The Commentariat -- October 16

There is something profoundly diseased about a society that idolizes its ignoramuses and disdains its experts. -- Joe Klein

CW: in today's news, I've linked to this story: Washington Post: "Facing Republican complaints about big government and federal salaries, President Obama said Friday that government agencies might leave some vacancies unfilled as his administration looks for ways to save money." ...

     ... Paul Krugman calls Obama's remark another symptom of "The Boehnerization of Barack Obama."

Ariana Eunjung Cha & Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "With 2 million homes in foreclosure and another 2.3 million seriously delinquent on their mortgages - the biggest logjam of distressed properties the market has ever seen - companies involved in the foreclosure process were paid to move cases quickly through the pipeline." ...

... OCC -- Asleep at the Switch. Matthias Rieker of Dow Jones News: "The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency... which regulates the nation's largest banks..., is examining big mortgage servicers' foreclosure practices. The regulator's action means banks could face regulatory reprimands for botched foreclosure documentation." These "examinations" are "to be conducted over the next several weeks to confirm compliance and that banks have remedied any identified issues," an OCC spokesman said.

Perpetual War Is the New Normal. Dalia Sussman & Megan Thee-Brenan of the New York Times: "Given the condition of the economy and the high unemployment rate, the fact that most Americans largely cite those problems as the nation’s top issues is not surprising. What is surprising is that hardly any Americans cite the war in Afghanistan at all."

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: Condoleezza Rice, "the former secretary of state and onetime national security adviser, met one-on-one with President Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon, after a week of television appearances promoting ... her memoir about her parents. The White House said Obama wanted to discuss a range of foreign policy issues with her. Later, at an evening appearance at the Aspen Institute..., Rice rolled her eyes at the notion that Obama is a closet Muslim, and she defended him from criticism - led by former vice president Richard B. Cheney - that Obama had weakened the country." Related story of Rice's visit to the White House here.

Elisabeth Bumiller & William Yardley of the New York Times: "Soldiers in an American Army platoon accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport say they took orders from a ringleader who collected body parts as war trophies, were threatened with death if they spoke up and smoked hashish on their base almost daily.... Interviews in recent days and hundreds of pages of documents in the case offer a portrait of an isolated, out-of-control unit that operated in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan with limited supervision and little oversight from senior commanders."

Especially in view of opposition by the right wing (that would include Democrat Joe Manchin) to any version of cap-and-trade legislation, Dana Milbank writes in support of government policies promoting geoengineering.

Man-Pants. Beth Marlowe of Who Runs Gov: "We live in truly weird times when  female political candidates are telling their male opponents to 'man up!' If you’re interested in seeing female candidates taken seriously, this is not a good thing.... At base, they’re reinforcing the idea that the qualities voters are looking for — especially toughness and courage – are manly qualities. This doesn’t do women any favors." CW: Marlowe doesn't blame the candidates. I do. I expect all candidates, female & male, to be feminists. Here's a clip of Sharron Angle telling Harry Reid to "man up":

Rand Paul wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education so kids won't be exposed to "Susie has two mommies." Listen to the whole video; Jack Conway's response is excellent, although he doesn't address the Two Mommies issue:

     ... Stoking Fear of the Future. Paul is not only reprehensible; as usual, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Igor Volsky of the Wonk Room. "Currently, there is a legislative prohibition on the federal government getting involved with local curriculum, even though several states have led a movement to establish common standards and President Obama and Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan have expressed support for the effort."

How to Win a Candidates' Debate

Gail Collins writes that candidates’ college years should not be fair game for discussion in a political race.

Since my comment again didn't make the moderators' cut, here it is:

Just as Wolf declared Christine O'Donnell the "winner" because she didn't run sobbing from the room, so Jon Ralston -- the dean of Nevada political commentators -- called Sharron Angle the winner of her debate with Harry Reid, for the same reason. Neither Blitzer nor Ralston cared that his anointed "winner" was operating in a fact-free zone. Neither cared that the "loser" was actually conversant with the issues, had sensible ideas & had proved, after a fashion, that he knew how to govern.

Evidently the easiest way to win a political debate is to be a complete ditz. So how low IS the bar for these not-ready-for-primetime candidates? (Speaking of not-ready-for-primetime, O'Donnell was very proud of having been the subject of an SNL parody, & happily accused Chris Coons of being "jealous" of her star turn as an object of ridicule.)

Here, I guess, are the New Rules for Low-Expectation Candidates: (1) Show up. As I recall, Ms. Collins attended a candidate event in which Alaskan Joe Miller didn't appear till about half-way through the session -- hard to win if you're not in the room. (2) Smile. Sharron Angle said she smiled all the time because she's upbeat just like Ronald Reagan. (3) Don't cry (unless you're a man, particularly a Republican man). (4) Memorize several talking points & catchy "gotcha" phrases, & when all else fails, toss 'em in, no matter whether or not they relate to the question & no matter whether or not this is the second or third time you've repeated the lines. (5) Make stuff up about your opponent that has a teensy-weensy little connection to some tenuous fact or old rumor.

Also useful: insist that Wolf Blitzer or some other CNN or Fox "News" personality be your moderator -- he won't be much smarter than you are & he won't know when you make bald-faced misstatements. And if you draw a complete blank, he will know how to fill dead airtime so he'll help you with the answer.

Blowing up Frogs. Be sure to read Karen Garcia's comment (#3). Karen, who is a friend of mine, makes the case that childhood habits & hobbies are predictors of adult behavior. She concludes,

There are youthful indiscretions, and there are sociopathic behaviors. We should know more about our candidates than their financial disclosure statements and ideologies. If they don't want to let us into their lives, we should shut them out of ours.

But read her entire comment. I think Karen got it right & Gail got it wrong.

The Commentariat -- October 15

Banksters, Robo-Judges & a Do-Nothing Administration

Paul Krugman explains & comments on "the mortgage morass" as it stands today: "True to form, the Obama administration’s response has been to oppose any action that might upset the banks.... The response from the right is, however, even worse." ...

... The Rocket Docket. Brady Dennis, a straight reporter at the Washington Post, describes Florida's "rocket docket": judges whom the state has hired out of retirement to handle the foreclosure backlog are robo-signing uncontested foreclosures even though the banks' paperwork is not in order. Many judges, attorneys argue, are worse than the banks. ...

... How did we get in this mess? William Cohan shows us how it all started -- investment banks not only ignored advice that a large percentage of the loans they were bundling failed to meet standard underwriting guidelines, they withheld that information from investors to whom they sold the packages. Cohan is hopeful some banksters finally will get their comuppance: "So far, not a soul on Wall Street has been found to be criminally liable for the practices that led to the financial crisis. But thanks, in part, to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, we are getting closer than ever to the day when the culprits will pay for what they did." ...

... New York Times: "Angelo R. Mozilo, the founder and former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nation’s largest mortgage lender, agreed to pay $67.5 million Friday to settle a civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year." ...

... Ezra Klein has some good suggestions on how to fix the meltdown. CW: unfortunately, Klein's solutions require the federal agencies to get off their lazy, do-nothing asses. Good luck with that. ...

... The New York Times Editorial Board also suggest some fixes, including modifying bankruptcy laws to force banks to modify loans. "Throughout this crisis, the Obama administration has been far more worried about protecting the banks than protecting homeowners.... The banks that got us into this mess can’t be trusted to get us out of it. The administration and Congress need to act." ...

... David Hilzenrath of the Washington Post: "Stocks of major banks declined sharply Thursday amid concern that widespread corner-cutting in the foreclosure process could saddle the financial system with a costly and paralyzing mess. The sell-off was one of the most vivid indications yet that, just as banks were recovering from the financial crisis of recent years, foreclosure problems could take a new toll." ...

... Mark Gongloff of the Wall Street Journal on the markets' "acute uncertainty" about banks in light of the foreclosure crisis. ...

... Which only adds to pressure on the bank-friendly Obama Administration & on the friendly banks themselves to get off the dime, Bloomberg reports. CW: so far, nobody's budging. ...

... Max Abelson of the New York Observer: Wall Street blames the homebuyers: as one Goldman Sachs analyst said, "The problem is they don't deserve to be in that place. They probably deserve to be there less than they used to." ...

... The New York Observer's "Horror Stories from the Foreclosure Crisis." The first one: "Man without Mortgage Gets Foreclosed." Slideshow.

Thomas Cox. New York Times photo.... David Streitfeld of the New York Times: the little house in Maine that broke the bank. Thomas Cox, a former bank foreclosure officer, now working for a nonprofit, took on GMAC on behalf of a foreclosed homeowner & laid "the groundwork for foreclosure challenges nationwide." ...

... Digby points out that way back in 2007 she & Bill Moyers were on the Case of the Disappearing Paperwork. CW: this isn't a surprise to anybody in the industry, & it shouldn't be a surprise to regulators.

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I have this new diet, it’s called the 'Pretend You’re a Republican Diet.' It’s every time you see carbs or sweets or fats, you pretend you’re a Senate Republican and just say no. -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has lost 40 pounds since she gave birth two years ago

Justin Elliott of Salon: according to Gen. Hugh Shelton, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during part of President Clinton's Administration, an unnamed Clinton cabinet member whispered to Shelton,

What we really need in order to go in and take out Saddam is a precipitous event — something that would make us look good in the eyes of the world. Could you have one of our U-2s fly low enough — and slow enough — so as to guarantee that Saddam could shoot it down?

Shelton says he replied, Why, of course we can. Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go.

Smurfers. Scott Hensley of NPR: "how CVS became meth makers' favorite drugstore."

Sam Stein: Drummond Pike, "... the founder and CEO of the Tides Foundation (a frequent [Glenn] Beck target), has written advertisers asking them to remove their sponsorship of the Fox News program or risk having 'blood on their hands.'" ... Pike, who along with his organization was recently targeted by an assassin inspired by Beck's program, penned a letter on Friday to the Chairmen of the Boards of JP Morgan Chase, GEICO, Zurich Financial, Chrysler, Direct Holdings Americas, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Lilly Corporate Center, BP, and The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc." The full text of Pike's letter is here.

How Low the Bar? Steve Benen: "The political world seems to realize that some real nutjobs have won major-party nominations this year, which then apparently leads to surprise when clearly unqualified nominees manage to engage in a debate without drooling on themselves for an hour.... We seem to have developed a depressing checklist: (a) did the candidate show up; (b) did the candidate speak English; (c) did the candidate remember the talking points drilled into his/her head by handlers from Washington; (d) did the candidate repeat the poll-tested zinger; (e) did the candidate avoid some kind of mental breakdown."

Scott Woolley of Fortune: why Carly Fiorina never mentions the job that gave her name recognition: head of Lucent Technology. Under Fiorina, they gambled big, & shortly after she moved to Hewlitt-Packard, Lucent went under because of huge, unwise vendor loans made on Fiorina's watch. But Fiorina made out like a bandit.

David Brooks wrote an op-ed column today about what a nice guy Rep. Mark Kirk is, even though he lied repeatedly about his military service record. (See my comment [#10, Marie Burns].) I'll bet Our Miss Brooks thinks Kirk's voter intimidation program is A-okay, too. But Olbermann doesn't:

Chad Levingood of the Delaware News Journal reports on Chris Coons' & Christine O'Donnell's second debate. ...

I've got Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money by attacking you guys. -- Christine O'Donnell, to GOP insiders who aren't helping her campaign

... "People thought of her as an ignorant, deadbeat witch." Keith Olbermann & Howard Fineman discuss Christine O'Donnell's candidacy:

Karoun Demirjian of the Las Vegas Sun recaps the debate/smackdown between Harry Reid & Sharron Angle. CW: rhymes with "witch." You can watch it on C-SPAN.

Bruce L. R. Smith, in a Washington Post op-ed, remembers Barack Obama, Sr., from their days at Harvard. Smith refutes Dinesh D'Souza's flimsy charge that President Obama inherited "Kenyan anti-colonialist" philosophy from his father.

Nick Seaver of AmericaBlog applied to be a member of the audience in President Obama's youth town hall, held yesterday. The "casting" rep who interviewed him asked him to come up with a "lighter" question than the alreadly boring one he suggested, but evidently his response wasn't light enough because the producers rejected Seaver. ... Washington Post follow-up: asked about the Seaver incident, Robert Gibbs gave a non-response response.