The Commentariat -- August 15

Paul Krugman: "when [Texas Gov. Rick] Perry presents himself as the candidate who knows how to create jobs, don’t believe him. His prescriptions for job creation would work about as well in practice as his prayer-based attempt to end Texas’s crippling drought." ...

... I've posted a page on Off Times Square on Krugman's column. Comment on Krugman/Perry or something else. See more on Perry in Right Wing World below.

Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: "Despite Bachmann's success, the real GOP race is now Perry vs. Romney."

** Warren Buffett in a New York Times op-ed: "While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.... Last year my federal tax bill ... was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.... For those making more than $1 million ... I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more ... I would suggest an additional increase in rate. My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice." ...

In fact, 88 of the 400 in 2008 reported no wages at all, though every one of them reported capital gains. Some of my brethren may shun work but they all like to invest. -- Warren Buffett ...

... Marcy Wheeler: "Buffett is making an argument ... that would go a long way to counter the 'job creators' myth that the Republicans invented and now Obama has adopted. And with Republicans like Rick Perry now spewing the line that half of Americans don’t pay taxes (meaning, of course, that many Americans make so little they pay only the regressive FICA taxes), we’d do well to talk about all the deadbeats at the top – the deadbeats Republicans want to reward for shunning work." ...

... Warren Buffett, Myth-Buster. Henry Blodget of Clusterstock: Buffett "takes aim at the biggest rationale for preserving these astonishing tax breaks: The claim that, if taxes on deca-millionaires and billionaires were increased, these super-rich Americans would stop investing, thus clobbering the economy and hurting job growth":

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher.... According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends. I didn’t refuse, nor did others.... People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation. -- Warren Buffett

"Wrong-Way Corrigans in Charge at the White House." John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "Even after the recent sell-off on Wall Street, the political geniuses at the White House don’t want the President to push for something that might actually give the economy a boost before next year’s election, because it would involve taking on the Republicans, and voters don’t like political strife."

Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "Washington’s key players look like picnickers laying out a nice spread while Vesuvius smolders behind them. The problem isn’t that Congress and President Obama are taking some vacation; it’s that neither is displaying enough urgency about finding fresh answers for the stagnant economy.... Judging by their appointments, congressional leaders today view stalemate as a safer course than compromise.... Many Democrats are ... hoping that public pressure rouses Obama."

Your Chart(s) of the Day (click on the graphs to see a larger image):

Click to see larger image.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times writes a fascinating piece on the polarization of the nation: 'Americans are self-segregating,' said Bill Bishop, author of 'The Big Sort.' ... Mr. Bishop said Americans now choose 'in their neighborhoods and their churches, to be around others who live like they do and think like they do — and, every four years, vote like they do.' ... In 1976...,  26.8 percent of Americans lived in 'landslide counties,' which voted either Democratic or Republican by 20 percentage points or more. By 2000..., 45.3 percent of Americans lived in landslide counties. In 2008, the figure was 47.6 percent."

Garrett Epps of The Atlantic writes a terrific post on the National Popular Vote Initiative, a proposed means to guarantee that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote takes the White House, no matter how the Electoral College count would turn out. CW: I have long thought that the NPVI is a dumb idea, except as a catalyst for a Constitutional Amendment. Epps doesn't change my mind on that, but I do think it would be a very good idea if the dumb idea gained enough traction to scare Congress into passing a Constitutional Amendment & the states into ratifying it (yeah, I know, good luck with that).

CW: I found reading this post a hard slog, but the bottom line is probably worth the slog. Yves Smith in Salon: "... this haranguing about certainty simply reveals how warped big commerce has become in the US. Top management of supposedly capitalist enterprises want a high degree of certainty in their own profits and pay. Rather than earn their returns the old fashioned way, by serving customers well, by innovating, by expanding into new markets, their 'certainty' amounts to being paid handsomely for doing things that carry no risk. But since risk and uncertainty are inherent to the human condition, what they instead have engaged in is a massive scheme of risk transfer, of increasing rewards to themselves to the long term detriment of their enterprises and ultimately society as a whole."

Right Wing World *

CW: It's always dangerous to pick the most unscrupulous crook in Washington, what with their being so many contenders, but Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) might be the guy. Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Mr. Issa [has] dual careers, a meshing of public and private interests rarely seen in government. Most wealthy members of Congress push their financial activities to the side.... But Mr. Issa..., one of Washington’s richest lawmakers, may be alone in the hands-on role he has played in overseeing a remarkable array of outside business interests since his election in 2000.... It is sometimes difficult to separate the business of Congress from the business of Darrell Issa.... His pro-business policies usually align closely with those of the firms he has worked with in his wide-ranging business career both before and after he joined Congress.... According to his filings, Mr. Issa’s minimum wealth doubled in the last year...." CW: Read the whole article for the particulars. They stink.

Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "The reign of the Tea Party may be coming to an end in Washington, according to academic political experts who say polls show a backlash against the conservative movement. Two national polls released this month by CNN and The New York Times in conjunction with CBS News showed the Tea Party’s unfavorable rating at an all-time high."

[Rick] Perry wears more cowboy gear than a six-year-old boy on Halloween. -- Rick Hertzberg

... Paul Begala writes a funny but substantive column on Crotch Rick Perry in the Daily Beast: "Rick Perry threw his hair in the ring on Saturday. His entrance into the GOP presidential field can be a game changer. Perry can raise money as well as Mitt. He can rally the base as well as Michele Bachmann, and he will say or do anything—annnnnnnyyyyyyything—to win. And in today’s Republican Party, if you want to be the nominee you have to be willing to do some really crazy s--t." ...

... Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, checks Rick Perry's announcement speech: "On a blended basis, we would rate this as a Two Pinocchio speech, similar to many of the other announcement speeches — a mishmash of high-flying rhetoric and facts sometimes tethered uncertainly to the truth." Of this line,

We don’t need a president who apologizes for America. We need a president who protects and projects those values.

Kessler says: "Four Pinocchio alert! A variation of this line appears in almost every speech by a GOP candidate for president, but it is completely bogus." ...

... Reader Doug R. sends us this "Keeping 'Em Honest" segment of Anderson Cooper's "360":

... See also the comment by Rosevhs of Dallas, Texas (#2) to Ross Douthat's column. The writer serves up "7 reasons why conservatives in Texas do NOT like Perry." CW: I can't vouch for the accuracy of Rosevhs's figures, but based on what I've read elsewhere, her analysis sounds correct to me.

* Might be shrinking. But they'll lie about it.

News Ledes

New York Times: "More than a dozen members of the hacker group Anonymous joined a small group of San Francisco residents Monday evening to protest the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man by police officers last month. The protest, which began peacefully, became more chaotic when individuals tried to disrupt the transit system at a BART station. Police officers in riot gear closed the station gates while protesters chanted at them.... The Federal Communications Commission said Monday that it was investigating BART officials decision to cut cellular service" last week to quell a protest. Here's a more extensive San Francisco Chronicle story.

President Obama held two townhall meetings in Minnesota this afternoon. Reuters: "President Barack Obama hits the road on Monday for a Midwestern bus tour that he hopes will leave doubts over his leadership behind in Washington.... The White House says the president is on listening tour to hear from Americans about the economy and to talk about how to boost jobs and hiring. There are no plans for a major policy speech to roll out new initiatives for growth." ...

     ... Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "President Barack Obama launched the first leg of his three-day bus tour of the Midwest on Monday with a stinging criticism of Republican politics and a wide-ranging promotion of his administration’s efforts to boost the ailing economy." New York Times story here.

New York Times: "Stocks swept higher Monday on Wall Street, returning the overall market to where it was before the United States credit rating was downgraded."

His Boots Are Made for Running. A day after Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his presidential candidacy in South Carolina, he does both New Hampshire (Union Leader) and Iowa (Des Moines Register). All three are early primary states.

New York Times: "Insurgents across Iraq launched their most significant and wide-ranging attacks in months on Monday, using suicide bombers, car bombs and gunmen to attack Iraqi security forces and civilians. At least 57 people were killed in the attacks and over 100 wounded."

New York Times: "Google announced on Monday that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $40 a share in cash, or $12.5 billion. The offer — by far Google’s largest ever for an acquisition — is 63 percent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google’s Android software."

AP: "Sobbing friends and relatives are gathering at the Indiana State Fairgrounds for a memorial service to honor five people who were killed when high winds toppled a stage. Gov. Mitch Daniels and others will remember the victims Monday morning in a ceremony at the fairground, which was closed for a day following the tragedy."

Al Jazeera: "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has urged his supporters to fight for the country 'inch by inch' as opposition forces launched a two-pronged offensive in western Libya that threatens to isolate the capital of Tripoli. Facing the sternest challenge of his decades-long rule, Gaddafi on Monday called on Libyans to arm themselves to liberate the country from "traitors and from NATO" in a broadcast on state television."

AP (via the NYT): "Television cameras won't be allowed in the courtroom for the rest of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's trial, the presiding judge ruled Monday. Judge Ahmed Rifaat adjourned the trial until Sept. 5...." Al Jazeera story here.

Al Jazeera: "Robert Zoellick, the head of the World Bank, has warned that markets have been pushed into a new danger zone that policy makers have to take seriously."

Guardian: British PM "David Cameron pledged his government would 'turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families' by the next election as he said his broken society analysis is 'back at the top of my political agenda'. He made the ambitious commitment in a speech delivered on Monday at a youth centre in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, in which he described the rioting as a 'wake-up call' for the country." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Britain’s top two politicians ventured Monday into a political landscape profoundly altered by last week’s rioting and offered competing prescriptions that seemed to rupture an uneasy consensus that has prevailed in British politics for a generation. Radically different speeches by Prime Minister David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the leaders of the Conservative and Labour Parties, appeared to set the stage for the kind of gloves-off, left-versus-right politics Britain has not seen for nearly 30 years."

The Commentariat -- August 14

Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll, edging out Ron Paul. Tim Pawlenty came in a distant third. So I put up a Bachmann page on Off Times Square.

Maureen Dowd visits Iowa, and is more interested in Mitt Romney, comparing him to -- Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest." ...

... Frank Bruni, too, goes to Iowa where he finds "an intensely dispiriting spectacle, because it was an entirely familiar one: the same old same old at a moment of extraordinary global uncertainty and profound national anxiety. Americans are more frightened and pessimistic — and Washington is more dysfunctional — than they’ve been in a very long time. But the script in Iowa was unchanged." ...

... David Dayen of Firedoglake: "Basically, it’s a three-way fight between [Michele] Bachmann, Mitt Romney and [Rick] Perry."

CW: If this story doesn't make you tear your hair out and/or gnash your teeth, you're probably bald & toothless. Binyamin Appelbaum & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "As the economy worsens, President Obama and his senior aides are considering whether to adopt a more combative approach on economic issues, seeking to highlight substantive differences with Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail rather than continuing to pursue elusive compromises.... David Plouffe and ... William M. Daley want him to maintain a pragmatic strategy of appealing to independent voters by advocating ideas that can pass Congress.... But others, including Gene Sperling, Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser, say public anger over the debt ceiling debate has weakened Republicans and created an opening for bigger ideas...." CW: see it's all about Obama; to hell with us. ...

     ... Karen Garcia responds: "Team Obama is officially nuts.... Their campaign strategy is for the Boss to do as little as possible between now and November 2012, despite 20 percent real unemployment and an official poverty rate of one in five adults and one in four children, in order to appeal to all those 'independent' voters. Obama apparently thinks suffering people would rather vote for a nonconfrontational nice guy than somone who will fight for them." ...

     ... Or, as Calculated Risk titles his post, "White House Debates Doing Little or Nothing." ...

     ... Paul Krugman adds, "It all makes me think of an 80s-era joke about centrist Democrats, which was that their big difference from Republicans was compassion: the Democrats cared about the victims of their policies." He is dismissive of Daley & Plouffe as "macroeconomic theorists" -- much less, their so-called strategy.

But Then There Are Heroes. Mike Lillis of The Hill: "Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) said the recent debate over slashing spending and reducing deficits has all but ignored the toll those cuts could exact on lower income folks, particularly in minority communities. Clyburn – the third-ranking House Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) – is vowing to use his perch on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to tackle the nation's enormous wealth gap."

CW: I don't know how I missed this Frank Rich article on the Rupert Murdoch scandal, but I did. The article is more history & analysis than current reportage, so it isn't stale. Rich's thesis: what happened in Britain more than likely happened/is happening here. Rich cites the known & speculates on the unknown.

Josh Gerstein, in his Politico "Under the Radar" blog, writes, "President Barack Obama has forcefully rejected calls for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over a controversial federal law enforcement operation that allegedly allowed hundreds of guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) [CW: make that RTP] and the National Rifle Association have called for Holder's resignation over "Operation Fast and Furious," the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives investigation that monitored suspicious gun sales. Several of the weapons have been recovered from drug gangs in Mexico and two guns were found at the scene of the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent last December."

Communications Workers of America: "45,000 Verizon workers are now on strike to stop the attack on the middle class. The reason? Despite record profits, Verizon is refusing to bargain and is demanding that its workers add to those profits from their own pockets." You can sign a union solidarity letter to Verizon's CEO here. I did. ...

... CW Update: So then I got this letter back:

... Verizon remains committed to working with the unions to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract. Our intent is to secure a new contract that ensures Verizon employees will continue to receive competitive pay and benefit programs, while also providing a fair return to our shareholders. Our wireline business has declined significantly in the last few years and we need a new contract that reflects today’s economic and business realities, as well as the needs of all of our stakeholders.

Our goal is to keep Verizon strong now and in the future for our employees, shareholders and customers.

Peter Thonis, Chief Communications Officer, Verizon

... CW: My Response: Really? Per Daily Kos here and here:

-- $258 million: the compensation for Verizon’s top five executives over the past four years.

-- $6 billion: Verizon’s annualized profits for 2011.

-- $6,800: the increase in health care costs each worker could face if Verizon gets its way.

-- Verizon not only paid nothing in corporate income taxes, it actually received nearly $1 billion (the same amount as the concessions they are seeking) in tax benefits from the federal government during that time.... In fact, if Verizon paid its corporate income tax at the official rate of 35 percent, it would have owed more than $11 billion (rather than negative $1 billion).

Right Wing World *

Scott Keyes of Think Progress on the "top ten things Texas Gov. Rick Perry doesn't want you to know about him." CW: I disagree with Keyes' premise. I think Perry does want you to know some of this stuff. He's proud of them even if decent people find his proposals & actions abhorrent. ...

... Kevin Drum posits ten reasons Rick Perry can't win the presidency: "It's easy for us urban liberals to just cynically assume that the tea party-ized GOP will nominate whoever's the dumbest, toughest, meanest, godliest sonofabitch in the field, but I'm not so sure." CW: I think Drum may be overestimating the intelligence of Republican primary voters (who are not ideologically identical to Republicans who vote in the general election), but he makes some valid arguments. ...

... Rick Perry, Reverse Robin Hood. Charles Dameron in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (yes, really!): "The [Texas] Emerging Technology Fund was created at Mr. Perry's behest in 2005 to act as a kind of public-sector venture capital firm, largely to provide funding for tech start-ups in Texas.... The Dallas Morning News has found that some $16 million from the tech fund has gone to firms in which major Perry contributors were either investors or officers, and $27 million from the fund has gone to companies founded or advised by six advisory board members. The tangle of interests surrounding the fund has raised eyebrows throughout the state, especially among conservatives who think the fund is a misplaced use of taxpayer dollars to start with."

Standing up for Corporate "People": Heather at Crooks & Liars: "During the Republican debate in Iowa, when asked if he would extend unemployment benefits for those who are about to lose their benefits in a few months, not only did [Mitt] Romney say that he would not extend them, but he also touted the idea of privatizing unemployment benefits and changing our current system to one offering unemployment insurance savings accounts." With video because this is too insane to believe without seeing the evidence.

* Where Orwell's 1984 would be an improvement.

Local News

** Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "A group of church leaders has formally denounced Alabama's new immigration law, calling it mean-spirited and un-Christian, and has vowed not to obey it."

Terry Collins of the AP: "... Saturday ... details emerged of Bay Area Rapid Transit officials' decision to cut off underground cellphone service for a few hours at several stations Thursday. Commuters at stations from downtown to near the city's main airport were affected as BART officials sought to tactically thwart a planned protest over the recent fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man by transit police. Two days later, the move had civil rights and legal experts questioning the agency's move, and drew backlash from one transit board member who was taken aback by the decision." ...

... Justin Berton of the San Francisco Chronicle: "An international group of hackers threatened Saturday to wage a cyberwar against BART in retaliation for the agency's decision to cut cell phone service to prevent a separate protest last week. The activist group, known as Anonymous, also called for a nonviolent protest Monday evening at BART's Civic Center Station."

News Ledes

Obviously the pathway forward for me doesn’t really exist, and so we’re going to end the campaign. -- Tim Pawlenty

New York Times: "Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, dropped his bid for the Republican nomination for president on Sunday morning, saying his disappointing performance in Iowa’s straw poll convinced him that his campaign had run its course."

AP: "A stage collapsed during a powerful storm at the Indiana State Fair on Saturday, sending steel scaffolding into the terrified crowd below and killing at least four people among fans awaiting a performance by the country band Sugarland." Indianapolis Star story here, with photos & videos. Indy Star: "The Indiana State Fair has been canceled today...."

AP: "A team of six suicide bombers launched a coordinated assault on a provincial governor's compound in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 19 people in the latest high-profile attack to target prominent Afghan government officials, authorities said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in the Parwan provincial capital of Charikar, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Kabul."

The Commentariat -- August 13

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... Here's the transcript. ...

... Karen Garcia has an excellent post, followed by excellent comments, on Obama's speech at Johnson Controls, a speech which Obama effectively repeats here in his weekly address.

In a fit of optimism, I've posted a comments page on the Republican candidates debate on Off Times Square. Ever a realist, I've posted the same page on Reality Chex Annex. Try Off Times Square first, please (a plea that's subject to change).

Matt Bai of the New York Times on Thursday's Republican debate when all the candidates vowed they would never raise revenues even in a 10-to-1 cuts-to-spending ratio: "what any independent-minded voter saw in that moment were eight people who were not, in fact, serious about governing. They were serious about pandering to the marginal elements of their party. That’s about it." Then Bai goes on to write that Democrats would do the same thing if asked about Social Security. CW: Bai's evidence? Nothing. This mindless insistence on pushing the "both sides do it" meme, even when it isn't true, is an egregious assault on actual journalism. This is one of the worst examples I've ever seen: since Bai couldn't cite an actual case of Democrats "doing it," he just made one up. No wonder some of our commenters feel free to be fact-free; they see it on the pages of "the paper of record whatever." Update: I checked back later and a lot of the Times commenters called out Bai for his false equivalency. I find that pretty encouraging. ...

... CW: Now here's something we like to see moving into the MSM. Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "The boasts of Congressional Republicans about their cost-cutting victories are ringing hollow to some well-known economists, financial analysts and corporate leaders, including some Republicans, who are expressing increasing alarm over Washington’s new austerity.... Among those calling for a mix of cuts and revenues are onetime standard-bearers of Republican economic philosophy like Martin Feldstein, an adviser to President Ronald Reagan, and Henry M. Paulson Jr., Treasury secretary to President George W. Bush, underscoring the deepening divide between party establishment figures and the Tea Party-inspired Republicans in Congress and running for the White House.... Democrats are too cowed to counter much, given polls that show many Americans believe Mr. Obama’s 2009-10 stimulus package did not work, despite studies to the contrary."

** CW: I'm moving this forward from yesterday's Commentariat because it's such a worthwhile read: Weekend Reading. Don Peck writes a long essay in The Atlantic that won't cheer you any: In 2005, Citigroup analysts wrote that "America was composed of two distinct groups: the rich and the rest. And for the purposes of investment decisions, the second group didn’t matter; tracking its spending habits or worrying over its savings rate was a waste of time. All the action in the American economy was at the top: the richest 1 percent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 percent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent [emphasis added]; and with each passing year, a greater share of the nation’s treasure was flowing through their hands and into their pockets. It was this segment of the population, almost exclusively, that held the key to future growth and future returns. The analysts ... had coined a term for this state of affairs: plutonomy.... Income inequality usually shrinks during a recession, but in the Great Recession, it didn’t. From 2007 to 2009, the most-recent years for which data are available, it widened a little."

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress examines the 11th Circuit Court's decision to declare the individual mandate unconstitutional. The bottom line is, "... the only real question in this case is whether the government is required to first take your money and then buy health coverage for you, or whether the Constitution allows Congress to cut out the middle man." You have to read Millhiser's post to grasp his logic. He also explains that the Clinton-appointed judge who ruled against the individual mandate is a conservative to the right of Supeme Court Chief Justice Roberts & Justice Scalia. ...

... E. J. Dionne on what dissenting Judge Stanley Marcus of the 11th Circuit got right. Marcus wrote, "The approach taken by the majority has also disregarded the powerful admonitions that acts of Congress are to be examined with a heavy presumption of constitutionality, that the task at hand must be approached with caution, restraint, and great humility, and that we may not lightly conclude that an act of Congress exceeds its enumerated powers."

Liz Goodwin in Yahoo! News: "Three recent [New York] Law School graduates are suing their alma mater in a $200 million class action, alleging they were deliberately misled about their future career prospects.... The plaintiffs say they were told the employment rate for NYLS alumni 9 months after graduation was between 90 and 95 percent. They say they had no idea that figure included people who were employed in jobs that don't require a law degree, or even a college degree. The percentage of recent graduates who are in jobs that require or prefer a J.D. may even be below 50 percent, they allege."

Contra the conventional wisdom, Nate Silver says the Ames straw poll "has a pretty good predictive track record." With graphs & tables, naturally.

Most Protests Are Astroturfed. Prof. David Meyer in a Washington Post op-ed: "Ostensibly spontaneous eruptions of political protest reflect the hard work and investment of organizers who cultivate grass-roots activism."

David Dayen of Firedoglake has an impressive rundown of local stories about ordinary Americans challenging Republican Tea Party members of Congress at townhall meetings. Includes video of a protest against Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) -- "Stop voting against jobs!" As Dayen notes, "If this organic movement were happening on the right, it would be front-page news in every national newspaper in the country. We know because the distinctly non-organic movement in 2009 was front-page news."

Rachel Maddow pays tribute to former Republican Sen. Mark Hatfield (Oregon), who died this week and current Republicans who occasionally aren't afraid of arithmetic, science & common sense:

A Crack in the Tea Potty? I did sign that pledge when I was first running [for the House in 2004]. I no longer sign any pledges. [A pledge] restrains your ability to think creatively.... I informed the organization I don't consider [the earlier pledge] binding. I don't care to be associated with it. It's too constraining.... We have a broken tax code that is skewed to the wealthy and corporations [who] know how to move capital around. -- Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), speaking at a townhall meeting, on the Grover Norquist no-tax pledge. ...

     ... CW: Fortenberry still has plenty of dumb economic ideas, like support for a balanced budget amendment, but he's moving in the right direction.

Right Wing World *

Corporations are people, my friend. -- Mitt Romney ...

... Paul Krugman: "... the corporate profits tax isn’t a tax on these organizations. It’s a tax on these organizations’ profits — the share of their income that does NOT go to workers and suppliers. Now, stockholders are people too — but they are, on average, quite rich people, who are doing very well as most Americans suffer." ...

... The Democratic National Committee pounces (figuratively):

... CW: you probably already knew this, but Romney is richy-rich. AP: "The immense fortune controlled by [Mitt] Romney and his wife, Ann, is worth $190 million to $250 million — within the same range as his 2007 presidential financial disclosure records, his campaign said. Romney's financial records, submitted Friday to meet a deadline set by the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, valued his fortune at $86 million to $264 million." Despite a 2008 pledge to divest himself of investments that "would comport with my positions," "IRS records show that between 2007 and 2009, Romney's family charity, the Tyler Charitable Trust, continued to buy and sell other investments in companies that dealt with Iranian businesses, complied with Chinese censorship or aided in stem cell research."

Charles Blow: "... all the [Republican presidential] candidates ... confirm[ed] that they felt so strongly about not raising taxes that they would all walk away from a hypothetical deficit-reduction deal that was as extreme as 10 parts spending cuts to one part tax increases.... No person who would take such a stance is fit to be president of the United States or any developed country. Good governance in a democratic society is about the art of the deal, not fiats and dictum. You want leaders who stand up for principles but not in the way of progress." ...

... Kurt Andersen in the New York Times: "Keeping track of which politician has signed which pledge is head-spinning. These pledges make the politicians more like robots, built to respond in simple, unchanging ways."

Michele Bachmann's campaign team -- and her husband -- roughed up another MSM reporter, CNN's Don Lemon. Print story here. Last month, Bachmann's team "pounced on (literally), grabbed and pushed" ABC reporter Brian Ross when he tried to ask Bachmann a question.

* Where the government represents only the wealthiest one percent. And the Constitution-loving leaders abolish the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.

News Ledes

MSNBC is reporting that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has announced his candidacy for POTUS. No link. ...

     ... AP Update: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined the 2012 GOP race for president Saturday with an announcement sure to reverberate halfway across the country as his rivals competed in Iowa for the support of party activists. 'I full well believe I'm going to win,' Perry told South Carolina voters on a conference call about an hour before he planned to kick off the campaign with a speech in Charleston."

Washington Post: the Ames, Iowa Republican presidential straw poll is today. CW: it is, as Stephen Colbert explains, "a crucial test to see if a candidate can get Midwesterners to put down a food plate long enough to mark a ballot." ...

     ... Update: looks like the Des Moines Register is running a livestream on its front page. It's beginning now at 1:20 pm ET. It's on a teensy image, but you can supersize it. It begins with an invocation of Jesus' name. ...

     ... ** New York Times Update 2: Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll. Here's the Des Moines Register story. The CNN story is here. It ends on this note: "Only one Republican has won the straw poll and gone on to occupy the Oval Office: George W. Bush." 

Guardian: American artist Shepard Fairey, most famous for his Obama "Hope" poster, was beaten up outside a Copenhagen, Denmark bar early this morning, allegedly because of a controversy over his mural installation at a Copenhagen site formerly occupied by a left-wing community organization.

New York Times: "As leaders in the Arab world and other countries condemn President Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on demonstrators in Syria, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq has struck a far friendlier tone, urging the protesters not to 'sabotage' the state and hosting an official Syrian delegation. Mr. Maliki’s support for Mr. Assad has illustrated how much Iraq’s position in the Middle East has shifted toward an axis led by Iran. And it has also aggravated the fault line between Iraq’s Shiite majority, whose leaders have accepted Mr. Assad’s account that Al Qaeda is behind the uprising, and the Sunni minority, whose leaders have condemned the Syrian crackdown."