The Commentariat -- Nov. 27, 2012

My column in the New York Times examiner is on Frank Bruni's love letter to "responsible" Republicans like Lindsey Graham & John McCain who have supposedly distanced themselves from Grover Norquist. My column is kind of a rehash of what we've been saying on Reality Chex, with a little from Marvin Schwalb, a little from Akhilleus, etc.

Robert Pear of the New York Times on the conflicting positions of various parties to the deficit reduction talks. "Mr. Obama and some Democrats in Congress say they are willing to squeeze savings from Medicare by trimming payments to drug companies, hospitals and other health care providers. They have generally ruled out structural changes that would increase costs for a typical beneficiary." CW: let's hope that's right. ...

... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "... while the GOP's rhetorical shift [on raising tax revenues] represents a break from their dogged opposition to revenue increases during previous budget negotiations, their public 'concessions' closely mirror the kind of policies voters overwhelmingly rejected: tax reform that does not increase marginal tax rates on the richest Americans, but includes eliminating tax loopholes and steep entitlement cuts that closely mirror the policies included in Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) budget.... The pitch is very similar to the plan presented by Romney, which was supposed to boost growth while lowering taxes and making up the revenue from closing loopholes...." ...

... Steve Benen: "... on the one hand, Republicans would get the tax rates they want. On the other hand, Republicans would also get the entitlement changes they want. And because Grover Norquist doesn't like it, this is considered the reasonable GOP offer. Democrats, after a very successful election cycle, are being asked to accept a deal in which Dems concede on tax rates, concede on entitlements, and accept the reward of Romney's revenue plan? This is what passes for bipartisan compromise in late 2012?" ...

... Leigh Ann Caldwell of CBS News: "White House spokesman Jay Carney said [Monday] that Social Security is one entitlement program that should be addressed on a 'separate track.' ... It's a similar position taken by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill, the number two Democrat in the Senate, on Sunday.... But Republicans have insisted that reforming entitlement programs, including Social Security, which constitute more than one-third of federal spending, must be part of the equation...." ...

... BUT, if we're to believe David Plouffe, we're also going to have to assume that President Obama dismisses Keynesian economic theory. Zeke Miller of BuzzFeed: "Obama senior adviser David Plouffe ... [says] President Barack Obama is committed to achieving the elusive 'big deal' on taxes and spending he and Speaker of the House John Boehner have tried to strike for more than 18 months." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times (Nov. 27 @ 6:09 am): "Mr. Obama will meet with carefully selected small business owners, middle-class taxpayers and corporate leaders over the next couple days, then fly to Pennsylvania on Friday to tour a toy manufacturer that he argues will be hurt if automatic tax increases take effect at the end of the year." ...

     ... More from Ken Thomas of the AP on Obama's PR tour. ...

... CW: last week I linked to a story that mentioned a proposed "tax bubble" that -- by removing the marginal tax system -- would hit the moderately wealthy but not the super rich. Frankly, I don't see this as a real problem because I can't imagine even this Congress would be stupid enough to enact such a tax structure. Nate Silver explains how it would work in detail (with charts!). "It is hard to see the economic rationale for creating a bubble in the middle of the tax code." ...

     ... Dean Baker follows up on Silver's post. And Baker nails Republicans for their hypocrisy on proposing this plan: "The Republicans had highlighted the fate of small business owners who they like to call 'job creators.' This policy would imply a higher tax rate on the vast majority of the job creators, while leaving the very rich little affected.... This proposal would seem to imply that the Republicans were willing to nail the job creators to benefit the very wealthy." CW: Who could have guessed all that talk about helping "job creators" was a ruse? ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones tells the story of what really happened in the Bush tax-cuts showdown of 2010. CW: Corn is right: Obama got more out of the Republicans than he lost even though he was in a much worse bargaining position than he is today. At the time, I ran links to a couple of stories on how the numbers actually worked out, but the narrative was always "Obama caved."

Today's Edition of Corporations Are People, My Friend

Another Reason Not to Shop at Wal-Mart. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "Two days after Saturday's fire at a Bangladeshi garment factory that killed at least 112 people, Walmart was neither confirming nor denying that the factory was one of its contractors.... But pictures taken after the fire showing clothes from Walmart's Faded Glory label appear to settle that question.... The Bangladeshi factory lacked enough emergency exits, and some of the 112 people ... died ... jumping out of the eight-story building.... Walmart had given the factory an 'orange' safety rating in May 2011, which means that even by Walmart's low standards, there were significant risks." In an update, Clawson writes, "Walmart is now claiming that it had severed ties with Tazreen, only to have a supplier with whom they had contracted subcontract to this factory in violation of Walmart policies, and that the supplier has been terminated." CW: allow me to remind you that the Walton family owns as much wealth as the lower 40 percent of Americans. Up with how much of this will we put?

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "Hostess ... failed because the people that ran it had no idea what they were doing. Every other excuse is just an attempt by the guilty to blame someone else." An excellent, brief rundown of Hostess management's epic failures & their depraved indifference to their obligations to their employees.

Brian Montopoli of CBS News: "United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice will meet with senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday to answer questions about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya. CBS News has learned her appearance will include a morning meeting with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has been among her biggest critics since her initial remarks on the attack." ...

     ... UPDATE. Mark Landler & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, conceded on Tuesday that she incorrectly described the attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, in September as following a spontaneous protest, rather than being a terrorist attack. But she said she based her statement on the intelligence available at the time and did not intend to mislead the American public. Ms. Rice's acknowledgment, in a meeting on Capitol Hill with three Republican senators who had sharply criticized her earlier statements in a series of television interviews after the attack, seemed to do little to quell their anger." ...

      ... NEW. Charles Pierce: Graham & McCain "are a pair of cowards, with a feckless rookie in train, and they are playing dangerous games with the country's security. They hereafter should be ignored and, if Graham goes through with his threat of putting a hold on Rice's nomination, Harry Reid should move his desk out onto Constitution Avenue, and no Democrat should cooperate with this clown ever again." ...

     ... NEW: Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "Instead of focusing their needed attention on the deadly security lapses at the consulate in Benghazi, McCain and crew continue their petty nitpicking of Rice's statements."

... Pierce didn't take to MoDo's advice to President Obama any more than I did. ...

... Andrew Rudalevige in the Monkey Cage on the value of schmoozing with the enemy. Also read the comment by Norm Ornstein.

... AND Pierce throws Young Douthat to the gray wolves. ...

... CW: I'm with P. D. Pepe. If had listened to Greggers instead of letting Charles Pierce do it for me, there would be a stylish pump sticking out of my busted teevee. The American tragedy is that millions of Americans don't understand that that Greggers' Gang are nothing but shills for the suits in the suites upstairs.

Voter Suppression

Dara Kam & John Lantigua of the Palm Beach Post: "A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.... Former GOP chairman [Jim Greer] and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law's main purpose: GOP victory." ...

... Charles Pierce: "OK, Eric Holder, it's time.... Ball's in your court."

Right Wing World

Bruce Bartlett's confessions of a reformed supply-sider is getting a lot of attention & is an interesting read, particularly because of his claims about the right's reactions to his "evolution." ...

... Krugman gives him kudos.

CW: In case you think Republicans aren't really racists but just exploit the racism of their despicable constituents, Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect highlights a piece by David Brooks' favorite "conservative intellectual" Charles Murray. Murray "reasons" that Asian-Americans are all alike & blacks & Latinos don't have desirable values.

Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: Birther-in-Chief "Donald Trump says the Republican Party needs to be more appealing to minorities if it wants to survive into the future." CW: to my great surprise, the Donald blamed the negative tone on Mitt Romney & took no responsibility for his own racist antics. ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "... in case you've forgotten, this is the same Donald Trump whose demagoguery compelled President Obama to reveal his birth certificate in a press conference, and who offered to give $5 million to charity if Obama would release his college transcripts and prove that he is 'qualified' (read: not an affirmative-action beneficiary) to be president."

News Ledes

New York Times: "With public pressure mounting, President Mohamed Morsi appeared to pull back Monday from his attempt to assert an authority beyond the reach of any court. His allies in the Muslim Brotherhood canceled plans for a large demonstration in his support, signaling a chance to calm an escalating battle that has paralyzed a divided nation." CW: hmm. The headline in this Guardian liveblog is "Morsi refuses to back down." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Egyptian opposition forces rallied across the country Tuesday in the biggest show of dissent against the country's first democratically elected leader since he precipitated a political crisis last week with an apparent bid to assume near-absolute power."

Reuters: "New York state and New Jersey need at least $71.3 billion to recover from the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy and prevent similar damage from future storms, according to their latest estimates."

New York Times: "Finance ministers from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund patched up their differences over a bailout for Greece early Tuesday with a spate of measures bringing closer the release of long-delayed emergency aid. The parties reached the deal after their third meeting in three weeks aimed at finding alternative ways of giving Greece relief in light of opposition by creditors like Germany and the Netherlands to so-called haircuts that would involve forgiving some Greek debt."

New York Times: "Two of the most senior figures at the British Broadcasting Corporation said on Tuesday that there had been 'basic' and 'elementary' failures of the organization's journalism when it wrongly implicated a former Conservative Party politician in sexual abuse, compounding a scandal that cost the BBC's director general his job and plunged the organization deeper into crisis."

Guardian: "Europe's debt crisis remains a far bigger threat to the world's economy than the 'fiscal cliff', according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In its latest report the economic think tank says an escalation in the ongoing European crisis could drag Europe into a deep recession in the next two years and the US along with it."

Reuters: "Online sales jumped on Cyber Monday, sending e-commerce retailers' shares higher and suggesting strong growth from earlier in the holiday shopping season is continuing for now. Sales on eBay Inc's online marketplace were particularly strong and Amazon.com Inc continued its rapid holiday shopping season growth, according to early Cyber Monday data...."

Reuters: "Forensic experts took samples from Yasser Arafat's buried corpse in the West Bank on Tuesday, trying to determine if he was murdered by Israeli agents using the hard-to-trace radioactive poison, Polonium."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 26, 2012

Brought forward from yesterday's Commentariat: My column for the New York Times eXaminer is elegantly titled "Pat Some Butts, Barry -- Maureen Dowd." Clearly, this is My Week of Going Classy. ...

... A Lesson for Maureen Dowd: Here Was a Hero. U.S. Airman Reis Leming, who saved Britons during a storm & flood in 1953, died November 4 at age 81.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: President "Obama's aides are trying to harness the passions that returned him to the White House, hoping to pressure Republicans in Congress to accept tax increases on the wealthy. The president's strategists are turning first to the millions of e-mail addresses assembled by the campaign and the White House."

John Schriffen of ABC News: Today is "Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year. Shoppers are expected to spend more than $1.5 billion today, up 20 percent from last year.... It has already been a big holiday weekend with a record $59.1 billion spent at U.S. stores and websites.... Online sales on Thanksgiving Day, traditionally not a popular day for online shopping, rose 32 percent from last year to $633 million.... And online sales on Black Friday were up 26 percent from the same day last year, to $1.042 billion. It was the first time online sales on Black Friday surpassed $1 billion."

Welcome to Your Newer, Friendlier GOP

Oink, Oink. In an appearance on Fox "News" yesterday, perpetual Sunday talkshow guest Sen. John McCain [R-Az.] hinted he would back off his attacks on U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, Ian Millhiser of Think Progress reports. CW: it occurs to me that what really ticked off McCain was the fact that Rice appeared on all five major Sunday shows, probably pushing him out of his usual seat at a few of the network shows. He isn't a racist, sexist pig; he's a camera hog. ...

... Writing before McCain "softened his stance" on Rice, John Heilemann of New York predicted that President Obama would nominate Rice for Secretary of State & the Senate would confirm her. Heilemann listed five reason for his prediction. Reason 4. "Because McCain is being a jackass -- and Obama is sick of it." ...

... For the good of the country, it's time to fetch a butterfly net for McCain.... It's a measure of the fallen state of the GOP that this bitter, ever-more-incoherent hothead is now the party's only elected official with a voice on foreign affairs -- unless you count his boot-licking Sancho Panza, Lindsey Graham. -- Frank Rich

... Oh, and here's McCain urging his party to STFU on women's health issues: "There is no doubt whatsoever that the demographics are not on our side and we are going to have to give a much more positive agenda. [...] And as far as young women are concerned, absolutely. I don't think anybody like me, I can state my position on abortion, but, to -- other than that, leave the issue alone." Igor Volsky of Think Progress has the story. Volsky notes that Romney adviser Dan Senor conceded last week "that the GOP's focus on women's health hurt them in the election and criticized Republicans who pulled the party into 'a really idiotic debate' about contraception." CW: You'd almost think that all that crap high-minded talk about religious freedom was not really a principled stand but was rather an excuse to accuse President Obama of being a serial baby-killer. ...

... Anne Flaherty of the AP: "The White House could finally have its chance to close the books on its Benghazi public relations disaster, as key Republicans signal they might not stand in the way of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to become the next secretary of state.... One senior GOP Senate aide said Sunday that Republicans hadn't united against Rice and were not convinced she was worth going after." ...

... AND here we have Sen. Sancho Panza Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggesting "that he could conceivably abandon the [Grover Norquist] pledge as part of a deal to avoid going over the so-called 'fiscal cliff.'" Now, remember, this is all a ploy Republicans are using to gut the social safety net. Via Travis Waldron of Think Progress. ...

... So thanks, Dick, for falling into the trap. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News: "Sen. Dick Durbin said today that his Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate should be willing to address entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid in deficit reduction negotiations." ...

... So let's see what Paul Krugman says about the "fiscal cliff": "Now yet another organization, Fix the Debt, is campaigning for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, even while making lower tax rates a 'core principle.' That last part makes no sense in terms of the group's ostensible mission, but makes perfect sense if you look at the array of big corporations, from Goldman Sachs to the UnitedHealth Group, that are involved in the effort and would benefit from tax cuts. Hey, sacrifice is for the little people.... But if the U.S. government prints money to pay its bills, won't that lead to inflation? No, not if the economy is still depressed." ...

... Apropos of Krugman's column, contributor Calyban links to the overview of a report by the Institute for Policy Studies: "The Fix the Debt campaign has raised $60 million and recruited more than 80 CEOs of America's most powerful corporations to lobby for a debt deal that would reduce corporate taxes and shift costs onto the poor and elderly. This report focuses on the Fix the Debt campaign's corporate tax agenda and in particular the windfalls the campaign's member corporations would reap from a territorial tax system. We also analyze the savings the Fix the Debt campaign's CEOs have derived from the Bush tax cuts and how many of them received more in compensation last year than their corporations paid in federal income taxes." Download the report at the linked page. ...

... Criminal Journalists Practice Economics without a License & without a Clue. The geniuses at ABC "News" do not read Krugman. Digby digs up this graphic, which ABC "News" went to some expense to compile. They must have rooms-full of Very Serious Elves over there at the Owned & Operated by the Fantasyland Division of the Walt Disney Company ABC "News" who whiz around copying down what billionaire deficit hawk Pete Peterson says. Here's the top and the bottom of the chart,

     ... The whole scary graphic is worth a look. You're ruined! Here's what Digby has to say about it. Digby liberally borrows from ...

... Economist James Galbraith who explains to dummies -- who, needless to say, include the VSEs at the WDC's O&O ABC -- why "the fiscal cliff is a scam ... a mechanism for rolling back Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." ...

... Robert Kuttner of American Prospect, writing in the Huff Post, has another good piece explaining conservatives' fiscal cliff ruse: "... so much the better for the Republicans if they can trick the Democrats into sharing responsibility for [cuts to popular social safety net programs]. A further piece of mischief is the premise that we somehow need a 10-year budget deal that reduces the projected deficit by something like $4 to $5 trillion. We don't.... If we get a recovery with something close to full employment, the deficit naturally comes down.... President Obama holds a very strong hand.... If the president is too determined to get a deal to appreciate what a strong hand he has, then it is up Democrats in Congress and the progressive community ... to make sure that Obama doesn't follow Republicans off their cliff."

... Fortunately for Pete Peterson, the New York Times and the White House are giving him a boost. The Times now has a special livebloggish thing titled "Debt Reckoning -- The Fiscal Deadline in Washington." In a scary entry by Peter Baker (at 6:11 am, Nov. 26) we learn "Americans could spend nearly $200 billion less next year on cars, clothes, furniture and other consumer products than they would otherwise if automatic tax increases take effect as currently scheduled, the White House warned in a report issued Monday morning.... The White House released it as part of an effort to turn up the pressure on Congress, which has barely a month to reach an agreement with President Obama on how to avoid the tax and spending changes or risk sending the nation back into recession." ...

     ... NEW. Robert Reich: "This kind of fear-mongering [by the White House] plays into Republican hands." ...

... There are billionaires & billionaires. Warren Buffett in a New York Times op-ed: "I support President Obama's proposal to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for high-income taxpayers. However, I prefer a cutoff point somewhat above $250,000 -- maybe $500,000 or so. Additionally, we need Congress, right now, to enact a minimum tax on high incomes."

... BTW, Krugman backs up "Adam Davidson for some much-needed mythbusting about the supposed skills shortage holding the US economy back." CW: As I noted the other day, Davidson doesn't seem to get macroeconomics, but he does understand that if businesses won't pay highly-skilled workers decent wages, they should quit complaining that they can't find highly-skilled workers. ...

... And in pretty easy-to-understand terms, Krugman explains to us non-economists how economic modeling works -- or is supposed to work if the model isn't designed "to support a predetermined political or policy position." ...

... Just as a reminder that your Newer, Friendlier GOP is composed of the same old pre-election throwbacks, Republican Senators are so fit to be tied over tweaks to the filibuster rules by which they effectively shut down the Senate during much of Obama's first term that they're threatening to shut down the Senate over any changes to filibuster rules. Obstruction is what they do.

Astronomer Neil deGrasse discusses the End of the World on December 21, 2012 & people who didn't take enough science in school. Via Digby:

New York Times Editors: "There are now 166 men held at Guantánamo, 76 fewer prisoners than when Mr. Obama took office. Only a handful of those remaining have been charged with any crime or legal violation.... Civil liberties, human rights and religious groups are now urging Mr. Obama to veto the military authorization bill for the 2013 fiscal year if it contains any language that denies the executive branch the authority to transfer Guantánamo detainees for repatriation or settlement in foreign countries or for prosecution in a federal criminal court. They make a powerful case...."

Serge Kovaleski & Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: how a small-time crook & congenital liar made the film "Innocence of Muslims" that sparked riots in Islamic countries.

Rick Hertzberg is a bit late to the game with his commentary on the election, but reading Hertzberg is always a pleasure. Plus, I learned something I didn't know: that gerrymandering doesn't account for all of the Republicans' advantage in the House. And his report on the Wall Street Journal's takes on the elections of 2004 & 2012 is just precious.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Mary L. Schapiro, who overhauled the Securities and Exchange Commission after the financial crisis, announced Monday that she was stepping down as chairwoman of the agency.... Ms. Schapiro will also relinquish her position as one of the five members of the agency's commission.... The White House announced on Monday that President Obama was naming Elisse B. Walter, a commissioner at the S.E.C., as the new chairwoman.... Ms. Walter's appointment does not require Congressional approval because the Senate previously confirmed her as a commissioner."

The Never-Ending Story. Politico: "The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to examine the constitutionality of the health reform law's employer requirements and mandatory coverage of contraceptives without a co-pay. The move could open the door for President Barack Obama's health law to be back in front of the Supreme Court late next year."

New York Times: "Cracks appeared on Sunday in the government of President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, as he faces mounting pressure over his sweeping decree seeking to elevate his edicts above the reach of any court until a new constitution is approved. Mr. Morsi's justice minister began arguing publicly for a retreat. At least three other senior advisers resigned over the measure. And it has prompted widening street protests and cries from opponents that Mr. Morsi, who already governs without a legislature, was moving toward a new autocracy in Egypt...." ...

     ... The Guardian has a liveblog. Morsi will meet with judges to try to work out a compromise.

New York Times: "Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced Monday that he would soon 'leave political life,' after a half-century career in the military and government that included two years as prime minister. Coming days after the end of a weeklong air blitz on the Gaza Strip and eight weeks before Israelis head to the polls, Mr. Barak's move is the latest to show the disarray in Israel's center-left bloc."

Guardian: "UBS has been fined £30m [$47.5 million] by the UK's Financial Services Authority -- and could see its investment banking activities hampered by the Swiss regulator -- after the former trader Kweku Adoboli was jailed for fraud. Adoboli, a relatively junior City trader who almost destroyed UBS through increasingly reckless illicit deals, was jailed last week for seven years after being convicted of what police describe as the biggest fraud in UK history."

Al Jazeera: "The 18th United Nations climate change conference (COP18) has opened in the Qatari capital."

AP: "A natural gas explosion that injured more than 20 people and damaged 42 buildings in Springfield, [Massachusetts]'s entertainment district was blamed on a utility worker who accidentally punctured a high-pressure pipeline while looking for a leak. The president of the gas company involved says the employee followed proper procedure and protocol."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 25, 2012

My column for the New York Times eXaminer is elegantly titled "Pat Some Butts, Barry -- Maureen Dowd." Clearly, this is My Week of Going Classy.

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Facing the possibility that President Obama might not win a second term, his administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures.... The Defense Department and the C.I.A. continue to press for greater latitude to carry out strikes; Justice Department and State Department officials, and the president's counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, have argued for restraint, officials involved in the discussions say. More broadly, the administration's legal reasoning has not persuaded many other countries that the strikes are acceptable under international law."

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to examine the constitutionality of the health reform law's employer requirements and mandatory coverage of contraceptives without a co-pay.

The move could open the door for President Barack Obama's health law to be back in front of the Supreme Court late next year.

Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "Arguably the most prestigious medical journal in the world, the New England Journal of Medicine regularly features articles over which pharmaceutical companies and their employees can exert significant influence.... Over the past decade corporate interference has repeatedly muddled the nation's drug science, sometimes with potentially lethal consequences."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The Senate -- the legislative body that was designed as the saucer to cool the House's tempestuous teacup -- has become a deep freeze, where even once-routine matters have become hopelessly stuck and a supermajority is needed to pass almost anything.... Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, says he will move on the first day of the 113th Congress to diminish the power of Republicans to obstruct legislation." ...

... Jonathan Bernstein in Salon: it will be difficult & complicated to fix the filibuster, but one part that should be relatively easy: confirmation of executive branch nominees. Both parties more or less agree that a President should get staff s/he wants. CW: another idea: the President is required under the Constitution to obtain the advice & consent of the Senate for a number of positions, including ambassadors, Cabinet members & Supreme Court justices. But there is no reason the Senate should be vetting lower-level appointees except perhaps judges to lower courts because they're lifetime appointments (which is a mistake, too) & a few security-related positions like NSA, CIA & FBI directors.

Steve Rattner, in a New York Times op-ed, proposes several sensible ways to raise taxes on the wealthy. He appears to be advocating for pretty much doing them all.

Adam Davidson of the New York Times: "The secret behind this skills gap [which both Obama & Romney complained about during the presidential campaign] is that it's not a skills gap at all." Manufacturers are just not willing to pay for the skills they require. CW: I don't usually link to Davidson's posts because he so often screws up the economics. ...

... But economist Dean Baker backs up Davidson on this one: "News stories have been filled with reports of managers of manufacturing companies insisting that they have jobs open that they can't fill because there are no qualified workers.... The real problem is that the managers don't seem to be interested in paying for the high level of skills that they claim they need."

Zaid Jilani writing for Bold Progressives: "Many progressives have been celebrating [Sen. Saxby] Chambliss's [R-Ga.] rebuke of [Grover "No-New-Taxes"] Norquist.... [But] the senator is not breaking from Norquist because he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy or big corporations.... Chambliss is willing to deal with closing small loopholes in the tax code in order to get to the wider goals of the Bowles-Simpson plan: cutting Social Security benefits by raising the retirement age, cutting Medicare benefits by capping overall spending, and dramatically lowering corporate tax rates." ...

... How Government Works. Digby: "Chambliss said nothing he hasn't said before. They set all this up so that we would have a number of arbitrary deadlines coming to a head at the same time. It's how we govern these days --- a bipartisan plutocratic centrist and conservative coalition comes together to do the bidding of the moneyed interests and betray their own constituents under a phony sense of crisis in a lame duck session. The details vary only slightly depending on who allegedly 'won' the recent election, but basically, this stuff is all baked in the cake long before any of us have a chance to vote." CW: There's a reason you can find the word SCAM in Saxby ChAMbliss." Let's just abbreviate to "SCAMbliss." ...

... CW: well, at least SCAMbliss has Grover's fat-boy (sorry) shorts in a knot:

Senator Chambliss promised the people of Georgia he would go to Washington and reform government rather than raise taxes to pay for bigger government. He made that commitment in writing to the people of Georgia. If he plans to vote for higher taxes to pay for Obama-sized government he should address the people of Georgia and let them know that he plans to break his promise to them. The Senator's reference to me is odd. His promise is to the people of Georgia. -- Grover Norquist

David Patterson, in a New York Times op-ed, on the confusing November 6 Puerto Rican ballot issue that appears to demonstrate that Puerto Ricans favor statehood, though because of the way the questions were presented, is not definitive. "The people ... deserve another, clearer, definitive ballot -- and soon."

Rick Pearson & John Byrne of the Chicago Tribune: "Cook County Democratic leaders plan to recommend a replacement for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in an effort to winnow a growing field of hopefuls looking to take over the congressional district stretching from the South Side to Kankakee. Gov. Pat Quinn was expected to decide by Monday on the early 2013 dates for the special primary and general elections, but already a swarm of has-been and wannabe political players are considering the rare opportunity to run in the suddenly open, solidly Democratic, black-majority 2nd Congressional District."

Lauren Neergaard of the AP: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the nation's largest group of obstetricians and gynecologists, says birth control pills should be sold over the counter, like condoms."

"The Blue-Footed Booby." George Colt, in a New York Times op-ed: sibling rivalry, especially at the dinner table, is a Freudian thing.

CW: Just so I can foster my Petraeus Affair fix (see yesterday's Commentariat), Seth Meyers assesses the winners & losers in said five-way (the sketch news analysis is at least a week old, but that doesn't make it less funny):

Local News -- Right Wing World Edition

Laura Gottesdeiner in AlterNet: "In Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state's citizens to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God -- or risk 12 months in prison. The law and its sponsor, state representative Tom Riner, have been the subject of controversy since the law first surfaced in 2006, yet the Kentucky state Supreme Court has refused to review its constitutionality, despite clearly violating the First Amendment's separation of church and state."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Syrian rebels seized a military airport and an air defense base about 10 miles east of Damascus on Sunday morning and drove off with a tank and other weapons, according to opposition activists and video posted online, demonstrating their ability to advance in areas around the capital despite facing withering aerial attacks."

ABC News: "A man suspected of shoplifting two DVD players from a Lithonia, Ga., Walmart today died after an altercation with two store employees and a contract security guard, prompting a police investigation."

Reuters: "Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi faced a rebellion from judges who accused him on Saturday of expanding his powers at their expense, deepening a crisis that has triggered violence in the street and exposed the country's deep divisions. The Judges' Club, a body representing judges across Egypt, called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding the 'downfall of the regime' - the rallying cry in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year." ...

... Al Jazeera: "Share prices on Egypt's stock exchange have plunged almost 9.5 per cent, days after President Mohamed Morsi assumed sweeping powers that sparked clashes and polarised the country's politics."

New York Times: "More than 100 people died Saturday and Sunday in a fire at a garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, in one of the worst industrial tragedies in that country."

AP: "Lawrence Guyot, a civil rights leader who survived jailhouse beatings in the Deep South in the 1960s and went on to encourage generations to get involved, has died. He was 73."

Al Jazeera: "China has successfully landed a fighter jet on its first aircraft carrier, which entered service two months ago, the country's official news agency confirmed."

Guardian: "Police in Bangkok have fired teargas at thousands of anti-government protestors calling for the overthrow of the Thai government. At least 9,000 people attended the rally, organised by activists who believe the current prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is the puppet of her brother, the deposed former PM Thaksin Shinawatra."

Reuters: The Rolling Stones take to the stage later on Sunday after a five-year hiatus to celebrate the golden jubilee of one of the most successful and enduring bands in rock and roll history. Now in their mid-60s to early 70s, lead singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood and drummer Charlie Watts will perform five concerts - two at the O2 Arena in London on November 25 and 29 and three in the United States next month."