The Commentariat -- September 16

All Krugman All the Time. Paul Krugman in today's column: "... compassion is out of fashion — indeed, lack of compassion has become a matter of principle, at least among the G.O.P.’s base. And what this means is that modern conservatism is actually a deeply radical movement, one that is hostile to the kind of society we’ve had for the past three generations — that is, a society that, acting through the government, tries to mitigate some of the 'common hazards of life' through such programs as Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid." ...

... I've added a Krugman page to Off Times Square. Karen Garcia, Akhilleus & I have posted comments. ...

... More on the U.S. Census poverty report from the first Nobel Laureate below (and above): "It ... documents the ways in which safety-net programs have at least mitigated that damage — notably, uninsurance among children has actually fallen thanks to SCHIP and Medicaid, unemployment insurance has literally kept millions above the poverty line, and the early features of the Affordable Care Act.... But what struck me is [that] many measures of pain were rising right through the 'Bush boom', and have merely continued that rise." ...

Stephen Colbert interviews some Nobel Laureates:

"Steve Jobs is Esther Williams":

** Anthony McCartney of the AP: "A new book offering an insider's account of the White House's response to the financial crisis says that U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ignored an order from President Barack Obama calling for reconstruction of major banks. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, the incident is just one of several in which Obama struggled with a divided group of advisers.... The book states Geithner and the Treasury Department ignored a March 2009 order [from Obama] to consider dissolving banking giant Citigroup while continuing stress tests on banks, which were burdened with toxic mortgage assets. In the book, Obama does not deny Suskind's account, but does not reveal what he told Geithner when he found out. "Agitated may be too strong a word," Suskind quotes Obama as saying." Thanks to reader Bob M. for the link. ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "A new book claims that President Obama’s response to the economic crisis was hampered by a White House economic staff plagued by internal rivalries, a domineering chief adviser and a Treasury secretary who dragged his feet on enforcing decisions with which he disagreed. The book, by Ron Suskind..., quotes White House documents that say Mr. Obama’s decisions were routinely 're-litigated' by ... Lawrence H. Summers.... In this rough-and-tumble environment, the book reports, female staff members often felt bruised. At a dinner with Mr. Obama in November 2009, several top female aides — including Anita Dunn, who was the communications director, and Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers — told the president about being talked over in meetings by male colleagues or cut out altogether."

Karen Garcia comments on James Carville's panicky call for White House action, linked in yesterday's Commentariat. Garcia writes, "I couldn't help but wonder how he can, in good conscience, draw a paycheck from the same network that 'teamed up' with the Tea Party Express to present a travesty of a GOP debate Monday night." Here's the CNN clip she references.

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: President Obama has done a very good job advocating for his Jobs Act. But he needs help, & not just from his natural allies:

... where are the coalitions of business leaders, whose livelihoods depend on growth, clamoring for this? And where are all the fiscal scolds, whom Obama has tried so hard to please by demanding (unlike the previous administration) that Congress pay for new initiatives and that long-term deficit reduction remain a goal? By refusing to engage more forcefully, and more pointedly, they empower and reward the Republicans who brazenly risked the nation's credit rating -- and who refuse to contemplate tax increases, making deficit reduction impossible as a practical matter. ...

... AND What about Democrats? The New York Times Editorial Board: "Republican opposition is bad enough, but The Times’s Jennifer Steinhauer reported that many Congressional Democrats are hanging back, saying they could support one or another of the components of the jobs plan, but not the whole package.... The last thing Democrats should do now is ... cow in the face of Republican tirades against government help."

NEW. Obama Solves a Murder Case. Christine McConville of the Boston Herald: "A paroled killer’s 'Obama' bumper sticker was the break that helped cops nab the man accused of the cold-blooded murder of a Tedeschi’s convenience store clerk, jurors in Edward Corliss’ murder trial learned yesterday. 'It struck me as odd,' state parole officer Kevin Devlin testified yesterday.... 'He’s a guy from Somerville, so I was surprised he was supporting Obama,' Devlin said.... After the shocking 2009 execution, Devlin learned police were looking for a car exactly like his parolee’s and dropped the dime that led cops to Corliss."

Right Wing World

Killing Them Not-so-Kindly with His Song-and-Dance. CW: Karen Garcia's comment on today's Off Times Square has me boiling. She highlighted the story -- first reported by Seth Abramovitch of Gawker -- of Ken Snyder, one of Ron Paul's top 2008 presidential campaign manager, who -- uninsured and broke -- died of viral pneumonia at the age of 49, two weeks after Paul suspended his campaign. Paul, a physician who had a $35 million war chest, did not offer his campaign employees health insurance. When Wolf Blitzer asked Paul during this week's presidential debate whether a person should be allowed to die because he didn't buy health insurance, Paul blithely replied,

He should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself....That's what freedom is all about: taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to take care of everybody —

     ... The audience interrupted Paul with cheers, & hooted Blitzer when he pressed Paul with a follow-up question:

So did Snyder fail to "assume responsibility for himself" when he went to work for Ron Paul? Or was he just "taking his own risks" because "that's what freedom is all about"? And what kind of "personal responsibility" did Ron Paul exhibit when he chose not to provide his staff with insurance? I guess he was just exercising his libertarian "freedom." ...

... Update: In this CNN story, Paul claims he did everything he could for his longtime friend. Right. It turns out Snyder had a pre-existing condition & could not get health coverage if the Paul campaign had offered it. Even the fairly clueless Blitzer notes that under "Obamacare," Snyder would be able to get insurance, but Paul still vehemently opposes the Affordable Care Act, calling it "montrous" & "bad for your health." Paul himself doesn't have to worry; as a U.S. Congressman, he & his family are eligible for Cadillac coverage:

Note that Paul "raised" (i.e., didn't give) $50,000 to help cover his good friend Snyder's bills, which came to $400,000 for his final care. And where were "the churches" Paul said were responsible to take care of the indigent? I guess they're irresponsible, too.

Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: "At a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, [House Speaker John] Boehner articulated a hard-right line on taxes that even the most moderate of Democrats could never accept....  Tax increases? Not a chance — they 'are off the table,' Boehner said, repeating the dubious argument that planning to raise revenue many years down the road would hurt job creation now. If you’re looking for deficit reduction, Boehner barked, 'the joint committee only has one option — spending cuts and entitlement reform.'” ...

At this moment, the Executive Branch has 219 new rules in the works that will cost our economy at least $100 million. That means under the current Washington agenda, our economy is poised to take a hit from the government of at least $100 million — 219 times. -- John Boehner, in his speech yesterday ...

... Glenn Kessler, the Post's fact checker: "... the number of potential regulations [Boehner cited] is inflated, as well as the potential impact. Many of the regulations may turn out to have substantial costs, but others could have benefits, as a report on the speaker’s website makes clear." CW: the explanation here is complicated; you'll have to read Kessler's post.

NEW. Amy Sullivan of Time: Federal courts are striking down as unconstitutional state laws & amendments banning sharia law (whatever that is) & Planned Parenthood funding. Are conservative interest groups upset? Not necessarily. They "recognize the political benefit to agitating about the dangers of Planned Parenthood or sharia–a catch-all word used by people who fear Islam and Muslims. A generous description of the political upside to these campaigns would be 'framing the cultural debate.' Another one would be 'fear-mongering.' ... The strategy ... plays directly into a narrative conservative Christians have been weaving for over a generation.... For the past few decades ... many conservative Christians have viewed themselves as soldiers in a fight against government representatives who want to impose secular values on them."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "In last year’s campaigns, Republicans ripped into Democrats for failing to perform one of Congress’s most basic duties: providing money in a timely way for the operations of government. But Republicans acknowledged Thursday that they would miss the deadline they had promised to meet. They began to rush a stopgap spending bill through the House because, they said, Congress could not finish work on any of the 12 regular appropriations bills before the new fiscal year starts in two weeks, on Oct. 1.... Republicans offered several [CW: dog-ate-my-homework] reasons for missing the deadline."

NEW. John Ellis of Business Insider: Rick Perry has tried a phone-it-in technique in the two Republican debates, and showing up unprepared is not working for him. If he doesn't start doing better, he won't be the nominee.

Lee Fang of Think Progress: "... the group American Family Voices filed a formal ethics complaint against Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, regarding the “symbiotic relationship” the congressman has established between his business interests and public responsibilities. Listing Issa’s many conflicts of interest, the letter, sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics, heavily cites a New York Times piece as well as original ThinkProgress investigations." Here's a press release from the American Family Group on their complaint. Thanks to reader Jeanne B. for the link. Alexander Bolton of The Hill also has a story here.

News Ledes

President Obama signs the America Invents Act:

The Hill: "President Obama has signed legislation overhauling the nation’s patent and trademark laws, a move the administration claims will speed the patent process and spur job growth. Appearing at an event at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., Friday, Obama signed the America Invents Act into law, changing the U.S. from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file patent system." Video above.

New York Daily News: New York Mayor Michael "Bloomberg warned Friday there would be riots in the streets if Washington doesn't get serious about generating jobs."

The Hill: "House Republican leaders assessed President Obama’s jobs plan Friday in a memo to their rank and file, and they found plenty of proposals to criticize. The leaders cited trade agreements and incentives for small businesses and veterans as the ideas they liked the most, but signaled little support for proposals they said were too similar to provisions of the 2009 economic stimulus package. The Republicans also criticized, as they have repeatedly, the tax increases that the president proposes as a means to pay for his $447 billion plan."

Washington Post: "Worried that a mounting debt crisis in Europe could trip up the global economy, the Federal Reserve opened its vault Thursday to the central banks of other countries in an effort to head off a crippling shortage of dollars. The main recipient of the Fed’s money is the European Central Bank, which will in turn extend dollar loans to banks in the nations that use the euro currency." ...

AP: "UBS was under pressure on Friday to explain how its managers failed to catch a $2 billion loss due to rogue trading, with experts calling into question the Swiss bank’s ability to turn around its scandal-hit image."

AP, via the NYT: "A black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago was at least temporarily spared from lethal injection when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review his lawyers' claims that race played an improper role in his sentencing. The court on Thursday halted the execution for Duane Buck, 48, two hours into a six-hour window when he could have been taken to the death chamber. Texas officials, however, did not move forward with the punishment while legal issues were pending."

AP: "Denmark's prime minister-designate started work Friday on molding a united government from a scattered 'red bloc' of ex-communists and pro-market liberals that ousted a right-wing coalition in a parliamentary election. Social Democratic leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt, 44, is set to become Denmark's first female head of government after her alliance secured 92 seats and a narrow majority in the 179-seat Folketing."

Reuters, via the NYT: "Forces loyal to Libya's new rulers surged into the desert town of Bani Walid on Friday in a fierce attack on one of the last strongholds still in the hands of Muammar Gaddafi loyalists that could prove a major turning point in the war."

AP: "Officials in Saudi Arabia and Yemen say that President Ali Abdullah Saleh will not return to Sanaa [the Yemen capital] and will, instead, remain in Riyadh, where he has been since June recuperating from serious wounds after an attack on his compound in June.... On Thursday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement that it believes Saleh could sign a Gulf-sponsored proposal to transfer power to his vice president within a week."

The Commentariat -- September 15

Unlike Sen. Merkley (see below), I'm plumb out of good ideas, so I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square.

Senator Merkley's Excellent Idea. Greg Sargent: "Senator Jeff Merkley [D-Oregon] ... is calling on both parties to agree to submit every proposal offered by the supercommittee to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to be evaluated for the impact it will have — on jobs.... 'We need to have every proposal that the super-committee brings out to have it scored by its jobs impact,' Merkley told me.... He plans to urge Democratic and GOP leaders to agree to this standard, and hopes to build a campaign to make it happen. here’s precedent for the CBO scoring proposals for jobs impact." ...

... Steve Benen: Merkley's idea "seems like such a no-brainer, I’ll look forward to the creativity Republicans will draw upon to oppose it."

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: A CNN poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans say creating jobs is more important than reducing the deficit (65%-29%) & they trust President Obama more than Congressional Republicans to manage the economy. What's more, the poll results indicate that the most popular Obama proposals are those that require spending. ...

... BUt. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: the popularity of Obama's plan doesn't stop ConservaDems from attacking him personally and the plan itself. ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Today [Wednesday] the Democratic congressional caucus, in a dazzling display of circular firing squaddishness, unloaded on President Obama's jobs bill.... Republicans must be laughing their asses off right now. For a brief moment it looked as if maybe, just maybe, Obama had put them in a tough spot.... But now? All they have to do is lay low and let Democrats do the dirty work of undermining the bill for them." ...

... Mackenzie Weinger of Politico: "With frustration and disappointment mounting from stinging defeats in Tuesday’s two special elections and over Obama’s jobs plan, the media is [sic.] filled on Thursday with Democrats on the record publicly questioning and doubting the president and some of his policies, and a few even unleashing biting criticism." ...

... "With Friends like These...." Steve Benen: "... let this be the latest in a series of reminders — it’s easy to get frustrated with President Obama at times, but he’d be in a far better position if he had more reliable congressional allies to partner with." ...

... AP: "Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans won't support President Barack Obama's jobs plan, but he still wants them to vote on the sweeping $450 billion economic recovery effort. 'We are going to have the Republicans belly up to the bar to turn down this plan,' Reid said during a virtual town hall meeting with supporters Wednesday." CW: I guess out there in the hinterland Reid doesn't have access to new about what his esteemed Democratic colleagues are doing. ...

... CW: So James Carville has some pretty good advice for President Obama. It is not anything that Off Times Square commenters haven't said before. And don't expect Obama to listen to Carville any more than he listens to us. But Carville has a three-step "program" -- "Fire, indict, fight" -- that is right on. Carville, naturally, does not mince words.

Jason DeParle & Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times delve into the findings of the U.S. Census report on poverty.

Steve Kornacki of Salon on the perilous road Elizabeth Warren is taking in her effort to win the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Republican Scott Brown, and perhaps to save the Democrats' Senate majority. ...

... Oh, No! Ben Smith: The Massachusetts GOP issued "a press release ... which points out that Elizabeth Warren couldn't name a Red Sox player when she was asked yesterday."

Rod Nordland & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "The growing influence of Islamists in Libya raises hard questions about the ultimate character of the government and society that will rise in place of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s autocracy. The United States and Libya’s new leaders say the Islamists, a well-organized group in a mostly moderate country, are sending signals that they are dedicated to democratic pluralism. They say there is no reason to doubt the Islamists’ sincerity."

Right Wing World

As I watch the Republican debates, I realize that we are on the brink of a crazy person running our nation. I sit in front of the television and shudder at the thought of one of these creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans running my country. -- James Carville

On the Danger of Saving Your Daughter's Life. Gail Collins writes, Michele "Bachmann’s strong points are her passion and determination, while her weak ones include a rather free-floating relationship with reality.... “I had a mother last night come up to me ... she told me her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,” Bachmann told one TV interviewer after another.... Would a contender for the White House ... just blurt out something they heard from a stranger that could discourage parents from accepting vaccinations that could save their children’s lives? The Bachmann campaign did not respond to my questions about who the woman was or what the candidate did to check out the information. So I guess maybe, yeah." ...

     ... CW Note: the Times has once again held back my comment on Collins' column, but you can read it in today's Off Times Square.

Fowl Economics. Bob Reich: "... governors have as much influence over job growth in their states as roosters do over sunrises.... If governors try hard enough, though, they can create lots of lousy jobs. They can drive out unions, attract low-wage immigrants, and turn a blind eye to businesses that fail to protect worker health and safety. Rick Perry seems to have done exactly this.... Texas has ... been specializing in minimum-wage jobs. From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers there rose ... nearly 150 percent. And 9.5 percent of Texas workers earn the minimum wage or below -- compared to about 6 percent for the rest of the nation.... A few years ago Michele Bachmann remarked that if the minimum wage were repealed 'we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.' ... In short, the Perry (and Bachmann) model of job growth condemns Americans to lower and lower living standards. That’s nothing to crow about."

Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "Taking the GOP’s anti-tax ideology to its logical conclusion, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) introduced today his own 'American Jobs Act' ... which would completely eliminate corporate income taxes.... The two-page bill changes the tax code to replace any mention of the current '35 percent' tax rate with '0 percent.' Corporations are already sitting on trillions in cash, so cutting their taxes would likely do very little to help the economy, but would balloon the deficit by depriving the government of about $300 billions in revenues annually."

Local News

America's Worst Governor Favors Second Amendment over First. Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald: "A federal judge Wednesday blocked a Florida gun law that restricted doctors from asking patients about firearms. Judge Marcia G. Cooke said doctors had a First Amendment right to ask about firearms, and she rapped the state’s lawyers for failing to provide more than anecdotal evidence to show the law was needed.... Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the 'Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act' into law June 2nd vowed to appeal."

News Ledes

President Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer:

     ... New York Times: "President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to [Dakota Meyer,] a young former Marine who ignored orders to stay put and fought his way five times into an ambush in an Afghan ravine, helping to rescue three dozen comrades and to recover the remains of four dead American servicemen." ...

... President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer this afternoon. AP: "Dakota Meyer saved 36 lives from an ambush in Afghanistan and the former Marine will collect the nation's highest military honor at the White House on Thursday. While he is receiving the Medal of Honor, Meyer's slain comrades will be memorialized in hometown ceremonies at his request."

New York Times: "Worried that Europe’s debt impasse posed a growing threat to the global economy, the world’s major central banks moved Thursday to assure investors that European banks would not run short of American dollars, as they nearly did at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. The banks, in a coordinated action intended to restore market confidence, agreed to pump dollars into the European banking system in the first such show of force in more than a year."

Reuters: "President Barack Obama, yielding to pressure from his political base, has backed off a proposal to reform Social Security retirement benefits in a high-stakes deficits deal Congress needs to reach this year."

New York Times: "An armed drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency this week killed a top Qaeda operative responsible for plotting terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, two American officials said on Thursday. The killing of Abu Hafs al-Shariri occurred Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks."

New York Times: "UBS said on Thursday that a rogue trader in its investment bank had lost $2 billion, a fresh blow to the struggling Swiss bank. Police in London have arrested European equities trader, Kweku Adoboli, in connection with the case.... Shares of UBS dropped more than 8 percent on Thursday, while the broader European banking sector was up." Guardian story here.

New York Times: "The United Automobile Workers agreed early on Thursday to extend contracts with General Motors and Chrysler after the parties were unable to reach new deals by the time the old pacts expired at midnight."

Reuters: "Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron flew in to Tripoli under heavy guard on Thursday, to be welcomed by the new leaders the French and British air forces helped install in Libya, three weeks after rebel forces overthrew Muammar Gaddafi." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The leaders of Britain and France visited Libya on Thursday in a triumphal but heavily guarded tour intended to boost the country’s revolutionary leaders, whose forces were propelled to power with NATO’s help last month by routing Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his military in the most violent conflict of the Arab Spring uprisings."

AP: "The Palestinians will ask the Security Council next week [September 23] to accept them as a full member of the United Nations, the top Palestinian diplomat said Thursday — a move that comes in defiance of Washington's threat to veto the statehood bid. The remarks by Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki put an end to speculation that the Palestinians might avoid a showdown with the United States by sidestepping the Security Council and going directly to the U.N. General Assembly to seek a lesser status of a non-member observer. The U.S. does not wield veto power in the General Assembly, and a Palestinian bid there would be expected to win majority approval."

Reuters: "China's Foreign Ministry urged U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday not to resort to 'excuses' for trade protectionism after U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pushed for legislation aimed at forcing China to loosen controls on its currency."

The Commentariat -- September 14

New York Times Editors: "The latest figures from the Census Bureau shows the devastating cost of the recession and why putting Americans back to work must be Washington’s top priority.... With 14 million Americans out of work and 46 million living in poverty, the real human cost of more obstruction and inaction is undeniable and inexcusable." ...

... I've put up a comments page on the above editorial and related content on today's Off Times Square.

Jackie Calmes & Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The possibility of major parts of President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill becoming law, and of further steps next week by the Federal Reserve, have forecasters saying that the decisions Washington makes in the weeks ahead could have a substantial effect on economic growth and unemployment. At a minimum, the stimulus could be insurance against the headwinds blowing from Europe’s debt crisis and the impact of the recent government spending cuts in this country.... The economy’s weakness, as well as polls showing low approval ratings for both Mr. Obama and Congressional Republicans, seem to have raised the prospects of a policy response." ...

... Sam Youngman of The Hill: The White House sees President Obama's jobs initiative as a win-win for the President. Even if the bill doesn't pass, it gives him a campaign issue on which most Americans agree with him, not the Republicans in Congress.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: Because Republicans believe President Obama is likely to win Pennsylvania again in 2012, they plan to change the winner-take-all electoral college vote (which almost all states have) to a plan that would likely give the GOP candidates more electoral college votes than President Obama.

Brian Beutler of TPM: "The Congressional Budget Office would be stepping out of bounds if it endorsed specific legislation or even hazy policy objectives. But it's hard to read CBO chief Doug Elmendorf's testimony to the joint deficit Super Committee Tuesday as anything other than a de facto endorsement of President Obama's broad strategy to boost the economy: legislation that spends money to hire people and reduces payroll taxes in the near-term, and that reduces deficits by even greater amounts in the middle and end of the decade." ...

... Steve Benen: "Taken together, every credible observer with a pulse — the Fed, the CBO, a wide variety of economists, the financial industry, the bond market, business leaders — are all saying more or less the same thing. They all want policymakers to approve short-term stimulus and oppose drastic short-term budget cuts. GOP officials, of course, desperately want to do the opposite. It’s against this backdrop that House Republicans believe 'every economist' agrees the GOP is on the right track. It’s hard to overstate how ridiculous that claim really is."...

     ... CW Note: here's where Benen gets that "every economist agrees the GOP is on the right track:

As every economist and every rating agency has made clear, getting our deficit under control is the first step to help get our economy growing again and to create jobs. -- Michael Steel, spokesman for Boehner

Dee Dee Myers on the President's sales job on jobs: "Too often, this president comes across like the World’s Most Rational Man. Of course, keeping his head when everyone around him is losing theirs is one of his great strengths. But if he’s going to close the sale —that won’t be enough. If he wants people to buy what he’s selling, he has to appeal to hearts as well as heads. He has to make them feel it."

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: Once again the President, along with his top economic aide Gene Sperling, muddle the message, this times on the American Jobs Act, when both indicated in interviews they would take half a loaf. "Addressing a hypothetical situation ... risks undercutting his own message ... [and] is one of the easiest ways to step on your own story.... You can simply say a question is hypothetical and you're not going to address it unless the facts change.... If you want to be successful in communicating a consistent message, that's exactly what you have to do." CW: what Lewison doesn't say, perhaps because it's so obvious, that this is Obama once again making his favorite unforced error: we'll call it "The Pre-Game Cave."

The fundamental question, is not how we got here but where you want the country to go. -- Doug Elmendorf, CBO Director ...

... Dana Milbank: the deficit-reduction supercommittee has wasted its first two hearings, the first on speechifying & the second "devoted in large part to trading blame for the deficit.... There are skeptics who say prospects are bleak that the supercommittee will come up with anything resembling a comprehensive solution to the deficit problem. I think those skeptics are too optimistic."

Joe Stephens & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s factory, newly obtained e-mails show.... The August 2009 e-mails ... show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to information provided by Republican congressional investigators. Solyndra collapsed two weeks ago, leaving taxpayers liable for the $535 million loan." ...

... NEW. Michael Grunwald of Time on the so-called "Solyndra scandal," and how it has little impact on the fact that green technology is booming. And as Grunwald reminds us, facts don't matter once Republicans latch on to an anti-Obama narrative. CW: But we knew that, didn't we?

Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "Wal-Mart is slated to announce Wednesday that it will spend billions of dollars over the next five years to train female workers around the world and support women-owned businesses.... For years, it was embroiled in a massive sex-discrimination lawsuit that alleged that the company paid women less than their male counterparts and passed them over for promotions. This summer, the Supreme Court blocked the case from receiving class-action status, and attorneys for the women involved said they plan to file individual complaints. [A Wal-Mart executive] said that Wednesday’s initiative has been in the works for about a year and is not related to the suit. The company has launched similar sweeping programs in recent years centered on issues for which it had been vilified."

Nate Silver writes about Congressional special election spin -- what is true & what is hype.

Elizabeth Warren pulls out all the stops in her campaign announcement. It's pretty terrific:

Ezra Klein: "In practice, expect [Elizabeth] Warren to spend the next year or so running against ... Wall Street.... Unlike most Democrats, she’s not tainted by the bailout. Unlike most Republicans, she’s not held back by a mistrust of all regulation. She can run the campaign against Wall Street that many have been hoping to see for the last three years.... And [Scott] Brown’s [R-Mass.] record, which includes opposing the bill’s bank tax, watering down the Volcker rule, and receiving more than $140,000 in contributions from the financial industry, is going to make the question of what exactly he was doing a bit harder to answer." ...

... Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe: "Should Elizabeth Warren be fortunate enough to win the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s US Senate nomination next year, state voters could see an election contest that rivals the concurrent presidential campaign."

AP: "A 101-year-old woman was evicted from the southwest Detroit home where she lived for nearly six decades after her 65-year-old son failed to pay the mortgage. Texana Hollis was evicted Monday and her belongings were placed outside the home. Her son, Warren Hollis, said he didn't pay the bill for several years and disregarded eviction notices.... Wayne County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Hollises took out an adjustable-rate mortgage in 2002. A default and foreclosure notice was filed in November." CW: Okay, the son is an irresponsible idiot. I'd still like to know what bank granted a 92-year-old woman an adjustable-rate mortgage. ...

     ... A Detroit Free Press story indicates that the evicting agency was the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, which purchased the property at auction in December 2010. The story does not report who the original lender was.

Right Wing World *

Liar, Liar. Dan Eggen of the Washington Post: As evidence that he couldn't't be bought, Rick Perry said in Monday's Republican debate that he had taken only $5,000 from Merck, the manufacturer of the HPV vaccine which Perry executive-ordered Texas girls to have. "But campaign disclosure records portray a much deeper financial connection with Merck than Perry’s remarks suggest. His gubernatorial campaigns ... have received nearly $30,000 from the drugmaker since 2000, most of that before he issued his vaccine mandate, which was overturned by the Texas legislature. Merck and its subsidiaries have also given more than $380,000 to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) since 2006, the year that Perry began to play a prominent role in the Washington-based group, The [RGA gave] his campaign at least $4 million over the past five years...." ...

     ... Right Wing Hunter has a clip of the Bachmann-Perry exchange in which Perry claims the Merck contribution was $5,000. The producter won't allow me to embed the clip here.

A "Willfully Ignorant Allegation":

... Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "... raising the debt ceiling is not — I repeat, IS NOT — like giving the president a blank check or adding more to the national credit card.... It is imperative that ‘blank check’ gibberish from a top-tier presidential candidate be corrected."

* Where facts are irrelevant & stupid lies are applause lines.

News Ledes

At North Carolina State University in Raleigh, President Obama urges Congress to pass the American Jobs Act:

New York Times: "The United States faced increasing pressure on Tuesday as the Palestinian quest for statehood gained support from Turkey and other countries, even as the Obama administration sought an 11th-hour compromise that would avoid a confrontation at the United Nations next week."

New York Times: A little-known Republican businessman from Queens, channeling voter discontent with President Obama into an upset, won election to Congress on Tuesday from the heavily Democratic district in New York City last represented by Anthony D. Weiner. The Republican, Bob Turner, a retired cable television executive, defeated Assemblyman David I. Weprin, the scion of a prominent Democratic family in Queens, in a nationally watched special election."

AP: "Harvard Law professor and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren officially launched her Democratic campaign for U.S. Senate on Wednesday by greeting commuters at a rail station in Boston before embarking on a tour of the state."

AP: "A key federal report into what caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history was being readied for release as early as Wednesday amid revelations that BP made critical mistakes on the well and failed to tell its partners and the U.S. government when it realized it."

NEW. Los Angeles Times: "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday approved a rule requiring the nation's largest banks to submit 'living wills' to help regulators shut them down in an orderly way if they are seized on the brink of failure. The requirement was a key component of last year's sweeping overhaul of financial regulations and is designed to avoid the chaos that took place during the 2008 financial crisis. Under the law, the largest banks and financial firms would be required to have plans in place for their liquidation...."

New York Times: "The American ambassador to Afghanistan said on Wednesday that the Pakistan-based Haqqani network appeared to be responsible for an hours-long assault against the United States Embassy in Kabul and nearby NATO bases. But he downplayed the attack as 'harassment' rather than a significant military assault." ...

... AP: "NATO warplanes pounded targets in a number of strongholds of support for fugitive dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the alliance said Tuesday, as an offensive by revolutionary forces on a key loyalist town stalled."

Reuters: "Muammar Gaddafi is still in Libya and in good spirits, with a powerful army behind him, the ousted leader's spokesman said on Wednesday. Gaddafi's whereabouts have been unknown for months and most of his entourage have fled or gone into hiding...."

New York Times: "The Iranian judiciary on Wednesday contradicted an assurance by Iran‘s president that two Americans arrested two years ago while hiking the Iran-Iraq frontier and imprisoned on espionage charges would be freed within two days as a humanitarian gesture, state media reported.... The apparent conflict over the Americans’ legal status could reflect a worsening rift between [President] Ahmadinejad [who announced the Americans' imminent release] and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s spiritual leader and highest authority, who is closely allied to the court."

New York Times: "France brushed off concerns about its biggest banks Wednesday, insisting that it had no plans to nationalize any of them despite a credit rating downgrade linked to their exposure to the limping Greek economy. The reassurance, which helped lift European markets, came as the leaders of France and Germany prepared to speak with their Greek counterpart amid worries that Athens may default on its heavy debt load."

AP: "The leaders of Greece, France and Germany will seek ways to contain the spiraling debt crisis and prevent it from further roiling global financial markets in a teleconference on Wednesday evening."