The Commentariat -- August 16, 2012
My latest column in the New York Times eXaminer is on Ross Douthat's post touting Paul Ryan. The NYTX front page is here.
David Plotz of Slate: in a new book, Michael Grunwald of Time argues that the Obama stimulus "has been an astonishing, and unrecognized, success." Plotz interviews Grunwald.
Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) has an excellent piece in Salon ripping Tim Geithner.
New York Times Editors: the Pennsylvania voter ID "lawsuit was an opportunity to sweep away barriers to full citizenship. Judge [Robert] Simpson should have placed his court on record supporting the country's first principles." He didn't.
Azam Ahmed & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "A criminal investigation into the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global and the disappearance of about $1 billion in customer money is now heading into its final stage without charges expected against any top executives."
Presidential Race
Flim-Flam Man Flip-Flop-Flip-Flop-Flips. Benjy Sarlin of TPM: Paul Ryan, in his ongoing evolution from active supporter to newfound critic of the Affordable Care Act's $716 billion in Medicare savings, now claims he actually opposed the cuts before he embraced them (and then turned against them again later).... The confusing new wrinkle is the latest example of Ryan's awkward contortions as he tries to reconcile the Romney campaign's new promise to restore the $716 billion in cuts with Ryan's previous decision to include the same exact cuts in two Republican budgets he wrote.... So the score now stands at: Ryan says he wouldn't have cut Medicare. Then Obama made those cuts. Then Ryan voted to reverse them. Then he decided to bring them back in the Republican budget. Now he opposes them and thinks they hurt seniors." Got that? There will be a test.
Greg Sargent: "In a remarkable bit of political theater, Mitt Romney carefully divulged a bit more information about his tax returns, confirming for the first time that for the past 10 years, he has paid at least 13 percent in taxes.... The problem with this response, of course, is that it only gives Dems another hook to call for the release of his returns, by challenging him to prove his claim.... Jay Rosen has dubbed the Romney effort the 'post truth campaign.' It’s also the post transparency campaign. If it works -- and it very well could work -- think of the precedent it will set." With video. ...
... Dan Amira of New York: "All it means is that his tax rate is not the thing that Romney is terrified of showing to the American public."
Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security. I flat guarantee you. -- Vice President Joe Biden, on Tuesday
Thanks to contributor MAG for calling this to our attention:
Paul Tough has a long piece in the New York Times Magazine titled "Obama & Poverty" that examines how President Obama has dealt with the issue of poverty & looks back at his work as a community organizer. CW: haven't read it yet.
** Dana Milbank: "Forgive me, but I'm not prepared to join this walk down Great Umbrage Street just yet. Yes, it’s ugly out there. But is this worse than four years ago, when Obama was accused by the GOP vice presidential nominee of 'palling around with terrorists'? Or eight years ago, when Democratic nominee John Kerry was accused of falsifying his Vietnam War record? What's different this time is that the Democrats are employing the same harsh tactics that have been used against them for so long, with so much success. They have ceased their traditional response of assuming the fetal position when attacked, and Obama's campaign is giving as good as it gets -- and then some." CW: couldn't agree more. I gagged when I read Dan Balz's stupid piece last night; I purposely didn't link it, but here it is. The gist: it's so wrong to pick on Mitt. (See also Krugman's piece on "demagoguery" below.)
Scott Shane of the New York Times: "... a group of former special operations and C.I.A. officers started a campaign Tuesday night accusing Mr. Obama of recklessly leaking information about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and other security matters to gain political advantage. The new group, called the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, using shorthand for 'operational security,' describes itself as nonpartisan, but some of its leaders have been involved in Republican campaigns and groups. A 22-minute video ... featured on its Web site appears to be aimed squarely at the president, echoing charges made previously by Mitt Romney and other Republicans. The Obama campaign immediately compared the effort to the so-called Swift Boat advertisements against Senator John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign."
Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: Mitt Romney claimed on Wednesday, "'Look, no one is talking about deregulating Wall Street.' Actually, Mr. Romney has made deregulation of Wall Street and 'every street' a central component of his campaign. On the regulation page of his website -- a misnomer; it's really the deregulation page -- Mr. Romney says that 'regulations function as a hidden tax on Americans' and pledges to 'tear down the vast edifice of regulations the Obama administration has imposed on the economy' by: Repealing the Affordable Care Act, repealing Dodd-Frank, amending Sarbanes-Oxley and providing multi-year lead times before companies must come into compliance with new environmental rules.'"
Paul Krugman writes an excellent post summarizing the Ryan budget plan(s). It's what you need to know.
"The Truth Has a Well-Known Demagogic Bias." Also from Krugman: what's wrong with the conventional Beltway "wisdom"? It assumes -- and asserts -- that GOP plans can't possibly be as bad as they are.
Charles Blow: "... by hammering Romney on his strength, the Obama campaign forced him to make a disastrous choice for a running mate. According to a Gallup report issued on Monday, the response to the Ryan pick 'is among the least positive reactions to a vice presidential choice Gallup has recorded in recent elections.' Score one for Team Obama."
Angie Holan of PolitiFact: "While the [Obama] health care law reduces the amount of future spending growth in Medicare, the law doesn't actually cut Medicare. Savings come from reducing money that goes to private insurers who provide Medicare Advantage programs, among other things. The money wasn't 'robbed.' We rated the statement Mostly False." There's more detail here. ...
... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic also has a simple explanation of a somewhat complex Mediscare flim-flam: "Obama takes money away from the health care industry and uses it to help people pay their medical bills. Some of those people include seniors already getting help with their drug bills and free preventative care. Ryan and, by implication, Romney takes the same money from the health care industry. But they also take away those new benefits for seniors, even as they find room in their tight budgets to cut taxes for the wealthy." ...
... Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "... Mitt Romney's new promise to restore the Medicare cuts made by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law could backfire if he's elected.... By repealing [the cuts] Romney would move the insolvency date of the [Medicare] program closer, toward the end of what would be his first term in office.... Obama's cuts were not directly aimed at Medicare's 48 million beneficiaries; instead they affect hospitals, insurers, nursing homes, drug companies and other service providers. Simply undoing the cuts ... would cause Medicare to spend money faster."
... Here's another guy explaining the differences. He's pretty good at it:
... Gail Collins, as usual, isn't very serious. But she gets at one important point: "Ryan's passion for health care cost-cutting is actually not directed at Medicare so much as Medicaid. The seniors who could really take a hit would be the ones in nursing homes who've already run through their own savings." CW: for some reason (Ayn Rand), that guy really has it in for poor people.
Halimah Abdullah of CNN: Speaking to Brit Hume of Fox "News," Paul Ryan goes all wobbly & fuzzy on budget figures.
Tim Egan: "... the true Romney is a phantom -- lost long ago to reinventions and calculations."
What She Said. We have been very transparent to what's legally required of us. There's going to be no more tax releases given. It will only give them more ammunition. There's nothing we're hiding. -- Ann Romney
What She Meant. The lawyers tell us nobody can make us release our returns, so I told Mitt he's releasing those returns over my dead body. The travesties in those returns would bury Mitt. We're not hiding anything -- we're hiding everything. It's our turn, for Pete's sake. -- Ann Romney
There's nothing we're hiding. We just don't want Obama to see our returns because there's plenty of ammunition in them to bury Mitt. (Or something like that.) -- Ann Romney
Here's our next Treasury Secretary Erskine Bowles praising Paul Ryan:
... Eric Pfeiffer of Yahoo! News: "A video of former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles began circulating in conservative news outlets today. In the clip, the Democratic co-chair of President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform gives high praises to Paul Ryan's budget plan.... The video was shot on September 8, 2011, but was just uploaded to YouTube yesterday. What's striking is that not only does Bowles, a former U.S. Senate candidate from North Carolina, praise Ryan's effort, but he is also highly critical of the budget offered by President Obama." ...
... CW: I am apoplectic over the idea Obama might nominate this guy -- or someone like him -- for Treasury Secretary. I hope this video at least pisses off Obama enough that Bowles is out. Anybody who praises Ryan's arithmetic prowess & calls his budget "sensible, straightforward, honest, serious" is a full-blown idiot who probably can't balance a checkbook, much less a federal budget.
Andy Borowitz found a leaked memo from Romney to Ryan.
Congressional Races
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Jolted by concerns over the wave of Medicare-themed Democratic attacks sparked by Paul Ryan's vice presidential nomination, House Speaker John Boehner held a Tuesday evening conference call aimed at soothing jittery Republican members...." ...
... Ed Kilgore of Washington Monthly: "Unless the jittery Members were among the four House Republicans (one of whom is retiring) who voted against Ryan's budget resolution earlier this year, instead of the 235 who voted for it, then it seems a little cowardly of them to complain about being 'tied' to a bill they voted for so recently. Since the bill represented pretty much the entire GOP agenda for this Congress, I can't imagine they didn't think it would come up on the campaign trail.... Boehner apparently advised them to get right on those talking points about Obama's massive cuts to Medicare, without mentioning they had voted for that, too, in the Ryan budget."
News Ledes
New York Times: "The United Nations Security Council decided on Thursday to terminate the United Nations observer mission in Syria, where the increasingly violent rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad's government has left diplomatic peacemaking efforts paralyzed. But the Council agreed to keep a much smaller United Nations office in the country, holding out hope that a political solution was still possible."
Arizona Republic: "As young undocumented immigrants on Wednesday celebrated the start of a new federal program allowing them to apply to stay and work temporarily in the United States, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer issued an executive order ... that state agencies are required to deny [driver's] licenses and other public benefits to all undocumented immigrants, even those who gain approval under President Barack Obama's new 'deferred action' program.... Earlier in the day, Maricopa County Community Colleges announced that students who get work authorization through deferred action would be eligible to apply for in-state tuition, but hours later, district officials said they would reconsider the decision because of Brewer's order." CW: I hope federal marshals come after her.
Reuters: "South African riot police opened fire on striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on Thursday, killing at least a dozen men in the deadliest episode of a week of union violence."
Bloomberg News: "The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits was little changed last week, bringing the average over the past month to the lowest level since late March, a sign the labor market has stabilized after employment picked up in July."
New York Times: "The government of Ecuador is prepared to allow Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to remain in its embassy in London indefinitely under a type of humanitarian protection, a government official said in Quito on Wednesday night. Mr. Assange has been holed up in the embassy for two months seeking asylum." ...
... Update: the story has a new lede: "Ecuador forcefully rejected British pressure to announce Thursday that it was granting political asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who has been holed up for two months in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London trying to avoid extradition to Sweden." The Guardian is liveblogging the story.
AP: "The trial for an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting has been put on hold while an appeals court considers his objections to being forcibly shaved. All court proceedings for Maj. Nidal Hasan were put on hold Wednesday. He had been scheduled to enter a plea. According to a defense motion, Hasan indicated he wanted to plead guilty for religious reasons. Hasan is an American-born Muslim."
Reuters: "The mayor of Dallas declared a state of emergency ... on Wednesday to combat the spread of West Nile virus infections.... There have been more cases of West Nile virus reported so far this year than any year since the disease was first detected in the United States in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control said on its website."
AP: "As Gen. William 'Kip' Ward traveled around the world as the head of the military's U.S. Africa Command, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in excessive hotel costs and allowed unauthorized family members to travel on his government plane, according to a Pentagon investigation. Ward ... is facing possible demotion for the alleged lavish spending.... It was not immediately clear whether Ward also could face criminal charges."
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Reader Comments (17)
Off topic, sort of:
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/15/158869947/do-voter-id-laws-prevent-fraud-or-dampen-turnout
The interview with Daryl Metcalf is nothing less than astounding, And Dave Davies: Good job!
Re: the CNN clip form Aug 15: Kudos to Soledad also for doing her job and making Sununu look like the major tool he is.
The group of partisans who made a political ad against President Obama's administration's alleged security leaks are laughable in the transparency of their motives. If they have a grievance with any issue of national security, they know there is a better way to address it than through a movie.
Just recovered from watching "Lady Chatterley", the French (gasp) 2006 take on DH Lawrence's masterpiece. It's a long film--about 2:40--but divided into two parts. Anyway, about 30 minutes into part two, Clifford, Constance's emasculated capitalist husband, launches an anti-socialist diatribe that sounds like it was written by the GOP. It made me wonder why there are no enduring works of art that, say, glorify stock brokers or real estate salesmen.
If you loved Les Miz, and you like Obama...watch this
http://www.onetermmore.com/video.html
@DaveS
I listened to the Metcalf interview on NPR this afternoon. I was appalled! The vitriolic tone of his voice was scary, and I felt he was doing his best to demonize the "democrat" party. He actually said the "democrat" party is actively engaged in voter fraud. Good grief!
@MAG thanks for the heads up of One More Term
Julie,
Republicans' use of "Democrat Party" as an insult goes back quite a ways. I'd say back to primary school playgrounds because it's a childish slur used by ignorant and immature brats incapable of disagreeing with someone in an adult manner.
If they were just a tiny bit more mature they'd have mastered far more sophisticated ripostes such as "You stink!", "I know you are but what am I?", "So's your old man" and the ever popular "Your mother wears army boots". But don't hold your breath. Speaking of that, I expect that John Sununu's next interview with Soledad O'Brien (think he'll be brave enough?) may feature that learned sophisticate threatening to hold his breath until he turns blue if she doesn't let him have his bawbaw.
Fittingly, this slur was used many, many times by that most erudite, cosmopolitan, and cultivated of fellows, George Walker Bush, which no doubt accounts for its popularity among the more polished Republican asshats like Daryl Metcalfe.
Long may they drool on their own shoes.
Not familiar with Les Miz-a musical, right? And Victor Hugo was the bane of my existence in high school French. However, I loved the video. I needed something to cheer me up after all the Paul Ryan coverage I've been seeing and reading.
The horrendous political news is adding to, if not causing, my son's mild mid-life crisis (well along with diabetes 2, which every other guy he talks to seems to have as well). Added to which is the very real possibility that he will never get health insurance, as he cannot buy any because he is a mild asthmatic--and now, diabetes. At my age I don't have much personal stake in the national mess, except through younger people. It infuriates me when Ryan says that no one my age needs to worry. Sure, we'll happily vote against our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
On "more sophisticated ripostes":
Imagine that an eminent and powerful statesman––say Vice President Cheney–-wishes to respond offensively when greeted by a senator who irritates him. Think of the glorious variety of cruelly stinging words the American language places at his disposal. Which shall he select? Poor Cheney, thrust suddenly into this very situation some years ago experienced total language failure which left him powerless to say anything but “Go fuck yourself.” A distinguished American resorting to this worn-out old relic of slum argot when a brilliant insult is called for––––this is evidence that we are losing the language skill required for the art of conversation, Once upon a time our politicians could bring artistry to the handling of language. In the 1980’s. Speaker of the House Thomas Reed could dispose of one irritating colleague by observing that “with a few more brains he could be a half-wit,” and of another by saying, “He never opens his mouth without subtracting from the sum of human intelligence.” And I remember Senator Everett Dirksen–––he of the deep, deep baritone and silver hair––foretell the death of an opponent’s bill by saying, “It will have all the impact of a gentle snowflake falling on the broad bosom of the Potomac.”
And so it goes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
R&R are determined to free the "makers" from the expense and nuisance of providing for the "takers." " Takers are that group of marginally or non produtive citizens. They include single mothers, long time unemployed, disabled, those with chronic disease, and those that are just plain too old to be anything but a burden to society. Drastic cuts to medicaid will get many "takers" out of nursing homes but what is the disposal plan for these bed ridden, bed sored old folk.
Those feckless and probably promiscious single mothers can be weaned from food stamps and money saved.
I believe orphanages are the historical solution to this problem.
I spppose the unemployed, the disabled and the unemployable will continue to clutter our parks and public libraries and business entry ways unless the R&R planners have an answer to this problem.
We must demand from R&R their plan for a final solution for the control and disposal of the "takers."
Re: flecting on yesterday's girl. Busier than a one-armed paperhanger but I did get a chance to read the comment from Lisa and like other readers thought it was great. "Pueblo" in Spanish means village or town but the word can and is used as an expression of community or the spirit of cooperation that ties a town or country together.
R&R and their supporters have decided to sever themselves from the fabric of community here in the States. They no longer see themselves as inside the circle and want to shed themselves of the responsibilities of being part of the community. Paradoxically they want to continue to enjoy the security and comforts of community and worse, they want to control the ideals, ways and means of the very society they no longer wish to support. There are probably a thousand different reasons for people like R&R to think the way they do but I believe the number one reason is greed.
By casting Obama as an outsider they seek the lowest common denominator to divide our sense of community. By wrapping themselves in the symbols of our community; flag and faith, they decoy their true intent. Because greed is a addiction they spend millions to ensnare the ignorant and weak into supporting their goal of more for them and less for others.
"You don't know what you got 'till it's gone."
PD,
I had never heard the Dirksen quote but it certainly beats the living daylights out of what passes for clever repartee in today's political circles such as Cheney's too, too clever comeback to Pat Leahy.
"Golly, Dick, you master of the language. Can I quote you on that?"
During the Lincoln Douglas debates, both men commented on The Popular Sovereignty doctrine supported by Stephen Douglas (allowing southern states to maintain slavery) which was derided by Lincoln as being "… as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death".
Quite a bit more effective than ripping Douglas for being a member of the "Democrat Party" or using Bill O'Reilly's favorite verbal tactic of "Shut up, shut up, shut up."
Those Republicans, just so adroit when it comes to language skills.
Alphonse,
Something we all need to keep front and center about both Ryan and Romney (for slightly different reasons) is the fact that neither of them care anything for you or us or anyone who cannot directly benefit them. In Ryan's case, this terminal greediness extends from his juvenile love affair with the Goddess of Greed, Ayn Rand, and his misshapen ideological attachment to a contorted form of Libertarianism which basically says "You're all on your own. Oh, except for Sad Paul. He needs help from Social Security and a lifetime of checks cashed on the public trough." His form of Libertarianism, like Rand Paul's (another Ayn Rand altar boy), gives the believer full permission (actually more than permission, it's a demand) to be a greedy pig and to step on people if they get in the way of personal needs and ambition. Does this sound a tad sociopathic? Yeah. I think so too.
In Romney's case, it's pure love of Mammon. He has no particular ideological or even faux philosophies, warped or otherwise, on which he bases his disdain for you or his lack of concern for whether you or your son live or die. You simply don't register on his radar. You have no cash value to him and therefore, do not exist. Oh, he may care about you if he thought you might vote for him, but that care would evaporate the second you exited the voting booth.
Sociopathic as well? Probably just an extreme case of egocentrism spurred by delusions of absolute superiority which presents as sociopathy.
But the outcomes extending from both forms of greed and extreme lack of compassion are similar.
Them that gots, gets. Them that don't, can die, for all they care.
One of the posters in yesterday's Times brought up the interesting fact that after Ayn Rand was diagnosed with lung cancer (she made the lifestyle choice to be a lifelong heavy smoker), she applied for Medicare and Social Security. Evidently one of the "takers".
One more comment and then I'll shut up (Okay Bill?).
I would have to agree, along with Marie, that the outrage on parade now in Right Wing World over that mean Kenyan Socialist saying nasty (though true) things about that nice Mitt Romney, is the height of unctuousness.
But the subtext of all this whining and moaning is as old the species. It's simple. Bullies are cowards. Nothing they hate more than having someone fight back against their unwarranted, mendacious, and cowardly attacks. Nothing shakes a bully more than the kid who decides he's not gonna take it anymore, who turns around and kicks him in the stomach.
Poor Mitty. Poor Brit Hume. Poor Karl Rove. All those poor little bully boys. Dishing it out is fine. Getting a taste themselves sends them weeping to Momma.
Bullies, liars, cowards.
Meet the modern GOP.
Thank you for your citation to Krugman's explanation about the R&R plan(s) and Medicare. Also for the citation to the Q&A by David Plotz of Slate of Michael Grunwald of Time about Greenwald's new book. Grunwald gets it right about the stimulus being effective and exposes the lies from the right to the contrary.
I also think that Krugman's old post about free money is worth a re-read given what Grunwald documents (the Stimulus worked.) That can be found at
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/opinion/money-for-nothing.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Positive investment in the future at a negative interest cost is just what our children and grandchildren need us to be brave enough to do right now. It's a net gain to their lives, not a burden. We should have no crumbling roads, no crumbling bridges, no outdated electrical distribution systems, no slow railroads, no uneducated children, and no "no's" to being positive about the future!!!! President Obama is the leader we need for this, not RMoney or RRyand.
Positive investment led by the Federal Government will skew the GDP curve upward more effectively than the "confidence fairy" or the "trickle down" voodoo economics we hear so much about from the right. That is how we can get a lower percentage for Federal spending as a percentage of GDP in the out years. Just take a look at what has happened to Great Britian with its austerity efforts. They are in a double-dip recession at the moment and I would wager that as a result the percentage of governmental expenditures related to Britian's GDP is soaring. Not because they are spending more because in fact they have cut, cut, cut, but rather, the entire GDP growth is tanking, if not in fact contracting. As a result, even a smaller federal government continue to spend at a rate which results in a growth in the spending's percentage of the new and lower GDP.
Krugman has been right on all of this for the last decade.
How can anyone expect the team of trust fund baby's that will be the Republican ticket to have any awareness of working or middle class America? One grew up shielded by the fortune of an auto industry executive. His adorable sidekick, Pauly grew up shielded by a road builders fortune. Economic reality, as experienced by the great mass of population in this country, has never been a part of any of their life experience. Spoiled, greedy, shallow with an unending sense of entitlement they are a disgusting team of frauds.
With a lot of women in the Army who are also mothers, "your mother wears Army shoes" loses its sting.