New York Times to You: "Drop Dead"

In its never-ending quest to classify and categorize the hoi polloi, the elite Arbiters of Worthiness at the New York Times have created a new class of Worthies.

A number of commenters received notification earlier this week that they had been designated "Trusted Commenters." The Times is publishing comments from these commenters without moderation. This means that comments from these writers will be posted hours before comments by Unworthies.

What? You're not one of the Worthies? Neither am I.

When I complained that popular commenters -- including Yours Truly -- were not among the New Worthies, I received a response which read, in part,

I don't know the details of your comment history on the times (and I don't have any way of finding out), but just so you know the invitations [to become “Trusted Commenters”] are sent out automatically based on an algorithm that takes into account a number of factors. – Aron Pilhofer, Editor, Interactive News, New York Times

One of these Algorithmic Worthies is "tom" from "pittsburgh." Today tom wrote a short, innocuous comment (on Dowd's column) that begins,

The power of the press for good, is why the constitution is important to protect. ...

... and doesn't get better. But, hey, that's how the algorithm crumbles.

Unless and until the Times sees fit to deem hundreds of us among the Worthy, I will neither comment on Times columns nor read the comments (since the Times receives revenue for every click on the comments pages). Please consider joining my boycott.

The Commentariat -- November 9

Today's question on Off Times Square: "Is patriotism a virtue?"

This was the first time in our nation’s history there was a statewide vote on bargaining rights.... If you pay attention to history, you know that collective bargaining is perhaps the single biggest reason we have a strong middle class in this country. It has provided a path to the middle class for hundreds of thousands of workers. The middle class doesn’t happen on its own — and it doesn’t unravel on its own, either. Last night Ohio took a very big step towards rebuilding the middle class.... It’s clear there has been class warfare from the top in this country. The middle class pushed back last night. -- Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), on Ohio voters' repeal of the state law severely restricting public employees' collective bargaining rights

Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "A group of Occupy protesters plan to march nearly 300 miles from New York to Washington DC in a bid to end tax cuts which they say benefit the richest 1% of Americans. The group will set off from Occupy Wall Street on Wednesday and walk 20 miles a day en route to the capital, their arrival planned to coincide with the Congressional deficit reduction super-committee meeting on 23 November." ...

... Gloria Pazmiño of the Manhattan Times: "Northern Manhattan came out to show its support of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement this past Monday morning.... Local residents came out holding signs, megaphones and banging on drums to take on the 11-mile trek along Broadway all the way down to OWS central at Zuccotti Park where protesters have been camped out for nearly two months.... Shouting, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido [The people united will never be defeated],” Victor Guzman, a resident of Washington Heights for more than three decades, said he joined the march to protest the lack of jobs."

** CW: Last week on Off Times Square I posited the question, "Have we been unfair to Obama?" in which I contrasted Obama's presidency with that of FDR. What I meant to do also, and never got around to, was comparing the Congresses with whom the two presidents had to work. But Ezra Klein does get to this aspect of the equation -- or non-equation. Klein also makes arguments similar to ones I made. A few commenters suggested I was an apologist for Obama, but perhaps if they read Klein, they'll be a little more forgiving of both Obama & me: "Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency in 1932, three years into the Great Depression. The unemployment rate that year was 23.6 percent. Obama won the presidency in 2008, mere months into the financial crisis; unemployment was at 6.8 percent. Consequently, the two presidents faced political systems prepared to do very different things. In his new book, 'The New Deal: A Modern History,' Michael Hiltzik makes clear that though FDR was an unusually energetic and ambitious president, he was paired with an unusually energetic and ambitious Congress." Read the whole post.

Henry Gomez of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "By resoundingly rejecting the Republican-backed push to rewrite labor rules for public employees, Buckeye State voters helped set the table for the 2012 presidential election. Without question the results will be viewed as a momentum-builder for Democrats nationwide and should encourage President Barack Obama. He carried Ohio by four points in his 2008 Electoral College landslide, but the GOP won control of every state office and the legislature last fall."

** "Course Correction." Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine has a withering post on the implications of President Obama's demotion reassignment of Bill Daley, his chief-of-staff: Obama has now rejected Daley's Washington elitist view of the Obama presidency -- a view shared by David Brooks, Michael Bloomberg, Mitch McConnell & Karl Rove, BTW. Daley talked Obama into the premise that he should be less liberal, more pro-business, more bipartisan. "Obama issued a course correction and started pursuing a strategy that’s in line with the realities of public opinion and the Congress, as opposed to Daley’s fantasy version thereof. Recognizing public populism and GOP intransigence, he is outlining the legislation he wants...." And it's paying off.

Zaid Jilani of Think Progress. Last week, ", six Democratic senators — Tom Udall (NM), Michael Bennett [sic.; s/b Bennet] (CO), Tom Harkin (IA), Dick Durbin (IL), Chuck Schumer (NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Jeff Merkely [oops! sic.; s/b Merkley] (OR) — introduced a constitutional amendment that would effectively overturn the Citizens United case and restore the ability of Congress to properly regulate the campaign finance system." The Senate resolution introducing the amendment -- which includes the full wording of the proposed amendment -- is here. ...

     ... CW: I don't think the proposed amendment is strong enough -- we know what a good job Congress & state legislatures do at regulating themselves -- but until I see a stronger, viable amendment, I'll support this one. You can add your name to a petition supporting passage of the amendment here. At least this sends a message we aren't happy with Citizens United. ...

... Neil Sinhabubu of Donkeylicious Explains the Difference between People & Corporations to Shut-Ins ... & Nino Scalia: "Real persons have rights, but if you're just pretending that something is a person for limited practical purposes [like listing the owners of property on deeds], you don't have to pretend it has all the rights persons do.... Corporations shouldn't have the right to vote in elections after they've existed for 18 years. The end of a corporation isn't a death, such that intentionally causing it would be murder. These points follow just as well if one sees corporations not as fictions but as groups (as Scalia does at some points) -- groups don't have the vote in addition to that of the individuals who compose them, and disbanding them doesn't constitute murder." CW: oh, and somebody tell Mitt Romney about this, too.

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals just issued a decision in the lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act. It looks like a big win for the administration — and, more importantly, for health care reform.... The author of the majority opinion: Judge Laurence Silberman [is] a Reagan appointee and conservative judge.... The judges are dismissing the distinction between 'activity' and 'inactivity' as meaningless.  That distinction, of course, is the foundation of the lawsuit. The relevant issue, Silberman goes on to say, is whether the mandate affects commerce that crosses state lines. It clearly does." (See also today's Ledes.) ...

... Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "Justice Laurence Silberman, who wrote a full-throated defense of the health reform law, has a lengthy history of conservative legal thought.... What Silberman wrote in today’s opinion hews very closely to the legal argument that the Obama administration has pushed in the courts: The federal government has a constitutional right to regulate an individual’s choice not to purchase insurance, because that decision has an economic effect on others.... Legally speaking, the ruling today is a bit moot: The Supreme Court has already scheduled a conference Thursday to discuss whether to take up any of the challenges to the health reform law ... [so] it’s not even looking at this case.... But politically, it suggests that judges’ political and judicial histories do not necessarily provide reliable guidance as how they will rule on the health reform law." ...

... Pro-BamaCare News Brown-Out. Steve Benen: In news coverage of "lower-court rulings that evaluated the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act..., conservative rulings received more coverage, longer articles, and better placement.... It hasn’t even been close.... The Washington Post continues to be the most one-sided — the three conservative rulings were all treated as front-page news, while the five rulings in support of the law were either buried or ignored."

Craig Whitlock & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "Federal investigators said Tuesday that they had uncovered 'gross mismanagement' at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary that cares for America’s war dead after whistleblowers reported horror stories of lost body parts, shoddy inventory controls and lax supervision.... Military officials said the incidents resulted from the strain of handling thousands of dead bodies, some with gruesome injuries that made it difficult to prepare remains for burial. But the sloppy handling of troops’ remains at Dover painfully undercut the military’s commitment to treat war dead with the utmost honor." An analysis by the U.S. Special Counsel is here. Recommended only for those with strong stomachs.

Ceclia Kang of the Washington Post: "The Federal Communications Commission and cable and computer firms will announce Wednesday a program to provide low-income homes with $10 monthly broadband Internet service and $150 computers.... Beginning in the spring, cable Internet service providers such as Bright House, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner will offer families that are eligible for federal school-lunch programs — 25 million Americans — the discounted monthly service. The service will include free installation and modem rental for two years. Redemtech, a computer refurbishing firm, will offer those families laptops or desktops for $150, with free home shipping and 90 days of tech support. Microsoft will provide new computers for eligible school-lunch families for $250."

Right Wing World

Wanted: Panderer-in-Chief. Libertarian Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic has a fine takedown of popular right-wing gasbag Erick Erickson. Friedersdorf runs through Erickson's critique of GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, then concludes, "Erickson likes [Huntsman's] proposals on most issues, including the ones he finds most important. But in order to take Huntsman seriously, Erickson is going to need him to a) hire a new campaign strategist; b) make different jokes; and c) send different Tweets.... If you want to know why the GOP is stuck with a bunch of frivolous candidates versus Mitt Romney..., that is why. Even the most knowledgeable, allegedly savvy representative of the grassroots won't elevate the substantively more conservative candidate [Huntsman] ... unless he panders. And slakes Erickson's immature thirst for liberal bashing. Meanwhile, Erickson is complaining that he's going to get stuck with a guy that panders. Guess why, Erick?"

It Would Be a Conspiracy if We Hadn't Made It Up. CNN: "Herman Cain's chief-of-staff Mark Block on Tuesday wrongly claimed that the son of a woman who accused Cain of sexual harassment worked at POLITICO, a news outlet that first broke the story.... 'We've confirmed ... that he does indeed work at POLITICO and that's his mother, yes,' Block said. But the man whom Block appears to be talking about – Josh Kraushaar – said he's not related to Karen Kraushaar. He previously worked at POLITICO but now works at National Journal, a news outlet that covers public affairs."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Graham B. Spanier, one of the longest-serving and highest-paid university presidents in the nation..., stepped down Wednesday night in the wake of a sexual-abuse scandal involving a prominent former assistant football coach and the university’s failure to act to halt further harm. Spanier’s departure came as the university’s Board of Trustees also ended the 84-year-old Joe Paterno’s career, denying him his wish to finish out the season, his 46th as the head football coach and his 62nd over all at the school."

There's another Republican presidential debate tonight. It's at 8 pm ET on CNBC & will be broadcast from the campus of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. The CNBC livestream -- for the convenience of reporters and masochists -- will be here, I guess. See the November 10 Commentariat for links to analysis.

New York Times: "A year after Republicans swept legislatures across the country, voters in Ohio delivered their verdict Tuesday on a centerpiece of the conservative legislative agenda, striking down a law that restricted public workers’ rights to bargain collectively. The landslide vote to repeal the bill — 62 percent to 38 percent, according to preliminary results from Ohio’s secretary of state — was a slap to Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican who had championed the law as a tool for cities to cut costs."

Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger: "The contentious Personhood Amendment failed in Mississippi by a wide margin, unofficial and incomplete returns showed Tuesday night. With about 90 percent of the vote counted, the initiative was headed for certain defeat. The proposed amendment, which affirms that all fertilized eggs are people, was one of three initiatives that enlivened polling places across the state." ...

... Clarion-Ledger: "Mississippians have elected Republican Phil Bryant as the state's 64th governor.... As election results came in, Bryant, 56, took an early lead over Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree, 57, solidifying the GOP's hold on the Mississippi Governor's Mansion for at least four more years.... Bryant follows Gov. Haley Barbour, who after serving eight years could not seek re-election because of term limits."

NEW. Arizona Republic: "Russell Pearce, one of the most influential state politicians in the nation and a powerful voice on illegal immigration, was on the verge of losing his Senate seat in Tuesday's unprecedented recall election.... If the vote totals hold, Pearce becomes the first sitting Senate president in the nation and the first Arizona legislator ever to lose a recall election. He would be required to step down immediately once the results become official." His opponent, Jerry Lewis, is also a conservative Republican.

Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal: "Gov. Steve Beshear won a landslide re-election victory Tuesday over Senate President David Williams, sweeping Democrats in four other races into office with him and capping a remarkable four-decade career in Kentucky politics." ...

... Courier-Journal: "Democratic incumbent Jack Conway cruised to an easy victory over Republican Todd P’Pool in the race for Kentucky attorney general, wiping away last year’s brutal U.S. Senate defeat to Rand Paul. With all precincts reporting, Conway had 55 percent of the vote to P’Pool’s 45 percent. The win marks a comeback for Conway, who has acknowledged last year’s bruising loss to Paul was a setback."

Washington Post: "Virginia Democrats’ hopes of maintaining their party’s hold on the Commonwealth’s upper house were very much in doubt late Tuesday, hinging on a razor-thin count in a single Senate district. When the ballot-counting ended for the night, longtime Spotsylvania incumbent Sen. R. Edward Houck (D) was 86 votes behind Republican challenger Bryce E. Reeves. Absentee ballots have been counted, and an unknown number of provisional ballots will be counted Wednesday. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) early Wednesday morning declared victory...."

AP: "A law requiring voters to enroll at least two days before an election was repealed Tuesday, restoring a four-decade policy of allowing registrations up to and including Election Day."

Bloomberg News: "A conservative-leaning panel of federal appellate judges on Tuesday upheld President Barack Obama's health care law as constitutional.... A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a split opinion upholding the lower court's ruling that found Congress did not overstep its authority in requiring people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty on their taxes, beginning in 2014." The ruling is here (pdf).

New York Times: "Italy’s financial crisis deepened on Wednesday despite a pledge by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign once Parliament passes austerity measures demanded by the European Union. The move failed to convince investors, propelling Italy’s borrowing costs through a key financial and psychological barrier of 7 per cent, close to levels that have required other euro zone countries to seek bailouts. Cornered by world markets and humiliated by a parliamentary setback, Mr. Berlusconi appeared to become the most prominent victim of the broader European debt crisis."

New York Times: "Negotiations to choose a new Greek prime minister seemed to have been plunged into new confusion early on Wednesday following widespread reports only hours earlier that Lucas Papademos, a respected economist, was on the verge of being named to the job."

The Commentariat -- November 8

If you live in Ohio, be sure to vote today. Andy Kroll of Mother Jones on why labor is likely to win this one, while unions had less success in Wisconsin. Politico story here. ...

... AND Washington Post: "Virginians go to the polls today to elect state senators, state delegates, county supervisors and school boards." ...

... Ballot Box: In fact, "There are three states holding state legislative elections [today]. A total of 434 seats will be won in Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia." The New Jersey Star-Ledger story is here: "Voters in the Garden State will also have their say on whether New Jersey should pursue legalized sports betting." Also on the ballot in Mississippi today is the odious "personhood amendment," which defines life as beginning at conception and would make all abortion illegal in the state.

... AND there are local elections in North Carolina. One that has received national attention is the Wake County (Raleigh) school board runoff, pitting Tea Party candidate Heather Losurdo, who is backed by the "Pope Machine," against Democrat Kevin Hill. NPR story here. ...

David Catanase & Alex Isenstadt of Politico have a tip sheet on "what to watch for on election night." It's Politico, so take it with a grain of salt, but it should serve as a handy guide.

Foreclosure. Artist Unknown. Sand sculpture, Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Photo by "The Doktor."John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: the public sees Barack Obama as a weak leader because he is a weak leader.

Glenn Thrush of Politico: "Embattled White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will hand off some day-to-day responsibilities to presidential confidante Pete Rouse after coming under fire from West Wing officials for his management style and ineffectual relationship with Congress, according to administration sources.... Rouse, a longtime Hill aide once known as the '101st Senator' for his stature among congressional heavyweights in both parties, will assume a far greater role in legislative affairs — easing growing tension between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who complained to President Barack Obama personally about Daley’s performance, according to congressional sources."

Steve Benen illuminates the Republicans' idea of a "balanced" deficit-reduction deal: it's unclear "how much revenue would the GOP be prepared to accept ... but all of it would come from limiting tax deductions [like the one on second homes], and none of it would come from actually increasing anyone’s taxes. In exchange some undetermined amount of revenue, Democrats on the super-committee would be expected to accept massive spending cuts, including cuts to entitlements, and Dems would have to agree to make all of the Bush tax cuts permanent. That’s just crazy."

Right Wing World

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.... The voter file was set up by the Kochs 18 months ago with $2.5m of their seed money, and is being developed by a hand-picked team of the brothers' advisers.... In classic Koch style, the project is being conducted in great secrecy." ...

     ... CW: the reader who sent me this link wrote, "Sinclair Lewis once said 'when fascism comes to america it will wrapped in the flag and bearing a cross.' If he were alive today he might substituted cross for 'corporate logo'."

“You Want a Job, Right?” Juana Summers & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "A Chicago woman accused Herman Cain of sexually inappropriate behavior Monday, claiming at a news conference that the presidential candidate pushed her to perform a sex act in exchange for his help in landing a job while he ran the National Restaurant Association. In stepping forward, Sharon Bialek, a middle-aged single mother who appeared with celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred in New York, became the first woman to speak on the record about what she claims happened over a decade ago." ...

... New York Times story here. Money quote:

In an interview after Ms. Bialek’s news conference, Joel P. Bennett, a lawyer for one of Mr. Cain’s anonymous accusers, said that Ms. Bialek’s claims were 'very similar' in nature to the incident that occurred between his client and Mr. Cain. CW: that is, I guess, Cain allegedly tried to force Bennett's client to give him a blow job in exchange for some "favor."

     ... Here's a partial transcript of Bialek's statement. CW: As probably hundreds of thousands of women could tell you, Bialek's account is oh-so plausible. It has happened to us. ...

... Lisa Lerer of Bloomberg News: "Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain denied a former employee’s allegation that he groped her after she sought his help in finding a job in 1997." ...

... Ben Smith: In 1999, Bialek had a child by a media executive who filed a paternity suit against her, a case that was ongoing for a decade. The media executive now works for News Corp. CW: somehow Rupert Murdoch gets into every story. ...

... Susan Archer of ABC News: Herman Cain appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night, joked about the accusations against him (because sexual assault is hilarious) and said he would hold a press conference today. CW: watch for the smearing of Sharon Bialek. ...

... Reid Epstein of Politico: "Offering a vigorous denial of Sharon Bialek’s sexual harassment accusations for the first time, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain said he didn’t remember the Illinois woman and said he has never acted inappropriately around any woman." CW: Cain also said "God didn't make little green apples and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime." You can watch Cain's "vigorous denial" here; I'm just not going to post it here. ...

     ... Also, Cain held a news conference today which you can view here on C-SPAN. ...

     ... James Grimaldi of the Washington Post: "One of the women who accused GOP presidential contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s said she wants to go public -- now that her name has been revealed -- and hold a joint news conference with all of the women making similar allegations. Karen Kraushaar, 55, an employee with the Treasury Department’s inspector general office, said she never wanted her name to be made public as one of Cain’s accusers. But a news organization published her name Tuesday and she now says she is ready to go before cameras." New York Times story here.

... AND this guy should be taken off the air. NOW:

Think Progress: 99 facts you should know about Mitt Romney, with links to sources. CW: I'd call it 99 reasons to despise that lying creep.

News Ledes

New York Times: "United Nations weapons inspectors released a trove of new evidence on Tuesday that they say makes a 'credible' case that ' has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device' and that the project may still be under way. The long-awaited report relies on evidence of far greater scope and depth than any the International Atomic Energy Agency has made public before, and represents the harshest judgment the agency has ever issued in its decade-long struggle to pierce the secrecy surrounding the Iranian program." The report (pdf) is here.

New York Times: "Joe Paterno’s tenure as coach of the Penn State football team will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks, in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal that has implicated university officials.... The board of trustees has yet to determine the precise timing of Mr. Paterno’s exit, but it is clear that [he] ... will not survive to coach another season."

AP: "Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and 'it must never happen again.' Facing tough questioning by Senate Republicans, the attorney general said in remarks prepared for a hearing Tuesday that he wants to know why and how firearms that should have been under surveillance could wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels."

Washington Post: "Joe Frazier, 67, the former heavyweight boxing champion who was known for his fighting spirit, powerful punch and intense rivalry with Muhammad Ali, died Monday night in a hospice in Philadelphia. He had been suffering from liver cancer."

Washington Post: "With his nation swept up in a mounting debt crisis, Italy’s embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is scrambling to shore up his political base ahead of a vote in Parliament later Tuesday that could expose just how much support he has lost within his ruling coalition and set the stage for a confidence vote on his government. Berlusconi, facing intensifying calls to resign, is vowing to hold on even as larger Italy overtakes tiny Greece as the focus of Europe’s debt crisis." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "Silvio Berlusconi's closest coalition ally, Umberto Bossi, told him to resign on Tuesday in what could be a mortal blow to the Italian prime minister before a crunch vote in parliament. Bossi, head of the devolutionist Northern League, said the 75-year-old media magnate should be replaced by Angelino Alfano, secretary of the premier's PDL party." ...

     ... AP Update: "Italian Premier Minister Silvio Berlusconi said for the first time Tuesday that he would resign once parliament approves economic reforms, and Greek politicians said they were close to agreeing on a new government to lead their country through painful cutbacks."

Haaretz: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy told U.S. President Barack Obama last week he was fed up with dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and considered him a liar.... 'I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar,' Sarkozy told Obama...." ...

     ... BBC News: "'You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day,' Mr Obama replied." ...

     ... CW: the original report, which is in French, is here. According to the report, Sarkozy said, "Je ne peux plus le voir, c'est un menteur."