The Commentariat -- September 29

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square.

E. J. Dionne on why conservatives hate Warren Buffett & why characters like those on the Wall Street Journal editorial board try to subject him to higher standard of disclosure than they do all their hedge-fund manager & right-wing secret campaign-donor friends who pay taxes at a rate lower than many of us do. CW: wouldn't it be fun to know what tax rate the Koch brothers pay? I'd guess, because they own an energy company, they pay even less than hedge-fund operators do.

New York Times Editors: "The American Bar Association, the Judicial Conference of the United States and every major organization focusing on criminal justice opposes mandatory minimum sentences. The federal and state governments should get rid of them — and the injustices they produce."

Law Prof. Jonathan Turley, in a scathing Los Angeles Times op-ed, excoriates President Obama as "a disaster for civil liberties." Turley writes, "... the election of Barack Obama may stand as one of the single most devastating events in our history for civil liberties." He isn't saying anything Glenn Greenwald & other civil libertarians haven't been saying from the get-go, but his review of Obama & Holder's appalling record of excusing war criminals, etc., and publishing it in an MSM outlet, is welcome.

Glenn Greenwald has a good post on the dismissive way in which the mainstream has dismissed & marginalized the Wall Street protesters. It's what mainstream types do when outliers protest their shenanigans.

John Dickerson of Slate: "What the president's [conservative] critics really mean when they say the president 'isn't leading' is that he hasn't announced that he is supporting their plans, or that he hasn't decided to commit public suicide by announcing a position for which they can then denounce him. By any measure [including Chris Christie's in his critique of the President], Obama is a leader.

Fred Bergsten, an Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Jimmy Carter, in a New York Times op-ed: "The United States runs an annual trade deficit of about $600 billion, or 4 percent of our entire economy. Eliminating that imbalance would create three million to four million jobs, according to Commerce Department estimates, at no cost to the budget.... Mr. Obama has set a goal of doubling the nation’s exports over five years. But his administration has done little to achieve that goal, which is inadequate to begin with.... First, the United States must, in effect, weaken the dollar by 10 to 20 percent. This step alone would produce one million to three million jobs.... Second, the United States must negotiate a reduction in foreign regulations, monopoly practices and other barriers to the export of American services.... Third, we must get serious about defending the intellectual property rights of our companies...."

"Regulatory Uncertainty: a Phony Explanation for Our Jobs Problem." Lawrence Michel of the Economic Policy Institute: "An examination of current economic trends, and especially what employers are doing in terms of hiring and investment, debunks this story [which conservatives tell] about regulatory uncertainty as the cause of our dismal job growth." (CW: the paer is longish & wonkish.) Via Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post.

Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog reports on the Justice Department's decision to ask the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate during this court term. ...

... Here's the White House explanation, laid out in a blogpost by Stephanie Cutter, a senior advisor to President Obama:

We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional.  We are confident the Supreme Court will agree. ...

... Massimo Calabresi of Time weighs in on possibilities of how the Court might rule & how these could effect President Obama's standing -- and his re-election chances.

Paul Ryan Proposes to End Employer-Based Health Care Insurance. Reuters: "In a speech to Stanford University's Hoover Institution in California, [Rep. Paul] Ryan [R-Wisc.] said his measure, which would effectively dismantle the way most Americans receive medical coverage, should be part of any Republican plan to replace President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul." Ryan's plan would "eliminate healthcare tax breaks for business, [which] would likely encourage most companies to drop their employer-sponsored plans."  ...

... Cameron Joseph of The Hill: "The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) will soon send out press releases pressuring 50 potentially vulnerable House Republicans to take a stand on ... Ryan's (R-Wis.) Tuesday speech calling for the government to end the practice of giving tax breaks to companies that provide health insurance to their workers." ...

... David Morgan of Reuters: "With billions of dollars in Medicaid spending at risk in Congress, states are forming a loose confederacy to oppose any federal cuts that could damage state budgets already awash in red ink.... Lobbyists say governors, legislators and other state officials, Republican and Democrat alike, have found common ground in a push to convince a special congressional deficit panel that White House-backed Medicaid cuts totaling $41 billion will only weaken a system that already struggles to deliver care to 60 million beneficiaries."

Cara Buckley of the New York Times: "In summer 2010, Congress set aside $1 billion for a program intended to bail out people in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. It was estimated that the program, administered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, would help as many as 30,000 households. But the program is now ending after achieving lackluster results and stirring widespread recrimination. Fewer than 15,000 households are expected to receive help despite enormous demand, and perhaps half of the money will go unspent." CW Surprise: Congress & the Obama Administration blame each other.

Drones Rule. Christian Caryl in an NYRB review: "... the US Air Force now trains more UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] operators each year than traditional pilots.... The US aerospace industry has for all practical purposes ceased research and development work on manned aircraft. All the projects now on the drawing board revolve around pilotless vehicles. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies around the country eagerly await the moment when they can start operating their own UAVs."

CW: Oh, we just can't highlight this story enough times. Ezra Klein in Bloomberg News on the powerlessness of workers when unemployment is high. Gee, Klein uses Amazon's Allentown warehouse as an exemplar. Are you buying that new Kindle Fire? And don't think this is going on only in Allentown, or only at Amazon.

Jonathan Bernstein reveals the secret coded messages in President Obama's schools back-to-school speech. CW: short & funny.

Ben Smith on The Accidental Governator. Arnold says he had no intention of running for governor of California -- he announced his candidacy as a gag while appearing on Leno to promote "Terminator 3."

Right Wing World

Forget Krugman. And Stiglitz. Forget Baker & Reich & DeLong. Joshua Holland of AlterNet: God will save the economy. If she feels like it. According to conservative fundamentalists. Which is one reason right-wing politicians want to starve the government -- their base thinks that god will decide what needs fixing and will fix it.

The idea for a health care plan is not mine alone. I was told that Newt Gingrich was one of the very first people that came up with an individual mandate. -- Mitt Romney (Romney also noted the right-wing Heritage Foundation also supported the individual mandate)

Michael Shear & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "If he runs for president, Chris Christie might highlight the themes he mentioned on Tuesday night in his speech at the Reagan Presidential Library, promising a new era of bipartisanship and compromise like the one he largely takes credit for achieving as governor of New Jersey." BUT "Despite the legislative accomplishments that his office frequently promotes, Mr. Christie’s brief tenure at the helm of New Jersey’s government in Trenton has been marked by as much acrimony as there has been agreement." CW: OR, you think a guy who yells at & belittles whomever he pleases is a model for bipartisanship?

Making Up Stuff Because, Well, It's Sensational! Greg Sargent: "... the [right-wing] Daily Caller took a terrible hit yesterday after falsely reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency is looking to hire 230,000 new 'bureaucrats' — at a cost of $21 billion! — to implement new climate rules. The tale quickly went viral on the right." Once the Daily Caller's claim was completely debunked the editor did what you'd expect; in the face of overwhelming evidence the story was completely false, he backed the original story. ...

... Dave Weigel of Slate: guess who else stands by the bogus story even after learning it was not true? -- why, Sen. Jim Science-Is-a-Hoax Inhofe (R-Okla.). CW: Evidently, the oath of office comes with a "no-shame" clause.

... Steve Benen: "The conservative media world ... just doesn’t seem to care [about facts]. It explains a great deal about why those who rely on outlets like these seem so woefully uninformed about current events." ...

... AND this from Benen: Rick Perry gets the Boston Tea Party story wrong, too. "The moral of the story? If you learn American history from right-wing talk radio, you’re bound to get a lot of the details wrong."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry, facing a conservative backlash over his labeling as heartless those who oppose his state law giving college tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants, said Wednesday that the tone of his remarks was 'inappropriate.'" CW: Right. Because bigots opposed to sound economic policies that help innocent non-white young people might like cute puppies.

Ah, looks like Florida Republicans are going to screw up the primary calendar by moving their primary to a date in January 2012, before everybody else's, per Alex Pareene of Salon. CW: this is bad news for secondary candidates like the lovely Michele, who might be able get their special blocs, like the lovely apocalyptic crowd, to give them early boosts. Candidates with cash have a big advantage in a state the size of Florida. Plus, the Republican electorate is more mainstream here, so far-right candidates have less appeal. I'm betting Karl Rove & Co. are not unhappy about Florida's expected move, no matter what they may say on the teevee.

Funny Money. Murray Waas & Peter Henderson of Reuters: "Contradictions in sworn statements about Rick Perry's fundraising for his 2006 reelection bid raise questions about whether aides to the Texas governor, who is now running for president, gave false or misleading testimony under oath. In a civil suit later filed by Chris Bell, Perry's Democratic challenger in that race, the testimony of aides David Carney and Deirdre Delisi was directly contradicted by a sworn statement from Perry's own gubernatorial campaign committee."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States Capitol Police on Thursday said they were investigating The Onion, a satiric media organization, for making false reports on Twitter claiming that there was a hostage situation inside the Capitol building."

New York Times: "This week, Judge James Zagel of United States District Court indefinitely delayed ... sentencing [of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich], which had been set for Oct. 6. He offered no explanation."

AP: "Federal agents raided a Boeing plant that makes military helicopters in suburban Philadelphia on Thursday and charged more than three dozen people with distributing or trying to get prescription drugs, among them powerful painkillers."

AP: "German lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly approved expanding the powers of the eurozone bailout fund, a major step toward tackling the sprawling debt crisis, in a vote that also helped strengthen Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government." Here's the Spiegel story (English). ...

... Reuters: "Following a now-familiar script, Europe again averted disaster in its debt crisis when German lawmakers rallied behind Chancellor Angela Merkel to approve a stronger euro zone bailout fund on Thursday. But bigger challenges loom for the euro zone now. Financial markets are already anticipating a likely Greek default and demanding more far-reaching measures to prevent the crisis that began in Athens from spreading far beyond Europe and its banks."