The Commentariat -- November 1
The issue for the great washed masses, via a friend:
By Matt Bors.
I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square.
Members of Congress Are Just Like Us. Paul Singer & Jennifer Yachnin of Roll Call: "Members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010, a nearly 25 percent increase over the 2008 total, according to a Roll Call analysis of Members' financial disclosure forms. Nearly 90 percent of that increase is concentrated in the 50 richest Members of Congress." ...
... Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "From Los Angeles to Wall Street, from Denver to Boston, homeless men and women have joined the protesters in large numbers, or at least have settled in beside them for the night. While the economic deprivation they suffer might symbolize the grievance at the heart of this protest, they have come less for the cause than for what they almost invariably describe as an easier existence.... But their presence is posing a mounting quandary for protesters and the authorities, and divisions have arisen among protesters across the country about how much, if at all, to embrace the interlopers. The rising number of homeless, many of them suffering from mental disorders, has made it easier for Occupy’s opponents to belittle the movement as vagrant and lawless and has raised the pressure on municipal authorities to crack down." ...
... The Supercommittee Goes for Increasing the Number of Homeless. Jake Sherman & Manu Raju of Politico: "As a critical deadline for the supercommittee nears, Social Security appears to be on the negotiating table. In private conversations, and now in public, the idea of changing the social program as part of a deficit-reduction deal is gaining some traction — a move that has been politically unthinkable for years."
Matt O'Brien in The New Republican: conservative "scholars" like Jim Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute continue to cook the books in efforts to demonstrate that really, the sharp rise in income inequality over the past several decades is just a "myth." No, it isn't. ...
... "That's Not What I Said." Jon Chait of New York Magazine discusses the same same "analysis" by Pethokoukis, plus the Wall Street Journal's repeated trumpeting of new economics Nobelists Thomas Sargent & Christopher Sims as being "non-Keynesian." When the scholars whom these conservative analysts misquote speak up against the disinformation about their work, Chait sees an "Annie Hall" moment:
... Of course the true master of "That's Not What I Said" is Paul Krugman, whose words are always being misquoted or mischaracterized. He so often throws back misrepresentations I think he might want to change the title of his blog to "That's Not What I Said." ...
Speaking of making up things, Prof. Jonathan Gruber, writing in The New Republic, takes apart a House Republican report (produced by Darrell Issa) on the Affordable Care Act. The report contains one fallacious claim after another. And you, BTW, paid for it.
2008 All over Again. Joe Nocera: despite his making public speeches against out-of-control compensation for Wall Street executives, Jon Corzine, a former governor of & former U.S. senator from New Jersey as well as a former chief of Goldman Sachs, "was on track to get a $12 million golden parachute for failing at MF Global Holdings." CW: see also yesterday's Ledes: there are millions missing from MF Global, money that disappeared in the days before the firm declared bankruptcy.
What Everyone Knows. Everyone knows we can’t solve the debt crisis without making structural changes* to our entitlement programs. You know it. I know it. President Obama knows it. If we don’t make those changes, the programs won’t be there for your generation when you need them. Everyone understands this, and the fact of the matter is, strengthening these programs will be good for our economy. Nothing – nothing – would send a more reassuring message to the markets than taking bipartisan steps to fix the structural problems in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. -- House Speaker John Boehner
* Structural changes. Def.: A term used by U.S. conservatives and members of the right-wing Republican party to mean "deep cuts." Also, a euphemism roughly akin to "You're screwed, people."
Kevin Drum of Mother Jones thinks it's time for President Obama -- instead of his surrogates -- to charge that Republicans are deliberately trying to wreck the economy. This, Drum argues, would force the story onto the front page & make Republicans defend the charges. ...
... On that note, Obama surrogate Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) writes an op-ed in Politico touting Obama's proposed American Jobs Act. "Republicans need to get off the sidelines and join him and stop rooting for the economy’s failure in order to win an election.... [GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney] wants to kick ... people ... out of their homes, allow bankers and investors to make a quick buck and then rewrite the laws to allow bankers to write their own rules. Romney doesn’t just want to return to the same policies that brought our economy to its knees; he wants to double down on them.... His tax plan slashes taxes for the wealthiest and corporations but does nothing to help middle-class families. In a telling moment at a Republican debate just a couple of weeks ago, he called payroll tax cuts in the American Jobs Act 'little Band-Aids.'”
How Republicans are using Occupy Wall Street (or in this case, Occupy Oakland) against President Obama. The comments accompanying the video on the YouTube site are precious: one commenter promises harm to "the first person s/he sees" sporting an Obama bumper sticker on her car. Evidently there's a new threat to some Americans: "DWD" -- "Driving While Democratic":
Right Wing World *
Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal for an opt-in flat tax would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans, according to a new analysis from the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization. Compared with current tax policy, the plan would most likely reduce federal tax revenue by $570 billion, or about 15 percent.... Almost every household in the top 1 percent would be offered a tax cut." ...
... Former Reagan advisor Bruce Bartlett ticks off a laundry list of the flaws in Perry's plan. "Mr. Perry’s plan cannot be taken seriously.... Whether the plan makes any sense as a matter of policy is irrelevant to its purpose, which is to win him the Republican nomination. With an Oct. 25 ABC News/Washington Post poll showing the flat tax much more popular among Republicans than Mr. Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, it might just work." ...
... AND you have to see Derek Thompson's bar charts on the Perry plan. I can't reproduce them here because they would take up a couple of column feet.
Jim Rutenberg & Michael Shear of the New York Times have an omnibus story on Herman Cain's Bad Day. See also yesterday's Commentariat. ...
... Alexander Burns of Politico: "Herman Cain backtracked on a central part of his story about the sexual harassment allegations leveled against him in the 1990s, telling PBS and Fox News that he recalled details of a financial settlement with one of the women involved. Changing his tune on the question of cash settlements was only the most glaring of several shifts in Cain’s comments Monday on the harassment charges leveled when he was president of the National Restaurant Association."
... Brett Smiley of New York Magazine: On the Greta Van Susteren show, Cain makes things worse. "Foot meet mouth." Here's part of the interview: he likes the ladies:
Byron Wolf of ABC News: "One of the more interesting moments during Herman Cain’s appearance [yesterday] at the National Press Club came not when he struck back hard against reports that he sexually harassed an employee of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, but when he burst into song at the end. The song, 'He Looked Beyond My Faults,' was written by Dottie Rambo." CW: well, he has a very nice voice:
Dana Milbank: "If Herman Cain were found to be a serial killer, his supporters would take this, too, as reassuring evidence that he is not just another career politician."
Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "It was inevitable, from the moment the story broke of sexual harassment allegations against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, that parallels would be drawn to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.... There is no indication that his race — or his political affiliation — is relevant in any way to the accusations or to Politico’s careful, responsible reporting on them.... The ones playing racial politics here are conservatives, not the supposed liberal media." ...
... Dan Eggen of the Washington Post has a bit more on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story we linked yesterday "about financial ties between [Cain']s campaign and a private charity run by two of his top aides.... The payments Cain campaign manager Mark Block's nonprofit made to Cain's campaign (and perhaps one to a conservative group before whom Cain spoke) are "forbidden under federal tax and election laws, because nonprofit charities are not allowed to donate money or services to political campaigns, according to election law experts. 'It looks like a law school exam on potential campaign finance violations,” said Lawrence H. Norton..., a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission. 'Many of these payments would be prohibited contributions under federal election law.'” In a TV interview, Cain pled ignorance of the issue.
Joseph Curl of the Washington Times: First Lady Michelle Obama is a constantly enraged hellcat -- "Now, she is ready to spew her bilious disgust with America" -- and someday we're going to present some evidence to back up this bogus warmed-over Campaign 2008 claim. To prove his point, Curl includes with his column the photo of the Obama family watching a ball game. To the left is the First Lady, preparing to spew bile. I have not changed the size of the photo.
Anita Kumar of the Washington Post: "The Republican Party of Virginia is strongly condemning an e-mail sent by Loudoun County’s GOP committee that shows President Obama as a zombie with part of his skull missing and a bullet through his head.... The e-mail ... has several other images, including one of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, whose face has been made to look deformed with one eye bulging out of its socket." Under duress, the chairman of the committee issued a "sorry if you got the impression we were promoting assassination" apology. ABC News: "The Secret Service told ABC News the agency is aware of the incident but offered no further details."
... CW: Loudoun County is a D.C. bedroom community; this is not someplace out in them thar hills where the GOP can pretend those innocent rubes just don't know any better. This is what "sophisticated" Republicans, many of whom probably work in D.C., think is super-funny: portraying the POTUS as a dead man. Today Rush Limbaugh rent on a rant complaining that the Politico story about sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain -- a story Cain did not deny -- that "We Should Not be Surprised by the Left's Racist Hit Job on Herman Cain." (Politico, owned by a former Reagan Administration official is hardly "the left," BTW). How odd he didn't demand the resignations of everyone on the Loudoun County GOP committee.
* Where we flat-ass make up stuff to fit right-wing worldview.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Federal officials are escalating an investigation into MF Global, the bankrupt brokerage firm run by Jon S. Corzine, as the search continues for roughly $600 million in missing customer money. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which first detected the missing money last week, decided to issue subpoenas to MF Global and demanded that the firm retain any documents that may be related to the investigation, according to people briefed on the situation." Also on the case are the SEC & the FBI, along with "exchanges like the CME Group...."
New York Times: "Dorothy Rodham, who overcame years of struggle to become a powerful influence on the life and career of her daughter, , the first lady, senator from New York, presidential candidate and now secretary of state, died on Tuesday in Washington. She was 92."
Ha! New York Times: " said Tuesday that it was abandoning its plan to charge its customers a $5 fee to use their debit cards, just a month after announcing the new fee. The reversal follows a huge backlash from customers.... The bank listened, but only after other large had indicated that they would not impose similar fees. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, SunTrust and Regions Financial have all pulled back on their plans."
CNN: "Occupy Wall Street activists plan to amass in Iowa one week before the Iowa caucuses -- up to the day they're held on Jan. 3...."
New York Times: " said on Tuesday that it would accelerate the construction of 2,000 housing units in contested areas of East Jerusalem and in two settlements. The announcement came a day after the won full membership in Unesco in the face of staunch Israeli and American opposition."
... AP: "A ... proclamation President Obama was signing Tuesday [at 1:45 pm ET] will designate Fort Monroe as a national monument, saving it from major development and preserving its history for generations. The fort and the land it occupies are historically significant because it was where Dutch traders first brought enslaved Africans in 1619. It remained in Union possession during the Civil War and became a place where escaped slaves could find refuge. It's also where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was once imprisoned following the Civil War."
New York Times: "European markets slid dramatically on Tuesday after Prime Minister George A. Papandreou stunned other European leaders with a surprise announcement late Monday that his government would hold a referendum on a new aid package for Greece. The proposed ballot will put Greek austerity measures — and potentially membership in the euro zone — to a popular vote for the first time...." ...
... Updated Lede: "The government of Prime Minister teetered of the verge of collapse on Tuesday, threatening ’s adherence to the terms of a new deal with its foreign lenders and plunging Europe into a fresh bout of financial turmoil."
Daily Beast: "Despite the demands of an embattled presidency and a sluggish economy, President Obama emerged from his latest physical exam on Monday in strikingly good health."
Guardian: "The bishop of London has broken ranks with the City of London Corporation over planned legal action to evict the tented encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral in London. Dr Richard Chartres is expected to urge the chapter of St Paul's – which has been hit in the past week by the resignation of two senior officials – to dissociate itself from the legal action to expel the protesters.... The protesters will be given an ultimatum on Tuesday: remove your tents in two days or face court action. The City of London Corporation is expected to serve legal papers on them the day after it warned them to remove their tents from land it owns around the cathedral. The home secretary, Theresa May, gave the authorities her full support on Tuesday morning."
AP: "The new business plan for California's high-speed rail system shows the nation's most ambitious state rail project could cost nearly $100 billion in inflation-adjusted funding over a 20-year construction period, according to a draft copy of the plan shared with The Associated Press. But the plan also says the system would be profitable even at the lowest ridership estimates and wouldn't require public operating subsidies."
Guardian: "The state of Nebraska will open a special session of the legislature on Tuesday afternoon in a last-gasp effort to stop or re-route the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project. The pipeline, meant to carry crude from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to the refineries of Texas, has become a political liability for Barack Obama. He's been heckled during party fundraisers, and faces a big demonstration at the White House on 6 November." The Omaha World-Herald story is here.
New York Times: Facing serious financial trouble in a weak economy, Cooper Union, the New York City college founded in 1859 to provide free education for the working class, may begin charging undergraduate tuition for the first time in more than a century, its president said Monday."
AP: "New York City has agreed to pay $70 million to settle a federal lawsuit that accused it of overbilling Medicaid for millions of dollars in reimbursements for personal care services. The city acknowledged it had re-authorized the services for certain patients without obtaining the required assessment from a physician, nurse or social worker. It also admitted it didn't get a medical review in some cases."
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