The Commentariat -- October 14

Young people discuss the issues with President Obama. Aired live Thursday afternoon on BET, CMT & MTV. Extended clip:

     ... To see the entire session, go to this MTV page; subsequent clips will load automatically. Related New York Times story here.

Jonathan Chait in The New Republic: in his "Daily Show" interview, Eric Cantor came close to admitting the real Republican agenda: "to decrease the degree to which government burdens the rich." With video clip.

Being Dick Cheney Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry. Paul Fahri of the Washington Post writes a long article based on an interview with Harry Whittington, the man Dick Cheney shot in 2006. I didn't think it was very important, but it's getting a lot of play in the blogosphere, so here it is. The big takeaways: Whittington's injuries were much more severe than initially reported, he's still suffering from them & Cheney apparently never apologized.

Felicity Barringer of the New York Times: a new Yale University study found htat 52 percent of Americans would flunk Climate Change 101. CW: I think I'd flunk.

The New York Times Editorial Board endorses Democrat Richard Blumenthal for Senate in Connecticut & Democrat Dan Malloy for Connecticut governor.

Nicholas Kristof: "As the United States relies on firepower to try to crush extremism in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, it might instead consider the lesson of the remarkable Arab country of Oman." Forty years ago Oman was backward in the extreme, "but in 1970, Oman left that fundamentalist track ... and started a stunning modernization built around education for boys and girls alike. Visit Oman today, and it is a contemporary country...."

Waiting for Obama. John Schwartz of the New York Times: "Each side of the controversy over the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' law that restricts openly gay men and women from serving in the military waited on Wednesday for the Obama administration to reveal its next move in court."

Stephen Colbert debates government fiscal policy with chief White House economics advisor Austan Goolsbee:

Return of the Gaggle. Peter Baker of the New York Times: Robert Gibbs has reinstated a tradition from earlier administrations -- the gaggle -- an informal, off-camera briefing of reporters.

Chris Matthews & Richard Trumka see a message to Republican tea partiers in the rescue of the Chilean miners:

... Tales from the Crypt. Alexei Barrionuevo & Simon Romero of the New York Times: "As the miners were rescued in a pageant that moved their worldwide audience ... to tears and laughter, glimpses of their personalities, their struggles to maintain their spirits during their subterranean ordeal and even the life that awaited them back on the surface began to emerge as well."

"It could be 2008 all over again." Ariana Eunjung Cha & Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "For more than a decade, big lenders sold millions of mortgages around the globe at lightning speed without properly transferring the physical documents that prove who legally owned the loans. Now, some of the pension systems, hedge funds and other investors that took big losses on the loans are seeking to use this flaw to force banks to compensate them or even invalidate the mortgage trades themselves." CW: will the taxpayer again ride to the rescue of banks?  ...

... Eric Dash & Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "even when banks did begin hiring to deal with the avalanche of [mortgage] defaults, they often turned to workers with minimal qualifications or work experience, employees a former JPMorgan executive characterized as the 'Burger King kids.'” Oh, and "... the federal program aimed at helping homeowners modify their mortgages to reduce what they owed, had actually contributed to the mess." CW: fire Donovan. Please. ...

... Making a Difference. Tony Pugh of McClatchy News: two "civilian sleuths," Lisa Epstein & Michael Redman, left their jobs "to pursue their passion for helping others and exposing injustice in the foreclosure industry.... Equal parts agitators, activists and advocates, Redman and Epstein have made their presence felt in Florida and nationally through their respective websites, 4closureFraud.org and foreclosurehamlet.org.

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade had a history of "aggressive, divergent" practices. Now five of its men are accused of killing Afghans for sport. There is evidence that officers in the unit covered up the men's crimes.

Ben Smith of Politico has more details on Rand Paul's college crew: "Issues of the newsletter published by Paul's secret society, the NoZe Brotherhood, during his time at Baylor reveal a ... specific political problem for the Kentucky Republican: The group's work often had a specifically anti-Christian tone, as it made fun of the Baptist college's faith-based orientation." CW: this is an example of straight reporting that can't help but be an enjoyable read.

Palinized. Like her mentor Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell could not name a single recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagreed:

     ... CW: nevertheless, O'Donnell recovered in a stressful debate with more finesse than Palin did in a sit-down interview. Here's the transcript of the entire debate. The video is here. ...

... PLUS. Andy Barr of Politico: O'Donnell is "baffled" as to why the Republican money machine isn't helping her. Nothing to be baffled about: it's SOP to direct resources toward candidates who have a chance of winning; O'Donnell is down by as much as 19 points against her Democratic opponent Chris Coons. ...

... BUT Jim Fallows thinks Christine O'Donnell is more dangerous that Sarah Palin because O'Donnell, a talk-show veteran, "comes across as a perfect, unflappable product of the talk-show culture."

The Commentariat -- October 13

This Could Be Entertaining. Or Not. C-SPAN is carrying the debate between Delaware Senate candidates Chris Coons & Christine O'Donnell this evening. Update: and so they debated. New York Times story here. You can watch the debate here.

We probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. -- Barack Obama

Peter Baker interviews President Obama & his aides for the upcoming Sunday New York Times Magazine. Here's an edited transcript of Baker's interview of the President. Here's a slideshow of A Day in the Life.

And now for a few words from Meg Whitman's hometown newspaper:

Michael Leahy & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post on how the Obama Administration fucked up off-shore drilling policy: "This article, based on dozens of interviews with people directly involved, reveals that fundamental questions weren't pursued because top administration officials generally accepted the conventional view of the industry's safety record. They were focused on the environmental issues - how drilling and a possible spill would affect sensitive habitats - and not on the engineering risks of exploration." This is a fascinating read which opens a window on the delusional hubris of the ruling class, a story made even more relevant by yesterday's news that the Administration has lifted its moratorium on deepwater drilling.

Michael Powell & Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "This is not what recovery is supposed to look like.... Call it recession or recovery, for tens of millions of Americans, there’s little difference."

Showing Banksters the Love -- Again. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The swelling outcry over fast-and-loose foreclosures has thrust the Obama administration back into the uncomfortable position of sheltering the banking industry from the demands of an angry public." ...

... Andrew Leonard of Salon: "White House advisor David Axelrod's attempt over the weekend to minimize the foreclosure mess as mere paperwork 'mistakes' was a massive misrepresentation of what's really going on. With Democratic politicians across the country calling for a nationwide foreclosure moratorium, Obama's reluctance to get out in front of the issue, so far, is yet another public relations disaster." ...

... Coming to a Neighborhood Near You. Robert Lewis in the Sacramento Bee: "The same industry whose lax lending standards led to the economic downturn is now being blamed by local officials for letting neighborhoods rot.... Many banks and other lenders are either unable or unwilling to handle the mass of houses left vacant by the foreclosure crisis. Many derelict houses are owned by lenders. Others are sitting in limbo."

The New York Times Editorial Board uses the Wisconsin senatorial race as Exhibit A to make the case that the American electorate has gone stupid. Wisconsin voters are about to reject the principled, independent-minded Russ Feingold for a know-nothing plastics manufacturer spewing "misinformation and simplistic solutions."

Boston Globe Editorial Board: "If there were a Nobel prize for governmental dysfunction, US Senator Richard Shelby would be in contention — but then so would the US Senate as a whole." BTW, Shelby claims he is not the senator who put a hold on a vote to confirm Peter Diamond's nomination to the Fed.

"Law and Order: SCOTUS Unit." Dana Milbank: the Supreme hear a habeas corpus case in which they show a remarkable fascination with CSI-style forensic evidence -- "the word 'blood' was uttered 60 times in the hour." CW: I thought questions like Scalia's, "Why wouldn't he wipe up the blood?" were more of the Agatha Christie genre.

Weird Story of the Day. Ray Rivera of the New York Times: "The mysterious military-grade explosives that were found in an East Village cemetery over the weekend are more than a dozen years old and were most likely stolen from a military base, the police said Tuesday." The cemetery, BTW, is located on East 2nd Street between First & Second Avenues.

American Amnesia

Maureen Dowd may hanker to move to the arts section of the Times because lately all she writes about is movies. She just saw "Fair Game," a film about the Valerie Plame affair, which she says "we should all remember." I'm mystified as to why the Times axed my brief comment, but I've reproduced it here:

We should all remember the Plame Affair? That happened way back in 2003, and it didn't happen to most of us.

Americans can't even remember back to September 2008, when the fruits of lazy laissez-faire government & greedy financiers burst the great American bubble for every single one of us. We are a nation without a memory. We live in the moment. The moment doesn't feel good, so the best thing to do is make it worse by bringing back the bubbleheads.

We don't have time to go to the movies right now. We have to go out and cheer on the clowns. Maybe after election day, we'll have time to go see "Fair Game." It might be a hit. After all, in a nation without a memory, it's not some boring old history lesson. The Plame Affair is a brand new story.

Here's the movie trailer: