The Commentariat -- Nov. 21, 2012

When events unfolded at CIA last week, my wife called me immediately. She said, 'I hope the president doesn't make you take that job again.' I said, 'No, been there; done that.' -- Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, former CIA Director

Paul Krugman Explains American Politics to Shut-ins: "... on economic issues the modern Democratic party is what we would once have considered 'centrist', or even center-right.... Today's Republican party is an alliance between the plutocrats and the preachers, plus some opportunists along for the ride.... Anyone who imagines that there is any real soul-searching going on is deluding himself or herself."

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Obama's decision to send his top diplomat on an emergency Middle East peacemaking mission Tuesday marked an administration shift to a more activist role in the region's affairs and offered clues to how he may use the political elbow room afforded by a second term. The move could pay dividends quickly if Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helps arrange an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

CW: Denise Velez of Daily Kos picks up my column on Maureen Dowd's hit job on Ambassador Susan Rice, et al. Velez includes some interesting background on Rice, too. ...

... Testimonials. Karen Gleuck of Politico: white Republican men who have attacked Susan Rice for "incompetence" say they aren't racists. Okay, that settles that.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration took a big step on Tuesday to carry out the new health care law by defining 'essential health benefits' that must be offered to most Americans and by allowing employers to offer much bigger financial rewards to employees who quit smoking or adopt other healthy behaviors."

Matt Yglesias of Slate: "The dishonesty with which the 'Fix The Debt' campaign is dealing with the fiscal cliff is really breathtaking." CW: Fix the Debt seems to be an Erskine Bowles-Alan Simpson concoction so you know it's mm-mmm good. Update: apparently it's a project of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a buncha Very Serious Deficit Hawks. As Dave S. says in today's comments, they get some funding from the Richest Deficit Hawk of Them All Pete Peterson.

New York Times Editors: "In a persuasive ruling last week, a majority of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down Michigan's ban on race-conscious affirmative action policies. The ban violated the United States Constitution's equal protection clause by placing an unfair burden on racial minorities seeking to change those policies."

Voter Suppression

Steve Benen: "Why would Wisconsin's governor [Scott Walker {RTP}] and leading state GOP lawmakers want to scale back a [same-day voter registration] system that's worked so well? According to Walker, the state has 'poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13-hour days and who in most cases are retirees." He added, 'It's difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It'd be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It'd be easier for our clerks to handle that.' Yes, the governor of Wisconsin wants to scrap same-day registration because he feels bad for county clerks and elderly volunteers. Riiiiiight. I'm sure that's the only reason Walker, who also pushed a destructive voter-ID scheme that was blocked by the courts, supports this change." CW: so here's the (fake) rationale: we don't have enough able-bodied workers to allow everybody to vote. If the Republican legislature passes this law, Walker's statement sounds like a good basis for a lawsuit against it. I expect a judge would find "We're too tired to let everybody vote" an amusing defense.

Rachel Maddow: Republicans are "competing against our democracy":

New York Times Editors: "In a spontaneous aside [during his November 7 victory speech] -- 'by the way, we have to fix that' -- the president acknowledged the unnecessary hardship of casting a vote in the United States and established a goal that he now has an obligation to address." Congress & the President can fix that. The Times editors suggest legislation AND a Constitutional Amendment. CW: what they don't mention -- and they should have -- is a fix to the Federal Elections Commission; it's broke.

Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "A union-backed group of Wal-Mart workers, OUR Walmart, said on Tuesday that it had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, asserting that Wal-Mart was making illegal threats to deter its employees from participating in protests scheduled for Black Friday."

Michael Lysiak, et al., of the New York Daily News: "The notes Paula Broadwell sent to Jill Kelley were far more sinister than previously reported and seemed like the rantings of someone 'clearly unhinged,' a close friend of Kelley told The News Monday." CW Note: this is a single-source report that relies on an assertion by an anonymous friend of Jill Kelley's who said Kelley read her the Broadwell e-mails over the phone. I leave it to you to decide what it's worth. I'm running with it because a number of major news outlets picked up the story. ...

... Whatever the nature of the Broadwell emails that set in motion the public airing of the Petraeus Affair, they key players have created a cottage industry for high-powered lawyers & P.R. consultants, Scott Shane of the New York Times reports. ...

... "AND," as Maureen Dowd writes, "no doubt, pave the way for future book deals, cushy jobs and TV apologias in honeyed light with Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters." Meanwhile, Dowd recommends the parties read Jane Austen: "'Pride and Prejudice' is full of warnings about the dangers of young ladies with exuberant, flirtatious, 'unguarded and imprudent' manners visiting military regiments and preening in 'all the glories of the camp.' Such folly and vanity, the ever wise Elizabeth Bennet cautioned, can lead to censure and disgrace."

Pam Benson of CNN: "The intelligence community -- not the White House, State Department or Justice Department -- was responsible for the substantive changes made to the talking points distributed for government officials who spoke publicly about the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, the spokesman for the director of national intelligence said Monday."

AP: "Gen. John Allen has returned to Kabul to resume his e-mailing duties as the top U.S. and NATO commander of the war in Afghanistan, more than a week after the Pentagon announced it is investigating potentially 'inappropriate' correspondence between the four-star general and a woman linked to the David Petraeus sex scandal."

Right Wing World

Dave Weigel of Slate: the Republican voter fraud meme is upon us. The guy who did the Unscewed Polls site before the election, which perpetually claimed Romney was winning everyplace, has moved on to "proving" voter fraud. He even has a map! CW: Did you know that Obama only won Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia & Florida because of voter fraud? You can tell because Screw-Loose there colored those states in black. Great color choice! ...

... Update: Rachel Maddow has more on Barack O'Fraudo & other conservatives who are telling themselves things to make themselves feel good:

AND here's Mr. Forty 7. Percent, filling his own gas tank this past weekend. Obviously, he's having a bad hair day. His usually-crisp shirt and pants are rumpled. He looks like either (a) a regular American tending to chores, or (b) the villain in a slash movie eying his next victim. Mitt Romney -- the 47 Percent Candidate. Markos Moulitsas: Some states are still counting votes. "President Barack Obama already has a higher popular vote margin than George W. Bush had in 2004. While Bush's margin over John Kerry was a sliver over 3 million, the margin in 2012 now exceeds 4 million votes.... If Romney hits 47.49 percent [as is likely], his totals will round down to 47 percent. It doesn't matter of course, but it would be delicious irony to see him finish the election at that very famous 47 percent mark." ...

... Joshua Holland of AlterNet is not buying the Clueless Romney story: "It's far more likely that the campaign was telling these fat-cats that Romney had a great chance of pulling out a win if they'd just dig a bit deeper. They showed their supporters their unskewed internal polling and assured them that their money wouldn't go to waste." CW: So while Mitt was suckering the electorate with his secret plan to get them good jobs, he was suckering the fat cats with his secret plan to win the election. Mitt was never anything more than a con-man in a Mormon suit. Now he's pumping gas, appropriately enough.

Every day is Anti-Science Day in Right Wing World. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: "... today we have a real howler of an anti-rational manifesto, courtesy of CNN contributor Erick Erickson. I have to give credit where it's due: Erickson does not try to dodge the issue, like Marco Rubio did. He's anti-science and extremely proud of it, and he wants the world to know." ...

... Okay, make that Every Day Is Anti-Science Day in Politics. CW: I don't agree with Daniel Engber's premise that believing in magic is A-okay because you can do algorithms while still believing in virgin birth or something, but it turns out Marco there was copying from Senator Barack Obama's playbook. ...

... Dear 46 Per of Americans Who Are Creationists: yes, evolution is a scientific "theory" -- as is every scientific assertion -- and it gets tweaked from time-to-time as scientists examine new evidence or re-think existing data. Creationism is a fairy tale. The ancient religions, like Judaism, developed stories to explain stuff that was mysterious to people then but is not so mysterious now. The ancients made up gods, & they made up what the gods could do. Jewish mythology is no more or less accurate than Greek or Egyptian mythology. There are two different & conflicting early Jewish myths about the creation of humankind, and they both appear in the first chapters of your infallible Bible. Trick Question: Which infallible chapter of Genesis is a lie: Chapter 1 or Chapter 2? -- Constant Weader

News Ledes

New York Times: "The cease-fire brokered between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday was the official unveiling of [an] unlikely new geopolitical partnership [between President Obama & Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi], one with bracing potential if not a fair measure of risk for both men. After a rocky start to their relationship, Mr. Obama has decided to invest heavily in the leader whose election caused concern because of his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, seeing in him an intermediary who might help make progress in the Middle East beyond the current crisis in Gaza."

Reuters: "U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, broke her silence on Wednesday and defended her remarks on a September attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to the North African nation."

New York Times: "Newly released documents add vivid detail to the emerging portrait of the Food and Drug Administration's ineffective and halting efforts to regulate a Massachusetts company implicated in a national meningitis outbreak that has sickened nearly 500 people and killed 34."

Politico: "Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is resigning his seat in Congress after a protracted absence due to what he described as mental health issues. The Illinois Democrat, who was elected in 1995, has sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) saying he will resign, an aide to Boehner said. Jackson Jr.'s office hasn't responded to requests for comment." ...

     ... Update: New York Times story here.

NBC News: "The Labor Department reported that new jobless claims fell a seasonally-adjusted 41,000 to 410,000. The four-week moving average, which smooths out some of the wrinkles in the data, rose 9,500 to 396,250.... [Hurricane Sandy] has elevated the claims data."

New York Times: "Israeli airstrikes overnight continued into Wednesday morning, hitting government buildings, the smuggling tunnels under the southern Rafah border crossing, and a bridge on the beach road that is one of three linking Gaza City to the central area of the strip. The Hamas healthy ministry said the Palestinian death toll stood at 140 at noon, with 1,100 injured. At least a third of those killed are believed to have been militants." ...

     ... ** UPDATE. New Lede: "Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire on Wednesday after eight days of lethal fighting over the Gaza Strip, the United States and Egypt said after intensive negotiations in Cairo. The cease-fire, which is to take effect at 9 p.m. local time (2 p.m. E.S.T.), was formally announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr of Egypt at a news conference [in Cairo].

... Al Jazeera: "At least seventeen casualties have been reported as a bus exploded in Tel Aviv a block away from the Israeli defence ministry. Israeli police are calling the explosion on Wednesday a "terrorist attack," and have said that an unidentified package was left in the bus."

Al Jazeera: "A large blast that was most likely a suicide bomb attack ripped through the heavily barricaded diplomatic area of the Afghan capital Kabul, a police official said, and there were an unknown number of casualties. At least two people were killed along with two suicide bombers, two people were also injured. The guards fired on the assailants, killing them, but not before one of the vests exploded...."

AP: "Three Southern California men charged this week with plotting to kill Americans and bomb U.S. military bases overseas spent months preparing for a trip to Afghanistan where, authorities say, they hoped to join the Taliban and eventually graduate to the ranks of al-Qaida."

AP: "San Francisco lawmakers disappointed committed nudists Tuesday by narrowly approving a ban on public nakedness despite concerns the measure would undermine the city's reputation as a sanctuary for free expression. The Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 in favor of a public safety ordinance that prohibits exposed genitals in most public places, including streets, sidewalks and public transit. The law still must pass a final vote and secure Mayor Edwin Lee's signature to take effect early next year."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 20, 2012

A coalition of unions targets Democratic Colorado Senators Mark Udall & Michael Bennet -- and in similar ads, other ConservaDems) to stand up for workers rather than cave on social safety net benefits:

... Which is a good thing because some of these ConservaDems are so bad they may not even back President Obama's pledge to ax tax cuts for the rich.

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: In their relentless quest to defeat ObamaCare despite a few little setbacks -- ObamaCare won in the Supreme Court, Obama won the election -- opponents have a new tack: challenging the right of the federal government to give tax breaks to qualifying individuals & families in states -- like Oklahoma -- that opt not to participate. "So Oklahoma officials and everybody else making this argument are essentially calling upon states to block their citizens from receiving federal tax breaks, worth as much as several thousand dollars per person." Here's Cohn on MSNBC: ...

Peter Kasperowicz of The Hill: "Nearly 100 House Republicans on Monday called on President Obama not to nominate Susan Rice as secretary of State. In a letter to Obama, the 97 Republicans said the credibility of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has been gravely wounded by her account of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya." (CW: under the Constitution, only the Senate has to give its "advice & consent.") ...

... Michael Crowley of Time: The House letter's "tortured reasoning exposes the flimsiness of the GOP‘s crusade to make Rice a scapegoat for the Benghazi tragedy.... Lacking a clear shot at Rice's actions, House Republicans have resorted to a half-baked argument about appearances. The problem, they argue, is that Rice is 'widely viewed' as incompetent or dishonest, not only at home but 'around the world.' But when you think about it, the letter also entails a certain chutzpah. If being 'widely viewed' as incompetent or dishonest is such a problem, shouldn't most of the people who signed that letter, being members of Congress and all, themselves be out of a job?" ...

... "Chugging along from Bluster to Bluster, Farce to Farce." Dave Weigel of Slate: John McCain, who has appeared on Sunday talk shows 20 times this year, "is the president-for-life of that sovereign state inside I-495: Meet the Pressistan. What better way into the [Susan Rice] story than this, a scandal that was by and for the Sunday shows?"

Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: "... the banking industry is already taking aim at [Elizabeth Warren], scurrying to curb her future clout on Capitol Hill. Lobbyists and trade groups for Wall Street and other major banking players are pressuring lawmakers to deny Warren a seat on the powerful Senate banking committee. ...

... Daily Kos has a petition asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to put Warren on the banking commission.

Right Wing World

Marco Swims with the Dinosaurs. Charles Pierce: "... most of the young phenoms of the [Republican] party are either batshit crazee, or they've been utterly intimidated by the well-cultivated base that the party has constructed completely out of people with tiny birds chirping around their heads. Here we have Marco Rubio talking creationist rot with the 2016 Iowa Straw Poll clearly in his eyes. Sad, really." ...

... Digby: Rubio "is a very slick politician and I think he's quite dangerous. That answer is the usual wingnut gibberish, but he is very good at dogwhistling to the rubes. He signals very clearly that he is on board with the whole idea that evolution should not be taught as ... science." ...

... Oh, and Rubio's BFF? Why, that Man of the Englightenment Sen. Jim DeMint (RTP-S.C.) Ed Kilgore: "... anyone who thinks of Rubio as a potential GOP vehicle for 'modernizing' the party should think again given his proud kinship to the antediluvian DeMint, the heaviest right-wing heavy of them all. You don't need to be a 'scientist, man' to spot a brontosaurus when you see one." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... when Rubio says that the question of the Earth's age 'has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow', he's dead wrong. For one thing, science and technology education has a lot to do with our future productivity -- and how are you going to have effective science education if schools have to give equal time to the views of fundamentalist Christians? More broadly, the attitude that discounts any amount of evidence ... if it conflicts with prejudices is not an attitude consistent with effective policy." ...

... Douthat, borrowing from Augustine of Hippo, agrees with Krugman! CW: Augustine was a 4th-century theologian. Only Brother Douthat could take his scientific cues from a 4th-century theologian. Still, Douthat's column, especially the last 2/3rds is worth reading. ...

... The GQ interview of Rubio, by Michael Hainey, is here.

Ed Kilgore: Paul Ryan's "main quand[a]ry may well be to determine which short-term path will best serve his long-range goal of destroying or disabling much of the progressive policy legacy of the 20th century: an austerity-flavored fiscal deal that can later be described as the first step back from the Road to Serfdom, or an ideological war leading into an old-white-voter-dominated midterm election and then 2016?" ...

... Charles Pierce: "Ryan maintains a constituency within the Beltway that seems rather impervious to the demonstrable fact that, as a national politician, Paul Ryan makes a terrific doorstop." ...

... CW: Both Kilgore & Pierce nip around the edges of why it was GOP threw Willard overboard for his "gifts" remark but are A-Okay with Ryan's explanation that his team only lost because black people had the audacity to vote, but I don't think they quite hit it. Answer (I think): Ryan is still a playah; Romney is not. If you thought Republicans were really serious this time about their latest "big tent" round of Sunday show promises, their silence on Ryan's "urban vote" comment should dissuade you -- not to mention Marco's solidarity with Jim DeMint. & his disdain for science. Nothing to worry about, folks. The Grand Old Party you have grown to abhor ain't goin' noplace.

If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government they cannot truly be considered free. -- Rep. Ron Paul, in his most recent newsletter & audio report ...

     ... Update: in the Salon piece on Paul's secession talk, linked in the citation above, Alex Seitz-Wald links to Paul's private Website. But Paul has also placed his pro-secession essay on his official Congressional Website. I would like to know why the House tolerates treasonous remarks on a site that we taxpayers support. Obviously, this totally pisses me off.

... CW: Okay, all you wingers out there who accuse President Obama of treason about once a week. Here is one of your heroes -- a man sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, a sitting member of the House of Representatives & a two-time candidate for president -- openly advocating for an act of treason. The House should at least sanction him, even if he is a short-timer.

Dave Weigel of Slate wonders how people get to be rich enough to earn at or near the highest tax bracket and still have no fucking idea how the marginal tax rate works.

Reuters: "Hostess Brands Inc agreed in court on Monday to enter private mediation with its lenders and leaders of a striking union to try to avert the liquidation of the maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread." CW: probably no coincidence that an ad accompanying this story was a link to a page that listed the four signs of an impending heart attack. ...

... James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "The real issue here is that people’s image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U.S., on how common unions are in the workforce." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... if we take seriously the idea of American citizenship as representing a common enterprise, we need to get back to the mindset in which many millions of Americans who will never join a union see a picket line, and understand they have a stake in the fight for better wages, benefits and working conditions -- and in social benefits that lift all boats. That's called solidarity." ...

... CW P.S.: Let's see how the Wal-Mart Black Friday strike/protest works out. I know I'll be honoring the picket line -- even if there isn't one.

Congressional Races

Buh-bye. AP: "Tea party freshman Allen West gave up his fight to remain in Congress on Tuesday after two weeks of recount battles in court. The first-term Republican said in a statement he was conceding the race to Democrat Patrick Murphy, a 29-year-old political newcomer." Palm Beach Post story here.

Voter Suppression -- It's Back

Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Two weeks after Barack Obama and Sen.-elect Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) carried the state of Wisconsin with the support of minorities and young voters, Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced one of his major policy proposals for the upcoming session: ending the state's 40-year old law that allows citizens to register to vote on Election Day. And with Republicans now back in control of the Wisconsin state legislature, Walker may well get his way next year."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Warren B. Rudman, who warned against soaring federal deficits as a pugnacious two-term senator from New Hampshire and who became the strongest Republican critic of the Reagan administration during the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s, died Nov. 19 at George Washington University Hospital. He was 82."

Reuters: "Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies, said on Tuesday that it failed to reach a deal in mediation with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union. The company said it will have no further comment until a hearing scheduled for Wednesday before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York."

Washington Post: "In a surprise move that shocked both sides of a years-long debate, the Church of England on Tuesday (Nov. 20) rejected an expected move to allow women bishops, preserving the church's status as one of the last bastions of male privilege in the United Kingdom." CW: a queen is one thing; a bishopess -- nevah."

New York Times: "President Obama sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East on Tuesday to try to defuse the conflict in Gaza, the White House announced." CW: that's funny. John McCain thinks only Mister Clinton can handle this. (I still think giving the Mister a dedicated role might be a good idea.)

New York Times: "Hewlett-Packard's already troubled history with deal-making just got worse. The technology giant said on Tuesday that it had taken an $8.8 billion accounting charge, in part related to accounting problems at Autonomy, the British software company it bought for $10 billion last year. The announcement comes just one quarter after another large write-down by H.P. in relation to Electronic Data Systems, which itself follows a string of deal-making missteps by the company."

AP: "President Barack Obama closed his Asian tour in diplomatic talks with leaders of Japan and China, their economic message overshadowed by security tensions over disputed waters and territories. The crisis between Israel and Hamas militants intervened, too, as Obama rushed his top diplomat straight from Cambodia to the Mideast." ...

     ... Update: "Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Tuesday to end the lethal confrontation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza on one of the most violent days yet in the conflict, as the United States sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East and Egypt's president and his senior aides expressed confidence that a cease-fire was close." ...

     ... AP Update: "Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinian journalists in their cars on Tuesday, a Gaza health official and the head of the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV said. Israel acknowledged targeting the men, claiming they had ties to militants. Later Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building that houses the office of the French news agency Agence France Presse.... No one was injured and the agency office was not damaged."

ABC News: "President Obama today said the United States and China have taken a 'cooperative and constructive approach' to their relationship, as he came face-to-face with the rising economic power that his administration is trying to counter-balance in the region. Meeting with outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, Obama reiterated his commitment to working with China, despite the tenuous relationship between the two economic superpowers."

New York Times: "In a dramatic new turn in the scandals swirling around Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper outpost, prosecutors said on Tuesday that two former top executives -- Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks — will be charged with making corrupt payments to public officials along with an an array of previous accusations." Guardian story here.

If Secessionists Wrote Their Own Declaration of Independence

By HappyPlace.com via reader Bonnie. To see a larger image, click here, scroll down a bit, then click on the Declaration. I can't stop laughing: