The Commentariat -- July 22, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is titled "The Meaning of Tragedy." The NYTX front page is here.

Jordy Yager & Mike Lillis of The Hill: "A handful of Democrats are pressing for tougher gun laws in the wake of the Colorado movie theater shootings that left 12 people dead." ...

... "Blood on Their Hands." New York Daily News Editors: "Through their inaction and their silence, Obama and Romney have fallen into line with all those who enabled Holmes to take hold of that AR-15 and will enable others to do so in the future unless America's political leaders develop the courage to fight to save lives."

... The Onion: "Americans across the nation confirmed today that, unfortunately, due to their extreme familiarity with the type of tragedy that occurred in a Colorado movie theater last night, they sadly know exactly how the events following the horrific shooting of 12 people will unfold. While admitting they 'absolutely hate' the fact they have this knowledge, the nation's 300 million citizens told reporters they can pinpoint down to the hour when the first candlelight vigil will be held, roughly how many people will attend, how many times the county sheriff will address the media in the coming weeks, and when the town-wide memorial service will be held."

James Asher of McClatchy News: "... reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg and others are agreeing to give government sources the right to clear and alter quotes as a prerequisite to granting an interview. To be clear, it is the bureau's policy that we do not alter accurate quotes from any source. And to the fullest extent possible, we do not make deals that we will clear quotes as a condition of interviews."

New York Times Editors: "A health care system owned and managed by Alaska's native people has achieved astonishing results in improving the health of its enrollees while cutting the costs of treating them."

Pam Martens of AlterNet: "As the U.S. grapples with intractable wealth disparity and the related ills of unemployment and recession, we need to understand that [the LIBOR scandal] was not merely a few rascals rigging some esoteric index in London. This was an institutionalized wealth transfer system on an almost unimaginable scale." CW: what's important about Martens' piece -- which I found a bit difficult to follow -- is not how they did it but to whom they did it.

Matt Taibbi writes favorably about "a plan to allow local governments to take on the problem of neighborhoods blighted by toxic home loans and foreclosures through the use of eminent domain." CW: when Joe Nocera wrote a column backing the plan, I was immediately skeptical. Taibbi raises the same questions I had, but ultimately decides that since Barack Obama is no FDR, the plan at hand might be the best solution available.

Jeremy Roebuck of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "The iconic statue of late Pennsylvania State University head football coach Joe Paterno will be removed from its spot outside of the campus' football stadium, university president Rodney Erickson said in a statement Sunday." AP story here. ...

... CW: Erickson showed no sensitivity whatsoever to the advice of Maureen Dowd, who writes in today's Times, "... I’d leave it up. But I'd put up another darkly alluring statue behind Paterno, whispering in his ear: Mephistopheles."

Andrew Goldman of the New York Times interviews Terry Gross. Short & funny. Includes penis joke.

Presidential Race

Who's "Un-American" Now? Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "... the patriotism party nominated a man who has for a quarter-century practiced a brand of capitalism that respects no known flag or borders. He ran a company that created some jobs but sent others overseas, he finagled himself a way to get paid a lot of money for doing (by his own admission) no work for a few years, and he appears to have retained a battery of lawyers to help ensure that he pays a far lower tax rate than the working people he's trying to whip into a state of fear about Obama. And there's only one reason people have Swiss bank accounts, and it's to avoid making their otherwise mandated contributions to the national treasury." ...

... Why Those Offshore Accounts of Mitt's Matter. John McKinnon of the Wall Street Journal: "The Tax Justice Network's report estimates that unreported offshore wealth held in tax havens has reached at least $21 trillion, and possibly as much as $32 trillion. [CW: as far as I can tell, the estimate represents wealth from all countries, not just the U.S.] That wealth means that the problem of inequality in wealth and income is actually worse than suspected, the group says. It also means that many countries are losing out on tax revenue that could go a long way toward alleviating their national fiscal problems, the report's authors suggest. The largest previous estimate of the problem -- also by Tax Justice Network, in 2005 -- was about $11.5 trillion, the report says."

Matea Gold & Melanie Mason of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama's sharp turn to the offensive against GOP challenger Mitt Romney last month came at a steep cost: nearly $58 million."

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: Although the Romney campaign denies it, it appears it is buying Twitter followers. At any rate, the graph of followers for his feed "looks like a hockey stick," with a huge uptick over the past few days. "If you look at all these [new] followers, they seem to have major trouble with spelling simple English words, have names that sometimes seem to be random assortments of syllables, and have no (or very few) followers themselves. At the current rate, he's adding about 10,000 followers every hour." Some fairly hilarious commentary @ #MoreFakeMitt

Right Wing World

Godless Thugs! Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Fred Jackson, the American Family Association's news director, while discussing the Colorado movie theater shooting today said that liberal Christian churches and liberal media helped contribute to violent incidents by supposedly deemphasizing the fear of God and the Bible."

News Ledes

Washington Post: 'Herbert Vogel, a retired New York postal worker who, with his wife, Dorothy, created one of the world's most unlikely -- and most significant -- collections of modern art, then bequeathed much of it to the National Gallery of Art, died July 22 at a nursing home in New York City. He was 89." CW: a remarkable story.

CBS News: "CBS News has learned that the NCAA will announce what a high-ranking association source called 'unprecedented' penalties against both the Penn State University football team and the school.... NCAA President Mark Emmert will make the announcement Monday morning at 9 a.m. at the organization's headquarters in Indianapolis."

Denver Post: "Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper [D] Sunday expressed skepticism that tougher gun laws would have stopped suspected gunman James Eagan Holmes from unleashing 'terrorist' acts against 70 people in an Aurora movie-theater."

AP: "A federal law enforcement official says the semi-automatic assault rifle used in the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting jammed during the attack." ...

... AP: "The shooting suspect accused in a deadly rampage inside a Colorado theater planned the attack with 'calculation and deliberation,' police said Saturday, receiving deliveries by mail that authorities believe armed him for battle and were used to rig his apartment with dozens of bombs. Meanwhile, new details about 24-year-old James Holmes emerged, including summer jobs the suspect held in Southern California as a camp counselor and as an intern at a prominent research institute." ...

... AP: "... President Barack Obama will travel Sunday to Colorado to comfort distraught families of those gunned down in a minute and a half of real-life horror at a midnight movie showing."

Washington Post: "Heavy clashes rocked Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial capital, for a second day on Saturday as thousands streamed across the border into neighboring Lebanon to escape widespread fighting in the country." ...

... Guardian: "An activist group claims that more than 2,750 people have been killed in Syria so far this month, bringing the death toll since the conflict began to more than 19,000."

The Commentariat -- July 21, 2012

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

** E. J. Dionne: "Anyone who dares to say that an event such as the massacre at a Colorado movie theater early Friday demands that we rethink our approach to the regulation of firearms is accused of 'exploiting' the deaths of innocent people.... The gun lobby goes straight to the exploitation argument -- which is, of course, a big lie.... We never allow an assertion of this kind to stop conversation on other issues. Nobody who points to the inadequacy of our flood-control policies or mistakes by the Army Corps of Engineers is accused of 'exploiting' the victims of a deluge.... The worshipers of weapons also lay heavy stress on the psychological disabilities of the killer in a particular incident.... Crazy people, they say, will do crazy things, and there is nothing we can do about this." ...

... "We've Seen This Movie Before." Film critic Roger Ebert, in a New York Times op-ed: "Should [James Holmes] -- whose nature was apparently so obvious to his mother that, when a ABC News reporter called, she said 'You have the right person' -- have been able to buy guns, ammunition and explosives? The gun lobby will say yes.... That James Holmes is insane, few may doubt. Our gun laws are also insane, but many refuse to make the connection. The United States is one of few developed nations that accepts the notion of firearms in public hands. In theory, the citizenry needs to defend itself. Not a single person at the Aurora, Colo., theater shot back, but the theory will still be defended." ...

... A very affecting piece by Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic on "the template of our grief" provides the "script treatment" for Ebert's "movie." ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "The reality is simple: every country struggles with madmen and ideologues with guns, and every country -- Canada, Norway, Britain -- has had a gun massacre once, or twice. Then people act to stop them, and they do -- as over the past few years has happened in Australia. Only in America are gun massacres of this kind routine, expectable, and certain to continue." ...

... Gail Collins: "... presidential candidates look at this issue and see the same thing other elected officials do: a rich, fierce, loopy lobby on one side, and, on the other, people with petitions, slogging along. Everybody, including the gun control advocates, knows that nothing will change unless the people decide to do the leading. Eventually, the American voters come around. Just ask the suffragists." ...

... Zach Beauchamp of Think Progress: "One of the principal weapons used by James Eagan Holmes in the horrific Dark Knight Rises shooting would have been subject to a series of sharp restrictions under the now-expired federal Assault Weapons ban. The AR-15 rifle carried by Holmes, a civilian semi-automatic version of the military M-16, would have been defined as a 'semiautomatic assault weapon' under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. If the law was still in force, semiautomatic assault weapons would have been outright banned." ...

... CW: This story is so eerie I thought it worth linking, even though I don't usually go for the maudlin stuff. AFP: "Jessica Ghawi had escaped a mall shooting in Toronto weeks ago when an 'odd feeling' led her outside, and then blogged about how fortunate she was. But in an ironic and tragic twist of fate, Ghawi died in Friday's Colorado theater shooting spree, one of 12 fatalities in the mass killing."

Joe Nocera: "... every week bring news of another financial scandal." Nocera runs down the latest four biggies. CW: he missed a 5th one: the municipal-bond bid-rigging scandal for which a B of A executive was indicted yesterday (see Friday's Ledes.

Keep the Government's Hands off My Tax Loopholes. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "On Capitol Hill, lawmakers casually point to closing loopholes as the answer to much that ails the country. But ... it will be [difficult] to lower the budget deficit through painless changes in the tax code.... One man's loophole can be another's vital constituent interest.... The three largest [loopholes] are as popular as they are expensive: the mortgage interest deduction has cost about $75 billion a year recently, the employer deduction for health care has cost $120 billion a year, and the charitable-giving deduction has cost $38 billion a year...."

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I) sticks it to Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the central principle behind the unlimited contributions to super PACs that will dominate this election cycle is simple: Money is speech.... Yet many who hold this freedom as an article of faith are all too willing to limit an equally precious form of speech: voting.... Machinations [in Florida] make a mockery of the democracy we put on display every Election Day. When we hear of corrupt voting practices in foreign countries, where the ideal of democracy is nothing more than lip service, we feel good about ourselves.It's time to look right under our noses. It's happening here at home.

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Elizabeth Warren has been so prodigious in raising money for her Senate campaign in Massachusetts that she is on track to become the top fund-raiser for the Senate this year, as well as one of the top Congressional fund-raisers of all time."

Presidential Race

Maybe it's time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they're going to do about it.... Romney passed a ban on assault weapons back when he was governor and now he says he's against it. Of course, he's done that on almost everything. Obama, when he was elected, said I want to reinstate the ban on assault weapons and he's never done it. -- Michael Bloomberg, New York City Mayor ...

... Kevin Robillard of Politico: "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the nation’s highest-profile supporters of gun control, said Friday that 'soothing words are nice' but demanded that the presidential candidates 'stand up and tell us what they're going to do about' preventing mass shootings." ...

... Mackenzie Weinger of Politico publishes Mitt Romney's evolving stance on gun control legislation. Now he likes AK-47s for all law-abiding citizens.

** It Was about the Money. Beth Healy & Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe: "Interviews with a half-dozen of Romney's former partners and associates, as well as public records, show that he was not merely an absentee owner during [the 1999-2002] period.... He drove the complex negotiations over his own large severance package.... Indeed, by remaining CEO and sole shareholder, Romney held on to his leverage in the talks that resulted in his generous 10-year retirement package, according to former associates.... The full tally of Romney's 10-year compensation deal is not known because he has refused to release tax returns for the relevant period, which ended in 2009. In addition, his financial disclosures are sporadic and incomplete...."

Steve Benen produces his 26th installment of "Mitt's Mendacity." Run down the list. It's mind-blowing. It's as if he cannot say one true thing.

Wonders Never Cease. Glenn Kessler, the so-called Washington Post fact-checker, has at long last had a change of heart: "Romney has failed to provide sufficient evidence that he had 'no role whatsoever' at Bain. Over the past few days, we have repeatedly asked Bain Capital whether the firm could provide a statement that a review of Bain board meetings had shown that Romney did not attend any such meeting, either in person or by phone. We are still waiting for a response.... Going forward, unless new evidence emerges..., we may withhold the awarding of Pinocchios when the claim rests mostly on the question of when Romney stopped managing Bain Capital."

Greg Sargent links to a great Spanish-language ad (translation to English is included on the linked page) by SEIU & Priorities USA tying Romney's refusal to release his tax returns to his tough "papers-please" immigration stance. Sargent notes that the line, "He wants us to show our papers. But he won't show us his," came first from Vice President Biden.

The Other .01 Percent Thinks Al Green Is a Threat to Democracy. CW: Oops! Forgot to link this one. Paul Krugman: Gary Silverman of the Financial Times learned "why the Romney counter-attack on the 'America the Beautiful' ad featured Obama singing Al Green, and pretty well too": Suzy Welch, wife of multi-millionaire Jack "'Welch suggested that Mr Obama's personal style and choice of musical material define him as a member of a "different America."'"

** Dana Milbank: "On Thursday, two days after [Romney surrogate John] Sununu's attack, Romney himself said that Obama lacks 'an understanding of what it is that makes America such a unique nation.' Sununu and Romney are legitimizing people such as Cliff Kincaid" who convened a meeting at the National Press Club to discuss Obama's "real father," a "communist pornographer," "pedophile" & "possible Soviet spy" who "was Obama's sex teacher."

The Little Man Who Won't Be There. Jonathan Martin of Politico: "Former President George W. Bush will not attend the Republican convention next month in Tampa." (A classic Friday News dump.) ...

... BTW, the bit at the end of Politico's late-nite jokes -- recent presidents talking about the presidency -- is hilarious.

... Take the test and find out. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Right Wing World

Steve Myers of Poynter: "The Daily Caller is promoting its weekly gun giveaway in an ad placed next to a story related to the Colorado theater shooting. The headline for the story reads, 'Tea party leader tells media to stop 'false and reckless reporting' after Batman shooting'; to the right is an ad that says, 'Who should Romney select for VP? Click to enter The Daily Caller gun giveaway.'" ...

... BUT, in fairness, the MSM does it, too. Jim Romanesco: "A Denver Post tweet mentions a 'badly placed ad on our site' that has been disabled. Here’s what they were referring to:"

AND. I never look at the ads, but just as I was shutting down Gail Collins' column, which I used in my NYTX column (not up on NYTX yet), I saw this:

... Become a Gunsmith??? That's a New York Times ad next to a column advocating for gun control? Excellent product placement!

News Ledes

New York Times: "Alexander Cockburn, the acerbic left-wing journalist and author who though born in Scotland thrived in the political and cultural battlegrounds of the United States, died on Saturday in Bad Salzhausen, Germany, where he had been receiving medical treatment, his family said. He was 71. The cause was cancer, said Jeffrey St. Clair, a friend and colleague. Mr. St. Clair announced Mr. Cockburn's death on CounterPunch, the Web site that the two men edited." St. Clair's remembrance is on the front page of CounterPunch online.

Guardian: "Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as a director of News International, in a move that will fuel speculation the media mogul is preparing to sell off his UK newspapers. In an email sent on Saturday, staff at The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun were told that Murdoch remained 'fully committed' as chairman despite relinquishing positions on a number of UK boards, including NI Group."

AP: "An Air Force instructor implicated in a sweeping sex scandal at one of the nation's busiest military training bases was convicted in military court Friday of raping one female recruit and sexually assaulting several others. Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, the first Lackland Air Force Base instructor to stand trial in the scandal, was found guilty by a jury of seven military personnel on all 28 counts he faced, including rape, aggravated sexual contact and multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "A drill instructor accused of raping and sexually assaulting 10 female trainees at Lackland Air Force Base was sentenced on Saturday to 20 years in prison, the stiffest jail term handed down yet in the biggest sex scandal to hit the U.S. military since the 1990s."

Guardian: "Police investigating the shooting spree at a screening of the new Batman film in Colorado are preparing to send in a robot to detonate what they called a sophisticated booby-trap in the apartment of the suspected gunman." The Denver Post front page has links to related stories. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Law enforcement officials said Saturday that they had successfully disabled the most dangerous explosives and incendiary devices at the apartment of James Holmes, the man accused of killing 12 people at a movie theater [in Aurora, Colorado]."

The Commentariat -- July 20, 2012

CW: I will be at an undisclosed location all morning, but should be back by 1:00 pm ET-ish. ...

      ... Update: here's the undisclosed location, disclosed:

     ... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama reflected in highly personal ways about the mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater on Friday as he cut short a campaign trip and urged Americans to reflect on the fragility of life." President Obama's full remarks are here.

     ... Here's Baker writing his report. He was sitting just behind me, so of course I gave him hell for all that "he said/he said" reporting. Really, I did, tho I was evah so polite about it. And he was very nice. Plus, as Sherrod Brown's wife might say, "He's really cute":

Congresswoman Bachmann's comments are baseless, irresponsible, and beneath contempt. Having said that, I think I would have chosen her as my running mate over Mitt Romney. -- Sen. John McCain (or so Andy Borowitz claims) ...

... Molly Hooper of The Hill: "At a press conference Thursday, [House Speaker John] Boehner (R-Ohio) defended Huma Abedin, the deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). Boehner said he did not know Abedin well, but that 'from everything that I know of her she has a sterling character. I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous.' Boehner is the latest high-profile GOP official to criticize the charges by [Rep. Michele] Bachmann [RTP-Minnesota] and four other GOP lawmakers that Abedin could be using her position at the State Department to aid the Muslim Brotherhood.” CW: Could this be the beginning of the end of Tea Party histrionics? Let's see if Boehner gets after Allen West (RTPCrazy-Florida). ...

... Alexander Abad-Santos of The Atlantic: Ed Rollins, Bachmann's former campaign manager, told her in a Fox "News" op-ed, to apologize on the floor of the House. ...

... AND Bachmann says the letters she wrote "are unfortunately being distorted."

His Troubled Ass. Neil, I have been the most fucking transparent Secretary of the Treasury in this country's entire fucking history! ... No one has ever made the banks disclose the type of shit that I made them disclose after the stress tests. No one! And now you're saying that I haven't been fucking transparent? -- Tim Geithner to Neil Barofsky, then the special inspector general for TARP. Thanks to Kate M. for the link

Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe: "An Obama campaign official confirmed to the Globe Wednesday that US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is ­being considered as a possible keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C."

Presidential Race

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. -- Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life. -- Ann Romney

Ann Romney's Marie Antoinnete Moment." Rita Ciolli of Newsday: "The stir over the 'you people' faux pas ... is overshadowing what Romney said about not releasing the returns just before the 'you people' line. 'There are so many things that will be open again for more attack.... And you just want to give more material for more attack. And that's really -- that's just the answer.' ... Romney's response underscores that she doesn't understand the real question." ...

... Dan Amira of New York doesn't think Romney said "you people." CW: even if she didn't, it's clearly what she meant. ...

... Digby: "Dear me, it appears that Lady Romney has lost her patience with the riff raff and their unseemly questioning about money. One simply doesn't respond when the lower orders begin to believe they're better than they ought to be.... The very idea that a man of Mitt Romney's obvious superiority could be questioned about his finances is utterly offensive. Enough." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "You have to wonder if in future Mitt is going to 'outsource' all questions about his finances to his wife, and then object that anyone who complains about it is engaging in personal attacks on his family." ...

... "Pathos of the Plutocracy." Paul Krugman: "Not only do many of the superrich feel deeply aggrieved at the notion that anyone in their class might face criticism, they also insist that their perception that Mr. Obama doesn't like them is at the root of our economic problems.... Mr. Romney..., too, argu[ed] that because the president attacks success 'we have less success.' This ... is crazy (and it's disturbing that Mr. Romney appears to share this delusional view about what ails our economy).... Clearly, Mr. Romney believed that he could run for president while remaining safe inside the plutocratic bubble and is both shocked and angry at the discovery that the rules that apply to others also apply to people like him."

Aw. No more dressage videos. The DNC is heartily sorry to have offended Lady Romney. (See yesterday's Commentariat.)

Betting against the U.S. Tim Egan: "Anyone who wants to lead this nation, and stashes millions of dollars in foreign banks, overseas financial havens and byzantine accounts in countries without tax or regulation, had better be prepared to defend that financial betrayal."

** Joseph Tanfani, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "When Mitt Romney launched Bain Capital in 1984, he struggled at first to raise enough money.... So he and his partners tapped an eclectic roster of investors, raising more than a third of their first $37-million investment fund from wealthy foreigners. Most of the foreign investors' money came through corporations registered in Panama, then known for tax advantages and unusual banking secrecy.... Bain Capital was enmeshed in the largely opaque world of international high finance from its very inception."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Sylvia Woods, known to so many as the Queen of Soul Food, died at 86."

Bloomberg News: "A former Bank of America Corp. executive was indicted for allegedly participating in what prosecutors said was a 'far-reaching conspiracy' to defraud municipal bond investments through bid rigging. Phillip D. Murphy, former head of Bank of America's municipal derivatives desk, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., wire fraud and conspiracy to make false entries in bank records, according to the indictment filed yesterday in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina.... So far, 13 individuals from banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and UBS AG (UBSN) have pleaded guilty in the Justice Department's investigation. Bank of America, JPMorgan, UBS, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and General Electric Co. have paid more than $700 million in restitution and penalties."

Reuters: "Stocks broke a three-day winning streak on Friday as Europe's debt crisis engulfed markets with renewed fears that Spain may be unable to dodge a costly bailout."

Bloomberg News: "President Barack Obama raised $45.9 million last month and entered July with $97.5 million in the bank.... He started July with more money in the bank than presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who brought in $33 million and reported $22.5 million cash on hand. Obama has now raised more than $307 million for his campaign, compared with more than $156 million for Romney."

Bloomberg News: "The suspect in the Colorado shooting bought two pistols, a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun since May, avoiding federal reporting requirements and taking advantage of the state’s failure to pass significant firearms legislation since the Columbine massacre 13 years ago." ...

... Here's the latest on the Aurora shootings from the Denver Post. The Denver Post front page currently has links to related stories.