The Commentariat -- October 12

It's Columbus Day, so what better occasion to use an ethnic slur to describe the Italian-American opponent of your boss, who also is Italian-American (I guess)? Carl Paladino's (of course) campaign manager Michael Caputo (sounds Italian, too, doesn't it?) calls Andrew Cuomo "a very oily kind of career politician."

Katrina vanden Heuvel in a Washington Post op-ed: "Even before Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau take on the most deceptive, exploitative consumer rip-offs in the financial services industry, Republicans are maneuvering to make the mission extremely difficult -- if not downright impossible.... The remarkable coalition that took on the financial titans during the reform debate, and then successfully waged a campaign for Warren's appointment to build the bureau, now needs to reinvigorate its effort to create a truly strong and independent agency."

Will Bunch in the Huffington Post: Tea partier say they got into the movement to "save American for their children & grandchildren." But if they are successful in electing their candidates,

... the children and grandchildren of the Tea Partiers (and the rest of us, unfortunately) would attend crumbling schools that lag increasingly behind other industrialized and emerging nations, assuming their school bus can even make it through traffic-clogged highways. Unable to find jobs, many will instead enlist to fight new wars overseas for the world's shrinking oil supply, while savvier nations reap the benefits of alternative energy.

Jim Rutenberg, Don Van Natta Jr. & Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "Anonymous" goes on the attack, mostly against Democrats. The writers ferret out a few of the anonymous donors to anodyne-sound front groups and what the donors' financial interests are in whacking certain candidates. Needless to say, the donors have their own pocketbooks, not the public interest, at heart. ...

... Tom Hamburger & Kim Geiger in the Los Angeles Times: "In a potential sign of Democratic unease with the White House midterm political strategy, some of President Obama's allies have begun to question his sustained attack on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has long claimed bipartisanship but is being increasingly identified as a GOP ally." ...

... Nick Baumann of Mother Jones: "If Democrats really want to criticize the Chamber of Commerce, they should stop harping on accounting and focus on the larger issue: the vast sums of money that domestic corporations are spending, without any disclosure or accountability."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Let the political scholars debate whether this is the most contentious, partisan midterm election in modern memory, as some insist. But there is widespread agreement that it is certainly among the strangest."

Stephen Colbert discusses the Rich Iott case & his disappointment in Republicans. "Thankfully, dressing the President as a Nazi? Still okay":

Stephen Gandel of Time looks at the findings of Nobel Prize-winning economists Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen & Christopher Pissarides, all of whom are experts on employment & unemployment patterns. Generally speaking, Gandel notes, these economists would say the Democrats' approach to job creation is more effective than the Republicans'. ...

... Steve Benin is still pissed off at Richard Shelby, as he should be: Peter "Diamond's nomination has been pending since April.... The nomination has cleared committee, is ready for a floor vote, and if Shelby opposes Diamond, he can vote against him.... Shelby has decided one of the nation's most accomplished economists, a celebrated expert in employment policy, not only failed to earn his support, but is so offensive to Shelby's far-right sensibilities that he's forbidding the Senate from voting at all."

Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent, who -- among other anti-terrorist duties -- investigated the al Qaeda attack on the U.S.S. Cole when it was in Yemen, writes an op-ed in the New York Times about the investigation. Soufan concludes,

We long ago realized that if the American government had not let the Cole attack go unanswered, and if our investigation had not been so constrained, we could have undermined Al Qaeda and perhaps even averted the 9/11 attack. After 10 years, we need to finally put that lesson to use.

Glenn Greenwald: way back when, even Donald Rumsfeld knew Muslim terrorists don't "hate us for our freedoms"; they hate us for our support of Israel, for our backing of "Islamic tyrannies" -- Egypt & Saudi Arabia --  & most of all, for our occupations of Muslim nations. University of Chicago Prof. Robert Pape is scheduled to present evidence to Congress today that military occupation is the responsible for most suicide terrorism.

Historian Sean Wilentz in The New Yorker: Glenn Beck's paranoid view of American history derives from extremists who fell to the right of the old John Birch Society & who had no purchase on mainstream Republican views. Wilentz concludes this long article:

For the moment, though, it appears that the extreme right wing is on the verge of securing a degree of power over Congress and the Republican Party that is unprecedented in modern American history. For defenders of national cohesion and tempered adversity in our politics, it is an alarming state of affairs.

Greg Sargent: "... right wing commentators who claim lefty groups and unions are running ads funded by anonymous donors -- just as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other righty groups are doing -- are just flat out lying. This lie is so easily debunked that Joe Scarborough actually retracted it today (Monday) on Morning Joe after making the claim and getting corrected. Will Karl Rove and Fox News and others spreading this falsehood or letting it go unchecked do the same? ...

... AND, speaking of Joe Scarborough, check out his column in Politico on Newt Gingrich. If I recall correctly Scarborough rode into Congress on the Newt's 1994 train:

The same man who once compared himself to Napoleon (and grandly told his lieutenants that he was at “the center of a worldwide revolution”) now grabs cheap headlines by launching bizarre rhetorical attacks. The same politician who once saw himself as a latter-day Winston Churchill — sent by God to save Western civilization — now gets rich off political hate speech.

Matthew Wald of the New York Times: "Google and [Good Energies,] a New York financial firm, have each agreed to invest heavily in a proposed $5 billion transmission backbone for future offshore wind farms along the Atlantic Seaboard that could ultimately transform the region’s electrical map. The 350-mile underwater spine, which could remove some critical obstacles to wind power development, has stirred excitement among investors, government officials and environmentalists who have been briefed on it.

The Constant Weader Disagrees with -- Herself

David Brooks writes that the main reason states do little to improve infrastructure or make other investments in the future is that they are too invested in their pasts. Brooks writes that "New Jersey can’t afford to build its tunnel, but benefits packages for the state’s employees are 41 percent more expensive than those offered by the average Fortune 500 company." He notes that California & New York City are in the same bind. "All in all," Brooks writes, "governments can’t promote future prosperity because they are strangling on their own self-indulgence."

Early this morning, at about 12:30 am, I responded. After a few hours sleep, however, I realized I got it wrong. This is what I wrote in the wee hours:

Back in the day, people took government jobs for the security, not for the pay, because government jobs paid less than equivalent jobs in the private sector. That balance should be the goal of today's officials -- that is, jobs that guarantee secure retirements should pay less than equivalent jobs that don't. Private- & public-sector employees should, on balance, receive "equal" remuneration, whether they get it up-front in higher pay or down the road in retirement benefits.

Government entities cannot break the commitments they have made & on which current public employees & retirees rely, but they do need to re-calibrate pay grades for incoming government workers.

That alone would do a lot to enhance the public's opinion of government. There is nothing so aggravating to a citizen as being forced to haggle with a bureaucrat who has the luxury to be unhelpful, careless & unstoppable. To know that the bureaucrat is also overpaid on your tax dollar just adds insult to injury. When I see those tea party ladies railing against the government, I know that some of them aren't mad at the President; they're mad at the last "public servant" who refused them some service that was their due.

There are plenty of good public employees who do their jobs well & go above & beyond the call when necessary. But I'm with the tea party gang on this much: I want to "take my country back" from public employees who give no indication they know they're working for me.

The Perp. New York Times photo.Oh my. I let Brooks seduce me. What a repulsive realization. It was late. I'd had a glass of wine. Call it date rape. Yuck!

What I should have written is obvious:

Brooks is always wrong.

It isn't public workers who are paid too much. It's private-sector workers who are paid too little. It isn't so much that unions have captured states; it's that state & federal laws have made it difficult for unions to keep or get a toehold in private industry.

Update: or as David Dayan of Firedoglake puts it: "Shorter David Brooks: We’d have a hell of a country if only we didn’t have to pay the public employees."

The Commentariat -- October 11

A Heartwarmer. Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times. Mr. Biden visits his Scranton home.

Robert Kuttner, writing in the Huffington Post, makes a few minor factual errors in his post (e.g., it wasn't a pocket veto), but his overall point is worth considering (or hoping for!): "By pocket-vetoing the bill that sailed through Congress to expedite mortgage foreclosures, President Obama may have begun a chain reaction that will blow up Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's confidence game with the banks."

Paul Krugman: "... if job-creating government spending has failed to bring down unemployment in the Obama era, it’s not because it doesn’t work; it’s because it wasn’t tried." ...

... This New York Times page breaks down where the stimulus money went.

... Krugman has a brief post on the Economics Nobel recipients; his take is the same as mine: "And yes, this is the same Peter Diamond whose nomination to the Fed board has been held up because of Republican doubts about his qualifications." Krugman links to his August 6 post:

Senate Republicans holding up Peter Diamond’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board on the grounds that he may not be qualified to make monetary policy. Aside from the fact that the same Senators cheerfully confirmed Bush nominees who didn’t know much about economics of any kind, this is especially stupid right now. ...

Sen. Richard Shelby.I do not believe he’s ready to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board. I do not believe that the current environment of uncertainty would benefit from monetary policy decisions made by board members who are learning on the job. -- Sen. Richard Shelby, on Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Diamond, who was Ben Bernanke's econ professor. Shelby returned Diamond's "unacceptable" nomination to the White House ...

       ... CW: there are times when Republican hypocrisy is so ripe, they can smell it in Norway. ...

... Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "Companies still aren't finding it easy to fill job vacancies," partly because traditional jobs have morphed into ones that require broader experience. "The total number of job openings does remain historically low: 3.2 million, down from 4.4 million before the recession. But the number of openings has surged 37 percent in the past year. And yet the unemployment rate has actually risen during that time."

Washington Post Editorial Board: the U.S. tax code provides for spending $200 billion a year on social programs for the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans. "The code is salted with 'tax expenditures' -- programs, many worthy, designed to promote policies from homeownership to education to retirement savings" The code "lacks transparency and accountability" and "tends to award the most help to those who need it least."

CW: ever wonder why Goldman-Sachs CEO Henry Paulson took that low-paying government job as Dubya's Treasury Secretary? Think it was to nobly serve his country? Gary Gordon of McClatchy News: while Goldman CEO, "Paulson had presided over the firm's plunge into the business of buying up subprime mortgages ... and then repackaging them into securities.... During Paulson's first 15 months as the treasury secretary..., Goldman unloaded more than $30 billion in dicey residential mortgage securities ... and became the only major Wall Street firm to dramatically cut its losses and exit the housing market safely. Goldman also racked up billions of dollars in profits by secretly betting on a downturn in home mortgage securities." Experts say it's obvious Paulson's inaction at Treasury was designed to maximize Goldman profits despite the disastrous consequences for the markets & the American economy. CW: and Paulson will never suffer any consequences.

MoveOn.org gets hold of a prospectus for RepubliCorp^TM. Interactive:

The Cabal of Multinational Corporations is pleased to formally announce RepubliCorp^TM, a new combined entity following our complete merger with the Republican Party.

RepubliCorp^TM combines the ethics-free campaigning savvy of the GOP with the limit-free spending power of Corporate America^TM. This merger is precisely timed: With the recent Citizens United ruling finally placing the United States Government on the open market, RepubliCorp^TM is now perfectly positioned to lead our hostile takeover bid, currently scheduled for completion on November 2^nd 2010.

Howard Kurtz & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The increasing polarization of cable news is transforming, and in some ways shrinking, the electoral landscape. What has emerged is a form of narrowcasting, allowing candidates a welcoming platform that helps them avoid hostile press questioning and, in some cases, minimize the slog and the slip-ups of retail campaigning."

I have 11-year-old twin boys, and this campaign has allowed us to accelerate awkward conversations. -- Delaware Democratic Senate nominee Chris Coons, when asked about his opponent's denunciation of masturbation ...

... Frank Bruni of the New York Times profiles Chris Coons, Delaware's Democratic nominee for Senate. CW: finally, someone in the MSM decides to mention the candidate who is actually qualified to serve.

Of "Speedos & Grinding." Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino defends remarks he made yesterday about gays, says he's not a bigot. CW: you decide. Update: here's a clip:

"Fraud Files" introduces you to Florida's Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott. Sadly, this is an accurate portrait & the scary music is apt:

West Virginia's Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin, who is running for the Senate, answers his opponent's "hicky" ad:

Jane Lorber of the New York Times: "Brave New Films, the documentary film company behind a series of damaging anti-McCain viral videos during the 2008 presidential campaign, has put its sights on Carly Fiorina, the Republican candidate for Senate in California. In the latest of three videos attacking Ms. Fiorina..., several former Hewlett-Packard employees who were laid off during Ms. Fiorina’s tenure as chief executive ... describe her as ruthless and extravagant." (See the earlier videos at the link.):

Stolen Valor. Dan Elliott of the AP: "The Justice Department is battling to save a federal law that makes it illegal to lie about being a war hero, appealing two court rulings that the statute is an unconstitutional muzzle on free speech.... The Stolen Valor Act makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have won a military medal, whether or not an impostor seeks financial gain."

Russell Gold of the Wall Street Journal: "Surprise inspections of deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico dwindled to about three a year over the past decade, even as exploratory drilling far from shore increased.... And since 2004 federal authorities haven't made a single surprise inspection on any of the 50 or so deepwater natural gas and oil production platforms in the Gulf, despite a law requiring periodic unannounced inspections."

If It's Broke, Don't Fix It. Change Its Name. "... the Minerals Management Service was recently renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Nice work, Ken Salazar!

John Hamilton of Media Matters on how right-wing talkshow pundits like Glenn Beck & Michael Savage inspire acts of violence against progressives & authorities, including the President. ...

... If you missed it, also see Dana Milbank's column on Beck's violence-inspiring rhetoric, which I linked Saturday. Milbank briefly covers the same ground Hamilton does.

Reuters picture via the Daily Mail.I know it must be true because I read it in the Daily Mail: at the rally in Philadelphia yesterday, someone threw a book at President Obama. In an unrelated incident, police removed a naked man from the crowd. The article has photos of both. CW: I'm sparing you the photos of the naked man, who needs to start working out.

     Update: according to The Weekly Standard the man who streaked the rally was named Juan James Rodriguez, & billionaire Alki David promised him $1 million for the stunt. Forget the starving children of the world. This is a great way to spend your money, Mr. David.

You can see the flying book near the end of this video clip:

     ... Update: "Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told Politico that the book lobbing incident was not a threat, but friendly fire. 'The book was thrown by an over-exuberant person,' he said. 'It wasn’t a threatening thing, the person wanted to give the president the book.'"

At long last, C-SPAN has made video of the rally available. President Obama begins speaking about 10 minutes in: