The Commentariat -- June 10
Paul Krugman blames "rentiers" -- creditors, and specifically bondholders -- for Washington's failure to help the unemployed. ...
... Our Mister Brooks pulls out his tattered copies of Edmund Burke & of Anthony Trollope novels to explain that the ideal politician does not behave like -- Anthony Weiner. ...
... While we're at it, Tim Egan thinks Jon Huntsman's presidential candidacy is doomed because the Republican base is prejudiced against Mormons, especially slightly apostate Mormons. ...
I have a comments page up on Krugman & Brooks on Off Times Square, but take it where you will. There's plenty of fodder for comments today. Update: Karen Garcia, Kate Madison & I have posted comments. Update 2: AND Akhilleus explains Brooks:
Mr. Brooks, for all of his pretensions to precious knowledge from received literary wisdom merely demonstrates once again the paucity and parochialism of his parched and penurious intellectual dishonesty. Read all of Akhilleus' comment.
Karen Garcia has a powerful post on Michelle Obama's trip to Hollywood, where she will meet with suits & screenwriters to pitch her script ideas for heartwarming movies about military families -- feel-good ways to promote our numbing, endless wars.
I want to have as few people touching our products as possible.
-- Dan Mishek of Vista Technologies in Minnesota ...
... Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "Workers are getting more expensive while equipment is getting cheaper, and the combination is encouraging companies to spend on machines rather than people."
Republicans Are Still Not Getting It. Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: In yesterday's deficit reduction talks, led by Vice President Biden, "Republicans have rejected any move to raise taxes, and [House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor restated that position, arguing that a package that includes tax increases cannot pass the Republican-dominated House." ...
... The White House Is Still Not Getting It. Same story by Montgomery: "So far, the Biden group has not discussed new forms of stimulus. Instead, the White House is focused on cutting a deal that permits spending cuts and tax increases to start slowly and ramp up over time." ...
... BUT. Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senior Senate Democrats are growing frustrated by what they see as President Obama’s passivity on the economy, and are beginning to discuss a large infrastructure package funded by tax increases. Some Democrats ... think such a package could lower the unemployment rate by as much as two percentage points":
I am concerned about the Obama administration’s approach on this. It always has been about jobs. I think the administration kind of got snookered talking about the deficit and the debt after the last election. The last election was about jobs and the economy, and now we’re in a position where we really do need some economic pump-priming by the federal government. -- Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
... AND Annie Lowrey of Slate: "Happy 10th Birthday, Bush Tax Cuts. You've been a failure in every conceivable way.... The Bush tax cuts were followed by low GDP growth, negative median wage growth, and little job growth. Even before the Great Recession, growth in the Bush business cycle was the weakest since World War II. And the cuts cost about $2.6 trillion between 2001 and 2010, according to the Economic Policy Institute—adding to a debt future generations of taxpayers will pay for, plus interest."
William Yardley & Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "On Friday, more than 24,000 pages of e-mails [Sarah] Palin sent as governor, mostly using private accounts, are to be released in response to public records requests first made in 2008." ...
... Reader Participation. Derek Willis of the New York Times: "We’re asking readers to help us identify interesting and newsworthy e-mails, people and events that we may want to highlight." Willis says the Times will provide a form to readers, but his post does not include the form. Some of the reader comments are pretty funny. ...
... Meanwhile, Ryan Kellett of the Washington Post tells readers how to cull & comment for the Post. ...
Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "Rationing is already a fixture of our health care system. It happens every time an insurer says no to a treatment..., a doctor or hospital recommends against a procedure because it doesn't seem worth the cost..., and ... somebody forgoes care because it's too expensive.... The Affordable Care Act ... directs Medicare to cut payments more judiciously.... Democrats countenance rationing for all through some collective mechanism. Republicans favor rationing by price and ability to pay, that is, by income class, through the market place." [emphasis mine]
Adam Serwer of American Prospect cites a Pew poll that describes how Americans want to reduce the deficit, and notes, "For all the conventional wisdom about the U.S. being a center right country, public opinion seems to be mostly on the Democrats' side when it comes to the specifics, which makes one wonder why they so consistently seem to be negotiating with a weak hand -- or at least why they feel so compelled to adopt Republican frames on policy matters."
Republican Assignment Editors. Steve Benen takes on NBC's excuse that the only reason the media are covering the Weiner scandal more heavily than the Ensign & Vitter sex-and-money stories -- where the Republican Senators likely committed actual crimes -- is that Republicans were all over the Weiner story.
Right Wing World *
... Driftglass has a terrific post on Ayn Rand v. Bible thumpers & how the right manages to simultaneously embrace both: "The fundamental incompatibility of these two ideologies is so shotgunning-fish-in-a-teacup obvious, how is it that no one in our Elite Media ever asks these clowns to climb off the giant pile of Bibles atop which they have spent their political careers screaming at 120 decibels and explain the contradiction? (Hell, I'd like to know why Paul Ryan gets a free pass on any inquiries about whether or not he either urges or requiring his staff to read the works of a radical pro-abortionist like Ayn Rand....)"
CW: I can't believe I'm linking to a Facebook page, much less Newt Gingrich's Facebook page. But he looks so happy to be screwed by his own staff -- who dumped him while/because he was cavorting in the Aegean. The running commentary by "fans" is fun anyway. ...
... The Sun Sets on a Man of Ideas. Greg Sargent: "... Newt believed that he could run for President on the force of his ideas alone — amplified and disseminated through new technology. After all, not long ago, Newt stated this explicitly.... Newt’s Iowa staff has now also resigned en masse, precisely because he seemed unwilling to do the work necessary to keep a presidential campaign running. All these lemmings, clearly, were unable to grasp that his candidacy was something historic; something profoundly transformative; even something Messianic." ...
... Jonathan Bernstein has a nice collection of Newtimplosion tweets. Here's my favorite:
To understand why Newt Gingrich's staff quit 'en masse,' you have to understand Kenyan anti-colonial behavior. -- Luke Johnson
... AND as reader P.D. Pepe points out, Jonathan Chait offers this appropriate tribute to Gingrich, a/k/a the Black Knight, in his post titled "Gingrich approval rating down to 0% among Gingrich staffers":
It's just a flesh wound!
Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: Rick Santorum says all government-regulated healthcare plans -- including RomneyCare -- are socialized medicine "which lead to lines, which leads to rationing." Santorum endorses RyanCareLess, which -- as Lewison points out -- also preserves what Santorum calls "rationing," at least till Medicare is completely dismantled. So, looks like Santorum is a socialist, too.
CW's Ethical Question of the Day: if you just tell lies without bothering to find out that they're lies, will St. Peter let you past the pearly gates?
* Where facts never intrude.
News Ledes
A Thank-You Note from Qadaffi. New York Times: "Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has written to members of Congress thanking them for criticizing President Obama last week over his involvement in the NATO-led military campaign in Libya.
New York Times: "Investors anxious about the outlook for global economic growth sent stocks sharply downward on Friday as the Dow closed below 12,000 for the first time since March. The drag on stocks is especially troubling because it suggests that one of the few bright spots for the United States economy may be starting to fade."
New York Times: "Representative said on Friday that he exchanged at least five private messages on Twitter this spring with a 17-year-old Delaware girl who became an admirer of his after hearing him speak during a high school trip to Washington."
No Way Ioway. Boston Globe: "Mitt Romney is planning to forgo the Iowa straw poll ... as he continues to downplay his chances in a state that was seen as vital to his campaign four years ago." CW: why this item is accompanied by a picture of Anthony Weiner (no, not that picture), I cannot imagine, but Romney might not be happy about it.
New York Times: "Security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria began military operations in the country’s restive northwest on Friday, Syrian state television reported, heightening fears of a widening crackdown on dissent." Reuters story here.
New York Times: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly criticized NATO nations on Friday for what he said were shortages in military spending and political will, warning of “a dim if not dismal future” for an alliance at risk of becoming irrelevant in a dangerous and uncertain world." AP story here.
AP (via the NYT): "A French court has postponed a decision on whether to open an investigation into Christine Lagarde, the country's finance minister and front-runner to take the helm at the International Monetary Fund, a judicial official said Friday.... Questions have been raised about Lagarde's role in getting arbitration in 2008 for French businessman Bernard Tapie, who won euro285 million ($449 million) as compensation for the mishandling of the sale of sportswear maker Adidas."
Reuters: "The head of the U.S. nuclear safety regulator did not break the law when he stopped a review of a proposed Nevada burial site for radioactive waste, but he 'strategically' kept information from his fellow commissioners, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a report from the agency's internal watchdog. The confidential report is being studied by Republican lawmakers who are already fiercely critical of Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). They have accused him of helping end work on the Yucca Mountain waste site for political reasons."
Washington Post: Secretary Clinton denies she is considering a job as president of the World Bank.
San Mateo County Times: "In the most extensive independent analysis of PG&E [Pacific Gas & Electric] since the Sept. 9 San Bruno catastrophe, an expert panel's report Thursday scathingly criticized the utility, finding 'multiple weaknesses' in its natural gas-line operations and accusing the company of putting profits ahead of public safety."
New York Times: "A former spy agency employee agreed late Thursday to plead guilty to a minor charge in a highly publicized leak prosecution, undercutting the Obama administration’s unusual campaign to prosecute government officials who disclose classified information to the press. The National Security Agency official, Thomas A. Drake, had faced a possible 35 years in prison if convicted on felony charges under the Espionage Act. Instead, he agreed to admit to a misdemeanor of misusing the agency’s computer system by providing 'official N.S.A. information' to an unauthorized person, a reporter for The Baltimore Sun."
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