The Commentariat -- February 21

New York Times map.The New York Times has a brief rundown of unrest around the Middle East (& China) with links to related stories here. ...

... Walter Pincus of the Washington Post highlights WikiLeaks cables that demonstrate the close relationship between the U.S. & Bahrain, especially with ties to Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C.

... Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "For Morocco, a kingdom on the western edge of North Africa, the calls for change sweeping the region are muted by a fear of chaos, a prevalent security apparatus and genuine respect for the king, Mohammed VI. Since he took the throne in 1999, the king, who is only 47, has done much to soften the harsh and often brutal rule of his father, Hassan II."

Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "The Obama Administration has entered into direct, secret talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders...."

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Across the nation, cities and states are trying myriad ways of righting their fiscal ships as the recession plods on. But locking the mayor out of City Hall is generally not one of them." A state-appointed receiver took control of Central Falls, Rhode Island last July. State police went to Mayor Charles D. Moreau's home, " demanded his city-owned car and cellphone and keys to City Hall and handed him a letter announcing his salary of $71,736 was being cut to $26,000. His role was now advisory," they told him.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has recalculated the cost estimate of HR-2, the bill the House passed to repeal the Affordable Care Law:

CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting H.R. 2 would cause a net increase in federal budget deficits of $210 billion over the 2012-2021 period. By comparison, last March CBO and JCT estimated that enacting PPACA and the health-related provisions of the Reconciliation Act would reduce federal deficits by $124 billion over the 2010-2019 period.... Under H.R. 2, about 33 million fewer nonelderly people would have health insurance in 2021....

     ... CW: please, somebody, tell that to so-called fiscally-conservative Republican Teabaggers.

If they come into the house of labor and try to burn it down, we've got to come in and put the fire out. If it does fall, we'll help rebuild it.
-- Mahlon Mitchell, President of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin. His union is exempt from the union-busting bill, but he stands with the protesters

Adam Nagourney & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "... in the view of officials from both major political parties, Republicans may be risking the same kind of electoral backlash Democrats suffered after they were perceived as overreaching. Public surveys suggest that most voters do not share the Republicans’ fervor for the deep cuts adopted by the House, or for drastically slashing the power of public-sector unions. And independent voters have historically been averse to displays of political partisanship that have been played out over the last week." ...

BUT E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post observes, "... Tea Party partisans can claim victory in fundamentally altering the country's dialogue." ...

... Only a body dominated by millionaires could define 'shared sacrifice' as telling nurses' aides and coal miners they have to work until age 69 while sharply cutting tax rates on wealthy people. -- E. J. Dionne, on the bipartisan Senate effort to resurrect the Catfood Commission

Map by Talking Points Memo.... Krugman commenter Jeremy (#3) of Chicago reports on the ranking of ACT/SAT scores for the five states where collective bargaining is illegal: "South Carolina, 50th; North Carolina, 49th; Georgia, 48th; Texas, 47th; Virginia, 44th. Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is 2nd." CW: if you think that's a coincidence, you're a candidate for a dunce cap.

E. S. Browning of the Wall Street Journal: "The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases. The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement.... Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most 401(k) participants appear to have insufficient savings.... The financial crisis has made things worse."

If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, or you might put off a vacation. -- President Barack Obama, on the deficit. His own family is not "trying to cut back":

Michelle & Sasha Obama in Vail, Colorado, this weekend. Vail Daily photo.Vail, Colorado, where the Obama family is staying in the Sebastian Hotel. Rooms, according to the Daily Mail, cost up to $2,400 a night.

Right Wing World

Sean Cockerham & Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News: "A leaked manuscript by one of Sarah Palin's closest aides from her time as governor charges that Palin broke state election law in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned. The unpublished book by Frank Bailey was leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday. The manuscript opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying 'I hate this damn job' shortly before she resigned as Alaska's governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four-year term."

Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: as white people in Montgomery, Alabama commemorate the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy, some passing fifth-graders describe the celebratory parade as "messed up." CW: the kids got that right.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been in power for more than 20 years and faces international charges of genocide, will not run for office again after his current term ends in four years, a Sudanese government spokesman said Monday."

... Al Jazeera: "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has appeared on state television to signal his defiance in the face of a mounting revolt against his 41-year rule." ...

... Washington Post: "Senior Libyan officials and diplomats resigned in outrage over the attacks against civilians, while soldiers fled their units and joined the opposition. Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, accused Gaddafi of killing his own people and urged the international community to act against the regime." ...

... ** New York Times: "Members of Libya’s mission to the United Nations renounced Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Monday, calling him a genocidal war criminal responsible for mass shootings of demonstrators protesting against his four decades in power. They called upon him to resign." ...

... AP: "Deep cracks opened in Moammar Gadhafi's regime Monday, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown on protest in the capital of Tripoli. World leaders were outraged at the 'vicious forms of repression' used against the demonstrators." ...

... New York Times: "The faltering government of the Libyan strongman Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi struck back at mounting protests against his 40-year rule, as security forces and militiamen backed by helicopters and warplanes besieged parts of the capital Monday... By Monday night, witnesses said, the streets of the capital, Tripoli, were thick with special forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi as well as mercenaries. They shot freely as planes dropped what witnesses described as 'small bombs' and helicopters fired on protesters." ...

... Washington Post: "... the Libyan government's grip on Benghazi, the second-largest city, appeared to be slipping. Security forces there opened fire on mourners attending funeral marches for 84 protesters killed the day before, their harshest response yet to the recent round of demonstrations. They also swiftly clamped down on smaller uprisings that spread to the outskirts of the capital, Tripoli, where protesters seized military bases and weapons.... Protests also broke out Sunday in Morocco and Tunisia..., while authorities in Iran and Bahrain continued to confront calls for reform." ...

     ... AP Update: "Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. Moammar Gadhafi's son vowed that his father and security forces would fight 'until the last bullet.'" ...

     ... Human Rights Watch: "The estimated death toll from four days of protests in cities across Libya has risen to at least 233 according to information from hospital sources in Libya...."

... New York Times: "President Ali Abdullah Saleh, looking shaken at a news conference here on Monday, said he would not give in to the demands of protesters who have sought his ouster during 10 days of sustained demonstrations around Yemen." ...

... Guardian: British Prime Minister "David Cameron has flown into Cairo amid tight security, becoming the first world leader to visit Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president in the revolution 10 days ago." ...

... AP: "Some of the young activists who launched the Egyptian uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak say they are skeptical about the military's pledges to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

... New York Times: "The head of a Tunisian government commission on political reform warned on Monday that the country risked falling into 'anarchy' as it passed through what he described as a very dangerous post-revolutionary transition toward multi-party democracy." ...

... Washington Post: "Thousands of Iranian security forces dispersed anti-government demonstrators who tried to gather Sunday in Tehran's main squares to commemorate the deaths of two men killed during a protest Monday, witnesses reported." ...

AP: Hopes for compromise in Wisconsin rest with Republican state legislators, as Gov. Scott Walker refuses to budge from his anti-labor position. ...

... Wall Street Journal: "... a group of moderate Republican senators [may try to] negotiate a compromise to the stalemate" in Wisconsin. A "proposal, written by [Republican] Sen. Dale Schultz ... calls for most collective bargaining rights of public employee unions to be eliminated – per Mr. Walker's bill – but then reinstated in 2013...." ...

... Huffington Post: Wisconsin's Democratic state senators "are ready to stick it out in Rockford, Ill. until Walker agrees to negotiate. 'We'll be here until Gov. Walker decides that he wants to talk,' said state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D).... He added that so far, the governor refuses to meet with them or even return the phone calls from members of the Democratic caucus." ...

... Here's the Madison, Wisconsin State Journal story on the protests. ...

     ...AP Update: "Walker said at a news conference ... on Monday afternoon that he won't accept any compromises."

Guardian: Raymond Davis, "the American who shot dead two men in Lahore, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and the US, is a CIA agent who was on assignment at the time.... Pakistani authorities charged him with murder, but the Obama administration has insisted he is an 'administrative and technical official' attached to its Lahore consulate and has diplomatic immunity." ...

     ... The New York Times picked up the story today, with this caveat: "The New York Times had agreed to temporarily withhold information about Mr. Davis’s ties to the agency at the request of the Obama administration, which argued that disclosure of his specific job would put his life at risk."

New York Daily News: "More than half the members of the Texas House are listed as co-authors of a bill that would allow concealed weapons on the campuses of state universities there in a bid to protect students from mass shootings...."

Guest Post

Shock Therapy

Paul Krugman: "... if America has become more oligarchic and less democratic over the last 30 years — which it has — that’s to an important extent due to the decline of private-sector unions.... The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players ... who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence."

Kate Madison of Depoe Bay, Oregon, comments:

Scott Walker, the Tea Party governor of Wisconsin, is doing, as Naomi Klein, explains: "a classic example of The Shock Doctrine," her excellent book about how politicians create a crisis (or take advantage of one--i.e, 9/11)," then use that crisis as an excuse to push through horribly unpopular economic policies." [CW: You can hear Klein's comments in the video in The Commentariat for February 20.]

Let's face it, people! Democracy in America is in hospice, and not doing well at all. Ronald Reagan, our first oncologist, treated our economy with Milton Friedman's "free market" chemotherapy, and the rich got richer, but the cancer worsened. Our prognosis has gone downhill from there. Each succeeding President has promised a new, less toxic, form of chemo to address our festering economic cancer, but each has cooked up another "free market" concoction -- hidden in giveaways to corporations -- with George W. Bush's almost lethal cocktail being the worst. The rich just kept getting richer, and the economy sicker.

Then, in 2008, we got Barack Obama, the man of HOPE. He promised an entirely new form of chemotherapy to address the dying economy and bring our Democracy back to the land of the living. Sad to say, President Obama came down with a bad case of "corporate flu," a virus passed to him through Wall Street dollars. This blinded him to the reality of what needed to be done. So he too decided to use "free market" chemo and called in Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner to administer the "new and better potion," assuring us this was different. Some of us pointed out that there were Nobel laureate economists, Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, who had a different idea of a cure for our cancerous, fast failing economy, and an entirely different idea about chemotherapy. Obama said "no thanks," but graciously offered to do lunch sometime. Then he extended the Bush tax cuts for the richest two percent.

The rest is history. EXCEPT -- the people of Wisconsin understand what the chemo (now proposed by a Tea Party governor, which involves neutralizing their unions) would actually do to them. Wisconsin may be economically ill, but its citizens are not stupid, and they have their eyes wide open. They know at the beginning of 2010 Wisconsin had a budget surplus which the governor gave away in tax breaks (to corporations that had supported him), creating a deficit. So ... the people are writing their own story to resist the false panic that the psychopathic governor is telling them is "the only alternative." They have rejected Walker's chemo, and are strengthening their collective immune system through mass demonstrations,  speaking up and refusing to turn their rights over to a quack. Free market chemotherapy is in reality a toxic, tired tea. And the people in Wisconsin are not going to drink it! Give it to the Tea Party zombies that Americans for Prosperity have bussed into Madison from out-of-state to try to stir up the protesters and confuse the rest of us. Maybe it will put them back to sleep.

Cross-posted on Sardonicky.

The Commentariat -- February 20

From Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Concert, Madison Square Garden, May 3, 2009. Featuring Billy Bragg, Mike & Ruthy Merenda, Dar Williams, New York City Labor Chorus. Many thanks to reader Dave S:

... Steven Verberg of the Madison, Wisconsin State Journal: "... a new report by the liberal Economic Policy Institute ... looks at total compensation -- pay and benefits together -- and found that public workers earn 4.8 percent less than private sector employees with the same qualifications and traits doing similar jobs.... Average compensation for public workers is higher because the jobs they do -- such as teaching -- require a relatively high level of education..., said a senior policy analyst at the institute. Yet the typical Wisconsin public sector employee with a bachelor's degree makes less than $62,000, compared to more than $82,000 in the private sector...." ...

... Karoli of Crooks & Liars has a terrific post on a Fox "News" "bulletin" that supposedly outs doctors for giving fake medical excuses to teacher-protesters who have called in sick to their schools during the Wisconsin protests. The content of the Fox "bulletin" is Breitbart creative crap embellished by a Koch brothers-backed "think tank." With video. CW: I don't know why Fox even bothers to occasionally report actual news. It's so much more fun to make your own. 

... Monica Davey of the New York Times profiles Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. CW: the profile isn't going to make you like him any better. ...

... Brady Dennis of the Washington Post tells the same story: Walker has a history of taking irresponsible anti-union actions. And he's proud of it. ...

... Alex Altman of Time has more on Wisconsin's budget figures, suggesting that Walker's $137-million deficit projection may be more-or-less correct. Also, Read Paul Dirks' comment, #3.

... Chris Hayes & Naomi Klein of The Nation explain why the Wisconsin protests matter:

Frank Rich: "Republicans are adrift with a shortfall of substance, offering the president a golden chance to seize the moment."

Maureen Dowd on writers behaving badly, which some think is exascerbated by the anonymity, accessibility and speed of the Internet & other social media.

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "The House vote Saturday to slash more than $60 billion from the federal budget shows how powerfully the anti-spending fervor of the fall elections is driving the new Republican majority’s efforts to shrink government. It puts the two parties on a path to a succession of showdowns over the deficit and the nation’s growing debt.... The Democratic-controlled Senate has signaled that it will not consider anything approaching the scale of cuts approved by the House, setting up a standoff that each side has warned could lead to a shutdown of the federal government early next month.... Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner quickly criticized the House package.... The White House had threatened to veto the bill even before it was approved."

New York Times Editors: "The Pentagon needs to jettison the ancient formula that guarantees each service its accustomed share of taxpayer dollars.... For a decade, the Army and the Marines have been pushed to their limits while the Navy and the Air Force have looked for ways to stay useful and justify their budget shares. Updating the formula to reflect a more realistic division of labor would wring significant savings from the Air Force and the Navy.... The [Congressional] Republican leadership, in particular, does not make even the pretense of fiscal responsibility when it comes to military spending."

Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal: In a "heated White House meeting..., top Senate Democrats tried to scotch efforts by Majority Whip Richard Durbin to include Social Security in comprehensive deficit-reduction negotiations, illustrating the challenge facing the bipartisan talks."

The CYA State Secrets Doctrine. Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: Now that it appears the computer software Californian Dennis Montgomery claimed could catch terrorists was a hoax, the federal government seems to be "trying to avoid is public embarrassment over evidence that Mr. Montgomery bamboozled federal officials.... Federal officials ... are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his dealings with Washington stay secret.... The Justice Department ... has gotten protective orders from two federal judges keeping details of the technology out of court [and] says it is guarding state secrets...." The government has paid Montgomery $20 million. Here's the backstory in a nutshell:

A onetime biomedical technician with a penchant for gambling, Mr. Montgomery is at the center of a tale that features terrorism scares, secret White House briefings, backing from prominent Republicans, backdoor deal-making and fantastic-sounding computer technology.

... CW: what's the difference between the CIA & the Keystone Kops? Uniforms.

"Socialism with Cheerleaders." Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: "The National Football League is one of the most sucessful monopolies in history.... The secret to the NFL's success is its ability to maintain the legal structure of 32 supposedly independent teams while operating with most of the advantages of a single business entity.... In a very disciplined way, it has added teams, extended the length of the season and increased the number of nationally televised games each week of the season. It has been so skillful in playing one city off another that it squeezed taxpayers for $500 million a year in stadium subsidies for many years. And it has so cleverly structured the sale of television rights that networks routinely wind up overbidding...."

Jon Kosman of the New York Post: the private equity firm Bain Capital, in which Mitt Romney held a controlling interest, made a fortune by buying and "bankrupting five profitable businesses that ended up firing thousands of workers." CW: some media observers see this column as a Rupert Murdoch hit job. I have no idea.

 

CW: I don't think what Soros says to Fareed Zakaria here is particularly earthshattering, but the clip is getting a lot of attention on the Web, so I've posted it:

Local News

"My Polluted Kentucky Home." Novelist & non-fiction writer Silas House in a New York Times op-ed on the toll exacted on residents by mountaintop removal and other coal mining practices, both legal and illegal:

The coal companies, the news media and even our own government have all been complicit in valuing Appalachian lives less than those of other Americans. Otherwise, it might be harder for them to get that coal out as quickly and inexpensively as they do.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Union leaders urged Wisconsin teachers to return to work at schools that are open on Monday, but large protests were expected to continue at the Capitol against a plan to cut collective bargaining rights and benefits to state workers." ...

... Fox "News": "Gov. Scott Walker said the 14 minority Democrats who left Madison on Thursday were failing to do their jobs by 'hiding out' in another state. And Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said his chamber would meet Tuesday to act on non-spending bills and confirm some of the governor's appointees even if the Democrats don't show up -- a scenario that should outrage their constituents." ...

... Wisconsin State Journal: "A marching, chanting crowd of 68,000 people thronged Madison’s Capitol Square on Saturday.... Supporters of Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to effectively end collective bargaining for the state’s public employees and increase their pension and health payments stood toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose with pro-union protesters.... A contingent of 120 Madison Police officers was supported by officers from the Capitol Police, State Patrol and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office. Also on the streets were deputies from sheriff’s departments from [other] counties.... There were no arrests...."

Al Jazeera: "There are reports of renewed anti-government protests in Iran, with demonstrators taking to the streets in several cities across the country. There have also been clashes between protesters and security forces, posts on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter said on Sunday. There were also reports of one protester being shot dead in Tehran, a story denied by government official in state media."

... New York Times: "The Obama administration on Sunday condemned Libya’s use of lethal force against peaceful demonstrators, pointing to what it said were 'multiple credible' reports that 'hundreds of people' had been killed and injured in several days of unrest. In the administration’s strongest statement on the escalating violence in Libya, the State Department said that it was 'gravely concerned' about the reports and that the number of deaths was unknown because of a lack of access to many parts of the country by news organizations and human rights groups." ...

... Guardian: "Muammar Gaddafi's son went on Libyan TV to defend his father's 41-year rule of Libya as protests spread to the capital Tripoli. The most violent scenes so far of the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world were seen as Gaddafi relied on brute force to crush what began last week as peaceful protests but now threaten his regime." ...

... AP: "A doctor in the Libyan city of Benghazi says his hospital has seen the bodies of at least 200 protesters killed by Moammar Gadhafi's forces over the last few days. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears reprisal." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Libyan security forces opened fire once again on Benghazi residents as they attended a funeral procession for the dozens killed the day before by the same government forces."

... New York Times: "Teachers, lawyers and engineers marched into Pearl Square on Sunday, joining an emboldened opposition whose political leaders demanded that the king dissolve the government and fire his uncle, who has held the post of prime minister for 40 years, before they agree to enter into talks." ...

... Washington Post: "The White House had been working quietly for several days to undergird efforts by [Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa] and a small group of other Bahraini leaders to end the crackdown and begin implementing some of the political and economic changes demanded by protesters.... The White House's efforts were complicated by deep divisions within the Bahraini government as hard-liners ... sought to quickly crush the protest movement...."

AP: "Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist's [Samantha Joye] video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor. That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012."

AP: "Jittery Chinese authorities ... staged a concerted show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a "Jasmine Revolution" apparently modeled after pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East. Authorities detained activists, increased the number of police on the streets, disconnected some mobile phone text messaging services and censored postings about the call to stage protests at 2 p.m. in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities."