The Commentariat -- September 15
Unlike Sen. Merkley (see below), I'm plumb out of good ideas, so I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square.
Senator Merkley's Excellent Idea. Greg Sargent: "Senator Jeff Merkley [D-Oregon] ... is calling on both parties to agree to submit every proposal offered by the supercommittee to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to be evaluated for the impact it will have — on jobs.... 'We need to have every proposal that the super-committee brings out to have it scored by its jobs impact,' Merkley told me.... He plans to urge Democratic and GOP leaders to agree to this standard, and hopes to build a campaign to make it happen. here’s precedent for the CBO scoring proposals for jobs impact." ...
... Steve Benen: Merkley's idea "seems like such a no-brainer, I’ll look forward to the creativity Republicans will draw upon to oppose it."
Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: A CNN poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans say creating jobs is more important than reducing the deficit (65%-29%) & they trust President Obama more than Congressional Republicans to manage the economy. What's more, the poll results indicate that the most popular Obama proposals are those that require spending. ...
... BUt. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: the popularity of Obama's plan doesn't stop ConservaDems from attacking him personally and the plan itself. ...
... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Today [Wednesday] the Democratic congressional caucus, in a dazzling display of circular firing squaddishness, unloaded on President Obama's jobs bill.... Republicans must be laughing their asses off right now. For a brief moment it looked as if maybe, just maybe, Obama had put them in a tough spot.... But now? All they have to do is lay low and let Democrats do the dirty work of undermining the bill for them." ...
... Mackenzie Weinger of Politico: "With frustration and disappointment mounting from stinging defeats in Tuesday’s two special elections and over Obama’s jobs plan, the media is [sic.] filled on Thursday with Democrats on the record publicly questioning and doubting the president and some of his policies, and a few even unleashing biting criticism." ...
... "With Friends like These...." Steve Benen: "... let this be the latest in a series of reminders — it’s easy to get frustrated with President Obama at times, but he’d be in a far better position if he had more reliable congressional allies to partner with." ...
... AP: "Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans won't support President Barack Obama's jobs plan, but he still wants them to vote on the sweeping $450 billion economic recovery effort. 'We are going to have the Republicans belly up to the bar to turn down this plan,' Reid said during a virtual town hall meeting with supporters Wednesday." CW: I guess out there in the hinterland Reid doesn't have access to new about what his esteemed Democratic colleagues are doing. ...
... CW: So James Carville has some pretty good advice for President Obama. It is not anything that Off Times Square commenters haven't said before. And don't expect Obama to listen to Carville any more than he listens to us. But Carville has a three-step "program" -- "Fire, indict, fight" -- that is right on. Carville, naturally, does not mince words.
Jason DeParle & Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times delve into the findings of the U.S. Census report on poverty.
Steve Kornacki of Salon on the perilous road Elizabeth Warren is taking in her effort to win the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Republican Scott Brown, and perhaps to save the Democrats' Senate majority. ...
... Oh, No! Ben Smith: The Massachusetts GOP issued "a press release ... which points out that Elizabeth Warren couldn't name a Red Sox player when she was asked yesterday."
Rod Nordland & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "The growing influence of Islamists in Libya raises hard questions about the ultimate character of the government and society that will rise in place of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s autocracy. The United States and Libya’s new leaders say the Islamists, a well-organized group in a mostly moderate country, are sending signals that they are dedicated to democratic pluralism. They say there is no reason to doubt the Islamists’ sincerity."
Right Wing World
As I watch the Republican debates, I realize that we are on the brink of a crazy person running our nation. I sit in front of the television and shudder at the thought of one of these creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans running my country. -- James Carville
On the Danger of Saving Your Daughter's Life. Gail Collins writes, Michele "Bachmann’s strong points are her passion and determination, while her weak ones include a rather free-floating relationship with reality.... “I had a mother last night come up to me ... she told me her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,” Bachmann told one TV interviewer after another.... Would a contender for the White House ... just blurt out something they heard from a stranger that could discourage parents from accepting vaccinations that could save their children’s lives? The Bachmann campaign did not respond to my questions about who the woman was or what the candidate did to check out the information. So I guess maybe, yeah." ...
... CW Note: the Times has once again held back my comment on Collins' column, but you can read it in today's Off Times Square.
Fowl Economics. Bob Reich: "... governors have as much influence over job growth in their states as roosters do over sunrises.... If governors try hard enough, though, they can create lots of lousy jobs. They can drive out unions, attract low-wage immigrants, and turn a blind eye to businesses that fail to protect worker health and safety. Rick Perry seems to have done exactly this.... Texas has ... been specializing in minimum-wage jobs. From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers there rose ... nearly 150 percent. And 9.5 percent of Texas workers earn the minimum wage or below -- compared to about 6 percent for the rest of the nation.... A few years ago Michele Bachmann remarked that if the minimum wage were repealed 'we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.' ... In short, the Perry (and Bachmann) model of job growth condemns Americans to lower and lower living standards. That’s nothing to crow about."
Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "Taking the GOP’s anti-tax ideology to its logical conclusion, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) introduced today his own 'American Jobs Act' ... which would completely eliminate corporate income taxes.... The two-page bill changes the tax code to replace any mention of the current '35 percent' tax rate with '0 percent.' Corporations are already sitting on trillions in cash, so cutting their taxes would likely do very little to help the economy, but would balloon the deficit by depriving the government of about $300 billions in revenues annually."
Local News
America's Worst Governor Favors Second Amendment over First. Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald: "A federal judge Wednesday blocked a Florida gun law that restricted doctors from asking patients about firearms. Judge Marcia G. Cooke said doctors had a First Amendment right to ask about firearms, and she rapped the state’s lawyers for failing to provide more than anecdotal evidence to show the law was needed.... Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the 'Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act' into law June 2nd vowed to appeal."
News Ledes
President Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer:
... New York Times: " awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to [Dakota Meyer,] a young former Marine who ignored orders to stay put and fought his way five times into an ambush in an Afghan ravine, helping to rescue three dozen comrades and to recover the remains of four dead American servicemen." ...
... President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer this afternoon. AP: "Dakota Meyer saved 36 lives from an ambush in Afghanistan and the former Marine will collect the nation's highest military honor at the White House on Thursday. While he is receiving the Medal of Honor, Meyer's slain comrades will be memorialized in hometown ceremonies at his request."
New York Times: "Worried that Europe’s debt impasse posed a growing threat to the global economy, the world’s major central banks moved Thursday to assure investors that European banks would not run short of American dollars, as they nearly did at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. The banks, in a coordinated action intended to restore market confidence, agreed to pump dollars into the European banking system in the first such show of force in more than a year."
Reuters: "President Barack Obama, yielding to pressure from his political base, has backed off a proposal to reform Social Security retirement benefits in a high-stakes deficits deal Congress needs to reach this year."
New York Times: "An armed drone operated by the this week killed a top Qaeda operative responsible for plotting terrorist attacks inside , two American officials said on Thursday. The killing of Abu Hafs al-Shariri occurred Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks."
New York Times: "UBS said on Thursday that a rogue trader in its investment bank had lost $2 billion, a fresh blow to the struggling Swiss bank. Police in London have arrested European equities trader, Kweku Adoboli, in connection with the case.... Shares of UBS dropped more than 8 percent on Thursday, while the broader European banking sector was up." Guardian story here.
New York Times: "The agreed early on Thursday to extend contracts with and after the parties were unable to reach new deals by the time the old pacts expired at midnight."
Reuters: "Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron flew in to Tripoli under heavy guard on Thursday, to be welcomed by the new leaders the French and British air forces helped install in Libya, three weeks after rebel forces overthrew Muammar Gaddafi." ...
... New York Times Update: "The leaders of Britain and France visited Libya on Thursday in a triumphal but heavily guarded tour intended to boost the country’s revolutionary leaders, whose forces were propelled to power with NATO’s help last month by routing Col. and his military in the most violent conflict of the Arab Spring uprisings."
AP: "The Palestinians will ask the Security Council next week [September 23] to accept them as a full member of the United Nations, the top Palestinian diplomat said Thursday — a move that comes in defiance of Washington's threat to veto the statehood bid. The remarks by Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki put an end to speculation that the Palestinians might avoid a showdown with the United States by sidestepping the Security Council and going directly to the U.N. General Assembly to seek a lesser status of a non-member observer. The U.S. does not wield veto power in the General Assembly, and a Palestinian bid there would be expected to win majority approval."
Reuters: "China's Foreign Ministry urged U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday not to resort to 'excuses' for trade protectionism after U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pushed for legislation aimed at forcing China to loosen controls on its currency."
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