Two Days -- Two American Leaders

On Friday, President Obama went down to visit a high school in Miami, Florida, to talk about how education was an integral part of his “Winning the Future” policy. Oddly enough, he took along one of the most anti-education governors in the U.S. – former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

When he was governor of Florida, Bush waged an unrelenting assault on public education in general, & on teachers in particular. As governor, he moved money from public education to private, for-profit institutions & as an ex-governor, he has set up a “foundation” to continue to promote the trend. Florida is known for having some of the worst charter schools in the country; Obama’s own government is conducting criminal investigations of 40 of them. Jeb set up a teacher-grading system with untrained Kelly Services employers as “the deciders.” His regimentation of school standards has, according to educators, had its worst effect on ethnic minority schools, but as a curriculum template, it’s bad all around. While governor, Bush vehemently opposed a state constitutional amendment that mandated reduced class size; when it passed, he was caught on tape plotting to undermine it. In 2010, he promoted a repeal of the amendment, which failed. Finally, Jeb worked long & hard -- he's still at it -- to reduce the power of teachers' unions. Last year he campaigned for legislation to eliminate teacher tenure. The Florida legislature passed Jeb's anti-teacher bill, but then-Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed it. (We’ll get back to teachers’ unions in a moment.) For more on Jeb's attack on public education, see this post by Karen Garcia and my comment on it.

What did President Obama have to say Friday about Jeb Bush’s sustained assault on public schools & teachers? --

  We are also honored to be joined here today by another champion of education reform, somebody who championed reform when he was in office, somebody who is now championing reform as a private citizen -- Jeb Bush.... And we are so grateful to him for the work that he's doing on behalf of education. So, thank you, Jeb.

Moving on to Saturday, President Obama took the day off to go golfing with his friends at Andrews Air Force Base. He could have played at the nearby U.S. Marines Medal of Honor course at Quantico, but I guess he didn’t want to run into accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning. Oh, wait, that wouldn’t be likely. Manning is being held under conditions that qualify as torture, which is certainly no secret to President Obama. UCLA Prof. Mark Kleiman -- who last year called Obama "the greatest moral leader of our lifetime,” now writes,

The United States Army is so concerned about Bradley Manning’s health that it is subjecting him to a regime designed to drive him insane.... This is a total disgrace. It shouldn't be happening in this country. You can't be unaware of this, Mr. President. Silence gives consent. [via Glenn Greenwald]

Besides, Manning is only allowed out of his Quantico basement cell for one hour a day, & I doubt that hour is spent on the links. The President & his buddies could have golfed to their hearts content without encountering prisoner Manning. So much for the greatest moral leader of our day.

Now, let’s look at what Michael Moore was doing. On Friday, he was at home in Michigan, writing a blogpost in support of Wisconsin teachers & their continuing effort to save their union. After he had finished writing, he read the post back to himself, and he thought, “You know, you should just go to the airport and get on a plane & go to Madison, Wisconsin, and read this to them.” So he did. 

Here’s a taste of what Moore said in the freezing cold to the crowd in Madison. See a video of his full speech under Sunday's Commentariat below:

Four hundred obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined.... Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.... If those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function…. The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates.... They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians.... But there was no revolt. Until now. On Wisconsin! ... America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers.”

This is the speech those of us who voted for President Obama hoped he would make. We believed he would stand up to fatcats the way Michael Moore does. Obama has not. Instead, he has repeatedly kowtowed to Wall Street & big corporations at the expense of the rest of us. His White House has a revolving door than opens onto Wall Street.

We believed Sen. Obama when he said he would stand up for the unions & collective bargaining rights. But instead of standing with the unions, as Michael Moore did this weekend, Obama stood with union-buster Jeb Bush and praised him for “championing education reform,” reform that centered on gutting public schools, maintaining large class size & undermining teachers and their unions.

We believed Sen. Obama when he said that after he became president he would “put on a pair of comfortable shoes” and walk with union members if anyone threatened their collective bargaining rights. Republican governors & legislatures across the country are doing just that. But Obama didn’t put on those comfortable shoes. The shoes he put on were golf cleats.

Which one of these leaders -- Barack Obama or Michael Moore -- do you think is working for you & your family?

-- The Constant Weader

The Commentariat -- March 7

Legalizing Voter Suppression. Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "New Hampshire House Republicans are pushing for new laws that would prohibit many college students from voting in the state - and effectively keep some from voting at all.... The measures in New Hampshire are among dozens of voting-related bills being pushed by newly empowered Republican state lawmakers across the country - prompting partisan clashes akin to those already roiling in some states over GOP moves to curb union power." CW: the video Wallsten mentions at the top of his story is of such poor quality I didn't bother to post it,

Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "... Wisconsin is about to embark on another wild ride into the political unknown -- a series of legislative recall campaigns on a scale the nation has rarely, if ever, seen.... Formal recall campaigns have now been launched against 16 state senators -- eight Republicans and eight Democrats. That's everyone in the 33-member Wisconsin Senate who is legally eligible to be recalled this year. Even though state law is designed to make recalls difficult and rare, some political insiders expect the petition drives now under way to succeed in forcing multiple lawmakers to face recall elections this summer."

Paul Krugman: "... since 1990 or so the U.S. job market has been characterized not by a general rise in the demand for skill, but by “hollowing out”: both high-wage and low-wage employment have grown rapidly, but medium-wage jobs — the kinds of jobs we count on to support a strong middle class — have lagged behind. And the hole in the middle has been getting wider...."

Elizabeth Drew, in the New York Review of Books, is playing the increasingly popular "Where's Barack?" Washington parlor game, this time in regard to Obama's silence on the budget battle. ...

... AND the New York Times Editorial Board opines: "After letting a highly destructive budget fight fester far too long, the White House finally stepped in late last week to negotiate with the House, which wants to eviscerate nondefense spending. Senate leaders still seem shell-shocked by that breathtaking ruthlessness, and have pleaded with the administration for help in pushing back.... Mr. Biden and the Senate should make it clear to the freshman House members who are really driving their chamber’s position that they will not permit reckless cuts this year. Then let the freshmen explain to an angry public why they closed the government’s doors to score ideological points."

** Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Obama administration, which famously pledged to be the most transparent in American history, is pursuing an unexpectedly aggressive legal offensive against federal workers who leak secret information to expose wrongdoing, highlight national security threats or pursue a personal agenda.  In just over two years since President Barack Obama took office, prosecutors have filed criminal charges in five separate cases involving unauthorized distribution of classified national security information to the media. And the government is now mulling what would be the most high-profile case of them all -- prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. That’s a sharp break from recent history, when the U.S. government brought such cases on three occasions in roughly 40 years."

Eileen Sullivan of the AP: "The White House is pushing a message of religious tolerance ahead of this week's congressional hearing on Islamic radicalism [initiated & chaired by Rep. Peter King (R-NY)], which has sparked protests on grounds it unfairly singles out Muslims as potential terrorists." New York Times story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg here. ...

... Fox "News": "Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee hosting the hearing, said Monday that he's on the same page as the White House when it comes to addressing that threat and engaging moderates in the American Muslim community. 'I'm not going to give into political correctness. I'm going ahead,' King told Fox News." ...

... Robert Kolker of New York Magazine has a long article on "Peter King's Muslim Problem": "The New York congressman says the threat of homegrown terrorism is on the rise and American Muslims aren’t doing enough to stop it. His opponents say he’s on a witch hunt."

Infrastructure Fail. Shayne Henry & Samuel Sherraden of the New America Foundation: "According to various estimates from government institutions and non-profits organizations, the efficiency lost because of poor infrastructure is probably in excess of $195 billion per year...." The biggest loss is associated with auto transportation: "Americans wasted 4.8 billion hours in traffic in 2009. These delays resulted in the waste of 3.9 billion gallons of fuel."

Wendell Steavenson of the New Yorker: "After the euphoria of Tunisia and Egypt, Qaddafi’s defiance provides a reminder that revolutions are often bloody and uncertain for their duration, and that what comes after is even harder to divine." CW: also, listen to Steavenson & his colleagues discuss the Middle East in the podcast, which will be up in the right column for a few more days.

Our Fucked-up Foreign Policy. Stephen Braun of the AP: "In the months before Libyans revolted and President Barack Obama told leader Moammar Gadhafi to go, the U.S. government was moving to do business with his regime on an increasing scale by quietly approving a $77 million dollar deal to deliver at least 50 refurbished armored troop carriers to the dictator's military. Congress balked, concerned the deal would improve Libyan army mobility and questioning the Obama administration's support for the agreement, which would have benefited British defense company BAE. The congressional concerns effectively stalled the deal until the turmoil in the country scuttled the sale."

Britain's Fucked-up Prince. Cassandra Vinograd of the AP: "Less than two months before a fairytale wedding anticipated by much of the world, Britain's royal family finds itself fighting an inconvenient distraction: revelations that Prince Andrew, the queen's second son, is friends with a convicted sex offender, was photographed with a teenage prostitute, and has been accused of ties to Moammar Gadhafi's Libyan regime. The Duke of York also hosted the son of the Tunisian dictator shortly before a popular uprising drove him from power — and the buildup of embarrassment has sparked calls that he be stripped of his role as special U.K. trade representative." CW: I suppose this belongs in The Soaps, but it's so much fun. Oh, if only we had a monarchy, we could blame our decline on a profligate prince instead of on the rulers of our own bad choosing. ...

... Hélène Mulholland & Nicholas Watt of the Guardian: "Pressure is mounting on Prince Andrew over his trade envoy role for Britain amid claims he has become "a national embarrassment". ...

... AND Nicholas Watt: "Prince Andrew's role as Britain's special trade representative is to be downgraded as ministers seek to distance themselves from his controversial dealings with discredited business figures." ...

Andrew, who is 51, with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts, a witness in a child sex-offender case against U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein. Via the Daily Mail.... Here's some of the backstory from Owen Bowcott & Polly Curtis of the Guardian: "The sight of Prince Andrew with his arm around the bare waist of a 17-year-old masseuse at the centre of a US sex scandal has transformed royal embarrassment over tainted foreign regimes into a political firestorm." ...

... More titillating stuff from the ever-reliable Daily Mail in a story by Sarah Churcher titled, "Prince Andrew and the 17-year-old girl his sex offender friend flew to Britain to meet him."

"High Fascism." In a New York Times op-ed, professor & Chanel biographer Rhonda Garelick finds a deeper -- and disturbing -- undercurrent in John Galliano's disgusting anti-Semitic remarks: "... beyond the spectacle of one man’s abhorrent politics, the episode invites consideration of the curious relationship between French fashion and fascism."

Rebecca Stewart of CNN: "GOP Sen. John McCain is in need of a tech lesson. In an appearance on ABC's 'This Week,' the senator from Arizona said that iPads and iPhones are 'built in the United States of America.' But every techie knows that they are, in fact, built in China.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Obama plans to nominate Gary F. Locke, the commerce secretary and one of the highest-ranking Chinese-Americans in the administration, as the next American ambassador to China, administration officials said Monday. Mr. Locke, 61, would succeed Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who is stepping down next month to explore a bid for the Republican nomination for president." ...

... New York Times: "Members of Congress, including Democrats, have urged the Obama administration to search for another Medicare chief after concluding that the Senate is unlikely to confirm President Obama’s temporary appointee, Dr. Donald M. Berwick. Dr. Berwick’s principal deputy, Marilyn B. Tavenner, has emerged as a candidate to succeed him. Lawmakers of both parties said Monday that Ms. Tavenner, a former Virginia secretary of health and human resources with extensive management experience, could probably be confirmed."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The leader of Senate Democrats hiding out in Illinois Monday sought a face-to-face meeting with Gov. Scott Walker but Republicans responded with a barrage of criticism, saying the Democratic leader was holding up a compromise on Walker's union bargaining bill."

Washington Post: "The Supreme Court opened a legal avenue Monday for prisoners to try to gain access to DNA evidence that might prove their innocence but noted that their chances at success might be slim."

Washington Post: "Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R) will retire rather than seek reelection in 2012, he announced Monday afternoon. The decision brings to an end a tumultuous several years that saw him go from one of the party's rising stars to persona non grata." Las Vegas Sun story here.

Washington Post: "The conservative legal group Judicial Watch announced Monday that it has filed a lawsuit against Rep. Alcee Hastings, accusing the 10-term Florida Democrat of sexually harassing a policy adviser who worked on a commission that Hastings once chaired."

AP: "President Barack Obama reversed course Monday and ordered a resumption of military trials for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, making his once ironclad promise to close the isolated prison look even more distant."

President Obama & Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia make statements to the press this morning:

Washington Post: "President Obama addressed comments directly to Moammar Gaddafi's inner circle Monday in an attempt to pressure those helping prop up the embattled Libyan dictator with a tacit threat of future criminal prosecution.... 'I want to send a very clear message to those who are around Colonel Gaddafi,' Obama said during an Oval Office appearance with visiting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. 'It is their choice to make, how they operate moving forward, and they will be held accountable for whatever violence continues to take place there.'" ...

... AP: "Libyan warplanes launched a fresh airstrike on rebel positions around a key oil port Monday, trying to block the opposition fighters from advancing toward Moammar Gadhafi's stronghold in the capital, Tripoli." ...

... Washington Post: "Congressional leaders prodded the Obama administration on Sunday for a more aggressive U.S. response to Libya's increasingly brutal attacks on opposition groups - calling for a no-fly zone and other military measures - but White House officials cautioned against being drawn into a potentially protracted and costly military campaign."

AP: "U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that both the U.S. and Afghan governments agree the American military should remain involved in Afghanistan after the planned 2014 end of combat operations to help train and advise Afghan forces."

Washington Post: the U.S. Navy has prepared training material, including a Power Point presentation, to inform sailors & officers of what will happen when President Obama declares an end to Don't Ask Don't Tell.

The Commentariat -- March 6

The Full Michael Moore -- Madison, Wisconsin, March 5:

... CW: this is a speech we would have expected Barack Obama to make. He has never & will never come even close. Update: Moore has the transcript here. ...

... Backfire. Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "Organized labor has been on a long decline, but the recent attacks against it in Wisconsin and elsewhere have had a surprising result — they have energized the nation’s unions." ...

... ** Kevin Hall of McClatchy News: "... there's simply no evidence that state pensions are the current burden to public finances that their critics claim." They amount to just 2.9 percent, on average, according to an independent research institution, or 3.8 percent according to another. "Though there's no direct comparison, state and local pension contributions approximate the burden shouldered by private companies.... Nor are state and local government pension funds broke. They're underfunded..., like ... plans by American private-sector employees — they sunk along with the entire stock market during ... 2007-2009. And like [private] 401(k) plans, the investments made by public-sector pension plans are increasingly on firmer footing...." ...

... Profs. Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson, authors of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer - and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, explain in a Washington Post op-ed, that the Wisconsin fight isn't about benefits; it's about union influence. "Decades of research have shown that the economic pyramid is flatter in countries where unions are stronger.... A recent study ... suggests that ... labor's decline may account for as much as a third of the rise in American wage inequality since the 1970s."

Russell Berman of The Hill: "The White House is showing no signs of letting up on its campaign for Ambassador Jon Huntsman’s presidential prospects - if anything, it’s in pile-on mode. Chief of Staff Bill Daley on Sunday heaped praise on Huntsman (R), Obama’s ambassador to China who is resigning his post and is said to be mulling a challenge to his boss for the presidency."

Karen Garcia reflects on President Obama's flirtation with that progressive Bush Dynasty.

You probably never thought you'd hear this question coming from Tom Friedman: "What are we doing spending $110 billion this year supporting corrupt and unpopular regimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are almost identical to the governments we’re applauding the Arab people for overthrowing?"

Citibank repeated screwed up Dana Milbank's home mortgage: "... a simple refi became a months-long odyssey: rates misquoted, interest charged on a phantom account, legal documents issued in wrong names, a mortgage officer who disappeared for days at a time (first it was his birthday, then his laptop was in the shop), a bounced check from Citibank's own title company, and the freezing of our bank accounts.... It's a bad situation - and the new majority in the House is poised to make it even worse. Republicans are aiming to repeal the Home Affordable Modification Program...." ...

     ... David Dayan of Firedoglake on Milbank's column: "The past week has seen a pronounced evolution in the writing of Dana Milbank. Earlier in the week he severely criticized the incestuous relationship between the political and media culture in Washington – including engaging in a healthy dose of self-criticism -- revealed by the Kurt Bardella email scandal. Where did this newfound self-awareness come from? ... Milbank discovered that, regardless of his prominence in the DC journalism community or access to power, to the banks he was still nothing but a mark."

Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle: "... a set of WikiLeaks disclosures of confidential documents has caused an uproar in Europe by showing that U.S. officials pressured Germany and Spain to derail criminal investigations of Americans."

Jane Hamsher hears from Bradley Manning's attorney Dennis Coombs on the circumstances under which Manning, accused of leaking to WikiLeaks & imprisoned in a Quantico basement, is being "stripped each night and forced to report naked each morning in the same way prisoners were tortured at Abu Graib." Coombs details the events & writes,

Given these circumstances, the decision to strip PFC Manning of his clothing every night for an indefinite period of time is clearly punitive in nature. There is no mental health justification for the decision. ...

... Glenn Greenwald: "The treatment of Manning is now so repulsive that it even lies beyond what at least some of the most devoted Obama admirers are willing to defend." ...

... Digby -- by citing official documents -- implies Manning is being subjected to torture in an effort by the government to obtain a false confession. It could work. ...

... If you want an MSM report on Manning's treatment, Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post does a good job. ...

... Greg Mitchell, now of The Nation, has a brief report on the history of Manning's incarceration.

First, Fire All the Lawyers. John Markoff of the New York Times: "Now, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, 'e-discovery' software can analyze documents in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost [of lawyers]."

Spoon Wars. David A. Fahrenthold and Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: House Republicans ditch the supposedly environment-friendly cutlery in the House cafeteria for plastic.

Right Wing World

The President is going to be king of the world before this is all said and done and he is most likely the Beast spoken of in the Revelation. -- Margie Phelps, speaking on Fox "News" ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: Fox "News" invites Margie Phelps, an attorney for & daughter of the founder of the Westboro Church, to discuss the Supreme Court's decision supporting Westboro's right to express hate speech. Millhiser writes, "It's telling that in a week which featured deeply manipulative anti-worker tactics by the Ohio GOP, growing unrest in the Middle East, a court decision allowing implementation of the Affordable Care Act to move forward, and the Main Street Movement’s first steps to recall eight anti-worker lawmakers in Wisconsin, Fox decided to ignore these stories in order to focus on the important question of whether President Obama is the Antichrist." With video.

George Will: "... the [Republican] nominee [for president] may emerge much diminished by involvement in a process cluttered with careless, delusional, egomaniacal, spotlight-chasing candidates to whom the sensible American majority would never entrust a lemonade stand, much less nuclear weapons." The candidates to whom the ultra-conservative Will refers are Mike Huckabee & Newt Gingrich.

The New Mitt. Paul West of the Los Angeles Times: "... in each of his runs for public office, [Mitt] Romney has remade himself." Now he's a man of the people. He wears jeans! He shops at fucking Wal-Mart!

A Wal-Mart shopper sorta wearing jeans who may or may not be Mitt.

Fox "News" is now reporting on alien life. It is now virtually impossible to parody Fox. But it's okay; they have tacitly agreed to do it for us so we don't have to. ...

... We Are All Space Aliens. Ken Layne of Wonkette sees the upside to the story: "

According to a distinguished scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a whole bunch of bacterial life arrived here on Earth inside a rare kind of meteorite that just happens to break apart on contact with water.... We might just be the worst space aliens in the universe. This, at least, explains Mitch McConnell. Anyway, it seems we have something close to proof that life is not unique to Earth.... Now, we can all acknowledge that we are descended from common alien space bugs — barnacles on the Ship of Existence — and we don’t ever have to talk about any of this ever again, right?" ...

... Unfortunately for Layne & Fox "News," Adrian Chen of Gawker pretty much -- though not entirely -- debunks the story, which in any event is at least seven years old. Not exactly "news." Nonetheless, "The article is now the most-read on Foxnews.com." CW: Fox knows its audience.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Moammar Gaddafi's loyalists escalated a lethal counterattack on Sunday, heightening assaults on rebel-held cities near his western stronghold of Tripoli and pushing back opposition forces attempting to advance toward the capital." ...

... Al Jazeera: "Sustained gunfire has erupted in the centre of Libya's capital, Tripoli, an area that has so far been relatively free of violence. It was unclear who was carrying out the shooting, which started at about 5:45am (0345 GMT) on Sunday...." ...

... AP: "Libyan helicopter gunships fired on a rebel force advancing west toward the capital Tripoli along the country's Mediterranean coastline Sunday and forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi fought intense ground battles with the rival fighters."

McClatchy News: "Trudging through dungeon-like cells and mounds of shredded documents, hundreds of Egyptians on Saturday surged into the Cairo headquarters of the dreaded State Security apparatus for an unprecedented look inside buildings where political prisoners endured horrific torture.... Some activists also were looking for evidence related to Egypt's role in the U.S. government's longtime practice of extraordinary rendition.... Protesters carted off armloads of files and turned them over to a prosecutor who arrived on the scene.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Buoyed by filmmaker Michael Moore's fiery speech and energized by the stand of 14 Democratic state senators who remained in Illinois, thousands of pro-labor demonstrators converged on the [Wisconsin] state Capitol on Saturday to protest against Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill." See video under today's Commentariat, plus brief AP video above.