The Commentariat -- September 19

This is not class warfare. it's math. -- Barack Obama

... The plan is here (pdf).

... Steve Kornacki of Salon explains why: Obama has finally figured out that Congressional Republicans will oppose his every policy, so he has shifted into campaign mode to establish the difference between Republican & Democratic proposals. CW: I think he "caught on" about 18 months too late, & as Kornacki points out "late may not be better than never" in terms of Obama's political future. But it's all he's got. ...

... NEW. Nice Guys Finish Last. Ezra Klein says the reason Obama changed course is that, well, his bipartisan strategy was losing voters. ...

... Matt Yglesias: "... as a statement of vision [President Obama's deficit reduction plan] sets up the contrast with the opposition quite clearly. House Republicans want to repeal Medicare in order to make tax cuts for the rich affordable, President Obama wants to tax the rich in order to make Medicare affordable. Some [progressive] critics will focus on the relatively small changes to federal health care programs here, but the President is essentially doing what progressives have been urging him to do for months — abandoning the strategy of pre-compromising, and planting his flag in a way that draws strong contrasts." ...

... NEW. Digby: President Obama "frames it as a 'shared sacrifice' so that people still believe it's right to trade essential middle class benefits for millionaire chump change. I hate that formulation and I think it's a mistake to perpetuate it.... Overall, I think the obvious takeaway is that the White House isn't looking to make any more deals to please Wall Street and burnish its 'post-partisan' image before the election. To that, I can only say 'thank God.'" ..

... NEW. Jon Walker of Firedoglake: "... it is important to remember: simply because the president did not put ... cuts [in Medicare] on the table doesn’t mean he took these cuts off the table."

... See also Glenn Greenwald's post, linked below. Oh, and there's this from VastLeft.com, via Greenwald:

... And here is why you should never, ever pay any attention to anything coming from the mind of Mark Penn, the man who sabotaged the primary election for Hillary Clinton.

Bill Keller of the New York Times: "The decline in Obama’s political fortunes, the Great Disappointment, can be attributed to four main factors: the intractable legacy bequeathed by George W. Bush; Republican resistance amounting to sabotage; the unrealistic expectations and inevitable disenchantment of some of the president’s supporters; and, to be sure, the man himself." CW: I'm not a big fan of Keller's, but this seems to be a pretty "fair & balanced" essay; most of us can agree with most of the points (I think) -- which is a pretty amazing feat in itself. ...

... I've posted a Keller page on Off Times Square.

Krugman, the Movie

... But He Does It Anyway. Paul Krugman: the U.S. and European nations have instituted austerity programs to boost corporate & public "confidence" in government. "Strange to say, however, confidence hasn’t surged. Somehow, businesses and consumers seem much more concerned about the lack of customers and jobs, respectively, than they are reassured by the fiscal righteousness of their governments. And growth seems to be stalling, while unemployment remains disastrously high on both sides of the Atlantic.... What we really need ... is to convince a substantial number of people with political power or influence that they’ve spent the past year and a half going in exactly the wrong direction, and that they need to make a U-turn." ...

... Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker in a New York Times op-ed: "... the danger is that if, in desperation, we turn to deliberately seeking inflation to solve real problems — our economic imbalances, sluggish productivity, and excessive leverage — we would soon find that a little inflation doesn’t work. Then the instinct will be to do a little more — a seemingly temporary and 'reasonable' 4 percent becomes 5, and then 6 and so on. What we know, or should know, from the past is that once inflation becomes anticipated and ingrained — as it eventually would — then the stimulating effects are lost." ...

... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Investors have concluded that the Federal Reserve will announce new measures to promote economic growth after a meeting of its policy-making committee ends Wednesday. Long-term interest rates have moved as if the Fed had already spoken. The central bank is often ... facing the choice of whether to do more to improve the economy. But the anticipatory behavior of investors means the Fed really faces a slightly different choice...: whether to risk doing less than expected."

** Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post relates an excellent -- and do-able -- idea to help millions of underwater homeowners: order Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac to allow fully-paid-up mortgageholders to refinance at lower interest rates with low refinanacing fees & no appraisals, & grant banks who agree to similar low refinancing charges "immunity from lawsuits stemming from loans issued during the bubble." The plan's designers, at least one of whom is a Republican, "estimate that their plan could allow as many as 25 million households to refinance mortgages and have an extra $70 billion every year to spend and invest — the equivalent of a $70 billion-a-year tax cut that can be had at no cost to taxpayers." Reading Pearlstein's prose is a bit of a slog, but especially if you hold such a mortgage, it's worth a read.

If (former President) Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House. There is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president. -- Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus

David Goldstein of McClatchy News: "As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, [Rep. Emanuel Cleaver] has been at odds with President Barack Obama over his administration's response to the soaring unemployment rate in the African-American community. Nearing 17 percent, joblessness among blacks is at a three-decade high and almost twice the size of the overall unemployment rate. The black caucus wants the president to do more."

Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times: "The portrait of the Obama White House that the veteran journalist Ron Suskind draws in his searing new book, 'Confidence Men,' is that of a young, inexperienced president lacking the leadership and managerial skills to deal effectively with the cascading economic problems he inherited; a brainy but detached executive with a tendency to frame policy matters intellectually 'like a journalist, or narrator, or skilled observer'; an oddly passive C.E.O. whose directive on restructuring the banks in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis was, the author says, ignored or slow-walked by his own economic team." CW: this is the most informative review of Suskind's book I've read, & it gives a much fuller picture of Suskind's conclusions than have news reports that mostly picked out the good gossip & left it at that. Suskind pretty much confirms what most of us have figured out. Thanks to Kate M. for the link. ...

... ** Glenn Greenwald: "Geithner wasn't chosen and hasn't remained despite being 'associated with the deregulatory policies of the past' and despite being the bankers' 'man in Washington.'  He is empowered precisely because of those facts.... Obama featured progressive economists during the campaign, only to immediately subordinate them to Wall-Street-subservient officials once in power.  Feigning progressive leanings for political gain is Obama's modus operandi.... That's why -- after 2 1/2 years -- we suddenly see an outburst of 'fighting for jobs' and, now, a call to raise taxes on the rich.  He does that precisely because everyone -- especially the rich -- knows it will not and cannot happen." CW: Greenwald's is a well-supported POV (he's been providing the evidence for years), so it would be naive & irresponsible to rule it out. ...

... AND here's a really entertaining conversation between Frank Rich & Adam Moss of New York Magazine on Suskind's book. CW: I have always thought former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) was the most fiscally responsible member of the Senate (he retired in 2011). Dorgan tolc President-Elect Obama in December 2008 exactly what I would have (& did on Reality Chex) about his utterly horrible economic personnel choices:

I don't understand how you could do this. You've picked the wrong people!

E. J. Dionne: "However justified their past grievances might be, [Democrats] have a powerful collective interest in seeing the fighting Obama get his new act off the ground."

The motivation for this is somewhere between despicable and reprehensible. In a close election, that could be devastating. -- former Gov. Ed Rendell (D) ...

... Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "The newly empowered Republicans in Pennsylvania are considering changing the way the state awards its electoral votes in presidential elections despite growing concerns by some Republicans that the move could backfire." ...

... Nate Silver: Silver lays out a number of the scenarios in which their little plot could backfire. ...

... Meanwhile, Alexander Burns of Politico: Nebraska Republicans are pushing to go from a Congressional District-based Electoral College to a winner-take-all system to avert the possibility that Obama will -- as he did in 2008 -- win one whole Electoral College vote in the 2nd Congressional District (Omaha area).

Right Wing World

Class Warfare, Republican Style. Do these people ever listen to themselves? --

     ... Who knew Chris Jansing was a Bolshevik? Well, she does have her red dress on. Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress has more. ...

... THEN, Laura Clawson of Daily Kos does the math & finds that Poor Mr. Moneybags there is paying those 500 workers he so benevolently employs far less than $11,400 a year -- gross. CW: Oh, what could be wrong with that? ...

... John Cook of Gawker doesn't even have to do any math to learn that it costs $200,000 a year just to feed a Republican Congressional family of six. ...

     ... Steve Benen piles on: "If it seems like these incidents come from fairly often, it’s because they do. Last month, Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) complained that his $174,000 per year congressional salary is inadequate, given all 'the hours' he works. In March, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) complained to voters that he’s 'struggling' on his $174,000 congressional salary, and to prove the point, he complained about 'driving a used minivan.' In April, Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), the 23rd richest member of Congress who owns millions of dollars in farm and ranch land, whined that he and his wife 'are struggling like everyone else.' ... As a rule, politicians make an effort not to appear out of touch. These guys aren’t even trying."

Republicans -- Keeping millions out of work to put one man out of a job. -- Attribution: Hazy

Mitch Daniels Gets It Half-Right. Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Four months after he decided against jumping into the Republican presidential race, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana says that he has occasionally been frustrated by the discourse in the campaign and that the field could benefit from at least one more contender whose candidacy was rooted in a message of fiscal discipline. Mr. Daniels said his party’s candidates had a responsibility to conduct a 'more candid and honest' conversation about the nation’s financial burdens, particularly Social Security and Medicare."

Walt Cronkite (really!) of CBS News: "Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney highlighted his Michigan roots Wednesday at an Arizona Ford dealership, telling the owner about his collection of Cadillacs." (Emphasis added.) CW: so he strapped his dog to the hood of a Cadillac?

News Ledes

TPM: "The Justice Department said Monday that Texas' state House and congressional redistricting plans didn't comply with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), indicating they thought the maps approved by Gov. Rick Perry (R) gave too little voting power to the growing Latino population in the state. Officials with DOJ's Civil Rights Division said ... they had concerns with the state House plan and the plan for congressional redistricting."

President Obama made remarks on the deficit & recommendations to the Joint Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction this morning. CW: Video & link to document in left column. ...

... New York Times: "President Obama called on Monday for Congress to adopt his 'balanced' plan combining entitlement cuts, tax increases and war savings to reduce the federal deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years, and said he would veto any approach that relied solely on spending reductions to address the fiscal shortfall."

... Reuters: "Republican leaders on Sunday criticized President Barack Obama's proposal for a new tax on millionaires, calling it 'class warfare' and predicting it will face heavy opposition in Congress." CW: but it's not "class warfare" when they do the bidding of the rich at the expense of the rest of us?

The Hill: "Three congressional Democrats are introducing a bill Wednesday that would abolish the federal debt ceiling. The lawmakers say that the recent debate to raise the ceiling and avoid default had a 'disastrous' effect on the U.S economy, and that the legislation would keep parties from using a potential default as a hostage in future budget debates.... But the bill is unlikely to gain traction, especially in the Republican-controlled House."

New York Times: "Greek leaders struggled through the weekend to agree to a set of radical budget reductions that would satisfy foreign lenders’ demands even as they tried to stave off mounting resistance to those cuts at home."

The Commentariat -- September 18

I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square.

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "... the debate [over the U.S. tax code] has revolved around 'loopholes' for corporate jets and ending 'carve-outs' for well-heeled special interests. But if the goal is debt reduction, that’s not where the money is. Broad tax breaks granted to millions of families at all income levels dwarf the corporate giveaways. Over the past two years, largely because of these popular benefits in the federal income tax code, the government has reached a rare milestone in tax collection — it has given away nearly as much as it takes in. The number of tax breaks has nearly doubled since the last major tax overhaul 25 years ago, with lawmakers adding new benefits for children, college tuition, retirement savings and investment. At the same time, some long-standing breaks have exploded in value.... All told, federal taxpayers last year received $1.08 trillion in credits, deductions and other perks while paying $1.09 trillion in income taxes, according to government estimates." ...

... Steve Benen on tomorrow's speech in which President Obama will roll out his deficit-reduction plan: "Everything we’ve seen from Obama this month suggests this White House has chosen a new posture when dealing with the GOP..... For those who’ve been urging Obama to adopt progressive principles and show a willingness to fight, it’s worth appreciating the fact that the president is doing exactly as they recommended."

Former President Bill Clinton speaks to ABC News' Christiane Amanpour about the Clinton Global Initiative, which will concentrate on American jobs this year. Clinton "says that partisanship in Washington is hampering any ability to reach economic solutions for the country":

Sylvia Nasar, in a New York Times op-ed, on economist John Maynard Keynes, whom she describes as "the Winston Churchill of economics, radiating optimism when things looked bleakest, never so happily engaged as in a national or global emergency." Unlike earlier economists, who practiced "the dismal science," the school of economics Alfred "Marshall pioneered and Keynes and others innovated was a genuine revolution in human thinking that changed the lives of everyone on the globe."

Charles Darwin. Illustration by Carl Wiens for the New York Times.Rivalry of the Fittest. Economist Robert Frank in the New York Times: Naturalist Charles Darwin's "understanding of competition describes economic reality far more accurately than [economist Adam] Smith’s.... Darwin ... understood that competition often favored traits that brought misery to all.... Frank then uses his Darwin-as-Economist theory to argue that market competition is often wasteful, & a "progressive consumption tax" would cause less waste than the income tax. CW: This sounds like a scam to make the super-rich richer (especially because Milton Friedman -- according to Frank -- thought it was a good idea), but I'd have to ask Krugman. ... Update: okay, I will ask Krugman. Update 2: so I did ask Krugman, who is traveling now, if he'd speak to the consumption tax in a blogpost. Anyway, the illustration is cute.

Bryan Burrough of the New York Times: Retirement Heist, a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Ellen Schultz, reveals that "many of the largest American companies have systematically plundered their employees’ pension funds, at once robbing their workers of hard-won benefits and enriching their own profits." Burroughs doesn't think much of the narrative flow of the book, but the facts are outrageous & heartbreaking.CW: And buried in his own less-than-fabulous narrative style, is the fact that you can blame Washington for letting corporations get away with this massive heist. ...

... The Alternate Plan. Becca Aaronson of the New York Times: "Government employees in Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda Counties [Texas] have controlled their private retirement plan for 30 years. They opted out of Social Security before Congress changed the law in 1983 to prevent others from withdrawing.... Both the G.A.O. and Social Security studies concluded that lower-wage workers, particularly those with many dependents, would fare better under Social Security, while middle- and higher-wage workers were likely to fare better, at least initially, under the Alternate Plan." ...

... Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "Most of the top Republicans running for president are embracing plans to partially privatize Social Security, reviving a contentious issue that fizzled under President George W. Bush after Democrats relentlessly attacked it."

NEW. Peter Wallsten & Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "Obama administration officials scrambled Friday to hunt down copies of a new book scheduled to be released next week that paints an unflattering portrait of a dysfunctional and acrimonious White House that sometimes stymied President Obama’s effort to rescue the country’s economy. The book, “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President,” by journalist Ron Suskind, comes at an inconvenient time for an administration that increasingly finds itself on the defensive over questions of effectiveness." ...

[OMB Director Peter] Orszag told Suskind, according to the book: 'Larry [Summers] just didn’t think the president knew what he was deciding.' Meeting over dinner at the Bombay Club one night, Summers told Orszag..., according to the book. 'I mean it,' Summers said. 'We’re home alone. There’s no adult in charge. Clinton would never have made these mistakes.' ...

... ** David Dayen of Firedoglake: "I actually laughed out loud when I read that last part. Because the seeds of the Great Recession were planted while Clinton was 'the adult in charge' — at the urging of none other than Larry Summers (and his partner in crime, Robert Rubin).... Unfortunately, Obama may never recover from appointing people like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner in January 2009."

Barbara Blaine in the Guardian on why her group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has brought a suit in the International Criminal Court at The Hague charging the Pope & the Vatican with crimes against humanity.

Prof. Cynthia Tucker re: the impending execution of Troy Davis: "... there are ... compelling arguments that point to Davis' innocence -- that suggest, instead, he was set up by the actual triggerman and witnesses who lied to protect themselves. That's the problem with this case: There is now reasonable doubt. The American criminal justice system ... isn't well-equipped to handle such doubts after a man has already been convicted by the proverbial jury of his peers. So Davis is set to die by lethal injection on Sept. 21 unless the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, his last hope, grants him clemency."

Chrissie Thompson of the Detroit Free Press analyzes the GM-UAW contract. "Both General Motors and the UAW can claim victories with the tentative labor contract they reached Friday night after seven weeks of sometimes-exhausting negotiations. GM is giving workers $5,000 signing bonuses, adding thousands of jobs and dishing out a $3-an-hour raise for entry-level workers. But by adding more low-cost, entry-level workers, buying out highly paid skilled-trades workers and denying the union a cost-of-living adjustment, GM should be able to build each car more cheaply for years to come."

Right Wing World *

Both Gail Collins & Maureen Dowd comment on Rick Perry; Dowd concentrates on his dumbness, & Collins on his provincialism.

Making Up Stuff. Again. David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Besides President Obama, the biggest villain in the early Republican debates has been a Republican: Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, who was first appointed by George W. Bush and previously served as a Bush adviser.... Mr. Perry and Mr. Romney accused Mr. Bernanke of devaluing the dollar through inflation. Newt Gingrich, former House speaker, called Mr. Bernanke 'the most inflationary' chairman ever." But in fact, "Under Mr. Bernanke, inflation has been lower than under any other Fed chairman in the past 40 years — and lower than in the five years before he took over." CW: they just don't like someone who dares to suggest helping the economy during a Democratic presidency is patriotic.

* Where dumb & provincial are winning attributes.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Obama will unveil a deficit-reduction plan on Monday that uses entitlement cuts, tax increases and war savings to reduce government spending by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years.... The plan ... is the administration’s opening salvo in sweeping negotiations on deficit reduction to be taken up by a joint House-Senate committee over the next two months. If a deal is not struck by Dec. 23, cuts could take effect automatically across government agencies.... Aides said Mr. Obama will expressly promise to veto any legislation that seeks to cut the deficit through spending cuts alone and does not include revenue increases in the form of tax increases on the wealthy." Washington Post story here.

NBC News: "Texas congressman Ron Paul won the California Republican straw poll Saturday after making several speeches at the GOP state convention...."

Oh, how could I have missed this? Politico: "Rick Santorum captured a home-state straw poll win of Pennsylvania Republicans on Friday night. Santorum, the two-term Pennsylvania senator, won 36 percent of the vote from state committee members, beating Mitt Romney’s 25 percent and Rick Perry’s 18 percent. No one else here cracked double-digits." CW: ... which gives you a glimmer of how important straw polls are.

The Commentariat -- September 17

President Obama's weekly address:

    ... The transcript is here; AP story here.

Oh, it's Constitution Day, and not surprisingly the Tea Party is mucking it up. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Tea Party groups, armed with lesson plans and coloring books, are pushing schools to use the day to teach a conservative interpretation of the Constitution, where the federal government is a creeping and unwelcome presence in the lives of freedom-loving Americans. Progressive groups, accusing the Tea Party of selectively reading the founding document, have responded with a campaign to “take back the Constitution.” They are urging Americans and lawmakers to sign a pledge to honor the whole Constitution, even the parts many Tea Party supporters would prefer to ignore — say, the amendments allowing an income tax, and granting birthright citizenship. And they are trying to get people to see the Constitution not as a limit on federal power but as the spirit behind progressive laws."

"The Apotheosis of Washington," ceiling of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.... Jonathan Alter has a very good piece in the Washington Monthly on "America's Lost Decade"; i.e., the Dubya years. Alter looks both to past eras -- all the way back to "the Washington Era" -- George, that is --  & to a possible one to come: "If Perry is elected, he has pledged to 'make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.' He and his supporters may have forgotten that it was Washington [D.C.] that helped build everything from the interstate to the Internet." 

I've posted an Off Times Square comments page titled "Let's Talk about Death."

"Let's Talk about Death"

Peter Capatano of the New York Times reviews some of the commentary on Ron Paul's remarks during the most recent Republican presidential debate & the audience's "let him die" reaction: "... those who saw last week’s 'Texas death penalty cheer' — in which Rick Perry’s role in Texas’s execution rate was roundly applauded, twice, by an audience at a Republican debate — and judged it an aberration were proven wrong on Monday, when something strangely similar happened." ...

... In this MoveOn.org video, a woman named Susan Grigsby tells what happened when her then-55-year-old brother lost his job & health insurance:

... New York Times Editorial Board: "After granting a stay of execution to Duane Buck just hours before he was to be put to death in Texas on Thursday, the Supreme Court must now review the case or, at the very least, order a lower federal court to consider Mr. Buck’s plea for a new sentencing hearing. It cannot allow a terrible injustice to stand." The  state used Buck's race as proof of "future dangerousness," a requirement for a death sentence in Texas.... The gross racism in Mr. Buck’s case is proof again that the death penalty is cruel and unusual because it is arbitrary and discriminatory, as well as barbaric, and must be abolished." CW: read the whole editorial; then ask yourself where the "unworried" Gov. Rick Perry was in all this. ...

     ... Update: David Savage of the Los Angeles Times has the answer to "Where's Perry?": "Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst did not respond to pleas urging them to grant Buck a 30-day reprieve. Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was campaigning in Iowa on Thursday, leaving Dewhurst to preside over the execution. After the stay was issued, Dewhurst's office said he would have no comment. A Perry spokeswoman in Austin said, 'This is a matter before the courts.'" ...

     ... As David Dayen writes in Firedoglake: "Hanging over this is the extreme surety with which Perry touts the 'very thoughtful, very clear process' for death sentencing in Texas. That’s obviously not true in this case, and hopefully this will force a reckoning from major media on other cases."

... AP (via the NYT): "Hundreds of thousands of people are rallying behind Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis — not just because they oppose capital punishment but because they believe the state could put an innocent man to death. The case is fraught with drama: The murder of an off-duty police officer. Conflicting eyewitness testimony. Last-minute court decisions sparing a condemned man's life and global dignitaries who say they fear an innocent man could die." ...

... From last fall, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on the death penalty; NPR interview by Nina Totenberg -- audio here; transcript here. (The whole interview is pretty interesting.) ...

... CW: "I Do Not Fear Death." -- Roger Ebert in a Salon essay, which I highly recommend. It isn't often you find a meaning-of-life essay on mostly-political Websites. This would be one of those rare occasions in which you do. By coincidence, a friend asked me the same meaning-of-life questions earlier this week, & Ebert's answers are so like mine it would be creepy if I didn't feel that millions of other people of a certain age have reached the same general conclusions. Thanks to my friend Kate M. for directing me to Ebert's piece, which is excerpted from his memoir Life Itself.

Many voters seem to think that government has the power to protect them from the consequences of their sins. -- David Brooks ...

... CW: Matt Yglesias is apparently one of the few Washington-watchers on my side v. Brooks' blame-it-on-us POV. Yglesias writes, "That something along these lines has become something like the conventional wisdom in Washington is, to me, maddening." Yglesias cites "a story about bus drivers in Nevada "getting laid off as a result of state/local budget woes. Are those soon-to-be-unemployed bus drivers really suffering for their sins? ... The amazing thing about this crisis is the extent to which suffering and responsibility are completely out of proportion with one another.... The government has done immensely more to protect creditors, shareholders, and managers of major banks from the negative consequences of their sins than it’s done to protect bus drivers."

Rachel Maddow on Ronald Reagan, the GOP and Christian fundamentalism:

Matthew Dickinson on recent criticisms, direct & implied, of White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. Dickinson argues that the criticisms are unfair. Via Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post.

Steve Benen: an Iowa family finds "Obamacare" works for them.

Right Wing World

Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: Rick Perry was for TARP before he was against it. But since he lives in Right Wing World, he denies he ever favored TARP, evidence to the contrary. Shortly after Congress failed on its first vote to pass TARP, Perry -- as head to the National Governors' Association, urged Washington legislators "to leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package." In a related flip-flop, Perry once bashed Wall Street as "being run on greed"; now he favors repealing financial reform. CW: in other words, he's for whatever will get him elected, even if he has to lie about it. ...

... But maybe we shouldn't be too quick to give Perry the Hypocrisy Prize. Here's Marie Diamond of Think Progress: [House Speaker John] "Boehner had the audacity to rebuke 'too big to fail' banks [in a speech this week], despite voting to bail out those very banks and fighting tooth-and-nail against Wall Street reform."

CW: I'm not sure why the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board is just getting around to this, but better late than never: Justice Clarence Thomas's "spousal income and his ties with a real estate developer who paid for some of Thomas' air travel raise disclosure questions.... To our mind, Thomas has been too free in forming such connections. But regardless of his off-the-bench activities, he should follow — and not just make — the law."

News Ledes

"The Buffett Rule." New York Times: "President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers."

New York Times: the NYPD shut down Wall Street before a long-planned protest over the financial system could take place today.

Los Angeles Times: "The daughters of two legendary Democratic politicians have died: Kara Kennedy, the oldest child of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, and Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale." Both women had been battling cancer." Both women were 51 years of age. ...

     ... The New York Times obituary for Kara Kennedy is here. ...

     ... The New York Times obituary for Eleanor Mondale Poling is here.

Chicago Tribune: "Charles H. Percy, a brilliant businessman who represented Illinois for nearly 20 years in the U.S. Senate, once headed the chamber’s powerful Foreign Relations Committee, and harbored unrealized ambitions to run for the presidency, died early Saturday. He was 91." Washington Post obituary here.

New York Times: "The United Automobile Workers and General Motors said late Friday that they had reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract." Detroit Free Press story here, with links to related documents.

AP: "Dozens of employees at Honolulu's airport were fired or suspended after an investigation found workers did not screen checked bags for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday."

Friends in High Places. AP: "The Obama administration restructured a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private investors — including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama — moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show. Administration officials defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work."

AP: "Facing a potentially destabilizing diplomatic clash, President Barack Obama heads to the United Nations next week already looking beyond a potential vote on Palestinian statehood and toward laying the groundwork for the resumption of stalled Middle East peace talks."

New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner made an unusual appearance at a meeting of euro zone finance ministries. Mr. Geithner had been invited to offer some advice on fixing Europe’s sovereign debt and banking problems. European leaders, who have been slow to react to the root causes of the problem, emerged from the meeting dismissive of Mr. Geithner’s ideas and, in some cases, even of the idea that the United States was in a position to give out such pointers."

Everybody's a Crook. New York Times: "Federal ethics officials are expected to recommend that the Justice Department begin a criminal investigation into actions taken by David M. Becker, the former general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who determined the agency’s proposal for compensating victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme when he had a financial interest in the outcome. A possible criminal referral from the Office of Government Ethics is expected to be part of a report issued next week by H. David Kotz, the inspector general of the S.E.C...."

AP: "Revolutionary fighters struggled to regroup Saturday outside the loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid after being beaten back by fierce resistance from followers of Moammar Gadhafi, temporarily quieting one battlefield while commanders leading a second offensive tried to open a new front into Gadhafi's tightly defended hometown."

AP: "The defense lawyer for two Americans jailed in Iran moved ahead with bail arrangements on Saturday, as international efforts intensified to seal a freedom-for-bail deal for the two men, convicted of spying. Attorney Masoud Shafiei told The Associated Press he was in court, 'following up the case' of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. Shafiei said he hopes Iran's judiciary will clear the way for payment of $1 million in exchange for the Americans' release." ...

     ... NBC News Update: "A bail application for two U.S. men sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran for alleged espionage was in limbo Saturday, after it was signed by one judge, but a second judge failed to appear as expected...."

Emory Wheel: "Former U.S. President and Distinguished Professor Jimmy Carter discussed his thoughts on topics ranging from the 2012 presidential election to his love of country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson at the 30th annual Carter Town Hall Wednesday evening.... Students erupted into applause when Carter declared the 2010 Supreme Court decision allowing for unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns as 'one of the stupidest rulings ever consummated or perpetrated on the American people.'”