The Commentariat -- June 12

I've posted an Open Thread for today's Off Times Square. Update: see Karen Garcia's excellent comment on Dowd here; the Times moderators axed it, at least so far.

Maureen Dowd argues that "At a moment when powerful men are self-destructing by betraying their wives, [Newt] Gingrich is self-destructing by honoring his."

Know-It-All Tom Friedman explains the U.S. economic crisis to anyone who has just emerged from a coma that began prior to September 2008.

Chuck Mikolajczak of Reuters: "Don't be surprised if Wall Street racks up a seventh consecutive week of losses as the likelihood of more poor economic data and other disconcerting signals outweigh any thoughts that stocks are cheap." CW: the good news -- if Wall Street keeps taking hits, maybe to help out their BFFs, the Administration & the Congress will wake up & DO something to improve the overall economic picture. They obviously will do nothing when it's only ordinary Americans who are taking hits.

Scott Wilson & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are applying fresh pressure on the Obama administration to draw down U.S. troops in Afghanistan faster than many military leaders say is responsible, forcing the president to balance his party’s demands with his generals’ on-the-ground assessment as he nears another milestone in the war."

Pakistani journalist Umar Cheema in a New York Times op-ed on the murder of investigative reporter Syed Saleem Shahzad & on his own abduction & torture for "upsetting the government" and "defying the authorities."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... there are signs that [Iowa's] influence on the nominating process could be ebbing and that the nature of the voters who tend to turn out for the Republican caucuses — a heavy concentration of evangelical Christians and ideological conservatives overlaid with parochial interests — is discouraging some candidates from competing there."

Edward R. Murrow's "Harvest of Shame" -- the Update. David von Drehle of Time: "More than half a century later, journalist Barry Estabrook has returned to those fields and reports that things are no better. Read the citation from Estabrook's book Tomatoland. CW: The Fort Myers News-Press has published several stories about the enslavement of farm workers in South Florida. Law enforcement has also uncovered sex slaves rings here. Most of these slaves are foreign-born.

Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life.... He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious) that ALL the crimes he committed against me -- which forced his resignation facing impeachment -- are now legal. -- Daniel Ellsberg

CW: So we have real slaves in America. In the "Democracy Now" segment I posted yesterday, we learned that because of the 40-year-old "war on drugs," there are more African Americans under correctional control than there were slaves in 1850. Income disparity between the rich & middle class is much greater now than it was in the Eisenhower years & that disparty continues to widen as tax policies encourage the establishment of an aristocracy. Millions of Americans are still living in poverty. American children go to bed hungry. K-12 education is getting worse for everyone but the elite, & higher education has become significantly less affordable. Big banks & large corpoations have more power than ever. Healthcare for middle-class Americans less than age 65 is becoming less & less affordable. The political parties can no longer work together because a good percentage of Republicans are nuts. Instead of the activist progressive Warren Court we have the activist regressive Roberts Court. Government services have been sharply reduced. Much of our infrastructure is half-a-century old and crumbling. Nixon's impeachable war crimes are no longer war crimes. We torture our prisoners. We're arguably engaged in three wars. Climate change is leading to severe weather patterns & all the Florida homes encumbered by underwater mortgages will soon be literally underwater. The United States was a 20th-century nation. The 21st century belongs to somebody else. ...

... BUT on to the important news. I know Anthony Weiner is in tweetment & we're all supposed to be politically correct. Well, Mr. Politically Incorrect himself & "Glee" star Jane Lynch do a reading of the Weiner tweets. Pathetically hilarious:

Right Wing World *

Gordon Gekko for President. Steve Benen: Mitt "Romney ... would just as soon hope people forget he was even a governor.... Businessman Mitt [is] running as a less ridiculous version of Herman Cain.... I think Romney’s biggest problem is that the message brings to the fore his key weaknesses — Romney’s record on jobs is atrocious.... During his tenure, Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 states in jobs growth.... And this is the part of Romney’s record he’s most proud of. Romney slashed American jobs as if his career depended on it — and it did." Here's the hilarious -- and accurate -- Colbert segment Benen highlights in his post. All you need to know about Mitt Romney's vaunted business acumen:

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

Al Jazeera: "The escalating military offensive in northwest Syria began after what corroborating accounts said was a shoot-out between members of the military secret police in Jisr al-Shughur, some of whom refused to open fire on unarmed protesters. A growing number of first-hand testimonies from defected soldiers give a rare but dramatic insight into the cracks apparently emerging in Syria’s security forces as the unrelenting assault on unarmed protesters continues."

Politico: "Rep. Anthony Weiner took several pictures of himself grabbing his privates, part of a new batch of embarrassing photos that surfaced online Sunday morning. The gossip website TMZ.com posted 11 photos it claimed were taken in the House member’s gym, a private exercise facility in the Capitol complex that is open to current and former lawmakers." The TMZ page is here.

New York Times: "Syrian troops retook control of a rebellious northern town on Sunday, smashing what remained of an armed uprising after thousands of residents fled into neighboring Turkey, barely escaping a force backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, according to residents and the Syrian state media."

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in a photo released by her staff today. Staff did not identify the woman with her. Photo by P. K. Weis of SouthwestPhotoBank.Washington Post: "Two photos of a smiling Rep. Gabrielle Giffords were released early Sunday by her office, her hair shorn short but few other telling signs of her gunshot wound to the head. The Facebook photos, taken May 17 outside her Houston hospital, are the first clear snapshots of Giffords since the shooting five months ago during a constituent meet-and-greet in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson." Giffords' Facebook page is here. ...

... Washington Post: "U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords could be released from a rehabilitation hospital in Houston sometime this month, a top aide says, offering the latest indication that the Arizona congresswoman is making progress in recovering from a gunshot wound to the head."

New York Times: "The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy 'shadow' Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks."

The Hill: "The third-ranking House Democrat is breaking with party leaders who called for Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) to resign. Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.) issued a brief statement Saturday saying 'he stood by his earlier assertion that 'the full caucus should address this issue when we meet next week.”