The Commentariat -- December 29

My column in the New York Times eXaminer: "Did the New York Times publish a 'lazy rewrite' of a 2008 Reason magazine story? Both of the former Reason reporters – Julian Sanchez and Dave Weigel – say so. Sanchez ... calls New York Times reporters Jim Rutenberg and Serge Kovaleski “a couple of indolent hacks … too desperate to give the appearance of being real reporters to provide a reference and do original work.'” ...

NYTX Editor Chris Spannos: "The New York Times has experienced a dramatic series of changes closing out this year and that seem to cast the shadow of instability over the “paper of record” as it enters into 2012. This month alone delivered news of massive changes including CEO Janet Robinson’s departure from the Times, as well as more than ten buyouts of long-time columnists and editorial staffers. If this news wasn’t enough, the Times also recently announced the sale of 16 local papers that made up its regional media group, and the Newspaper Guild of New York has strongly expressed worker dissatisfaction with Times managerial practices. The Times put icing on its own cake yesterday when it mistakenly sent 8.6 million confusing e-mails notifying recipients that they, the subscriber, had requested cancellation of their own home delivery service." CW: this is a TERRIFIC article, and of course I don't say so just because Spannos mentions ME. The NYTX front page is here.

Paul Krugman: "... the debt we create is basically money we owe to ourselves, and the burden it imposes does not involve a real transfer of resources.... Talking about leaving a burden to our children is especially nonsensical; what we are leaving behind is promises that some of our children will pay money to other children, which is a very different kettle of fish." With graphs! CW: you'll have to read the post. I didn't understand it when Dean Baker wrote about this the other day, but I think I get it now. Oh, bottom line: David Brooks is wrong again.

Denver Post Editorial Board: "... more than 80 years after the federal government issued the first television station license, the [Supreme] Court remains a TV-free fortress. Justices over the years have provided various explanations for this aversion to allowing a camera (and yes, it would probably be a single unobtrusive instrument) in the courtroom — explanations that seem increasingly shopworn as time passes.... We hope the court's longtime ban on TV cameras during arguments will give way to a more enlightened policy." ...

... Linda Greenhouse on the factors that influence judges and justices, and what the public thinks these factors are. It's complex!

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones on "the slippery slope of drone warfare." CW: this is something many of us have been thinking about since the targeting killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki (along with his young son and others). ...

... Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic: "Drones are a perfect weapon for a democracy. One gains all of the political credit for killing the country's enemies, and none of the blame for military casualties.... But I wonder about ... what [the victims' families] think of [a] country [that] executes children a world away with a joystick. I wonder about their anger. But mostly I wonder about the secrecy here at home."

Right Wing World

** James Kirchick of The New Republic in a New York Times op-ed: "... there is one major aspect of [Ron Paul's] newsletters, no less disturbing than their racist content, that has always been present in Paul’s rhetoric, in every forum: a penchant for conspiracy theories.... Paul has frequently attacked the alleged New World Order that 'elitist' cabals, like the Trilateral Commission and the Rockefeller family, in conjunction with 'globalist' organizations, like the United Nations and the World Bank, wish to foist on Americans.... Paul has not just marinated in a stew of far-right paranoia; he is one of the chefs.... Ron Paul is a paranoid conspiracy theorist who regularly imputes the worst possible motives to the very government he wants to lead." ...

... Mike Konczal on how the Ron Paul newsletters for "white dudes" translates into today's Tea Party belief that social welfare is fine for hardworking white people but not for those Other undeserving freeloaders.

"Feel Free to Ignore Iowa." Gail Collins on the Iowa caucuses: "On Tuesday, there will be a contest to select the preferred candidate of a small group of people who are older, wealthier and whiter than American voters in general, and more politically extreme than the average Iowa Republican." ...

... On the Other Hand... Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The 'skip Iowa' strategy has been tried many times, from Al Gore in 1988 to John McCain in 2000 to Wesley Clark in 2004 to Rudy Giuliani in 2012, and it’s never worked yet."

Matt Bai profiles Newt Gingrich for the New York Times Magazine. CW: I didn't read much of it.

News Ledes

The Hill: "New light bulb efficiency standards will begin phasing in on Jan. 1 despite intense opposition from conservatives, who have blasted the rules as a textbook unnecessary federal regulation. While Republicans secured inclusion of a measure blocking funding for enforcementof the standards in a year-end spending bill, energy efficiency groups say the provision will have little practical impact. The Energy Department rules will nonetheless go into effect at the start of 2012."

New York Times: "Fortifying one of its key allies in the Persian Gulf, the Obama administration announced a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia on Thursday, saying it had agreed to sell F-15 fighter jets valued at nearly $30 billion to the Royal Saudi Air Force."

Reuters: "A week after settling a landmark federal discrimination case, Bank of America Corp's Countrywide unit was ordered to face a lawsuit by a Hispanic couple who said it applied excessive pressure to refinance their home on terms they did not accept and could not afford. In an opinion by a prominent Republican-appointed judge, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California said a lower court was wrong to dismiss the complaint by Victor and Belen Balderas, who claimed they could not read the English language loan documents they signed."

If you're wondering if your Sears or K-Mart store has been flagged for closure, the AP has a partial list of stores to be closed.

New York Times: "Egyptian security forces stormed the offices of 17 nonprofit groups around the country on Thursday, including at least three democracy-promotion groups financed by the United States, as part of what Egypt’s military-led government has said is an investigation into “foreign hands” in the recent outbreak of protests.... The raids were a stark escalation in what has appeared to be a campaign by the country’s military rulers to rally support by playing to nationalist and anti-American sentiment here. But for the military rulers to suggest that American government funding may have played a role in the recent unrest is remarkable, in part because the Egyptian military itself receives $1.3 billion in annual American aid."

Bloomberg News: "Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits over the past month than at any time in the past three years, a sign the U.S. labor market is on the mend heading into the new year.... . Applications ... rose for the first time in a month in the week ended Dec. 24, climbing by a more-than- forecast 15,000 to 381,000." ...

... Bloomberg: "The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes rose more than forecast in November as falling prices and low borrowing costs boosted demand."

Washington Post: "Against the backdrop of persistent questions about his conservative credentials, [Mitt] Romney drew enthusiastic crowds as he rumbled across eastern Iowa in a bus making the case that he is the most electable Republican in the field. A Time-CNN poll released Wednesday put Romney at the front of the pack despite his decision to spend relatively little time in Iowa, where a conservative GOP electorate has resisted his candidacy. Romney had 25 percent support, compared with Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) at 22 percent and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) at 15 percent. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), who was the front-runner just a month ago, trailed with 13 percent in the Time-CNN poll."

Washington Post: "With the Iraq war over and troops in Afghanistan on their way home, the U.S. military is getting down to brass tacks: culling generals and admirals from its top-heavy ranks. Pentagon officials said they have eliminated 27 jobs for generals and admirals since March, the first time the Defense Department has imposed such a reduction since the aftermath of the Cold War, when the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted the military to downsize."

New York Times: "North Korea declared on Thursday the young heir Kim Jong-un supreme head of the country, as tens of thousands of people rallied in Pyongyang one day after the funeral of his father, Kim Jong-il, to swear their allegiance to the dynastic transfer of power."

New York Times: "Turkish airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the Kurdish border region with Iraq on Thursday in what the army said was an operation aimed at separatist fighters. Local villagers said the dead were instead young diesel smugglers who had been misidentified by the Turkish military."

Reuters: "Syrian security forces shot dead 17 protesters Thursday, six of them in a city being visited by Arab League monitors checking on President Bashar al-Assad's compliance with a pledge to stop a military crackdown on popular unrest."

The Commentariat -- December 28

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on Ross Douthat and the Seven Dwarfs. Douthat found something to like in all seven GOP presidential candidates. As you might suspect, I didn't. The NYTX front page is here.

Toddlers Can Be Heroes, Too. Many thanks to Lane Moore of Jezebel for the video & to Akhilleus (also a hero) for sending the link to the video of Riley, the Littlest Feminist:

** Stephen Marche of Esquire: "... a class system has arrived in America — a recent study of the thirty-four countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that only Italy and Great Britain have less social mobility.... In the United States, the emerging aristocracy remains staunchly convinced that it is not an aristocracy, that it's the result of hard work and talent. The permanent working poor refuse to accept that their poverty is permanent. The class system is clandestine.... The majority of new college grads in the United States today are either unemployed or working jobs that don't require a degree. Roughly 85 percent of them moved back home in 2011, where they sit on an average debt of $27,200. The youth unemployment rate in general is 18.1 percent.... The Tea Partiers blame the government. The Occupiers blame the financial industry. Both are really mourning the arrival of a new social order, one not defined by opportunity but by preexisting structures of wealth." ...

... ** "Income Inequality Is a Symptom, Not the Disease." Charles Pierce on how Bill Clinton made you poor and the New York Times and University of Chicago say it isn't so.

Batocchio, the Vagabond Scholar, links the best blogger posts of the year, chosen by the bloggers themselves. I've read several, & they are indeed quite fine -- and many are funny.

Ron Klain, a former Obama administration official, writing in Bloomberg News, credits Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner & then-economic counsellor Gene Sperling with setting up the payroll tax extension face-off between the President & the Republican Tea Partiers in Congress.

Nate Silver explains why he "concurs with the conventional wisdom that Republicans are favorites to win control of the Senate next year." CW: I keep thinking, "Surely voters will come to their senses." But I trust Silver's stats a lot more than I trust my own wishful thinking.

Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration’s counterterrorism accomplishments are most apparent in what it has been able to dismantle, including CIA prisons and entire tiers of al-Qaeda’s leadership. But ... in the space of three years, the administration has built an extensive apparatus for using drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other adversaries. The apparatus involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in at least six countries on two continents. Other commanders in chief have presided over wars with far higher casualty counts. But no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals."

Dana Milbank reveals "the cracks in his crystal ball." ...

... Steve Benen fesses up to some of his predictions gone awry.

Ben Nelson, Cornhusker Cowpie. Steve Benen: "Democratic leaders from the White House and Capitol Hill pleaded with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), asking him to run for re-election for one main reason: the party is desperate to keep its Senate majority and it has no one else to run in Nebraska. As is often the case, Nelson is letting his party down.... Nelson waited until after Democratic and allied groups had invested [more than $1MM] ... to strengthen his standing in Nebraska, and then decided to retire.... Nelson has voted with the right many times over the last couple of years — even on filibusters — offering Republicans cover on a wide range of issues. When pressed, Nelson would often tell his Democratic allies the votes were necessary to bolster his re-election bid."

Lee Spears of Bloomberg News: "With Facebook considering the largest Internet IPO on record and regulatory filings showing that at least 14 other Web-related companies are planning sales, the industry may raise $11 billion next year.... That would be the most since $18.5 billion of IPOs in 1999, just before the dot-com bubble burst."

Right Wing World

Dan Balz & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The Republican presidential candidates opened an intensive week of campaigning in wide-open Iowa Tuesday with the embattled Newt Gingrich casting rival Mitt Romney as an establishment defender of big government and accusing Romney’s supporters of lying about his record." ...

... AND if you'd like to know what nasty things the GOP candidates are saying about each other in Iowa, Jeff Zeleny & Michael Shear of the New York Times provide a sampling. ...

... Oh, Here's a Sample. Alex Moe of NBC News: "The Strong America Now Super PAC is sending direct mail pieces to Iowans this week in support of Newt Gingrich while attacking Mitt Romney – something the Gingrich campaign has vowed not to tolerate. 'Romney is the second most dangerous man in America and will perpetuate Obama's slide into financial crisis,' one of at least two mailers from the Super PAC floating around the state reads." ...

... AND Here's Another. Ron Paul is "The One." The other guys are "serial hypocrites" and "flip-floppers":

Steve Benen sums up why Mitt Romney -- unlike every presidential candidate since Watergate -- won't release his tax returns:

1. Mitt Romney is worth $250 million.
2. He got rich by laying off American workers.
3. He pays a lower tax rate than you and the rest of the middle class.
4. He wants to be president so he can keep it this way.

America must decide who to trust: Al Gore’s Texas cheerleader, or the one who stood with Reagan. -- Ron Paul campaign ad

More Implicit Lies from Ron Paul. Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "We pulled this comment [above] from an ad that accuses Rick Perry of trying to 'undo the Reagan Revolution' when he backed Al Gore for president in 1988.... Paul has little room to criticize politicians for changing their party affiliations. He campaigned for president as a Libertarian in 1988, after running for office seven times as a Republican and serving as a GOP member of the U.S. House for more than six years at that point. So why didn’t he vie for the Republican nomination? Because he’d renounced the party — along with Reagan’s presidential policies — a few years earlier, resigning from the GOP and forgoing a bid for reelection to Congress."

Charles Pierce: South Carolina's Gov. Nikki Haley is "outraged" that U.S. AG Eric Holder has gone all lawyery on her state & is enforcing the Voting Rights Act. Pierce suggests she move to Oshkosh, by gosh.

Jason Easley at Politicus USA: All those nice Christians over at Fox "News" are "outraged" that the Obama family has taken a Christmas vacation which will cost taxpayers $4MM, including "the cost of everything from transportation to accommodations for the First Family, the White House staff, and the White House press corps." But somehow they weren't outraged with President Dubya spent much, much more on his many trips to his Crawford ranch. "He was the most expensive vacation president in US history." Thanks to Kate M. for the link.

Here's an update on Worst Christmas Songs Ever. This is an actual campaign video, which should disabuse you of the notion there could ever be a President Newt:

     ... Update: Ha ha ha. "This video has been removed by the user" -- the "user" of course being the Newt. Luckily, somebody else captured it (Newt can probably take this down, too, so watch it while it lasts, but definitely before lunch -- and not while you're drinking a beverage to preclude the chance of a spit-take that might zap your keyboard):

News Ledes

New York Times: "Hosni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt ousted in the revolution last February, was wheeled back into a courtroom [in Cairo] on a hospital gurney on Wednesday to resume his trial amid reports from both supporters and opponents that the proceedings appeared to be going in his favor."

New York Times: "Italy’s short-term borrowing costs were halved Wednesday at an auction of government bills, easing the immediate pressure on the country’s economy."

Reuters: "Closing off the Gulf to oil tankers will be 'easier than drinking a glass of water' for Iran if the Islamic state deems it necessary, state television reported on Wednesday, ratcheting up fears over the world's most important oil chokepoint."

New York Times: Sergei Filippov, a high-ranking member of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party "disrupt[ed] scheduled debates [at a meeting of a regional legislature] on forest fire prevention and a transportation tax, to make an appeal to his fellow party members: acknowledge and repair the fraud that many people here believe United Russia committed in recent parliamentary elections." Putin has dismissed criticisms of the elections.

The Commentariat -- December 27

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer: "If it’s Tuesday, it must be time for David Brooks to tell us that government doesn’t work and Americans are immoral." The NYTX front page is here. ...

... Dean Baker in the New York Times eXaminer on Brooks' complaint that our economy is no longer nearly as "vibrant" as it was a 100 years ago: "The fact that factories can produce large amounts of output with 100 workers is in fact evidence of economic vibrancy, not the opposite. This is called 'productivity growth.' It is the main measure of the economy’s ability to raise living standards through time. The fact that 100 people in a factory can produce the same output as 1000 people did 30 years ago means that we are potentially much richer than we were 30 years ago. We can have the other 900 people doing other productive work. Alternatively, we can all work many fewer hours."

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Largely insulated from the country’s economic downturn since 2008, members of Congress — many of them among the '1 percenters' denounced by Occupy Wall Street protesters — have gotten much richer even as most of the country has become much poorer in the last six years.... Congress ... has long been populated with the rich.... But rarely has the divide appeared so wide, or the public contrast so stark, between lawmakers and those they represent.... Members of Congress are getting richer compared not only with the average American worker, but also with other very rich Americans."

Ethan Bronner of the New York Times: "An Israeli television station reported last spring on numerous trips Benjamin Netanyahu had taken as an elected official to Paris, London and New York before becoming prime minister in 2009. Accompanied by his wife, he flew first class and stayed in baronial hotel suites.... The bills, displayed on screen, were paid for by wealthy friends.... But instead of accolades for its journalism, Channel 10 is now fighting for its life, and Mr. Netanyahu’s hostility toward it is being cast as part of a broader cultural and political war in Israel between the left and the right involving efforts to control the judiciary, the reporting of news and public discourse."

Right Wing World

Barbara Morrill of Daily Kos: "Last week, [Ron] Paul walked out during an interview with CNN's Gloria Borger after being asked about the newsletters, saying'"I didn’t write them, I disavow them, That’s it.' Uh huh." This week, the Huff Post found 1996 newspaper items like this: "He [Paul] said he has written 'thousands of items' during the past 20 years and that releasing these materials would be impractical." As Morrill writes, "Busted." ...

... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: according to former Ron Paul staffer Eric Dondero, Paul loves teh gays; Dr. Paul is just petrified to use "gay toilets." He's a doctor! A medical doctor! ...

... Here's Dondero's full statement, which he released to Right Wing News. ...

... John Cole of Balloon Juice comments. ...

... Former Bush II speechwriter David Frum, in a long post for CNN: "The daffy old coot side of Ron Paul's personality is genuine enough. The crank side is certainly genuine, as are at least some of the racial views. Even after Paul abandoned the crude race-baiting of his 1990s newsletters, he continued to engage in elaborate apologetics for the Confederate side of the Civil War. Also genuine, however, is the huckster aspect of the Ron Paul persona." CW: the long knives are out. ...

... CW: Andrew Sullivan, who is wrong about almost everything except gay rights, un-endorses Ron Paul, but not strongly enough, IMHO.

Speaking of Liars. Alan Cole of CNN: "Newt Gingrich claims that it was his first wife, not Gingrich himself, who wanted their divorce in 1980, but court documents obtained by CNN appear to show otherwise.... 'It was (Jackie Gingrich) that requested the divorce, not Newt,' the [Gingrich] campaign website said.... After initially being told that the divorce documents were sealed, CNN on Thursday obtained the folder containing the filings in the divorce.... Newt Gingrich filed a divorce complaint on July 14, 1980, in Carroll County, [Georgia].... 'Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time,' her petition said." ...

NEW. Jonathan Karl of ABC News: Newt RomneyCare.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A senior Iranian official on Tuesday delivered a sharp threat in response to economic sanctions being readied by the United States, saying his country would retaliate against any crackdown by blocking all oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for transporting about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply."

Washington Post: "Sen. Ben Nelson, the Nebraska Democrat who built an image as a moderating influence on his party, announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in 2012, improving Republican chances of winning the seat and taking control of the Senate in 2013."

New York Times: "The Kremlin on Tuesday announced the reassignment of Vladislav Y. Surkov, the architect of the highly centralized political system that has come under waves of protest from middle-class Muscovites over the last month. Mr. Surkov, a former advertising prodigy, coined the term 'sovereign democracy' to describe his system, which preserved the electoral process but hollowed out institutions capable of challenging the Kremlin’s power."

Al Jazeera: "Israel has launched multiple airstrikes in the Gaza strip, killing a former fighter and wounding at least 10 others, according to Palestinian officials. The Israeli rocket hit a car parked next to a motorcycle belonging to the man. Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group, says he was a former member. Another airstrike hit a Hamas police vehicle and injured an officer and four others." ...

     ... Haaretz: "The Israel Air Force conducted a second strike of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, just hours after the Israeli army confirmed it targeted a terror operative in the coastal strip. A statement by the IDF Spokesman's Office said that the second strike targeted a global Jihad terror cell in the northern Strip that was planning to attack the western part of Israel's border with Egypt."

New York Times: "President Obama said Tuesday that he would nominate Jeremy C. Stein, a Harvard economist, and Jerome H. Powell, a former private equity executive, to fill the two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve’s board. The pairing of Professor Stein, a Democrat, and Mr. Powell, a Republican, is a carefully weighted gesture, a pragmatic attempt to satisfy Senate Republicans who have repeatedly refused to allow votes on nominees for regulatory positions."

New York Times: "The Syrian government pulled tanks from the streets of Homs on Tuesday as Arab League observers arrived in the besieged city to monitor pledges by the government to withdraw troops and heavy weapons from residential areas." Al Jazeera story here. ...

     ... Al Jazeera Update: "Syrian government forces have reportedly fired tear gas and live rounds at thousands of protesters in Homs, as Arab League monitors finished their first day of observation in the city that has been the centre of the anti-government protest movement." With video.

Reuters: "Retailer Sears Holdings Corp said it plans to close 100-120 Kmart and Sears Full-line stores and expects its adjusted fourth-quarter EBITDA to more than halve from a year ago. The company reported $933 million in adjusted fourth-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization last year." AP story (via NYT) here.

AP: "Britain's Prince Philip returned to the royal family's country estate Tuesday, after a spell in the hospital undergoing treatment for a blocked coronary artery." Guardian story here.