The Commentariat -- February 21
New York Times map.The New York Times has a brief rundown of unrest around the Middle East (& China) with links to related stories here. ...
... Walter Pincus of the Washington Post highlights WikiLeaks cables that demonstrate the close relationship between the U.S. & Bahrain, especially with ties to Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C.
... Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "For , a kingdom on the western edge of North Africa, the calls for change sweeping the region are muted by a fear of chaos, a prevalent security apparatus and genuine respect for the king, Mohammed VI. Since he took the throne in 1999, the king, who is only 47, has done much to soften the harsh and often brutal rule of his father, Hassan II."
Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "The Obama Administration has entered into direct, secret talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders...."
Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Across the nation, cities and states are trying myriad ways of righting their fiscal ships as the recession plods on. But locking the mayor out of City Hall is generally not one of them." A state-appointed receiver took control of Central Falls, Rhode Island last July. State police went to Mayor Charles D. Moreau's home, " demanded his city-owned car and cellphone and keys to City Hall and handed him a letter announcing his salary of $71,736 was being cut to $26,000. His role was now advisory," they told him.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has recalculated the cost estimate of HR-2, the bill the House passed to repeal the Affordable Care Law:
CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting H.R. 2 would cause a net increase in federal budget deficits of $210 billion over the 2012-2021 period. By comparison, last March CBO and JCT estimated that enacting PPACA and the health-related provisions of the Reconciliation Act would reduce federal deficits by $124 billion over the 2010-2019 period.... Under H.R. 2, about 33 million fewer nonelderly people would have health insurance in 2021....
... CW: please, somebody, tell that to so-called fiscally-conservative Republican Teabaggers.
If they come into the house of labor and try to burn it down, we've got to come in and put the fire out. If it does fall, we'll help rebuild it.
-- Mahlon Mitchell, President of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin. His union is exempt from the union-busting bill, but he stands with the protesters
Adam Nagourney & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "... in the view of officials from both major political parties, Republicans may be risking the same kind of electoral backlash Democrats suffered after they were perceived as overreaching. Public surveys suggest that most voters do not share the Republicans’ fervor for the deep cuts adopted by the House, or for drastically slashing the power of public-sector unions. And independent voters have historically been averse to displays of political partisanship that have been played out over the last week." ...
BUT E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post observes, "... Tea Party partisans can claim victory in fundamentally altering the country's dialogue." ...
... Only a body dominated by millionaires could define 'shared sacrifice' as telling nurses' aides and coal miners they have to work until age 69 while sharply cutting tax rates on wealthy people. -- E. J. Dionne, on the bipartisan Senate effort to resurrect the Catfood Commission
Map by Talking Points Memo.... Krugman commenter Jeremy (#3) of Chicago reports on the ranking of ACT/SAT scores for the five states where collective bargaining is illegal: "South Carolina, 50th; North Carolina, 49th; Georgia, 48th; Texas, 47th; Virginia, 44th. Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is 2nd." CW: if you think that's a coincidence, you're a candidate for a dunce cap.
E. S. Browning of the Wall Street Journal: "The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases. The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement.... Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most 401(k) participants appear to have insufficient savings.... The financial crisis has made things worse."
If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, or you might put off a vacation. -- President Barack Obama, on the deficit. His own family is not "trying to cut back":
Michelle & Sasha Obama in Vail, Colorado, this weekend. Vail Daily photo.
Vail, Colorado, where the Obama family is staying in the Sebastian Hotel. Rooms, according to the Daily Mail, cost up to $2,400 a night.
Right Wing World
Sean Cockerham & Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News: "A leaked manuscript by one of Sarah Palin's closest aides from her time as governor charges that Palin broke state election law in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned. The unpublished book by Frank Bailey was leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday. The manuscript opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying 'I hate this damn job' shortly before she resigned as Alaska's governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four-year term."
Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: as white people in Montgomery, Alabama commemorate the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy, some passing fifth-graders describe the celebratory parade as "messed up." CW: the kids got that right.
News Ledes
New York Times: "President of , who has been in power for more than 20 years and faces international charges of genocide, will not run for office again after his current term ends in four years, a Sudanese government spokesman said Monday."
... Al Jazeera: "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has appeared on state television to signal his defiance in the face of a mounting revolt against his 41-year rule." ...
... Washington Post: "Senior Libyan officials and diplomats resigned in outrage over the attacks against civilians, while soldiers fled their units and joined the opposition. Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, accused Gaddafi of killing his own people and urged the international community to act against the regime." ...
... ** New York Times: "Members of ’s mission to the renounced Col. on Monday, calling him a genocidal war criminal responsible for mass shootings of demonstrators protesting against his four decades in power. They called upon him to resign." ...
... AP: "Deep cracks opened in Moammar Gadhafi's regime Monday, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown on protest in the capital of Tripoli. World leaders were outraged at the 'vicious forms of repression' used against the demonstrators." ...
... New York Times: "The faltering government of the Libyan strongman Col. struck back at mounting protests against his 40-year rule, as security forces and militiamen backed by helicopters and warplanes besieged parts of the capital Monday... By Monday night, witnesses said, the streets of the capital, Tripoli, were thick with special forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi as well as mercenaries. They shot freely as planes dropped what witnesses described as 'small bombs' and helicopters fired on protesters." ...
... Washington Post: "... the Libyan government's grip on Benghazi, the second-largest city, appeared to be slipping. Security forces there opened fire on mourners attending funeral marches for 84 protesters killed the day before, their harshest response yet to the recent round of demonstrations. They also swiftly clamped down on smaller uprisings that spread to the outskirts of the capital, Tripoli, where protesters seized military bases and weapons.... Protests also broke out Sunday in Morocco and Tunisia..., while authorities in Iran and Bahrain continued to confront calls for reform." ...
... AP Update: "Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. Moammar Gadhafi's son vowed that his father and security forces would fight 'until the last bullet.'" ...
... Human Rights Watch: "The estimated death toll from four days of protests in cities across Libya has risen to at least 233 according to information from hospital sources in Libya...."
... New York Times: "President , looking shaken at a news conference here on Monday, said he would not give in to the demands of protesters who have sought his ouster during 10 days of sustained demonstrations around ." ...
... Guardian: British Prime Minister "David Cameron has flown into Cairo amid tight security, becoming the first world leader to visit Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president in the revolution 10 days ago." ...
... AP: "Some of the young activists who launched the Egyptian uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak say they are skeptical about the military's pledges to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
... New York Times: "The head of a Tunisian government commission on political reform warned on Monday that the country risked falling into 'anarchy' as it passed through what he described as a very dangerous post-revolutionary transition toward multi-party democracy." ...
... Washington Post: "Thousands of Iranian security forces dispersed anti-government demonstrators who tried to gather Sunday in Tehran's main squares to commemorate the deaths of two men killed during a protest Monday, witnesses reported." ...
AP: Hopes for compromise in Wisconsin rest with Republican state legislators, as Gov. Scott Walker refuses to budge from his anti-labor position. ...
... Wall Street Journal: "... a group of moderate Republican senators [may try to] negotiate a compromise to the stalemate" in Wisconsin. A "proposal, written by [Republican] Sen. Dale Schultz ... calls for most collective bargaining rights of public employee unions to be eliminated – per Mr. Walker's bill – but then reinstated in 2013...." ...
... Huffington Post: Wisconsin's Democratic state senators "are ready to stick it out in Rockford, Ill. until Walker agrees to negotiate. 'We'll be here until Gov. Walker decides that he wants to talk,' said state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D).... He added that so far, the governor refuses to meet with them or even return the phone calls from members of the Democratic caucus." ...
... Here's the Madison, Wisconsin State Journal story on the protests. ...
...AP Update: "Walker said at a news conference ... on Monday afternoon that he won't accept any compromises."
Guardian: Raymond Davis, "the American who shot dead two men in Lahore, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and the US, is a CIA agent who was on assignment at the time.... Pakistani authorities charged him with murder, but the Obama administration has insisted he is an 'administrative and technical official' attached to its Lahore consulate and has diplomatic immunity." ...
... The New York Times picked up the story today, with this caveat: "The New York Times had agreed to temporarily withhold information about Mr. Davis’s ties to the agency at the request of the Obama administration, which argued that disclosure of his specific job would put his life at risk."
New York Daily News: "More than half the members of the Texas House are listed as co-authors of a bill that would allow concealed weapons on the campuses of state universities there in a bid to protect students from mass shootings...."
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