Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post: "The Afghan government has moved so slowly to recruit Taliban defectors that U.S. and Afghan officials say they are losing an opportunity to capitalize on hard-won military gains and the death of Osama bin Laden. Interest among war-weary Taliban foot soldiers and low-ranking commanders in switching sides is at an all-time high, the officials said, but the Afghan government’s inability to provide safe houses, job-training classes and other services aimed at reintegrating former combatants has prevented local authorities from offering amnesty to many fighters." CW: what a surprise -- the U.S.-backed corrupt, illegitimate Afghan government is also incompetent. Who knew?
Wednesday
May182011
The Commentariat -- May 19
Gail Collins: "What is it with Republicans lately? Is there something about being a leader of the family-values party that makes you want to go out and commit adultery?" ...
... I have a comments page up for Collins' column on Off Times Square. Akhilleus, Karen Garcia & Kate Madison have posted comments, and they are absolute winners!
Jared Bernstein, in his first blogpost since leaving his White House job as economic advisor to Vice President Biden, debunks the conventional wisdom du jour: "The federal budget is just like a family budget, and we in government must tight our belts and live within our means just like families do.” Bernstein writes, "First of all, it’s bass-akwards: when families are tightening their belts, the federal government is the one institution that can actually help the economy — and these belt-tightening families — by loosening its belt and running a deficit.... But there’s another fundamental way in which this family budget analogy gets misused. Families borrow to make investments and to get over rough patches. They run deficits too. I went into pretty deep debt to finance college and grad school and I’m glad I did."
Atrios: "I'm quite happy bashing the media, as usual, but I think they're getting a bit of a bum rap. They're covering the deficit in large part because both major political parties are mostly talking about the deficit. If some charismatic politician with the ability to get people to point some cameras at him spent more time talking about jobs and coming up with policies for jobs and talking about those the media would be talking about that too." CW: wonder what charismatic politician Atrios has in mind? Hint: his initials are BO & he was born in the USA.
New York Times Editors: "The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered an overhaul of mental health care for veterans, who are killing themselves by the thousands each year because of what the court called the 'unchecked incompetence' of the Department of Veterans Affairs. In a scathing 2-to-1 ruling on May 10, the judges said delays in treating post-traumatic stress disorder and other combat-related mental injuries violated veterans’ constitutional rights." You can read the opinion here (pdf).
Richard Painter, formerly a White House lawyer in the Bush II administration, writes in Politico in support of the confirmation of Goodwin Liu, whom Republican senators oppose. Liu's confirmation will come up for a vote today.
Dahlia Lithwick on the politicization of the courts. "We are in a strange holding pattern right now, collectively waiting for the first judge to cross party lines in a health care case. Maybe once that happens, we can all go back to believing in the integrity and infallibility of the judicial branch. Until then, perhaps it's an apt moment to re-examine first principles and think about why we believe in the judicial branch in the first place." Lithwick favorably cites an article by Jeremy Waldron who argues that the courts have no business meddling with legislation. CW: Huh. You decide. And while you're deciding, think where we'd be without Brown v. Board of Education, ferinstance.
Liz Alderman & Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, is a likely candidate to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF.
Tracy Weber of ProPublica in Slate: "The women who spoke out against Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 were castigated and humiliated. Would it have been any different with DSK?" ...
... Christopher Beam of Slate on the pros & cons -- mostly cons -- of perp walks.
New York Times Editors: The Vatican's "long overdue guidelines ... for fighting sexual abuse of children are flimsy and defective."
Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "The retail industry launched a new campaign Wednesday to protect a federal law that reduces the fees retailers must pay to banks every time a debit card is swiped, a move the industry hopes will blunt the massive lobbying attack from banks. The campaign calls for hundreds of merchants to flood Capitol Hill in June for meetings with key lawmakers, the third “fly-in” to be held this year on the issue." CW: can retailers beat the banks? Consumers can't.
CLICK ON THE GRAPHIC TO LINK TO THE NEW EDITION OF THE FINAL EDITIONRight Wing World *
When your political party is so desperate for a viable candidate that they’re begging George W. Bush’s budget director to come in and be the savior, you have a problem. -- David Dayen, Firedoglake
CW: Michael Calderone has forced me to temporarily interrupt my boycott of the Huff Post with this incredible e-mail he got from Newt Gingrich's press secretary Rick Tyler:
The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.
... Ben Smith: "Tyler's comments puzzled many because Gingrich's criticism of Paul Ryan drew the sharpest criticism not from the 'liberal media' but from the core of his own conservative movement." ...
... David Dayen of Firedoglake: "... this isn’t the first time Newt has complained about political ads taking his words about Medicare out of context": Here's Gingrich, via Dayen, in a July 1996 letter to the editor of the New York Times complaining that when Democrats accurately quote him, it's a lie. I don't need a medical degree (I don't have one) to recognize that the Newt is a sociopath. ...
... BUT, you know, some most all Democrats are just not going to follow Newt's orders not to use his own words against him & the GOP:
Newt and I are considered political opposites, but I couldn’t agree more with what he said Sunday about the plan to end Medicare. He acknowledged that it is right wing social engineering. It was refreshing to hear such candor from a top Republican. Gingrich was saying what everyone knows to be true: The plan is extreme.... He is the Republican canary in the coal mine. When that canary speaks truth, he is snuffed out. What Newt seems to realize is that it would be impossible to win the White House if they embrace the Ryan plan. If Republicans make endorsing the Ryan plan the standard in the Republican primary, it will make the nominee unelectable. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
... Here's your proof, from the Democratic National Committee:
... ** NEW. AND Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post demonstrates that Newt still opposes the Ryan plan: "In a conversation with bloggers Tuesday, for instance, Gingrich persisted in calling the plan radical: 'Part of what I'm worried about is compelling people to go through a radical change that has not been tested.' In another conversation Tuesday, this time with radio host William Bennett, Gingrich listed a long series of caveats before saying he could support the Ryan plan." ...
... Steve Kornacki of Salon: "Republican leaders and activists are using Newt's flub as an opportunity to say something that's been on their minds for a lot longer: Get lost!"
Ron Paul may be the wackiest candidate in the GOP field. But for pure, blind stupidity nobody beats Santorum. In my 20 years in the Senate, I never met a dumber member, which he reminded me of today. -- Mark Salter, aide to Sen. John McCain ...
... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: Rick Santorum tries to fix his incredible assertion that torture victim John McCain doesn't understand torture (but he, the Great Santorum, does), but -- surprise! -- he doesn't fix it at all:
For anyone to infer my disagreement with Senator McCain's policy position lessens my respect for his service to our country and all he had to endure is outrageous and unfortunate. -- Rick Santorum
CW translation: If you think I said what I said, it's your fault.
Pat Toomey Pulls His Tinfoil Hat down over His Eyes. Dana Milbank: the Republican Tea Party senator from Pennsylvania thinks the federal debt default is all a hoax. Thank you, Pennsylvania, for your excellent choice.
Keith Ablow, writing a Fox "News" opinion piece, asserts that Maria Shriver "must have known" about Arnold's multiple infidelities and that her husband's public admission of fathering a child by a woman who worked in Shriver's home for 20 years is a great opportunity for Maria to develop a better relationship with Arnold. She should take him back. According to the Fox "News" blurb, Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team. CW: I leave it to you to decide what the "A" in "A-Team" stands for. For an apt comment on Dr. A-Team's unsolicited advice, see today's Off Times Square page (6th comment).
* Where facts never intrude.
News Ledes
Queen Elizabeth II of England speaks at a state dinner at Dublin Castle:
The President's speech on the Middle East:
New York Times: "A judge granted bail on Thursday, allowing the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund to be freed from Rikers Island to stay in a Manhattan apartment while his sexual assault case is pending."
Irish Times: Speaking at a state dinner in Dublin Castle, Queen Elizabeth II of England spoke of the "painful legacy of history" between England & Ireland. The text of her speech is here. Video above.
President Obama spoke about U.S. Middle East policy early this afternoon. New York Times story here. Washington Post story here. ...
... Update: Here's the Washington Post's post-speech report. New York Times: "Seeking to harness the seismic political change still unfolding in the Arab world, President Obama for the first time on Thursday publicly called for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would create a non-militarized state on the basis of Israel’s borders before 1967." See video of the full speech above. Here's the transcript of the speech. ...
... Haaretz Update: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu rejects 1967 border proposal.
New York Times: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned Wednesday as head of the after explosive accusations that he had sexually attacked a housekeeper in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room."
Wall Street Journal: "A Berkeley law professor's chance of joining a federal appeals court lay in the hands of seven Republican senators, as Democrats scheduled a Thursday vote to break the filibuster that has held up Goodwin Liu's appointment."
Los Angeles Times: "The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General plans an investigation of an immigration enforcement program that purports to target 'serious convicted felons' for deportation but has ensnared many illegal immigrants who were arrested but not subsequently convicted of crimes or who committed minor offenses, a letter obtained Wednesday shows.."
New York Times: "With Democrats citing last year’s in the Gulf of Mexico as a cautionary tale, the Senate on Wednesday decisively rejected a Republican plan to allow more coastal and gas exploration and to speed the issuance of drilling permits to oil companies.... Democrats, however, say they will push to make sure that any deal to raise the federal this summer incorporates their proposal to limit tax breaks for the five major oil companies, a plan they say will save $21 billion over 10 years."
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