politics, and he seems to have a following."

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "What happened yesterday — from the release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate to Trump’s taunts about the president’s academic achievement — should show everyone that we do not live in a post-racial America. Not when even the White House can’t be a refuge from racism. And not when someone who proclaims to have 'a great relationship with the blacks' gleefully proves every day that that’s a lie." ...

... Justin Elliott of Salon has been plumbing the history books lately. Today he reprises an old episode of Donald Trump's problem with "the blacks." It was a big problem. In the early 1970s, "his New York real estate company was sued by the federal government for discriminating against potential black renters. After a lengthy legal battle, it ultimately agreed to wide-ranging steps to offer rentals to nonwhites.... In 1978, the government filed a motion for supplemental relief, charging that the Trump company had not complied with the 1975 agreement." ...

... AND Karen Garcia wants to know why the Washington Post hasn't disinvited racist Birther-in-Chief Donald Trump from being their guest at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Right Wing World *

... It's hard to recall a political figure who says so many things that are concretely checkably, false; the press is mostly keeping up. -- Ben Smith of Politico, referring to Donald Trump

I only regret I had but five deferments to get out of serving my country, none of which is worth mentioning. The Smoking Gun: "Despite Donald Trump’s claim this week that he avoided serving in the Vietnam War solely due to a high draft number, Selective Service records show that the purported presidential aspirant actually received a series of student deferments while in college and then topped those off with a medical deferment after graduation that helped spare him from fighting for his country, The Smoking Gun has learned. With documents. CW: read the whole story. Imagine a presidential contendah lying about his serial draft-dodging!

We’re saying: Save Medicare by reforming it for people who are 54 and below by working like a system just like members of Congress and federal employees have. -- Rep. Paul Ryan ...

... Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler calls this a key Republican applause line that for a number of reasons is simply not true.

"Watch the 2012 'Fiscal Conservatives' Do the Ethanol Dance." Michael Scherer of Time: "The CBO reports that this [federal corn] subsidy bills taxpayers about $1.78 for every gallon of gasoline that is replaced by ethanol. What’s more, the evidence is clear ... that 'Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous.'[Michael Grunwald, Time] And yet, candidates have been going to Iowa to sing the praises of ethanol for decades. As 2012 approaches, self-styled fiscally conservative candidates, who want to cut the waste and fat out of the federal budget, have once again begun to justify a $1.78 per gallon federal taxpayer subsidy.”

If You Didn't Vote for Me, I Don't Represent You. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) comes home to a rowdy townhall meeting. "When Ms. Devane [a constituent] said Mr. Grimm was supposed to be representing her, he added: 'You wouldn’t vote for me, and I know that. I respect that. So don’t pretend you voted for me. You didn’t.'” Grimm also was flabbergasted at the idea that George W. Bush had anything to do with the deficit:

I want the press to document this. The reason that the Democratic House, the Democratic Senate and the president, who’s a Democrat, and his name was President Barack Obama, not President George Bush, they didn’t pass a budget or pass any plan to stop our debt crisis because of George Bush? It was because of George Bush?”

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

Orlando Sentinel: "A last-minute technical issue forced NASA officials to scrub the launch of space shuttle Endeavour at about noon on Friday, a move certain to disappoint President Obama, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and hundreds of thousands of spectators who flooded to the Space Coast. The next launch opportunity will be 2:34 p.m. on Monday." ...

     ... Politico: "The scrub, announced while the president was in Alabama..., didn’t stop [President] Obama from bringing his family to tour the facility. He met with the astronauts, and Endeavour Commander Mark Kelly thanked him for coming. In a more private moment, Obama visited Kelly’s wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)...." CW: this story, BTW, is a good example of how to make what should be a straight news story into an anti-Obama "report."

President & Mrs. Obama will view some of the storm damage in Alabama, meet with Gov. Bentley, other state & local officials & families affected by the storm, beginning at 11:10 am ET. NBC News story here. Washington Post story here. ...

... The New York Times has coverage of the storms here, with links to multimedia pages. ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "President Obama walked through a tornado-ravaged neighborhood in Tuscaloosa on Friday and promised 'maximum federal help' to the survivors of a series of deadly twisters that carved paths of destruction and claimed nearly 300 lives in six Southern states. 'I’ve never seen devastation like this,' Obama said as he toured the Alberta section of the city with first lady Michelle Obama and gazed at crumpled houses, uprooted trees and destroyed cars. 'It is heart-breaking.'” ...

     ... White House Update: here are remarks by the President, made in Alberta, Alabama, released by the White House.

President Obama meets with participants in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike at 8:00 am ET.

AP: "The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday replaced three top managers in the nation’s air traffic control system following embarrassing incidents of controllers sleeping on the job and making potentially dangerous mistakes."

AP: "Opponents of taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research lost a key round in a federal appeals court Friday. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the U.S. court of appeals in Washington overturned a judge’s order that would have blocked federal financing of stem cell research. The judges ruled that opponents are not likely to succeed in their lawsuit to stop the government funding."

Washington Post: "The death toll soared to near 300 Thursday as rescuers dug through rubble from Mississippi to Virginia in the nation’s deadliest natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina."

The Hill: "As the country's largest oil companies report near-record profits, the office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) rejected on Thursday Democratic calls to consider legislation eliminating billions of dollars in tax breaks for the same corporations."

McClatchy News: "Amazon all but told South Carolina goodbye Wednesday after the online retailer lost a legislative showdown on a sales tax collection exemption it wants to open a distribution center that would bring 1,249 jobs to the Midlands. Company officials immediately halted plans to equip and staff the one million-square-foot building under construction at I-77 and 12th Street near Cayce."