The Commentariat -- July 24
I've posted an Open Thread for today's Off Times Square. Karen Garcia and I have added our comments on MoDo & Bruni. Update: The Times axed both of my comments, so you'll have to read them here. Garcia's made the cuts.
Boehner Creates a New Crisis. Steve Clemons of The Atlantic: "Reports have emerged that House Speaker Boehner told his caucus that their team needs to 'provide a positive signal on a plan to avert a U.S. default by tomorrow.' That's right, by the time markets in Asia open tomorrow.... Instead of August 2nd being the debt default deadline, Boehner's tactics and now his statement to his own troops have created market expectations that will either be met -- or be disappointed, possibly creating a real sell-off in American treasuries. Perhaps he should have thought about that before he stormed off." ...
... AND at the plush SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Clemons rubs shoulders with today's Scott Fitzgerald crowd -- super-rich hipsters who know nothing about Afghanistan, Pakistan, the debt ceiling, the unemployment rate, the end of DADT: "... these folks seem very buffered from the real world, unburdened, lightly taxed if all -- and that is why what Obama and Boehner are wrestling over is so important. We need the burdens in this country -- as well as the opportunities -- much more equally shouldered." ...
CW: Here are two columns I would not normally link, the first because the writer is a British conservative & the second because the writer -- a good reporter -- works for the Huff Post. But if you read these two columns in tandem it's hard not to see how democracy, here and in Britain, has disappeared & moneyed interests have taken complete hold of government:
... Conservative Charles Moore of the Telegraph: "The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything.... And when the banks that look after our money take it away, lose it and then, because of government guarantee, are not punished themselves, something much worse happens. It turns out – as the Left always claims – that a system purporting to advance the many has been perverted in order to enrich the few."
... Ryan Grim: Boehner's latest plan is to create a "Super Congress" of 6 Republicans & 6 Democrats who would have extraordinary power to craft legislation & "would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits." (Legislation they created would be subject to straight up-or-down votes in both Houses of the Little Congress.) In case you think President Obama & his veto pen will protect you from Super Congress excesses, Grim reminds us of the Catfood Commission Obama appointed: "Obama has shown himself to be a fan of the commission approach to cutting social programs and entitlements.... The White House made two telling appointments to chair the commission: The first was former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), a well-known and ill-informed critic of Social Security who earned notoriety by suggesting, among other things, that the American government had become 'a milk cow with 310 million tits!' Yet Obama's Democratic appointment was even more indicative of whose interests took priority: former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles. Bowles is a member of Morgan Stanley's board of directors; an adviser to Carousel Capital, a private equity firm; and a director of Cousins Properties Incorporated...." ...
... Nicholas Kristof: "Forget about Iran. These days, the most dangerous threat to national security comes from [elected Republican Tea Partiers}. While one danger to national security comes from the risk of default, another comes from overzealous budget cuts — especially in education, at the local, state and national levels." ...
... New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire Republican, on raising taxes on the rich. Via Think Progress:
... Dan Balz of the Washington Post is not a brilliant guy, & this analysis is of the "there's blame all around" genre, but his central point is correct: "What the country is watching is a breakdown in governing that could be as corrosive to the political system as the possible financial default looming could be to the economy."
Maureen Dowd compares Rupert Murdoch to the Pope, who according to Taoiseach Enda Kenny attempted "to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago." Here's Kenny's speech:
Frank Bruni: "Michele Bachmann will likely not win the White House, but, in the meantime, she is manna for the pundits."
Peter Beaumont of the Guardian profiles Andes Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist and sees: "a disturbing picture: a Christian fundamentalist with a deep hatred of multiculturalism, of the left and of Muslims, who had written disparagingly of prominent Norwegian politicians." CW: if that description doesn't sound familiar, you haven't been reading the Tea Party News.
Right Wing World *
Yay! A New Conspiracy Theory. Brad Johnson of Think Progress: According to Rush Limbaugh, the heat index is "manufactured by the government to tell you what it feels like when you add the humidity in there." With audio. ...
... CW: I'm guessing Rush has A/C. But a lot of people don't. Marie Diamond of Think Progess: "Budget cuts have forced thousands of poor families to go without air conditioning as a record heat wave sweeps across the country. Many states have been facing budget crises and programs that help needy families pay their electric bills are often the first thing to go.... The [federal] government [which provides aid to states] cut $400 million for low-income energy assistance this year," causing states to cut back at the same time the recession has caused applications for home energy assistance to skyrocket.
* Where even the weather is a government conspiracy.
News Ledes
This Is Insane. Washington Post: "Hours before Asian financial markets were set to open Sunday evening, talks over the federal debt limit were at a standstill and House and Senate leaders were threatening to pursue two different approaches to averting a government default in a messy legislative showdown." ...
... New York Times: "Speaker John A. Boehner said Sunday that the House would prepare its own deficit reduction package if Congress and the White House failed to agree on a bipartisan plan by Sunday afternoon, as lawmakers forged ahead in an increasingly grim standoff over whether to raise the nation’s ." CW: this doesn't even make sense. The House can't acti unilaterally. ...
... The Hill: "After a morning meeting at the White House and an evening meeting at the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he was 'disappointed in the status of negotiations with my Republican colleagues.'" Politico has more on how the leaders' meeting went last night. Here's a sample:
Reid was 'very angry' in the meeting with [Speaker] Boehner and [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell, according to a Democratic official. Following the meeting, [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi escorted Reid back to her office because she didn’t want the furious majority leader to say anything to the press. Reid is 'adamant' about no short-term extension of the debt ceiling, the official said...
... Washington Post: "Congressional leaders raced Saturday to develop a new strategy for raising the federal debt limit that House Speaker John A. Boehner told his troops would include an ambitious plan to reduce future borrowing by as much as $4 trillion.... Boehner (Ohio) said he is confident lawmakers will avert a historic U.S. default — a possibility just 10 days off." CW: in other words, he's negotiating with himself & will produce a bill that only a Tea Partier could love -- just as he did last week with Duck, Dodge & Dismantle bill. ...
... AP: "House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he wants to announce the outlines of a plan by 4 p.m. EDT Sunday, to assure investors of the nation's financial and political stability before Asian stock markets open Monday."
New York Times: "Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples across New York State began marrying on Sunday — the first taking their vows just after midnight — in the culmination of a long battle in the Legislature and a new milestone for gay rights advocates seeking to legalize across the nation."
... New York Times: "The Norwegian man charged with attacks in and near Oslo, killing over 90 people, has admitted 'to the facts' of the case, the police and his lawyer said on Sunday, and claims to have acted alone in a strike eerily foretold in a detailed manifesto calling for a Christian war to defend Europe against the threat of Muslim domination. But, acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim told a news conference, 'he is not admitting criminal guilt' and his claim to have acted alone contrasted with 'some of the witness statements,' Reuters reported."
AP: "North Korea's vice foreign minister will visit the United States this week to discuss the next steps needed to resume international negotiations aimed at ridding the communist nation of its nuclear programs, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday."
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