The Commentariat -- October 23

Prof. Alexander Stille in a New York Times op-ed: "... one dispossessed group after another — blacks, women, Hispanics and gays — has been gradually accepted in the United States, granted equal rights and brought into the mainstream. At the same time, in economic terms, the United States has gone from being a comparatively egalitarian society to one of the most unequal democracies in the world. The two shifts are each huge and hugely important: one shows a steady march toward democratic inclusion, the other toward a tolerance of economic stratification that would have been unthinkable a generation ago."

Gretchen Morgenson & Louise Story of the New York Times: "While American financial institutions have sought to limit any damage by reducing their loans and thus lowering their direct exposure to Europe’s problems, the recent rescue of the Belgian-French bank Dexia shows that there are indirect exposures that are less known and understood — and potentially worrisome." ...

... Good luck figuring out this dizzying New York Times graph demonstrating the interconnections between U.S. and European banks.

Contrary to earlier indications, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports Occupy Wall Street and welcomes protesters from around the world:

I've never brought a whiff of my political activities into the work I've done for NPR World of Opera. What is NPR afraid I'll do — insert a seditious comment into a synopsis of Madame Butterfly? ... This sudden concern with my political activities is also surprising in light of the fact that Mara Liaason reports on politics for NPR yet appears as a commentator on FoxTV, Scott Simon hosts an NPR news show yet writes political op-eds for national newspapers, Cokie Roberts reports on politics for NPR yet accepts large speaking fees from businesses. -- Lisa Simeone ...

... Andrew Jones of Raw Story: "National Public Radio (NPR) has continued its decision to remove itself from anything associated with Lisa Simeone after her participation in an anti-war protest in Washington. The network will no longer distribute 'World of Opera,' a show Simeone hosts.... WDAV, the station that produces 'World of Opera,' refused to drop the radio music personality and will distribute the show on its own starting November 11th. Earlier in the week, Simeone was fired from the radio documentary program 'Soundprint,'" which is independently produced by airs on some 35 NPR affiliates.

Jeffrey Fleishman & Alexandra Sandels of the Los Angeles Times: Tunisia, which "inspired revolution across the Arab world, is facing another bellwether moment that may again foreshadow what happens throughout the Mideast in the intensifying battle between secularists and Islamists over the role of religion in shaping public life." See also today's Ledes.

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "For decades, Germany’s role in Europe has been to supply the cash, not the leadership. With fresh memories of war, the continent was cautious about German domination — and so were the Germans themselves. But the economic crisis has shaken Europe’s postwar model, and Germany increasingly calls the shots. As countries struggle to pay their debts, only Chancellor Angela Merkel has enough money to haul them out of trouble. And the price Merkel is demanding — more control over how they run their economies — is setting off alarm bells in capitals across the continent."

Right Wing World

Still a Cold Fish. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Ever since he stepped onto the national stage, [Mitt] Romney has been criticized as being unable to connect with voters — partly because of past positions out of step with many in his party and partly because of what some say is a wooden, detached personality.... When voters exposed themselves emotionally, Romney offered little empathy. When they sought his support for their causes, Romney didn’t show them that he cared. Romney was scripted when he could have been spontaneous. He was boardroom cool when he could have been living room warm."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "On the campaign trail, [Herman Cain] talks up his business experience, casting himself as a 'problem solver' and Washington outsider. But the role that helped propel Mr. Cain into politics was that of an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist. From 1996, when he left the pizza company, until 1999, Mr. Cain ran the National Restaurant Association, a once-sleepy trade group that he transformed into a lobbying powerhouse. He allied himself closely with cigarette makers fighting restaurant smoking bans, spoke out against lowering blood-alcohol limits as a way to prevent drunken driving, fought an increase in the minimum wage and opposed a patients’ bill of rights — all in keeping with the interests of the industry he represented." ...

... Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: in an effort to blunt widespread criticism of his 999 tax plan, Herman Cain made a speech in Detroit, Michigan, on Friday in which he "offered new details on his tax plan that he says would reduce taxes both for people who are poor and businesses that invest in low-income areas like Detroit.... But ... millions of Americans would still likely face a tax increase under Cain’s proposals." ...

... Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: Among those new details is a description of the "opportunity zones" Cain envisions: "for a jurisdiction to qualify, it would have to adopt a number of conservative policies that may seem unpalatable to liberals, including eliminating the minimum wage, instituting school vouchers, and declaring the area 'right-to-work' – or non-union." So if you want a job in Detroit, don't expect to get paid a big fat minimum wage or be allowed to join a union. BTW, "Two days after admitting that this facet of his plan was secret, Cain now claims that those criticizing his plan 'didn’t read it.'” Well, no, they didn't read what wasn't there. CW: in this short post Garofalo manages to expose Herman Cain as one nasty human being.

"Birthers Eat Their Own." Dana Milbank: "The people who brought you the Barack Obama birth-certificate hullabaloo now have a new target: Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a man often speculated to be the next Republican vice presidential nominee. While they’re at it, they also have Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana and perhaps a future presidential candidate, in their sights. Each man, the birthers say, is ineligible to be president because he runs afoul of the constitutional requirement that a president must be a 'natural born citizen' of the United States. Rubio’s parents were Cuban nationals at the time of his birth, and Jindal’s parents were citizens of India.... This suggests they were going after Obama..., not because of the president’s political party [but] ... because of his race.... [They rely] on a rather expansive interpretation of 'natural born.'” ...

... Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post: "Following an article in the Washington Post stating that the senator had embellished the story of his family’s arrival from Cuba to the United States, Sen. Marco Rubio’s Senate Web site biography has now been changed.... But as of Friday night, the day the Post story was published and about 24 hours after he conceded it was inaccurate, the senator updated the second sentence of his Web site biography to clarify that his parents arrived in the U.S. in 1956."

Pat Garofalo: In the speech House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) chose not to give when he realized the University of Pennsylvania would allow poor people to attend, he would have said, "Be nicer to rich people." Garofalo has the details. CW: evidently Leader Cantor doesn't actually want to tell us peasants we should be nicer to poor people; he just wanted to reassure a toney crowd that he would continue to be nice to rich people.

News Ledes

Star-Ledger: the Justice Department has closed a five-year-old corruption probe of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) brought by then-U.S. attorney (now New Jersey governor) Chris Christie during the height of Sen. Menendez' 2006 re-election fight.

Bloomberg News: "Bobby Jindal, a Republican who championed stronger ethics laws in his first term as Louisiana governor, won re-election against nine other candidates in an open primary, according to the Associated Press. Jindal earned 65.8 percent of the vote in yesterday’s ballot, negating the need for a November general election, according to the AP, which declared him the winner. Tara Hollis, a Democrat and schoolteacher making her first bid for public office, came in second with 17.9 percent of the vote, with 100 percent of precincts reporting." Times-Picayune story here.

New York Times: "The leader of the transitional government declared to thousands of revelers in a sunlit square here on Sunday that Libya’s revolution had ended, setting the country on the path to elections, and he vowed that the new government would be based on Islamic tenets."

New York Post: "Filth-ridden Zuccotti Park is a breeding ground for bacterial infection loaded with potential health-code violations that pose a major risk to the public, an expert who inspected the area warned. 'It’s like Walmart for rats,' Wayne Yon, an expert on city health regulations, said yesterday.... He noted the lack of lavatory facilities, as neighbors repeatedly complain about protesters defecating in the area and the stench of urine." ...

... Chicago Tribune: "Chicago police arrested about 130 Occupy Chicago protesters starting about 1 a.m. today after the group returned to Grant Park for the second weekend Saturday night and tried to maintain a camp in the park after its official closing time. Police estimated that the crowd that showed up for a rally earlier in the evening peaked at around 3,000 people by the time protesters arrived Congress Plaza at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway after a march from Federal Plaza in the Loop." ...

... Elsewhere around the Nation World:

     ... Washington Post: "Numerous local and federal agencies are involved in what has been described as 'sensitive and delicate' discussions about the future of the Occupy DC camp in McPherson Square downtown, but as of now the protest will be able to continue, Park Service officials and police said Saturday. With the number of tents in the park growing and with protesters vowing to stay into winter, officials with the National Park Service, Park Police, District mayor’s office, U.S. Attorney’s office, D.C. Attorney General’s office, District police department and Interior Department have been in constant contact about the situation." ...

     ... AP: "Police say 11 Occupy Cincinnati protesters were arrested early Sunday after refusing to leave a downtown square." ...

     ... ABC News: "A crowd of 100 protesters, some from New York City’s Occupy Wall Street movement and others from Occupy New Haven, came together in a show of solidarity on Saturday afternoon on General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt’s front lawn in New Canaan, Conn. Many of those who came from New York were responding to an invitation posted on Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly web site that read: 'In the land of the free they tax me but not G.E!'” ...

     ... AP: "Protesters camped out in front of Oakland City Hall in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement showed no signs of going away Saturday despite warnings from city officials that they were breaking the law and should not stay there overnight." ...

     ... ** CBS Sacramento: "Most of the Occupy protests have been in large cities, but now part-time protestors are showing up in smaller cities." CW: this story & the accompanying video feature Off Times Square contributor Elizabeth Adams. I can't get the video up on Reality Chex, but I've asked the station to check their code.

     ... CBS News: "Albuquerque police subdued a 48-year-old man who lunged with a knife at a group of protesters gathered Friday evening near the University of New Mexico in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. About 100 people were in the area when Miguel Aguirre - described by police as a homeless man who also was drunk - pulled out a knife and attempted to stab several protesters. No one was injured." ...

     ... UK Telegraph: in London, the dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, who originally welcomed Occupy London protesters, has done an about-face & has asked the 250 protesters who are occupying its churchyard to leave.

CNN: "Under pressure and amid threats of candidates boycotting the state, the Nevada Republican Party pushed back the date of its caucus to February 4. The state's GOP central committee voted in overwhelming favor of the new date on Saturday."

AP: "An autopsy confirmed that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi died from a gunshot to the head, the country's chief pathologist said Sunday, just hours before Libya's new leaders were to declare liberation and a formal end to an eight-month civil war to topple the longtime ruler's regime." ...

... Washington Post: "Nearly 7,000 prisoners of war are packed into dingy, makeshift jails around Libya, where they have languished for weeks without charges and have faced abuse and even torture, according to human rights groups and interviews with the detainees. The prisoners will pose an early test of the new government’s ability to rein in powerful militias and break from the cruel legacy of Moammar Gaddafi...."

AP: "Tunisians began voting Sunday in their first truly free elections, the culmination of a popular uprising that ended decades of authoritarian rule and set off similar rebellions across the Middle East."

Reuters: "European Union leaders piled pressure on Italy on Sunday to speed up economic reforms to avoid a Greece-style meltdown as they began a crucial two-leg summit called to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis."

AP: "Saudi Arabia’s ruling monarchy moved into a critical period of realignment Saturday after the death of the heir to the throne opened the way for a new crown prince: most likely a tough-talking interior minister who has led crackdowns on Islamic militants but also has shown favor to ultraconservative traditions such as keeping the ban on women voting ... Sultan’s half brother, Prince Nayef."

The Commentariat -- October 22

I've posted an Open Thread for comments on Off Times Square.

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here. Reuters: "President Barack Obama sought on Saturday to cast himself as a strong leader on foreign policy, highlighting a U.S. pullout from Iraq and the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as success stories."

To rid the world of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Qaddafi within six months: if Obama were a Republican, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now. -- Andrew Sullivan

First the Republicans were about to impeach Obama for intervening in Libya (even though he sent no combat troops there) and then when his strategy works spectacularly they say he didn't do anything. -- Calyban

Glenn Greenwald: we're bringing the troops home from Iraq because the Iraqi government wouldn't let them stay. ...

... Indeed, here's how Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian reports the story: "The US suffered a major diplomatic and military rebuff on Friday when Iraq finally rejected its pleas to maintain bases in the country beyond this year. Barack Obama announced at a White House press conference that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of December, a decision forced by the final collapse of lengthy talks between the US and the Iraqi government on the issue. The Iraqi decision is a boost to Iran...." CW Note: this is the Guardian's front-page news report, not an opinion piece. The story goes a long way to explain what I couldn't figure out earlier -- why Obama used a Friday afternoon news dump to make his announcement. ...

     ... Update. The New York Times now has this story by Tim Arango & Michael Schmidt: "President Obama’s announcement on Friday that all American troops would leave Iraq by the end of the year was an occasion for celebration for many, but some top American military officials were dismayed by the announcement, seeing it as the president’s putting the best face on a breakdown in tortured negotiations with the Iraqis." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of Wired: "... the fact is America’s military efforts in Iraq aren’t coming to an end. They are instead entering a new phase. On January 1, 2012, the State Department will command a hired army of about 5,500 security contractors, all to protect the largest U.S. diplomatic presence anywhere overseas. The State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security does not have a promising record when it comes to managing its mercenaries.... You can also expect that there will be a shadow presence by the CIA, and possibly the Joint Special Operations Command...."

Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "... conservatives and Tea Party activists have rushed to discredit the comparison [between the Tea Party & Occupy Wall Street]. They have portrayed the Occupy protesters as messy, indolent, drug-addled and anti-Semitic, circulated a photo of one of them defecating on a police car.... While Occupy forces find fault in the banks and super-rich, the Tea Party movement blames the government for the economic calamity brought on by the mortgage crisis, and sees the wealthy as job creators who will lift the country out of its economic malaise. To them, the solution is less regulation of banks, not more." CW: oligarchs on the right have a deeply-vested interest in creating a division between Tea Party & OWS protesters. It is not surprising that they, and Tea Party leaders with an interest in maintaining their own power, will make huge efforts to sever the natural ties between the two movements.

Risa Goluboff & Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: "... a look at the history of voting rights in this country shows that the current state efforts to suppress minority voting — from erecting barriers to registration and early voting to voter ID laws — look an awful lot like methods pioneered by the white supremacists from another era that achieved the similar results.... The reasons [given] for introducing all of these new rules echo the pretextual rationales of the Jim Crow era.... The underlying goal of these restrictions is also unchanged: to shape an electorate that will vote for particular kinds of politicians."

Jared Bernstein: "The whole tax reform thing is really overplayed. Yes, there are gross complexities and inefficiencies in the current system — and btw, such complications can easily be replicated in any other system, including a flat tax. Our best move would be to simplify our current system — get rid of loopholes (e.g., deferral of foreign earnings), distortions (favoring of debt financing, special rates for unearned income, some of the large tax expenditures like the mortgage interest deduction), and we’d be fine. Remember, our biggest problem is pretax–jobs, income, wages, inequality. And despite rhetoric to the contrary, we can’t solve that through tax reform (though with plans like 9-9-9, we can make it worse)." YOu can watch the Kudlow segment at the linked site; only Bernstein is worth hearing.

Alex Massie of the (UK) Spectator: how weak is the field of Republican presidential candidates? Not much worse than either the Republican or Democratic fields in earlier years.

CW: I haven't been following the Fisker "scandal," but if you have, here's the lowdown from David Roberts of Grist: "ABC News and iWatch have a big new report out that desperately tries to lend an air of scandal to another Department of Energy loan guarantee. It's a remarkable package, nearly 3,000 words and three ABC News segments full of handwaving and innuendo suggesting that there's something shady going on, using the word 'Solyndra' as often as possible, but in the end there's ... nothing. Not a single bit of evidence of wrongdoing or corruption.... It just describes the loan program working exactly as it was intended to, but in a tone of dark insinuation." Roberts backs up his contention.

CW: look for the right-wing media to be pumping out more stories like this one from Rupert Murdoch's New York Post: "A married mother of four from Florida ditched her family to become part of the raggedy mob in Zuccotti Park -- keeping the park clean by day and keeping herself warm at night with the help of a young waiter from Brooklyn.... Ironically, [she] is married to a banker!" Iin case you missed the subtlety here, the Post wants you to know: OWS protesters are depraved!

CW: There's are aspects of the climate change study linked in yesterday's Ledes that I missed: per Brad Plumer of the Washington Post, the study -- which used a massive database & which confirms global warming -- was conducted by climate change skeptics. Oh, and funded in part by our good friends & industrial polluting Koch brothers!

Jon Stewart reacts to the death of Muammar Gaddafi -- and at about 6:20 min. in, to the right wing's response to the news:

Right Wing World

Does Eric Cantor Ever Tell the Truth? About Anything? Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) abruptly canceled his speech on income inequality scheduled for this afternoon at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Cantor placed the blame squarely on the university, saying they changed the attendance policy at the last minute.... In a statement just released by the university, the school disputes Cantor’s explanation, saying the speech was always billed as 'open to the general public.'”

What If There's a Mutiny... Reuters: "Staff members in New Hampshire for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann have resigned en masse, a Republican familiar with the situation said on Friday, in a fresh blow to her 2012 hopes." ...

... But the Captain Doesn't Notice? Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: Later, Bachmann says in a radio interview it's news to her. 

It Depends on What the Meaning of "Exile" Is. Oh, and What the Meaning of "Follow" Is. Steve Benen: "Throughout the day, [Sen. Marco Rubio's {R-Fla.}] office has been engaged in some pretty aggressive pushback [links that follow are to cited works], publishing a piece in Politico, circulating a Miami Herald article in which he recently told his parents’ story accurately, and generally putting a spin on the word 'exile.' But for all of his righteous indignation, Rubio’s personal bio still includes this claim:

In 1971, Marco was born in Miami to Cuban-born parents who came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover.

     ... That’s just not true. 1956 does not 'follow' 1959. It’d be easy for the senator and his office to fix this. When Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) got caught plagiarizing on his website, the senator blamed it on a staff error and took down the content. Notice, however, that Marco Rubio refuses to do back down...."

Steve Kornacki of Salon: Marco Rubio has bigger problems than making misstatements about his parents' immigration. If he was sloppy about his family history, he's been even sloppier about keeping track of campaign money & party credit card expenses. "This is the sort of stuff that could raise serious red flags during the V.P. vetting process. And you’ve got to imagine that after the Palin experience of 2008, the next GOP nominee will be a little more careful."

Philip Elliott & Shannon McCaffrey of the AP: "After captivating Republicans hungry for an alternative to Mitt Romney, [Herman Cain] has made a series of stumbles that have left some questioning if he's ready for the White House." CW: Some??? 

Former House Speaker & Future President Gingrich Would Smack Down Those Supremes. Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic: "Newt Gingrich has expressed many reckless ideas in his long public life. Here is the latest: He wants Congress to subpoena federal judges whose decisions it disagrees with so that legislative committee members can hector those judges in public for 'dictating' the law to the American people. This, Gingrich concludes, would 're-balance' the Constitution in a way that he thinks is appropriate." This, of course, is "unconstitutional under any reasonable interpretation of the document or its subsequent precedent." ...

... Kevin Burke, President of the American Judges Association: in his "campaign manifesto..., Gingrich calls for using 'the clearly delineated powers available to the president and Congress to correct, limit or replace judges who violate the Constitution.' In support of his platform, Gingrich said that 'President Thomas Jefferson abolished over half the federal judgeships.'" Noting that Gingrich is an historian who should have got his history right, Burke delves into what Jefferson did & why -- and why Jefferson was unsuccessful in his attempt to politicize the Supreme Court. "By rebelling against Jefferson's wishes, the Senate sent a message that the independence of the judiciary was not open to political manipulation. Political manipulation seems to be a central tenant of Gingrich's present views on the judiciary, and that is where his fidelity to history and facts fall short." Thanks to a reader for the link.

News Ledes

AP: "Iraq's prime minister said Saturday that U.S. troops are leaving Iraq after nearly nine years of war because Baghdad rejected American demands that any U.S. military forces to stay would have to be shielded from prosecution or lawsuits. The comments by Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, made clear that it was Iraq who refused to let the U.S. military remain under the Americans' terms."

** AP: "The government's promise of lifetime health care for the military's men and women is suddenly a little less sacrosanct as Congress looks to slash trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Republicans and Democrats alike are signaling a willingness — unheard of at the height of two post-Sept. 11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — to make military retirees pay more for coverage." CW Translation: now that we don't need so many people to lay down their lives fighting wars we authorized, we think we can get away with making enlistment a little less attractive. Oh, and those of you who signed up thinking you'd have healthcare for life -- Suckers!

Haircut. AP: "The eurozone's 17 finance ministers have agreed that banks must accept substantially bigger losses on their Greek bonds, and a new report suggests that writedowns of up to 60 percent may be necessary." Related New York Times story here. ...

     ... AP Update: "EU finance ministers neared agreement Saturday on forcing banks to raise just over euro100 billion ($140 billion) to make sure they have enough reserves to weather further losses on their Greek debt holdings and market turmoil...."

Reuters: "Muammar Gaddafi's body lay still unburied as Libya's new men of power wrangled over its fate and a formal announcement the war was over, a move the outgoing premier said on Saturday should mean free elections in the middle of next year. Mahmoud Jibril, an expatriate academic who has been prime minister in the Western-backed rebel government, confirmed he was stepping down...." ...

... New York Times: "International calls mounted Friday for Libya’s interim leaders to provide a fuller accounting of the final moments before Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s violent, messy death, as new videos circulated that showed him and his son Muatassim alive, apparently while in the custody of the former rebels."

AP: "Democrats and Republicans are in rare accord on one thing: Growers with million-dollar incomes shouldn't reap farm subsidies. Eighty-four senators voted Friday to discontinue certain farm subsidies for people who make more than a million dollars in adjusted gross income. The vote represents a sea change in how the heavily rural Senate views farm support." CW: I read several versions of this story, & none tells where this amendment stands in the House, which is to say, I guess the House hasn't considered it. If the deficit supercommittee rewrites the farm subsidy laws, this vote may be moot anyway.

AP: Ninety-two-year-old "folk music legend Pete Seeger joined in the Occupy Wall Street protest Friday night, replacing his banjo with two canes as he marched with throngs of people in New York City's tony Upper West Side past banks and shiny department stores."

AP: "Nevada Republicans are debating whether to bow to national pressure and delay the state's presidential nomination contest. More than 200 of the party's top volunteers and leaders are scheduled to meet Saturday in Las Vegas to decide when Nevada's caucuses should be held."

The Commentariat -- October 21

This just in: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) cancelled his speech on income inequality scheduled to be held this morning at the University of Pennsylvania when he learned the University would allow poor people to attend. -- Reality Chex -- Where We Occasionally OutFox Fox

** "The Austerity Class Rules Washington." Ari Berman of The Nation: "... how, in the midst of a massive unemployment crisis ... did the deficit emerge as the most pressing issue in the country? And why, when the global evidence clearly indicates that austerity measures will raise unemployment and hinder, not accelerate, growth, do advocates of austerity retain such distinction today? An explanation can be found in the prominence of an influential and aggressive austerity class — an allegedly centrist coalition of politicians, wonks and pundits... [some of whom get massive funding from right-wing benefactors]. ...

... I keep thinking he’s a few weeks away from proposing serious tax reform and entitlement reform. But each time he gets close, he rips the football away. -- David Brooks, Prince of Austerity, on President Obama ...

... Right now, front-loaded deficit reduction would be a disaster. But a commitment to future deficit reduction, if it’s out of tune with the economic recovery, as Bowles-Simpson was, would also be a disaster. Even if it happens in the future, it could have an adverse effect today. People will say, If I’m going to be poorer in the future, I’m going to have to put more money away today. -- Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics

Zaid Jilani of Think Progress posts two charts, the second of which is a testament to the effectiveness of Occupy Wall Street. "A ThinkProgress review of the media coverage of the last week of July found that the word 'debt' was mentioned more than 7,000 times on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, and 'unemployed'' was only mentioned 75 times":

     ... BUT here's what the sam news channels were talking about the week of October 10-16. Look at the Top 4:

... Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "Despite the best efforts of trained pundits..., Americans seem remarkably unperturbed by the menace of Occupy Wall Street. In fact, the majority supports the protesters. According to a National Journal poll, 59 percent of Americans agree with Occupy Wall Street, while 31 percent disagree — a level of support comparable to that found by a Time magazine survey last week. The Post’s Greg Sargent has thoughtfully broken down the data and found that the group that should resent the occupiers most — working-class whites — doesn’t resent them any more than anyone else does.... Occupy Wall Street ... is channeling ire — our ire — where ire should go: toward the banks that have fostered and profited from America’s decline." Thanks to Janice K. for the link. ...

... Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "The Occupy Wall Street protests that began as a nebulous mix of social and economic grievances are becoming more politically organized — with help from some of the country’s largest labor unions. Labor groups are mobilizing to provide office space, meeting rooms, photocopying services, legal help, food and other necessities to the protesters. The support is lending some institutional heft to a movement that has prided itself on its freewheeling, non-institutional character. And in return, Occupy activists are pitching in to help unions ratchet up action against several New York firms involved in labor disputes with workers." ...

Photos via NBC News.... "'Tax Me, I'm Good for It': Rich Join Occupy Protest. Miranda Leitsinger of NBC News: "United under the banner 'We are the 1 percent: We stand with the 99 percent,' a band of entrepreneurs, trust fund babies, professionals and inheritors has taken to the web to share their abhorrence of corporate greed and support for tax code changes that would see them pay a higher share of their considerable wealth. Among other things, they’re posting their stories on a Tumblr page created by Wealth for the Common Good and Resource Generation, two groups dedicated to working for 'fair taxation and just wealth distribution.'" ...

... Robert Reich: the GOP presidential debates are giving Republicans a lot of free air time to tout their regressive programs while "the President’s answers don’t nearly match up to the magnitude of the crisis.... The nation needs a real jobs plan, one of sufficient size and scope to do the job – including a WPA and a Civilian Conservation Corps, to put the millions of long-term unemployed and young unemployed to work rebuilding America." Reich presents a laundry list of progressive policy initiatives that would put the U.S. back to work & reduce income inequality. "If Americans stand together and demand real reform, we can have a real national debate in 2012."

CW: if you're wondering why "moderate" Republicans would vote against jobs legislation that would help most of their constituents & would be paid for by a small "millionaires' surtax," Jonathan Foser of Political Correction has one answer: Olympia "Snowe's [R-Maine] vote against a jobs bill that would greatly help Maine simply because it would raise taxes on about 375 of the state's richest residents doesn't make much sense — but it's certainly easier to understand if Snowe and her husband are among those fortunate few."

Right Wing World

Gee, here's Marco Rubio, signing election documents qualifying him to run for the U.S. Senate. Seated next to him is his father Mario Rubio, the supposed "exile" from the horrors of Castro's Cuba. The Post story suggests Sen. Rubio fingered his parents for making up the story of their forced immigration. Right.U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tells a compelling story of his family's immigration to the U.S. from revolution-torn Cuba. Trouble is, it isn't true. Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post: "He was the 'son of exiles,' he told audiences, Cuban Americans forced off their beloved island after 'a thug,' Fidel Castro, took power. But ... documents show that Rubio’s parents came to the United States and were admitted for permanent residence more than 2-1/2 years before Castro’s forces overthrew the Cuban government and took power on New Year’s Day 1959. The supposed flight of Rubio’s parents has been at the core of the young senator’s political identity, both before and after his stunning, tea-party-propelled victory in last year’s race for the U.S. Senate. Rubio — now considered a prospective 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee and a possible future presidential candidate — mentions his parents in the second sentence of the official biography on his Senate Web site. It says Mario and Oriales Rubio 'came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover.'"

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "... Rick Perry and Mitt Romney both refused to even mention [President] Obama's name in their statements on Libya. And rising GOP star Marco Rubio made the conservative party line even more explicit: 'Let's give credit where credit is due: it's the French and the British that led in this fight, and probably even led on the strike that led to Gadhafi's capture, and, or, you know, to his death.' And Obama? Well, he didn't do enough and took too long to do it etc. etc.... What the hell is their problem? Obama has escalated our presence dramatically in Afghanistan; he created a massive drone air force that's all but wiped out al-Qaeda in Pakistan; he killed Osama bin Laden; he approved a multilateral military operation in Libya that ended up killing Muammar Qaddafi; he sent a SEAL team out to kill Somali pirates; he assassinates U.S. citizens in foreign countries who are associated with al-Qaeda; and he's done more to isolate and sanction Iran than George Bush ever did. Crikey. Just how bloodthirsty do they want the guy to be?

Flip-Flop-Flip-Flop-Flip. Jake Tapper of ABC News: "The one consistency [in Mitt Romney's positions on US involvement in the NATO mission is Libya] has been criticism of President Obama. But beyond that, he’s seemed a bit all over the Libyan map." Tapper lists five evolving positions Romney has taken since March, the last being similar to the first. ...

... ** Jed Lewison of Daily Kos, who is a master at capturing Republicans on tape, follows the Flip-Flop King on health care:

... Back when Mitt Romney was an environmentalist:

     ... But that Mitt Romney, as Paul Krugman points out, "has been replaced by a Republican pod person. Or maybe he never existed — as the YouTube caption points out, this was in 2003, and those stiffer regulations never materialized."

Lauri Apple of Gawker: Tea Party Nation, one of the major tea party organizations, is urging small businesses to pledge not to hire workers "until Obama's 'war' against their businesses and their country ends.... [The] main point is that Obama and the 'Democrat-controlled Senate' are a bunch of traitors who have joined up with Occupy Wall Street/a global socialist movement and various unnamed Hollywood celebrities to achieve the redistribution of wealth.... Stop socialism by stopping capitalism. Makes total sense. I dare you to come up with a better idea." CW: so with millions out of work, it would be a good idea if we artificially put millions more out of work. Reader Jeanne B., who sent me the link, would like to hear what tea-party-backed Members of Congress think of this plan. So would I.

The GOP Jobs Plan = More Pollution! Paul Krugman: "So what is the G.O.P. jobs plan? The answer, in large part, is to allow more pollution. So what you need to know is that weakening environmental regulations would do little to create jobs and would make us both poorer and sicker." ...

... Rachel Maddow interviews Krugman on the Republicans' competing over who can come up with the most simple-minded flat tax:

The Tax Policy Center analyzes Herman Cain's 999 plan. Herman Gleckman summarizes (via Krugman):

A middle income household making between about $64,000 and $110,000 would get hit with an average tax increase of about $4,300, lowering its after-tax income by more than 6 percent and increasing its average federal tax rate (including income, payroll, estate and its share of the corporate income tax) from 18.8 percent to 23.7 percent. By contrast, a taxpayer in the top 0.1% (who makes more than $2.7 million) would enjoy an average tax cut of nearly$1.4 million, increasing his after-tax income by nearly 27 percent. His average effective tax rate would be cut almost in half to 17.9 percent. In Cain’s world, a typical household making more than $2.7 million would pay a smaller share of its income in federal taxes than one making less than $18,000.

Uh-oh. Another question Herman Cain "misunderstood": Wednesday he indicated he was personally opposed to abortion but was pro-choice because he opposed government interference on social matters. Today he's not pro-choice anymore. (See yesterday's Commentariat.) A day before that, he "misunderstood" Wolf Blitzer's question when he said that as president he would negotiate with terrorists. (See Wednesday's Commentariat.) Now, if someone can get Cain to admit he misunderstood his 999 tax plan....

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "Rupert Murdoch and his sons survived a shareholder challenge to their control of News Corp. Following the company's annual meeting in Los Angeles on Friday, News Corp. announced that Murdoch, his sons James and Lachlan, and the remainder of the board had been reelected -- despite calls from some shareholders for their ouster." The Guardian story (here) calls shareholder dissent "a blow" to Murdoch: "... he was berated by shareholders and some of the world's largest investors voted against his re-election, and that of his sons, to the News Corp board." More from the Guardian here on the "shareholders' revolt."

Los Angeles Times: "Moammar Kadafi secretly salted away more than $200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, about $30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, according to senior Libyan officials." ...

... Guardian: "Bloodied, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers, and dumped on a cheap mattress, Muammar Gaddafi's body has become a gruesome tourist attraction.... Hundreds of ordinary Libyans queued up outside a refrigerated meat store in Misrata, where the dead dictator was being stored as a trophy.... Wounds on Gaddafi's body appeared to confirm that he was indeed killed in cold blood in the chaotic minutes following his capture on Thursday."

President Obama honored the recipients of the National Medal of Science & National Medal of Technology & Innovation this afternoon. See video here.

ABC News: "President Obama today announced that the United States will pull all its troop from Iraq by the end of the year.... 'The rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year,' the president said. 'After nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.'” See video in today's Commentariat.

AP: "The burial of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi has been delayed until the circumstances of his death can be further examined and a decision is made about where to bury the body, Libyan officials said Friday, as the U.N. human rights office called for an investigation into his death. The transitional leadership had said it would bury the dictator Friday in accordance with Islamic tradition. Bloody images of Gadhafi's last moments in the hands of angry captors have raised questions over his treatment minutes before his death." Guardian story here. Al Jazeera story here. ...

... New York Times: "A small group of fighters from Misurata, the vanguard of the force attacking Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s former hometown and final hide-out, Surt, said they had stumbled upon him hiding in a drainage pipe. He was bleeding from his head and chest, but he was well enough to speak, with his trademark indignation. 'When he saw us, he said, "What’s happening?" Those were the words that he spoke,' said Omran Shaaban, a 21-year-old Misurata fighter who said he and a friend were the first men in their unit to find the colonel." Al Jazeera story here.

AP: "The Senate voted early Friday to reject a Republican effort to prohibit the United States from prosecuting foreign terrorist suspects in civilian courts, handing a victory to President Barack Obama. By 52-47, senators turned aside a proposal by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (AY-aht), R-N.H., that would have forced such trials to occur before military tribunals or commissions."

New York Times: "For the second time in 10 days, the Senate on Thursday rejected Democratic efforts to take up a jobs bill championed by President Obama. The vote to advance the bill was 50 to 50. Democrats needed 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster. This time, the bill was narrowed to provide $35 billion to state and local governments to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers and firefighters. To offset the cost, the bill would impose a surtax of 0.5 percent, starting in 2013, on income in excess of $1 million."

New York Times: "Germany and France, still at odds over a more forceful response to the sovereign debt crisis, postponed a decision-making summit meeting for several days amid signs that the complexities of European politics may block an all-encompassing resolution."

AP: "The Obama administration on Friday intensified pressure on Pakistan to do more to crack down on Islamist militants destabilizing Afghanistan, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a tough public message that extremists have been able to operate in and from Pakistan for too long. For the second time in two days, Clinton pressed Pakistani authorities to step up efforts against the Haqqani militant network...."

AP: "The biggest study ever to examine the possible connection between cellphones and cancer found no evidence of any link, suggesting that billions of people who are rarely more than a few inches from their phones have no special health concerns. The Danish study of more than 350,000 people concluded there was no difference in cancer rates between people who had used a cellphone for about a decade and those who did not."

New York Times: "After trying to mollify its critics in recent years by offering better health care benefits to its employees, Wal-Mart is substantially rolling back coverage for part-time workers and significantly raising premiums for many full-time staff." CW: Another reason not to shop at Wal-Mart.

New York Times: "The annual News Corporation shareholders meeting ... is expected to be the company’s most contentious in years, with frustrated shareholders taking the microphone to demand accountability after a phone-hacking scandal in Britain that has embarrassed the company." News Corp. is Rupert Murdoch's company. The meeting is to be held today in Los Angeles.

Guardian: "The world is getting warmer, countering the doubts of climate change sceptics about the validity of some of the scientific evidence, according to the most comprehensive independent review of historical temperature records to date. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, found several key issues that sceptics claim can skew global warming figures had no meaningful effect. The Berkeley Earth project compiled more than a billion temperature records dating back to the 1800s...."

Guardian: "The American state of Alabama has put to death a prisoner who over many years showed signs of mental illness – in spite of the US supreme court outlawing the execution of mentally ill people on the grounds it is unconstitutional. Christopher Johnson died by lethal injection at Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama."

Al Jazeera: "Turkey and Iran have vowed to collaborate in their fight against Kurdish fighters, as thousands of Turkish troops resumed their air and ground offensive against the armed groups in northern Iraq for a second day. The foreign ministers of the two countries announced plans to co-operate against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) during a joint news conference held in Ankara on Friday."