The Commentariat -- August 27

In his weekly address, President Obama pays tribute to the first responders who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks:

     ... The transcript is here. ...

     ... Reuters: "President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to recall the spirit that united the country after the September 11 attacks and take part in a national day of service to mark the anniversary next month."

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square today. Karen Garcia & I have added comments.

I said to him, "Do not look at what is possible — look at what is necessary. If you only propose what you think they’ll accept, they control the agenda.” I urged him to propose what was necessary to solve the problem . . . and if he doesn’t and he falls into the nibbling around the edge, I think history will judge him and I think working people will judge him. We’re going in the wrong direction. There has to be some hope that we’re going to turn it around. That means there have to be some bold solutions and some risk taking. You need leadership with a sharp cutting edge to say, "This is what I stand for, this is what they stand for. ” Give them the narrative about why it will work, [rather than] more of the same of, "we’re muddling along."  -- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking about a recent meeting he had with President Obama  ...

... Citing a Pew "monster public opinion survey," Jonathan Chait of The New Republic writes, "People always want leaders to compromise. It's amazing that a plurality wants Obama to confront the GOP more strongly. Want to see something even more amazing? You're seeing non-trivial numbers of Republicans say that Obama should stand up to the Republicans." The Pew survey report is here.

New York Times Editor (CW: don't know which one!): "The real value in [Fed Chair Ben] Bernanke’s speech is that he explained what really ails the economy — and made the case for a better fiscal response to address those ills. 'Good, proactive housing policies' would speed recovery, he said, as would 'putting people back to work.'" The editor suggests ways to do that. ...

     ...  Here's the text of Bernanke's speech, provided by the Federal Reserve.

... Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post: Can the Fed increase inflation? And if he can, would that really spur economic growth? Reputable economists disagree. ...

... Paul Krugman: "... for what seems to me the first time [Bernanke] has more or less acknowledged that we are not, in any real sense, experiencing a recovery."

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) in a New York Times op-ed: "Despite decades of progress, this year’s Republican-backed wave of voting restrictions has demonstrated that the fundamental right to vote is still subject to partisan manipulation. The most common new requirement, that citizens obtain and display unexpired government-issued photo identification before entering the voting booth, was advanced in 35 states and passed by Republican legislatures in ... [12] states — despite the fact that as many as 25 percent of African-Americans lack acceptable identification.... They are poll taxes by another name."

Charles Blow highlights a litany of Stupid Republican Policies: "Now is when we need government to step up and be smart. This is exactly the wrong time to do what the Republicans would have us do."

Lawrence Wright of the New Yorker: "In its cynical decision to censor the memoir of former F.B.I. Special Agent Ali Soufan, the C.I.A. is seeking to punish a critic and to obscure history. The punitive nature of the savaging of Soufan’s book is ... an attempt to delete Soufan’s heroic and entirely humane interrogations of major Al Qaeda figures." In this brief post, Wright goes on to make the stunning but supportable charge that "The likelihood is that 9/11 could have been prevented if the C.I.A. had done what it was legally required to do; that is, to inform the bureau that terrorists were on American soil."

Tom Friedman knockoff columnist Joe Nocera tells us of his personal relationship with Steve Jobs (just the way Friedman always boasts about his friendships with the rich and famous) and explains "What Makes Steve Jobs Great" (just the way Friedman always touts the brilliance of his fancy personal acquaintances).

Ben Geman of The Hill: "Al Gore on Friday bashed the notion that climate scientists are manipulating data for financial gain, a charge levied by global warming skeptics, including GOP White House hopeful Rick Perry. 'This is an organized effort to attack the reputation of the scientific community as a whole, to attack their integrity, and to slander them with the lie that they are making up the science in order to make money,' Gore said...." CW: You can watch the interview here. It runs an hour; the sound doesn't kick in till about 50 seconds in.

Andy Borowitz: "As Hurricane Irene prepared to batter the East Coast of the United States, federal disaster officials warned that Internet outages caused by the storm could force people to interact with other people for the first time in years. News of the possible interpersonal interactions created panic up and down the coast as residents braced themselves for the horror of awkward silences and unwanted eye contact."

Can you believe this? I’m the President of the whole fucking United States!-- President-Select George W. Bush, Christmas 2000

Right Wing World

CW: in yesterday's Commentariat, I wrote that Marco Rubio might have delivered the very first flat-out admission that Republican Tea Party policy is to take the U.S. all the way back to the Gilded Age. Well, maybe not. There's this from November 2010:

... And there's this, post-Rubio. As Hurricane Irene was about to take a swipe at perhaps 55 million Americans who live up and down the East Coast, Ron Paul says we don't need FEMA. Instead, "We should be like 1900":

     ... Steve Benen: "And to think, Ron Paul struggles to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.... On the list of things Americans can and should expect from the federal government, 'disaster relief' should be one of the few responsibilities that the left and right can endorse enthusiastically. It’s something people can’t do for themselves; it’s something states can’t afford to do; and struggling communities can’t wait for the invisible hand of the free market to lift them up." ...

... AND this from Benen on the GOP's new disaster aid policy: "Whereas Congress used to provide emergency funds after a disaster, without regard for budget caps or offsets, Republicans have said they will no longer accept such an approach — if Democrats want emergency assistance in the wake of a natural disaster, Republicans will insist on attaching some strings to the relief funds.... As [House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor’s spokesperson put it, GOP leaders expect 'additional funds for federal disaster relief' to be 'offset with spending cuts.' ... In the event of extensive damage [from Hurricane Irene], there’s a real possibility that the first question from congressional Republicans won’t be, 'How can we help?' but rather, 'What will Democrats give us in exchange for disaster aid?'”

Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal: Rick Perry completely abandons his libertarian moment in which he said that he was okay with New York's gay marriage law:

You know what? That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business if you live in some other state or particularly if you’re the federal government.

     "On Friday, Mr. Perry, who has long opposed gay marriage ... signed the National Organization of Marriage’s anti-gay-marriage pledge.... Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) also signed the pledge."

Texas Taxes. Jay Root of the Texas Tribune, via the New York Times: "... at home, over a political career that reaches back to ... the 1980s, [Texas Gov. Rick] Perry has embraced billions of dollars worth of [taxes] — including a $528 million tax increase approved in 1990, after he defected to the Republican Party. The biggest tax increases came early in his career.... But a few weeks ago, Mr. Perry also signed into law an online sales tax measure that the state says will raise $60 million over the next five years. Grover Norquist’s influential organization, Americans for Tax Reform, calls the measure a dreaded 'new tax.' Mr. Perry opposed it as a stand-alone measure, but this summer it was tucked into a must-pass bill during a legislative session that otherwise saw deep budget cuts. The past votes and more recent tax legislation are sure to get a new look from opponents as Mr. Perry ... promotes his tax-cuttin’, budget-slashin’ ways as an antidote to the ailing economy and a president he attacks as recklessly profligate." CW: the sales tax, of course, is a regressive tax as the poor pay more sales tax as a percent-of-income than do the affluent.

Moderate conservative Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: "The [Republican presidential] race of the moment concerns which candidate is the truest believer.... If you’re Romney, Perry is a nightmare that’s still there in the morning. If you’re Barack Obama, maybe not so much? ... We are yet again debating evolutionary theory and Earth’s origins — and ... candidates now have to declare where they stand on established science. "

News Ledes

President Obama chairs an emergency meetings on Hurricane Irene at FEMA HQ in Washington, D.C.:

     ... C-SPAN has an 8-minute video on the meeting here.

AFP: "US President Barack Obama warned the US east coast was in for a 'long 72 hours' as he led his government's response to Hurricane Irene at a disaster command center in Washington. Obama on Saturday chaired a meeting at the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) set up at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) headquarters in Washington, which is marshaling federal and local hurricane-relief efforts."

AP: "Weaker but still menacing, Hurricane Irene knocked out power and piers in North Carolina, clobbered Virginia with wind and churned up the coast Saturday to confront cities more accustomed to snowstorms than tropical storms. New York City emptied its streets and subways and waited with an eerie quiet."

Raleigh (North Carolina) News & Observer: "The center of Hurricane Irene made landfall in North Carolina early this morning. The National Hurricane Center said the enormous Category 1 storm came ashore just after 7:30 a.m. Sustained winds were about 90 mph. It was moving at 14 mph, lumbering to the north-northeast. The end of the pier at Atlantic Beach in Carteret County has collapsed into heavy surf. Sustained winds of 80 mph are being felt on parts of the Crystal Coast." ...

... New York Times: "The eye wall of Hurricane Irene, now a category one storm, is within a couple of hours of making landfall in eastern North Carolina, the first stop in the mainland United States for a storm that is expected to scrape up the East Coast and bring flooding rains to a dozen states." CW Note: this story will likely be updated regularly throughout the day. Washington Post story here." ...

... The Washington Post's liveblog is here.

... Weather Channel: "Punishing rain bands [caused by Hurricane Irene] are lashing the Carolinas, southeast Virginia and the southern Delmarva Peninsual. The center of Irene is nearing Cape Lookout, North Carolina."

Washington Post: "Evidence emerged Friday that Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s retreating forces executed scores or even hundreds of political prisoners this week, even as victorious rebel fighters appear to have carried out their own abuses. Survivors of an attack by pro-Gaddafi troops said they had watched as fellow prisoners were mowed down by machine-gun fire, minutes after being told they were free. But Gaddafi loyalists were also targets of apparent extrajudicial killings. Those deaths have cast a dark shadow over Libya’s newfound freedom and call into question whether the rebels will break with Gaddafi’s blood-soaked style of governance or merely mimic it."

AP: "U.S. District Judge Larry Burns described Jared Lee Loughner's behavior to explain his refusal to overrule prison doctors who decided to resume forced medication July 18. The drugging, he said, 'seems entirely appropriate and reasonable to me.' Loughner's attorneys argued unsuccessfully that a court should review whether the forcible medications could resume."