The Commentariat -- January 12, 2012
My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is titled, "Everybody Knows David Brooks Is Wrong." The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.
Comments are open on the Commentariat. There were only two four comments yesterday. Both All were stellar.
Elections Have Consequences. Linda Greenhouse in the New York Times: "Progressive ... have something to cheer in the resurrection of the Justice Department’s previously moribund Civil Rights Division. The decision late last month by Thomas E. Perez, the division’s head, to block South Carolina’s new voter identification law is important both symbolically and practically." See also the Scott Keyes story about James O'Keefe in today's Right Wing World.
Rich Moran of the Pew Research Center: "The Occupy Wall Street movement no longer occupies Wall Street, but the issue of class conflict has captured a growing share of the national consciousness. A new Pew Research Center survey of 2,048 adults finds that about two-thirds of the public (66%) believes there are 'very strong' or 'strong' conflicts between the rich and the poor — an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009.... The survey results ... do not necessarily signal an increase in grievances toward the wealthy.... Nor do these data suggest growing support for government measures to reduce income inequality."
Scott Shane of the New York Times: "As arguments flare in Israel and the United States about a possible military strike to set back Iran’s nuclear program, an accelerating covert campaign of assassinations, bombings, cyberattacks and defections appears intended to make that debate irrelevant, according to current and former American officials and specialists on Iran. The campaign, which experts believe is being carried out mainly by Israel, apparently claimed its latest victim on Wednesday when a bomb killed a 32-year-old nuclear scientist in Tehran’s morning rush hour."
Rana Foroohar of Time: "Warren Buffett is ready to call Republicans' tax bluff. Last fall, Senator Mitch McConnell said that if Buffett were feeling 'guilty' about paying too little in taxes, he should 'send in a check.' ... So Buffett has pledged to match 1 for 1 all such voluntary contributions made by Republican members of Congress. 'And I'll even go 3 for 1 for McConnell,' he says. That could be quite a bill if McConnell takes the challenge; after all, the Senator is worth at least $10 million. As Buffett put it to me, 'I'm not worried.'" The article has been updated to include McConnell's chickenshit response, which shows Buffett was right not to worry.
Alex Pareene of Salon has a good piece dissecting & dissing Bill Keller's column proposing Secretary Clinton as President Obama's running mate. I thought Keller made a good case; Pareene & P. D. Pepe in a Commentariat comment prove me wrong.
Tom Laskawy: "... we have an industrial meat production system — encouraged by our larger economic policies — that immiserates virtually anyone it touches. From those who work in CAFOs [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations] or slaughterhouses, to those who live near them or have seen their families torn apart by the industry in one way or another...." ...
... I Will Never Buy Another Smithfield Ham. David Bacon of The Nation on how NAFTA has impoverished Mexico, enriched Smithfield Foods, and created a host of other devastating problems.
Jordan Teicher of Business Insider: "Elizabeth Warren's campaign announced today that she has raised $5.7 million in the last quarter of 2011, far outweighing the $3.2 million raised by her opponent, Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, the Boston Globe reports. Warren's website says that 23,000 Massachusetts donors gave an average of $64 to her campaign in the last three months."
Steven Biel of MoveOn.org: "A couple months ago, a MoveOn member named Robert Applebaum started up a petition for student loan forgiveness using our new website, SignOn.org. Robert's petition spread quickly, especially after we emailed it to our list. Then, something really amazing happened. President Obama actually responded — not with a form letter, but with an actual change in policy that will lower student loan payments for over 1.6 million people." (No link.) You can start your own petition on anything you want here.
Right Wing World
... CW: Maybe some of the yahoos who watch this film and vote Republican so they can "get their freedoms back" will realize that in Right Wing World, "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose." On the upside, how nice to have a Republican president who doesn't care about black people or white people. ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... this is one of the most devilishly effective attack communications I've personally ever seen -- a heat-seeking missile aimed directly at the white working class id. Mitt saying 'A bientot' at the end.... And aside from the xenophobic flourishes, the film is really just a well-wrought glimpse at the underside of contemporary finance capitalism, with Mitt Romney serving as the chief villain.... No wonder DeMint and Limbaugh have denounced this video: they should, because it's an assault on everything they believe in." ...
... They’re vultures sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick. And then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that and they leave the skeleton. -- Gov. Rick Perry, on private equity firms like Bain Capital ...
... E. J. Dionne: "Thanks to Mitt Romney and such well-known socialist intellectuals as Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, the United States is about to have the big debate on the nature of modern capitalism that should have started back in 2008. The focus will be on whether some kinds of capitalism are bad for the system as a whole." Exit polls showed that in the New Hampshire primary, "Romney did best among voters earning more than $200,000 a year, next best with the $100,000-to-$200,000 category. He was weakest among those taking home less than $50,000 annually.... A privileged candidate sits atop a relatively privileged base."
Dan Amira of New York magazine: In an interview with Matt Lauer, Mitt Romney "gripes about income inequality reflect nothing but envy, and that such topics should only be discussed in 'quiet rooms.' What Romney is saying is, maybe we can debate income inequality and the abuses of Wall Street, if you insist on it, but it's nothing to get upset about. This is not a gaffe, really, just a particularly stark reflection of Romney's true beliefs as he's repeatedly expressed them." Includes video. ...
... "Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet." Paul Krugman: "Trickle-down economics has now become shut-your-trap economics.... Because there’s no way anyone who isn’t motivated by envy could be interested in and possibly concerned about this":
Steve Benen on the evolution of Mitt Romney's jobs-creation story: "Bain Capital and its executives weren’t in the job-creating business — its purpose was to make money for its investors, not grow businesses and create jobs. What’s wrong with wealth creation? In theory, nothing. The problem, though, is when Romney decides to describe his firm in ways that are at odds with reality."
Reid Wilson of National Journal: "Friends and allies of Newt Gingrich, alarmed at his recent attacks that seem straight out of the Democratic playbook, worry that the former House speaker may be doing his party's eventual presidential nominee serious damage -- and that he won't listen to veteran Republican strategists urging he back off.... 'We have a real problem when we have Republicans talking like Democrats against the free market,' South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Wednesday.... The conservative Club for Growth has labeled Gingrich's attack on Bain Capital 'disgusting.' The National Review, the Weekly Standard, radio host Rush Limbaugh, and other conservative media outlets offered similarly disparaging takes." ...
... BUT. Jonathan Allen & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Newt Gingrich signaled Wednesday that he believes his criticism of Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is a mistake — and that he’s created an impression that he was echoing Democratic rhetoric." CW: Aw, shucks. BUT. "Rick Tyler, a top advisor to Winning Our Future, said Gingrich’s comments on Wednesday will not prompt the group to take down the documentary, 'When Mitt Romney Came to Town,' or otherwise alter its strategy." CW: Excellent.
Dan Levin of the Daily Beast has an interesting piece on how the Chinese view the GOP presidential race. "With alarm," bu it's more complex than that.
Recess Is Not Recess, and I'll Prove It When I Get Back from Recess. Jonathan Bernstein: Rep. Diane Baker (R-Tenn.) argues that "it's outrageous for the president to call what's happening now a recess, and the House intends to take it up as soon as they get back into town after recessing for the holiday."
Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "James O’Keefe’s latest video features surrogates appearing to commit voter fraud in yesterday’s New Hampshire primary election, all in an attempt to highlight voter fraud, a problem which is by-and-large nonexistent in the Granite State." CW: I sure hope O'Keefe & Friends are arrested, tried & convicted. Maybe President Obama could try out his new terrorist-nabbing, habeas-corpus-free powers on them. And, as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has pointed out, Guantanamo is like a resort, so why not send O'Keefe & the boys to Club Gitmo?
Lizz Winstead, a co-creator of the "Daily Show," assesses the Republican presidential field in a piece titled, "Shit Republican Candidates Say," first published in the Guardian. Despite its high-toned provenance, you may not want to share this column with your maiden auntie.
Local News
Ariane de Vogue (apparently her real name) of ABC News: "A federal appeals court today blocked a measure that would’ve made Oklahoma the first state in the nation to ban the Sharia law in its court system. The court ruled in favor of Muneer Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Oklahoma, who filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma election board on the grounds that the voter-approved constitutional amendment violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution forbidding the government from favoring one religion over another." ...
... Charles Pierce comments on the "paranoid crackpots" of Oklahoma who voted in this law, said paranoid crackpots apparently constituting about 70 percent of the voting population.
News Ledes
New York Times: "... despite doubts in the [Obama] administration, misgivings on Capitol Hill and the erratic objections of the most important partner in any potential peace deal — President Hamid Karzai — the administration’s best hope for ending the war in Afghanistan has reached a critical juncture. Next week, [U.S. diplomat Marc] Grossman and his team are rushing back to the region to consult with several allies, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and if Mr. Karzai gives his blessing, will resume preliminary talks with the Taliban representative before another opportunity slips away."
New York Times: "With little left to lose, Newt Gingrich, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and their allies sought to portray [Mitt] Romney as insufficiently steadfast in his conservatism in this very conservative state, threatening a scorched-earth approach to the primary to be held here on Jan. 21. But there were some signs that a pressure campaign from the party establishment — encouraged and to some degree organized by pro-Romney forces — was forcing his rivals to recalibrate if not rethink the attacks."
New York Times: "The government of Myanmar signed a cease-fire agreement on Thursday with ethnic Karen rebels who have been fighting for greater autonomy since the former Burma gained independence from Britain more than six decades ago, according to reports from Myanmar."
ABC News: "As victims' loved ones ask why killers and rapists got pardoned by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour during his final hours in office, a Mississippi state judge has temporarily halted the release of 21 of the 200-plus pardoned inmates."
New York Times: "A video apparently showing four Marines urinating on three dead Taliban fighters was condemned by NATO authorities in Afghanistan and by the Afghan government on Thursday.." CW: Actually, NATO officials condemned the Marines' actions, not the video, as the Times writer would have you believe. Maybe if the reporter hadn't used the passive voice he could have written an accurate lede. Yeah, I know, bitch, bitch, bitch.
Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, together with the Democratic National Committee, raised more than $68 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina said on Thursday. Messina told supporters in a video message that 98 percent of the donations were made up of $250 or less, illustrating growing grassroots support for Obama...."
Ghoulish News. AP: "North Korea said Thursday it will enshrine 'eternal leader' Kim Jong Il's preserved body in the palace housing the body of his father, national founder Kim Il Sung, and labeled his Feb. 16 birthday the 'Day of the Shining Star,' deepening its veneration of the late leader as it links his son and successor to the family legacy."
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Reader Comments (15)
@Julie in MA. Re: yesterday's thread. I linked to this AlterNet article on sources for purchasing sustainable fish way back when. Don't know if there's a Safeway or Wegman's (best grocery chain in the U.S.! IMHO) in your area, but there's probably a Target. Also, if you Google "sustainable fish" and the name of the largest town or city where you do your shopping, you may find local fishmongers who sell sustainable fish.
Beef, pork, veal, lamb, poultry, crustaceans, mollusks, po' boys, chicken gravy, pot roast, standing ribs, baby back ribs, pulled pork, barbequed brisket, liver and bacon, fried chicken, should be sacrificed to spare animals? You must be kidding. Our ancestors killed mammoths for a living. They thrived an any animal they could catch or kill. Carrion was a bonus,
Probably, if you can't run anything down, you should not eat meat. Desk folk should subsist on gruel.
@Carlyle. Our ancestors were illiterate cavemen, kissing cousins of Neanderthals. We are enlightened, bleeding-heart progressives. Please, sir, may I have more gruel?
Marie
Hey, and speaking of cavemen, I'm wondering if Republicans have their 'irony' gene turned off after watching (a small portion) of that Gingrich PAC expose about capitalist Mittens Romney. "Boo-hoo-hoo, those mean old capitalists came to our town, bought our local business, broke it up, shipped our jobs to Guatemala, and I lost my house. But I still vote Republican!"
WTF do these people think they've been voting for all these years? Corporate raiders have been Republican heroes for decades. THIS is what Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush spent years of their lives working towards.
This sort of behavior is not new, hasn't been hidden, and is the mother's milk of Republican economic strategy. Ride into town, buy up the works, fire everyone, hold a fire sale, sell off pieces of the company, deposit millions in your bank account, ride off to the next town. THIS is the right-wing way. So it's more than a little funny that Newt Gingrich and Rick (oil barons are my buddies) Perry are all of a sudden staunch supporters of the little people who have gotten screwed in the avalanche of greed that has supported them their entire public lives.
Had this film been created by the Obama team, all of the above would have ripped it as a dirty piece of commie propaganda. But will these facts make any of those people who have been voting Republican for the last 30 or 40 years change their minds about what has been visited on them and the rest of the country because of those votes?
I don't know. I'd like to say light has dawned, but I'm afraid they'll continue to favor the dark side by pulling the lever for GOP same 'ol, same 'ol.
"Thanks to Mitt Romney and such well-known socialist intellectuals as Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, the United States is about to have the big debate on the nature of modern capitalism that should have started back in 2008. The focus will be on whether some kinds of capitalism are bad for the system as a whole."
That's a discussion the nation desperately needs to have. Perhaps it will help to enlighten the more misguided among us:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/magazine/tea-party-south-carolina.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
@Carlyle
The link is broken above so I can't read the alternet article but I would say the issue has less to do with the emotional aspects of the vegetarian diet and more to do with a safe ethical and healthy system of food production. As we've seen in recent years with numerous food recalls our agricultural system is too concentrated and could do with a fair amount of decentralization. Prehistoric diets weren't all about meat and included grains and fruits. And the animals weren't confined in cruel unsanitary feed lots and cages before harvesting. Thankfully there is a small renaissance occurring with the advent of the slow food and local food movements. The days of Earl Butz's "Get big or get out!" are slowly being replaced by "Get local and Get small!"
A little off topic but I wanted to thank Marie for posting that killer clip of Mavis Staples, Nick Lowe and Wilco rehearsing Robbie Robertson's classic "The Weight".
Mavis sang this song with the Band in their final concert film, The Last Waltz, in 1976 and she still knocks it out of the park 35 years later. She gives out more heart and soul in this short little clip than you'll find in dozens and dozens of full scale electrified, corporatized concert "events" by such as Lady Gaga and any number of current "stars". Don't even get me started on Nick Lowe. Anyone who can write a song as great as "What's So Funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understanding" is already in any musical Hall of Fame you can name.
Thanks!
@DaveS: sorry for the broken link. I fixed it.
Marie
Great quote by Bill Moyers on Colbert Report the other night:
"I will believe corporations are people when Texas executes one."
A Romney and a Perry take-down in one short line.... perfect!
After reading the news for the past few days it has become clear that Republicans are being tortured by the fact that they cannot find a single candidate that the actually want to be POTUS. The poor soles (not a misspelling) are being forced to find the best of the worst. The agony of it all!
Trish,
The problem with that scenario (corporations being executed in Texas like people) is that there are so many that qualify (for execution, that is). Where do you begin? I'm guessing this is where kindness and mercy would enter where it never has when dealing with a single human being. Remember Dubya mocking Karla Faye Tucker who petitioned him for clemency? He made fun of her for begging for her life, giving out with mock whimpers and laughing about he was going to kill her no matter what. In his first 28 months as governor of Kill State, he denied all 29 pleas for mercy that came across his desk. Now, likely, many of them were completely guilty. But a good number were not. They had no defense or were railroaded by slimy prosecution tactics. No matter. Bush killed them all. That's the right-wing way. At least with human beings. I wonder what he would have done had Exxon-Mobil been sitting on death row? Why, he'd have driven down there, berated the warden and the guards for not bowing down to his good friend, given them an immediate pardon and relieved them from ever having to pay taxes ever again! (not that they pay much now...)
So even if it could happen, at least in Texas, it never would. I can just see Rick Perry breaking all kinds of land speed records racing to save some corporation from extinction by such barbaric means! The idea!
@Carlyle
Keep in mind that our ancestors needed many more calories than we presently do to survive. Many calories were burned with the hunting of mammoths and such! I speculate obesity was rare way back when.
Julie in Ma
@Marie
Thank you for the info re sustainable seafood sources! So surprised that Whole Foods has not taken a lead in this regard. I would like to share the website of marine biologist Carl Safina, www.blueocean.org/home. It was his book, Voyage of the Sea Turtle, that brought to my attention issues of unsustainable fishing practices. I love sea turtles, and don't want to contribute to their decline!
Julie in Ma
P.s. sorry for not providing a live link. I have not yet figured out how to do so with the IPad.
@ Marie:
Jos. Stiglitz: Perils of 2012, is available at project syndicate.org
. I would link it but I do not know how. Remember, I am in my early eighties and always slightly bewildered.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz147/English
Thanks for the link Carlyle. My dad is 87. I have the utmost respect for your generation.
@Julie and @Kate Here is a terrific program from CBC "Ideas" titled "Saving Salmon". Normally, I wouldn't be one to listen to a program about saving salmon. But this was riveting. Here is the CBC intro...
For almost forty years, Alexandra Morton studied orcas near the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Those whales eat sockeye salmon. When Morton learned that these fish were endangered, she decided to save the salmon, in order to protect her whales.
Last fall, during an unanticipated and completely amazing run of Sockeye salmon, Paul Kennedy visited with Alexandra Morton near the shore of a feeder stream of the upper Fraser River, in Northern British Columbia
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2011/07/15/saving-salmon-2/