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Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
I have a Bluesky account now. The URL is https://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.
The Commentariat -- September 10
In his weekly address, President Obama marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks:
... The transcript is here. ...
... The New York Times has a special report on the decade after September 11, 2001.
Joe Nocera: "... far more than tax relief, small businesses need credit. That is what the president should be pushing for."
Charles Blow: President Obama "isn’t only battling a calcifying cynicism about the inefficacy of government in general, he’s battling the rapidly hardening public perception that he himself is a product of what I call the doughnut doctrine of leadership — soft, glazy, hollow in the middle and ideally suited for getting dunked."
President Obama discussed the American Jobs Act yesterday in Richmond, Virginia -- CW: and he held me up in traffic on I-95 South for 45 minutes:
Right Wing World
"The Execution Cheer." Peter Capatano of the New York Times has a rundown of opinions regarding Rick Perry's record as the Execution Governor, and the big cheers that went up among the audience in the Republican debate this week when Perry defended his record and "Texas Justice." ...
... The most important link Capatano makes is to Marie Diamond's Think Progress post. Diamond debunks Perry's contention that the Texas judicial system is always fair:
... during Perry’s tenure as governor, DNA evidence has exonerated at least 41 people convicted in Texas, Scott Horton writes in Harper’s. According to the Innocence Project, 'more people have been freed through DNA testing in Texas than in any other state in the country, and these exonerations have revealed deep flaws in the state’s criminal justice system.' Some 85 percent of wrongful convictions in Texas, or 35 of the 41 cases, are due to mistaken eyewitness identifications.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Egypt’s ruling military council announced a security crackdown Saturday, saying it would make full use of the country’s emergency law to ensure safety a day after an attack by protesters on the Israeli Embassy prompted Israel to withdraw its diplomats. The crisis exposed the fragility of the Egyptian government’s control of the streets as well as Israel’s vulnerability in a region reshaped by protests since winter."
New York Times: "Bells tolled 40 times here Saturday afternoon as the names were read — those of the 40 passengers and crew who died 10 years ago after terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 and, with passengers in rebellion, slammed it into a field in southwestern Pennsylvania."
... The Hill: "In emotional speeches, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton paid tribute to the 40 passengers and crew who were killed when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., on September 11, 2001." See President Clinton's speech in the September 11 Commentariat. ...
Washington Post: "Israel airlifted its ambassador home and sought U.S. intervention with Egypt to help secure its embassy here early Saturday, hours after thousands of Egyptian protesters besieged the building, with several managing to gain entry and fling Hebrew-language documents from a balcony. Protesters knocked down a 12-foot concrete wall that had been built last week to protect the embassy, which is near the top floor of a 21-story residential building in the upscale Dokki area. At least two protesters scaled the front of the building to pull down the Israeli flag, hanging from the 20th floor. It was the second time in recent weeks that demonstrators had removed the flag." ...
... New York Times: " evacuated most of its embassy staff [in Cairo, Egypt] at dawn Saturday after six members had been trapped in the embassy for hours by a mob of protesters who attacked and invaded its offices overnight. The attack was the second time in a month that an angry mob stormed the Cairo embassy and tore down its flag. Coming a week after Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador over its refusal to apologize for a deadly raid on a Turkish ship, it left Israel was facing crises in relations with its two most important regional allies, with ambassadors in neither country."
AP: "Al-Qaida may have sent American terrorists or men carrying U.S. travel documents to launch an attack on Washington or New York to coincide with memorials marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, government officials say. One U.S. official says al-Qaida dispatched three men, at least two of whom could be U.S. citizens, to detonate a car bomb in one of the cities."
AP: "A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion — all the way down to the core."
AP: "Japan's new trade minister resigned Saturday over a remark seen as insensitive to nuclear evacuees, dealing a blow to a government that took office just eight days ago in the hopes it could better tackle the daunting tsunami recovery."
Share Article The Commentariat -- September 9
I've posted a comments page on Paul Krugman's column on today's Off Times Square. Karen Garcia & I have commented.
"You should pass it right away." President Obama speaks about jobs legislation to a joint session of Congress:
... Here's the prepared text of President Obama's speech. ...
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Faced with a stalling economy, a hostile Congress and a disenchanted public, challenged lawmakers in a blunt address Thursday evening to enact a sweeping package of tax cuts and new spending designed to revive the stagnant job market.... Though Mr. Obama’s proposals were widely expected — an extension and expansion of the cut in payroll taxes; new spending on schools and public works projects; and an overhaul of unemployment insurance — the overall package was considerably larger than expected, with an estimated $447 billion in stimulus money." ...
... Ezra Klein has a brief overview of what's in the "American Jobs Act," the proposed bill President Obama is sending to Congress.
... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The centerpiece of ’s job-creation plan, a proposal to further reduce taxes, is emblematic of a package of modest measures that some economists describe as helpful but not sufficient to lift the economy from its malaise."
"The Peasants Are Revolting." (CW: I'm seeing a double entendre there.) Paul Krugman, in a blogpost: "I don’t want to wax all sentimental about the genius of the common man. But the fact is that both the origins of this crisis and its perpetuation overwhelmingly reflect the errors of the very people now lamenting the annoyances of democracy that keep them from imposing their preferred policies." ...
... As if determined to prove themselves stupid & Krugman right, Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post reports, "More than two dozen senators (CW: the usual suspects) from both parties met privately this week to revive hopes of a grand debt-cutting bargain — exploring how to push the newly formed debt “supercommittee” to find far more than its assigned goal of $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions.... [President] Obama, too, is expected to press the [deficit reduction super-]committee to exceed its deficit-reduction goal. In his speech Thursday night, he called on Congress to increase the supercommittee’s deficit-cutting goals to cover the costs of his jobs plan."
When Idiots Collide. John Amato of Crooks & Liars: Rick Santelli, Teabagger Hero, and Tom Friedman, Nobody's Hero, get into a tiff, & Santelli call each other "idiotic." "This," writes Amato, "is what you get when you put two Villagers together on one screen":
Right Wing World
The bloodthirsty crowd at the Republic debate cheers when NBC News's Brian Williams asks Rick Perry about Texas's record number of executions that have taken place during his tenure as governor:
Steve Benen: "The governor balks when presented with evidence on evolution, abstinence education, and climate change, but embraces without question the notion that everyone he’s killed in Texas was 100% guilty. The scientific process, he apparently believes, is unreliable, while the state criminal justice system is infallible. Intellectually, morally, and politically, this isn’t just wrong; it’s scary. The fact that Republicans in the audience found this worthy of hearty applause points to a party that’s bankrupt in more ways than one." ...
... Marcy Wheeler: "Brian Williams, who otherwise did a decent job as moderator, failed miserably here. How do you ask this question and not mention Cameron Todd Willingham? Not only did Governor Perry deny Willingham’s appeal for clemency even though an expert arson investigator had rebutted all the solid evidence in the case, Perry fired investigators who were about to provide Willingham’s innocence." ...
... Pro-Life Death Orgy. Glenn Greenwald: "That this death-cheering comes from a party that relentlessly touts itself as 'pro-life' and derides the other as The Party of Death -- and loves to condemn Islam (in contrast to its war-loving self) as a death-glorifying cult -- only adds a layer of dark irony."
Julie Rovner of NPR: wingers oppose federal funding of contraceptive: too expensive, frivolous, an affront to God, etc."
The Commentariat -- September 8
I've posted a comments page on Gail Collins' column (linked below) on Off Times Square.
Adam Nagourney & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Mr. Romney and Mr. Perry began going at each other in the very first few minutes of the debate here at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Mr. Perry attacked Mr. Romney’s record of creating jobs in Massachusetts and his championing of health care legislation when he ran the state.Mr. Romney, in turn, cast Mr. Perry as a career politician. The exchanges between them grew steadily more intense during the opening moments of the debate and reflected the fact that both men have to some extent similar strategies: running on their records as governor." ...
... The Los Angeles Times has a liveblog of the debate here, and the New York Times has a liveblog here. ...
... The ABM Party -- Anybody But Mitt. Gail Collins: "The Republican nominating campaign has thus far been one long primal scream from party members desperate to avoid making Mitt Romney their nominee. Really, they will look at anybody. Remember the Donald Trump moment? Michele Bachmann, Front-Runner? Who knows where their glazed eyes will turn next? Rudy Giuliani is now running around saying that he might get in the race 'if I think we are truly desperate.' Which they would really, really, really have to be. The current front-running Mitt Alternative is Perry, possibly the first major presidential candidate opposed to the direct election of U.S. senators since the advent of the Bull Moose Party."
Former Vice President Al Gore in a blogpost on President Obama's decision to nix the EPA's new ozone standards:
Instead of relying on science, President Obama appears to have bowed to pressure from polluters who did not want to bear the cost of implementing new restrictions on their harmful pollution — even though economists have shown that the US economy would benefit from the job creating investments associated with implementing the new technology. The result of the White House’s action will be increased medical bills for seniors with lung disease, more children developing asthma, and the continued degradation of our air quality.
Vice President Joe Biden in a New York Times op-ed: "... a successful China can make our country more prosperous, not less. As trade and investment bind us together, we have a stake in each other’s success. On issues from global security to global economic growth, we share common challenges and responsibilities — and we have incentives to work together." CW: the essay includes some info I'd often wondered about (and which should have come out prominently in the debt ceiling debacle): "China holds just 8 percent of outstanding Treasury securities. By comparison, Americans hold nearly 70 percent."
Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times: ", the wrestling mogul who spent $50 million of her own money in an aggressive but failed Senate run in Connecticut last year, will announce in the coming week that she ... will seek the [Republican] party nomination next year for the seat being vacated by Senator .
CW: The First Time Ever I Agree with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Andrew Pollack of the New York Times: "The bill to overhaul the patent system that is now before the Senate contains a provision that could get an influential law firm off the hook for a possible $214 million malpractice payment.... Critics ... say it is really a special fix for one drug manufacturer, the , and its powerful law firm, WilmerHale.... Back in 2001, the company missed the deadline for applying for a patent extension by a day or two, potentially losing nearly four years of patent protection on its main drug, the anticoagulant Angiomax. The provision would guarantee that Medicines Company would get the extra patent protection, and it would relieve WilmerHale of a possible malpractice payment to its client. Senator Jeff Sessions ... is planning to propose an amendment to strip the provision from the bill."
News Ledes
ABC News: "U.S. authorities are scrambling to sort through information that the CIA developed in the past 24 hours indicating that at least three individuals entered the U.S. in August by air with the intent to launch a vehicle-borne attack against Washington, D.C. or New York around the anniversary of 9/11, according to intelligence officials. Officials say the alleged terror plot was initiated by new al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's successor, who had pledged to avenge bin Laden's death earlier this year in a U.S. raid."
p>New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg addresses the terrorist threat:
Politico: "A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out two challenges to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul on procedural grounds. Delivering a two-pronged win to the Obama administration, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals said Virginia has no right to challenge the law’s requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance. The court also said that Liberty University couldn’t challenge the law before the mandate goes into effect." NPR story here, with quite a good audio report. Here's a pdf of the rulings.
For news & views of the President's speech before Congress, see the September 9 Commentariat.
New York Times: Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said in a speech today that consumers are depressed -- they think the economy is worse than it is, and that's making them overly cautious.
President Obama will speak to a joint session of Congress about jobs creation at 7:00 pm ET. Count on the White House website to carry it live online.