The Commentariat -- October 4

Today's Off Times Square asks, "Should the federal government be irrelevant?"

Yes. -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, in response to a reporter's question, "The $447 billion jobs package as a package: dead?" ...

... Republican Bruce Bartlett in the New York Times: "People are increasingly concerned about unemployment, but Republicans have nothing to offer them. The G.O.P. opposes additional government spending for jobs programs and, in fact, favors big cuts in spending that would be likely to lead to further layoffs at all levels of government. Republicans favor tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, but" these have no stimulative effect. So Republicans have embraced "the idea that government regulation is the principal factor holding back employment.... No hard evidence is offered for this claim; it is simply asserted as self-evident.... Regulatory uncertainty is a canard invented by Republicans that ... is a simple case of political opportunism, not a serious effort to deal with high unemployment."

Prof. Lawrence Lessig in a Bloomberg News opinion piece, suggests a complicated campaign finance reform law. CW: generally speaking, Lessig has a lot to say about campaign finance reform & has encouraged formation of a Constitutional Convention to get to the heart of it -- here, for instance). For me, here's the main takeaway from Lessig's column, which is adapted from a forthcoming book:

The threat to the republic is an economy of influence that draws our democracy away from the will of the people. Congress has allowed an engine of influence to evolve that seeks simply to enrich those connected to it. The rich secure their wealth through the manipulation of government and politicians.

Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times: "E-mails released Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the environmental group Friends of the Earth paint a picture of a sometimes warm and collaborative relationship between the lobbyist for the pipeline company, Trans-Canada, and officials in the State Department, the agency responsible for evaluating and approving the billion-dollar project. The exchanges provide a rare glimpse into how Washington works and the access familiarity can bring." ...

... Bill McKibben, in a New York Times op-ed: E-mails obtained via an FIOA request show that in the Obama/Clinton State Department, cronyism has been far more important than professional expertise in "evaluating" the TransCanada project, the Keystone XL pipeline that will carry tar sands from Canada across the center of the continent. Oh yeah, and so much for President Obama's vow of transparency.

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Bank of America announced last week that it will soon start charging most of its customers $5 per month for using their debit card — a move intended to recoup the revenue that the bank will lose under new federal regulations that went into effect Oct. 1. Those rules, authored by [Sen. Dick] Durbin [D-Ill.], capped the amount of swipe fees — what banks can charge retailers for processing debit cards. Other banks are likely to follow Bank of America’s lead.... Over the past few days, critics of the Durbin amendment blamed the Illinois Democrat for the debit fee hike. The Chicago Tribune, in an Oct. 1 editorial, dubbed the new charge the 'Durbin Fee' and blasted the senator for pushing the swipe fee change." Here's Durbin's response, from the Senate floor:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times interviews retired Justice John Paul Stevens, who has written a book on five Chief Justices under whom he served in one capacity or another.

John Mayard Keynes speaks, & Krugman hears him, seemingly for the first time:

There Are No Fat Women in Politics. Ruth Marcus: "Sure, [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie’s weight will be a topic if he decides to run. If he were a woman, though, it would have been the end of the discussion. That’s not a complaint, just a simple observation of reality when it comes to gender politics."

Right Wing World *

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: "As Texas Gov. Rick Perry deals with the fallout from the revelation that his family leases a hunting camp called 'Niggerhead,' Herman Cain is facing his own backlash — for suggesting that the Perrys' conduct was 'insensitive.' ... You might have anticipated that Perry would face a firestorm for being associated with the property [CW: yes, you might], but it's Cain whose remarks are drawing the most criticism from the right." ...

... Dan Amira of New York Magazine: "So among Republicans, the widespread response to the Post story was ... 'the liberal media is smearing another Republican as a racist!' It's in this context that the backlash has occurred. Cain wasn't expressing reasonable grievances — he was 'piling on' and legitimizing a sleazy political attack.... Ladies and gentlemen, your modern-day GOP." Amira reproduces some tweets from prominent wingers.

L.A. Times reporter Michael Hiltzik, in a Washington Post op-ed: Rick Perry's campaign & his book Fed Up! center around attacks on the New Deal. But he repeatedly "employ[s] misconception, misrepresentation and misquotation" to make his points.

Keach Hagey of Politico: after Hank Williams, Jr., compared President Obama to Hitler on a Fox "News" segment, ESPN had the good sense to cut Williams' famous musical intro from its "Monday Night Football" broadcast. Thanks to Doug R. for the link.

* Uh, where black is white & white is black??

News Ledes

New York Times: "Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who transformed the company his father founded in 1923 into an international leader in market research, helping to make its name synonymous with television ratings, died on Monday in Winnetka, Ill., where he lived most of his life. He was 92."

New York Times: "Months of wrangling at the Security Council over a resolution condemning Syria failed on Tuesday after Russia and China vetoed a resolution that contained a weak reference to the possibility of sanctions against Damascus."

AP: "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned Congress on Tuesday of what most of America has sensed for some time: The economic recovery, such as it is, 'is close to faltering.'" ...

... AP: "Stocks made up much of their morning losses Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank is prepared to take more steps to stimulate the economy. The pullback left the S&P 500 index down 20 percent from its April peak, a drop that is widely considered the start of a bear market."

President Obama spoke about the American Jobs Act in Dallas Mesquite, Texas, this afternoon.

TPM: "Seeking to consolidate party support for President Obama's jobs bill, Senate Democrats are considering a proposal to impose a five percent surtax on millionaires to pay for the legislation, according to two party aides."

New York Times: "With limited discussion and zero fanfare, the House on Tuesday approved and sent to President Obama a measure to keep the government operating through mid-November, ending for now the threat of any shutdown. By a vote of 352 to 66, the House approved the measure, passed by the Senate just a week ago, closing another anguished chapter in the fiscal war between Republicans and Democrats that continues to dominate Congress."

New York Times: "After a kinetic month in which some of the biggest names in American industry and Republican politics urged him to run for president, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey spent a quiet weekend at home, coming to a sobering conclusion on Tuesday: 'Now is not my time.'”

AP: "Stocks slid again Tuesday as Europe’s debt crisis showed few signs of being solved any time soon and officials said Greece will have to wait until November to get its hands on much-needed bailout cash."

AP: "Three U.S.-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for their studies of exploding stars that revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating." American Saul Perlmutter will "share the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award with U.S.-Australian Brian Schmidt and U.S. scientist Adam Riess."

New York Times: "House Republicans are laying the groundwork for another battle with President Obama over spending and domestic policy with a bill that would cut some of his favorite health and education programs, tie the hands of the National Labor Relations Board and eliminate federal grants for Planned Parenthood clinics."

AP: "Protests against Wall Street entered their 18th day Tuesday as demonstrators across the country showed their anger over the wobbly economy and what they see as corporate greed by marching on Federal Reserve banks and camping out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine." Washington Post story here.

Democracy Now!: "A final settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit challenging the police crackdown on journalists reporting on the 2008 Republican National Convention and protests in St. Paul, Minnesota. Democracy Now! host and executive producer Amy Goodman, along with former producers Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous ... were among dozens of journalists arrested that week in St. Paul. The settlement includes $100,000 in compensation paid by the St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments and the Secret Service."

AP: "The owners of two Southern California firms were among 55 people indicted by a federal grand jury in a $250 million income-tax fraud scheme claiming refunds were available through a secret government account, prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service said Monday.... Hundreds of false tax returns were filed with the IRS seeking refunds. Refund checks for $5 million went out in error, IRS Special Agent Felicia McCain said Monday."

AP: "To the dismay of consumer groups and the discomfort of Democrats, President Barack Obama wants Congress to make it easier for private debt collectors to call the cellphones of consumers delinquent on student loans and other billions owed the federal government." CW: oh, debt collectors have lobbyists, too.

New York Times: "Elizabeth Warren ... will face off against her lesser-known Democratic opponents Tuesday in a debate that will be an important early test of her skills as a candidate." Boston Herald: "The Democratic candidates for U. S. Senate debate is scheduled for 7 tonight, at Durgin Hall on the UMass — Lowell campus. The debate is free and open to the public."

AP: "Palestinian officials said Monday that the U.S. has suspended West Bank development projects worth tens of millions of dollars after Congress froze funding to dissuade the Palestinians from seeking U.N. recognition of an independent state. It's the first concrete sign of repercussions for the Palestinians' decision to defy Washington on the issue."

The Commentariat -- October 3

Today's Off Times Square is on Slow Food (and Cheap Tomatoes). ...

... Chris Hedges in TruthDig: "... one of the most important battles in the history of migrant labor is launched by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). If this battle succeeds it will nearly double the wages of the farmworkers who labor in the $600 million tomato-growing industry. A victory over the supermarket chains also would hold out the possibility of significantly alleviating the draconian conditions that permit forced labor, crippling poverty and egregious human rights abuses, including documented cases of slavery, in the nation’s tomato fields. If the CIW campaign—which is designed to pressure supermarket chains including Publix, Trader Joe’s, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Ahold brands Giant and Stop & Shop to sign the CIW Fair Food Agreement — fails, however, it threatens to roll back the modest gains made by farmworkers." CW: Hedges, in my opinion, often goes over the top. Not this time. If anything, he's downplaying the plight of tomato pickers. Thanks to commenter Janice for the link. The CIW site is here.

** "The Koch Method." How to Make a Billion Dollars: Steal, Cheat & Lie. Asjylyn Loder & David Evans of Bloomberg News: "A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries -- in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East -- has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism. Internal company documents show that the company made those sales through foreign subsidiaries, thwarting a U.S. trade ban. Koch Industries units have also rigged prices with competitors, lied to regulators and repeatedly run afoul of environmental regulations, resulting in five criminal convictions since 1999 in the U.S. and Canada."

Al Baker & Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: "As the Occupy Wall Street protests ... lurch into their third week, it is often the white shirts [i.e., police commanders] who lay hands on protesters or initiate arrests. Video recordings of clashes have shown white shirts — lieutenants, captains or inspectors — leading underlings into the fray." ...

... Natasha Lennard, the New York Times stringer arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge Sunday, writes a Times blogpost on "covering the march."

As a freelancer, I did not have an official police press pass. I was, however, fortunate enough to be the first to be processed from my bus, with only a disorderly conduct violation summons, in no small measure because of my editors’ contacting Police Headquarters to ensure my swift release.

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's strongarm tactics are turning a peaceful protest into a worldwide news story. And Mayor Michael Bloomberg is inadvertently helping Occupy Wall Street, too. ...

... E. J. Dionne: "This week, progressives will highlight a new effort to pursue the road not taken at a conference convened by the Campaign for America’s Future that opens Monday.... A real left could usefully instruct Americans as to just how moderate the president they elected in 2008 is — and how far to the right conservatives have strayed." The Campaign for America's Future site is here. It looks pretty good -- and pretty progressive.

Paul Krugman: "... given our economy’s desperate need for more jobs, a weaker dollar is very much in our national interest — and we can and should take action against countries that are keeping their currencies undervalued, and thereby standing in the way of a much-needed decline in our trade deficit. That, above all, means China." The Senate "will ... take up legislation that would threaten sanctions against China and other currency manipulators."

Ron Nixon & Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Talk of cutting tax breaks to raise money and reduce the debt has become a mantra in Washington, but it threatens sacred ground: such breaks are a favorite tool among both Republicans and Democrats to reward supporters and economic interests in their home states. The 71,000-page tax code has become loaded with dozens of obscure but economically valuable tax breaks."

Charles Riley of CNN Money: "Raise taxes on the rich, and you'll put the nation's 'job creators' at risk ... is a ubiquitous Republican talking point.... The argument: Many small businesses file taxes under the individual tax code. But while that argument makes for a good bumper sticker, it's a misleading simplification of a complex policy issue.... In sharp contrast to the rhetoric, current data suggests small businesses don't create an outsized number of jobs, very few small business owners fall into the top two tax brackets, and tax cuts for small businesses are ineffective stimulus measures."

Buffett Rule Reagan Rule. Thanks to Pat Garofalo of Think Progress for this gem:

... And speaking of Warren Buffett:

Some Are More Equal than Others. Anna Palmer of Politico: "Reporters and government watchdog groups are up in arms over the secrecy surrounding the [deficit-reduction super]committee ... which has met more frequently in secret than publicly and has rejected calls to disclose its donors and post its documents online. But some of Washington’s highest-paid lobbyists ... say senior staffers have given them readouts from closed-door committee meetings.... Democratic and Republican lobbyists say they continue to get corporate clients with interests before the committee face time with members and staff." CW Note: Palmer writes that "both sides do it," but the only examples she cites are Republican committee members. Thanks to reader Bob M. for the link.

Andy Grimm of the Chicago Tribune: "A Chicago woman's lawsuit over her partner's death at the Indiana State Fairgrounds could have widespread implications for same-sex couples across the nation, legal experts say. Alisha Brennon entered into a civil union with Christina Santiago in June, shortly after civil unions became legal in Illinois. In August, Santiago was one of seven people killed when a storm blew apart an outdoor concert stage in Indianapolis. Brennon has filed three lawsuits seeking damages for the death of her partner. The suits could force courts to decide whether civil unions in one state have legal standing in another." ...

... Ken Starr (yep, that one) in a New York Times op-ed: "Cameras in the courtroom of the United States Supreme Court are long overdue." CW: love it when I agree with Ken Starr.

The annual New Yorker Festival was this weekend, & the New Yorker has blogposts & video excerpts of some of the events here. Here, Danalynn Recer, founder and executive director of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, discusses the effect of racism on the death penalty:

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: as more & more nurses are receiving doctorates in nursing, physicians -- in some cases with backing of state legislatures -- are pushing back against allowing nurses to take the title of "doctor." CW: excuse me while I adjust my god-complex meter. People with doctorates in a myriad of other fields are routinely called "doctor." In fact, I can't recall medical doctors objecting when doctors in related fields -- like clinical psychology -- are addressed as "doctor." Why not nurses? Oh, wait. The vast majority of nurses are women.

Noah Bierman of the Boston Globe: "Elizabeth Warren holds a commanding lead over her rivals for next year’s Democratic US Senate nomination [in Massachusetts] and would be in a dead heat with Republican Scott Brown in the 2012 general election, according to a poll released last night."

A Caucus Divided against Itself.... Molly Hooper of The Hill: "GOP lawmakers told The Hill that redistricting pitting incumbents versus incumbents, coupled with the threat of Tea Party primary opponents, has sparked a lot of anxiety among House Republicans."

Right Wing World

Jason Zengerle of New York Magazine profiles Eric Cantor, comparing him to the obnoxious "Leave It to Beaver" character Eddie Haskell. "The House majority leader is trying to stop the U.S. government in its tracks. And so far, he’s doing a pretty effective job."

Rick Perry, BFF of Sleazy Mortgage Lenders. Jack Gillum of the AP: "As Texas governor, Rick Perry spent tens of millions in taxpayer money to lure some of the nation's leading mortgage companies to expand their business in his state.... Just as the largest banks began receiving public cash, they aggressively ramped up risky lending. Within four years, the banks were out of business and homeowners across Texas faced foreclosure. In the end, the state paid $35 million to subsidize it. An Associated Press review ... found that Perry downplayed early warnings of an impending mortgage crisis as alarmist.... As Perry offered $20 million in grants to Countrywide and $15 million to Washington Mutual Inc. — each blamed for having a major role in one of the country's most serious recessions — he took in tens of thousands of their dollars for his gubernatorial campaign."

Romney v. Buffett. Michael Scherer of Time: Mitt "Romney, a wealthy man whose income mostly comes from long-term investments, is exactly the sort of 'millionaire and billionaire' that [President] Obama likes to hold up for scrutiny, since the source of Romney's income allows him to pay a lower percentage of his money to the federal government each year than many middle-class wage earners." Romney has not released his tax returns, but a rough guesstimate is that he & his wife earned about $7.5 million in 2010. The Romneys probably paid about 14 percent of their gross income in taxes; under the "Buffett Rule," they would have paid at a rate of about 30 percent. 'The President's party want to take from some[ [Me!] and give to others [You!],' Romney said in a recent debate.... Romney has tried to cast himself as a defender of the middle class. His economic plan would maintain the 15% capital gains rate for those making more than $200,000 in total income, and eliminate any capital gains tax on those making less than $200,000." CW: pardon my math, but it appears the Buffett Rule would cost the Romneys about $1.2 million for 2010 alone.

News Ledes

The Hill: "The Senate voted Monday to advance legislation pressuring the Chinese government to stop undervaluing its currency, a practice most economists agree is giving the country an unfair trade advantage and is costing the U.S. jobs. The Senate voted 79-19 to end debate on a motion to proceed to the bill.... The strong show of support suggests it could well be approved in the upper chamber by the week’s end. Passage through the House is less clear, however, and GOP leaders have given no indication they will move forward with it." ...

... Roll Call: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said today that President Barack Obama’s jobs plan has no chance of passing the GOP-controlled House. Instead, the Virginia Republican said he will push for consideration of a series of proposals that are included in Obama’s package, such as a 3 percent withholding provision for government contractors and approval of free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama."

New York Times: "Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance giant, learned as early as 2003 of extensive foreclosure abuses among the law firms it had hired to remove troubled borrowers from their homes. But the company did little to correct the firms’ practices, according to a report issued Tuesday [by the agency's inspector general]. Only after news reports in mid-2010 began to describe the dubious practices ... did Fannie Mae’s overseer start to scrutinize the conduct. The report was critical of that overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency...."

New York Times: "The Supreme Court started its new term on Monday with arguments in a difficult and consequential case over California’s attempt to cut Medicaid payment rates."

No, I don’t, because if you look at the overall portfolio ... over all, it’s doing well, and what we always understood was that not every single business is going to succeed in clean energy. -- Barack Obama, on whether or not he regrets the Solyndra clean energy loan ...

... New York Times: "Some White House officials were so concerned last year about the financial health of Solyndra, a solar equipment manufacturer that had received federal loans, that they warned that a presidential trip to the company’s California factory could prove a major embarrassment, newly disclosed e-mails show." ...

... Market Watch: "As the Obama administration continues to take heat for an ill-fated $535 million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra, a Bush administration official [-- Walter Streight Howes, a director in the Department of Energy --] says he would have done the same thing."

President Obama held a Cabinet meeting this morning.

CNN: "South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary will be held on Jan. 21 of next year.... The move is designed to put space between South Carolina and Florida, which bucked national Republican Party rules last week and decided to hold their primary on Jan. 31. The updated calendar is likely to push the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary even earlier into January...."

AP: "Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries about the immune system that opened new avenues for the treatment and prevention of infectious illnesses and cancer. American Bruce Beutler and French scientist Jules Hoffmann shared the 10 million-kronor ($1.5 million) award with Canadian-born Ralph Steinman...." ...

     ... New York Times Update: Dr. Ralph Steinman died on September 30, hours before the Nobel Committee decided to award him the Prize in Medicine. Although the award cannot be made posthumously, the Committee -- which was unaware of his death -- decided to grant him the award since it had already announced he had won the prize.

Los Angeles Times: "Protesters who have camped outside Los Angeles City Hall since Saturday, inspired by on-going Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York, will spend a second night sleeping on the pavement this evening. Loosely organized by a group called Occupy Los Angeles, several hundred people marched and rallied Sunday, holding signs that blasted corporate influence on government. They used Internet sites to mobilize and get attention."

You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient. We don't believe in standing silent when that happens. -- Barack Obama, on Republican presidential candidates' standing silent while the debate audience booed a gay soldier ...

... President Obama at a Human Rights Council event Saturday night:

     ... The transcript, as delivered, is here.

The Commentariat -- October 2

The Open Thread continues on Off Times Square.

** Jonathan Turley in a Washington Post op-ed: "The fears of the Danbury Baptists, [whose letter to President Thomas Jefferson prompted him to respond that the First Amendment built "a wall between separation of church and state"] appear to have been realized, with political campaigns, federal programs and judicial decisions moving away from a clear separation of church and state." Turley goes on to cite many examples of today's politicians interjecting religion into their rhetoric. "The danger of explicit appeals to faith in politics isn’t the establishment of an official religion; that remains highly unlikely. Rather, faith-based politics can become faith-based laws that enforce morality codes, expand public subsidies for religious institutions or sideline religious (or non-religious) minorities." ...

... CW: if you haven't read Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists, a transcript is here. A photo of the original is here:

The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. -- John Adams, Treaty of Tripoli, 1797

And then, hearing any leader declare that America isn't a Christian nation and poking an ally like Israel in the eye, it's mind-boggling to see some of our nation's actions recently. -- Sarah Palin, her mind apparently boggled by the founding father cited above, while criticizing, misrepresenting & misquoting this guy:

Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square. -- Barack Obama, a "Constitutional scholar," June 28, 2006

Our educational establishment these days, while so tolerant of and even insistent on diversity in all other aspects of life, seems bent on eliminating the diversity of moral judgment, particularly moral judgment based on religious views. -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, last week (cited in the MoDo column below)

... Maureen Dowd: "The most Catholic Supreme Court in history celebrates one of Washington’s most intriguing rituals, an annual merger of church and state." ...

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court, which has been focused in recent terms on the rights of corporations and on curbing big lawsuits, returns to the bench on Monday with a different agenda. Now, criminal justice is at the heart of the court’s docket, along with major cases on free speech and religious freedom.... Still, the shift in focus toward criminal and First Amendment cases will soon be obscured if, as expected, the justices agree to hear a challenge to the 2010 health care overhaul law. That case promises to be a once-in-a-generation blockbuster. In the meantime, the justices will hear an extraordinary set of cases that together amount to a project that could overhaul almost every part of the criminal justice system." ...

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court convenes Monday for what could be the most significant term of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s six-year tenure, with an agenda that both reflects the nation’s political landscape and offers the potential to reshape it. The dominant theme is the one that has divided the country and fueled the debate between tea party Republicans and President Obama since the 2010 election: the extent of the federal government’s power. The justices are being asked to decide the constitutionality of the landmark health-care act, the ability of states to enforce strict immigration laws and whether the government can continue to monitor the airwaves for indecency."

Occupy Wall Street

CW: Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times gets a do-over. And, well, she sure botches the lede:

During their first week, members of Occupy Wall Street, the ideologically vague and strategically baffling effort to redress social inequities, put together a library on the north end of Zuccotti Park whose disparate offerings included 'Last Exit to Brooklyn'; Gay Talese’s article in The New Yorker on the collaboration of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga; and Abbott’s Digest of New York Statutes and Reports, Volumes 4, 9, 33 and 34.

     ... The ensuing prose improves. A little. I wonder what the report would look like if the Times had sent, say, a sports reporter instead of an arts critic like Ballafante. ...

FreakOutNation: "The New York Times has been part of the problem – in this image, note that within 20 minutes, the writer changed and the blame was shifted onto the protesters.... Natasha Lennard, a writer for the New York Times was allegedly among those arrested, so we can assume they will assign blame to her as well:

Graphic by FreakOut Nation.     ... CW Update: in an e-mail to me, Karen Garcia said that Natasha Lennard, the "Times reporter" who was arrested on the bridge yesterday is a stringer; i.e., not a regular staff reporter. So I'm thinking the Times won't give Lennard the full Judith Miller treatment (i.e., high-priced lawyers, First Amendment violation suits, supportive editorials, major news stories, etc.). ...

... A Felicitous "Coincidence." Yves Smith of naked capitalism: JPMorgan Chase "recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation." Smith figures the JPM Chase donation could represent as much as 3 to 4 percent of the foundation's total donations ever since its founding in 1971. "And what sort of benefits might JPM get? ... Today [Saturday], OccupyWallStreet decided to march across the Brooklyn Bridge (a proud New York tradition) to Chase Manhattan Plaza in Brooklyn.... Over 700 of the marchers were arrested," in an operation that many protesters [and Gawker] say was deliberate kettling; i.e., confining hundreds of protesters to the bridge, then arresting them before they could get to the Chase site. 

Heather Parton a/k/a Digby in Al Jazeera: "Elizabeth Warren cemented her reputation as a person who knows how to speak to Americans about progressive values in a way that seems to have eluded almost every other public figure in America. There's just something about the way she talks in plain prairie English that makes people listen - and scares even the most hardened businessman and compromised politician into paying attention."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "... when [New York State Attorney General Eric] Schneiderman, 56, rejected a proposed nationwide settlement releasing some of the country’s biggest banks from a lawsuit brought by the states claiming misconduct in the mortgage markets. Almost overnight, he found his own name mentioned in a series of laudatory articles in publications as varied as Rolling Stone, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and the Web site Gawker." CW: Feuer doesn't mention it, but on Friday, California AG Kamala Harris also rejected the national settlement deal.

Right Wing World

CW: this story, by Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post, leaves me speechless, which is just as well: "In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance. 'Niggerhead,' it read. Ranchers who once grazed cattle on the 1,070-acre parcel on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River called it by that name well before Perry and his father, Ray, began hunting there in the early 1980s.... The name ... did not change for years after it became associated with Rick Perry, first as a private citizen, then as a state official and finally as Texas governor. Some locals still call it that. As recently as this summer, the slablike rock — lying flat, the name still faintly visible beneath a coat of white paint — remained by the gated entrance to the camp.... How, when or whether [Perry] dealt with it when he was using the property is less clear...." Seven people, mostly Perry allies, say he did not have the name obliterated as he claims. ...

... Federales, Sí. Rich Oppel of the New York Times: "Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said on Saturday that as president, he would consider sending American troops into Mexico to help defeat drug cartels and improve border security. He indicated that any such action would be done 'in concert' with the Mexican government." CW: finally, Perry finds some use for the federal government: invade Mexico!

If Your Name Is Mitt Romney, You Just Might Be a Hypocrite. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: while he was Governor of Massachusetts, Romney and his "administration relentlessly scoured the tax code for more loopholes, extracting hundreds of millions of corporate dollars to help close budget gaps.... It was only after Mr. Romney was gearing up in 2005 for a possible White House bid that he backed away from some of his most assertive tax enforcement proposals amid intensifying complaints from local companies and conservative antitax groups in Washington. Mr. Romney’s campaign against the tax loopholes, like no other period in his career, put him at odds with the values and expectations of the corporate world.... Today, in seeking the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Romney promotes himself as the pro-business candidate who understands what companies need and how to create jobs."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign spent Sunday deflecting scrutiny of a report in The Washington Post detailing a West Texas hunting camp he once leased with his father that includes a racial epithet in its name.... One of Perry’s rivals for the GOP nomination..., Herman Cain, criticized Perry in appearances on 'Fox News Sunday' and ABC’s 'This Week.' Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called for Perry to explain more fully his relationship to the property or bow out of the presidential race." (See today's Right Wing World in the Commentariat.)

Washington Post: "Former vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday called last week’s CIA drone strike against al-Qaeda operative Anwar Awlaki a validation of the George W. Bush administration’s terrorist-fighting strategy, and said that President Obama should apologize for his past criticism of those policies." CW: new definition of -- and a very high bar for -- "shameless": expecting an apology from those who criticize you for torturing people.

AP: "Syrian dissidents on Sunday formally established a broad-based national council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime, which they accused of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. Syrians took to the streets in celebration, singing and dancing." Al Jazeera story here.

Al Jazeera: "The Greek government has acknowledged that it will miss its targets for reducing the budget deficit for this year and next year despite massive job cuts."

Reuters (via the NYT): "Israel accepted on Sunday a call by the Quartet of international peace mediators to resume talks with the Palestinians, an official Israeli statement said."

Fox "News": "Police have arrested two dozen protesters for trespassing during a demonstration against Bank of America's foreclosure practices at the banking giant's offices in downtown Boston. The Boston Herald reports that the event was an act of civil disobedience that the organizers intended to send the message that the lender's practices were unfair. 'They wanted to be arrested, and we obliged,' Boston police Commissioner Edward F. Davis told the newspaper. Organizers say about 3,000 people joined the protest." See also stories on Occupy Wall Street, NYC, in yesterday's Ledes & Commentariat. ...

Gothamist has a very good liveblog that details yesterday's Occupy Wall Street events, with lots of photos. BTW, the Gothamist reporter says the "little girl" who was arrested looks 15-18 year of age. CW: from her height & closeups of her face, I would guess she is 12 or 13, at the most. I can't find any news stories that ID her. ...

... AND here's the Firedoglake liveblog for today.

Reuters: "The State Department issued a worldwide travel alert on Saturday warning of the possibility of anti-American attacks in response to the killing of two top al Qaeda members."

AP: "The Afghan government needs to see Pakistan making 'tangible progress' on pledges to use its influence to help end the Taliban insurgency, a foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday. The statement came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was giving up on trying to talk to the Taliban directly and that the key to ending the war is mediation by Pakistan."

AP: "A government warplane has mistakenly bombed an army position in southern Yemen, killing at least 30 soldiers and wounding many more, military and medical officials said on Sunday.... Heavy fighting has been raging in the area for days as part of the army's monthslong campaign to seize back Zinjibar from the militants."

AP: "Sent to death row 20 years ago as a convicted cop killer, Troy Davis was celebrated as 'martyr and foot soldier' Saturday by more than 1,000 people who packed the pews at his funeral and pledged to keep fighting the death penalty." Savannah Morning News story here.

Los Angeles Times: "California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris will no longer take part in a national foreclosure probe of some of the nation's biggest banks, which are accused of pervasive misconduct in dealing with troubled homeowners. Harris removed herself from talks by a coalition of state attorneys general and federal agencies investigating abusive foreclosure practices because the nation's five largest mortgage servicers were not offering California homeowners relief commensurate to what people in the state had suffered, Harris told The Times on Friday."

AP: "The Pentagon has decided that military chaplains may perform same-sex unions, whether on or off a military installation. The ruling announced Friday by the Pentagon's personnel chief follows the Sept. 20 repeal of a law that had prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military."

President Obama spoke at an event honoring outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen late this morning. Voice of America: "U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey will be sworn as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Friday. President Barack Obama will be in attendance when the 37-year veteran becomes the nation's top uniformed officer, replacing retiring Navy Admiral Mike Mullen. Mr. Obama nominated Dempsey to succeed Mullen in May, only a month after Dempsey assumed the post of chief of staff of the Army."

** New York Times: "In a significant and dramatic strike in the campaign against Al Qaeda, the Defense Ministry [in Yemen] said American-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading figure in the group’s outpost in Yemen, was killed on Friday morning. In Washington a senior Obama administration official confirmed that Mr. Awlaki was dead. But the circumstances surrounding the killing remained unclear. It was not immediately known whether Yemeni forces carried out the attack or if American intelligence forces, which have been pursuing Mr. Awlaki for months, were involved in the operation." ...

     ... ** Updated Lede: "Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who was a leading figure in Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate and was considered its most dangerous English-speaking propagandist, was killed in an American drone strike that deliberately targeted his vehicle on Friday, officials in Washington and Yemen said. They said the strike also killed a radical American colleague traveling with Mr. Awlaki who edited Al Qaeda’s online jihadist magazine." (Emphasis added.) ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Yemen’s official news agency reported that the young Web-savvy American thought to be behind Inspire, a magazine for Al Qaeda, was killed in the same Friday strike that killed the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. The report, citing an unnamed defense official, said the man, Samir Khan, was killed in the strike, along with two other people, and identified him as an American citizen and a computer specialist."

Washington Post: "Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged Thursday making the final decision to allow [Solyndra,] a struggling solar company, to continue receiving taxpayer money after it had technically defaulted on a $535 million federal loan guaranteed by his agency.... Also Thursday, a law enforcement official confirmed that the criminal probe of Solyndra is focused on whether the company and its officers misrepresented the firm’s finances to the government in seeking the loan or engaged in accounting fraud."

Washington Post: "After a remarkable run as the most successful atom smasher in the world, the Tevatron — a four-mile underground ring about 50 miles west of Chicago — will smash no more. At 2 p.m., Pier Oddone, director of Fermilab, the Energy Department facility that operates the Tevatron, will command the shutdown of the mammoth machine. Operators will switch off dual beams of particles that have been colliding since 1985, sprouting terrific sprays of fleeting particles that offered a glimpse of the subatomic world."

The Hill: "Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, at the moment Democrats in Congress don't have enough votes to pass President Obama's jobs bill, but Durbin added that that situation would change." The WLS Radio report is here.

Can You Hear Us Now? Crain's New York: "The city's most experienced agitators — the labor and community groups that typically organize local marches, rallies and sit-ins — have been largely missing from the Occupy Wall Street protest.... But that's about to change. A loose coalition of labor and community groups said Thursday that they would join the protest next week.... The United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United and Transport Workers Union Local 100 are all expected to participate. The Working Families Party is helping to organize the protest and MoveOn.org is expected to mobilize its extensive online regional networks...."

Los Angeles Times: "Pakistani political leaders meeting Thursday in the capital [Islamabad] denounced U.S. allegations that the country's premier spy agency assisted insurgents in attacking American targets in Afghanistan, but also stressed the need to keep lines of communication open with Washington."