The Commentariat -- September 30

Classy! As your governor, you're going to be seeing a lot of me on the front page, saying 'Governor LePage tells Obama to go to hell.'
-- Paul LePage, Maine's Republican gubernatorial nominee

E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post: President Obama "returned to his community-organizer roots to try to salvage an election" at his campaign rally in Wisconsin after disdaining "a mobilizing strategy for his first year and a half in office.... If Obama succeeds, will he continue to keep his supporters engaged and 'fired up' ...? Or will he go back to an insider strategy that helped bring him to the brink of this precipice?" ...

... Meanwhile, ConservaDems help Republicans, pretend to be Republicans, & Arianna Huffington says President Obama isn't much better:

     ... Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal writes that if ConservaDems running against their own party win, even if Democrats maintain a House majority, they "almost certainly won't have a functioning liberal majority."

New York Times Editorial Board: "Despite President Obama’s promises of reform [the overuse of the state secrets doctrine], the public still cannot reliably distinguish between legitimate and self-serving uses of the national security claims. Worse, some of the administration’s claims clearly have fallen on the darker side of that line."

In the absence of a draft, for a growing number of Americans, service in the military, no matter how laudable, has become something for other people to do. -- Robert Gates

Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times: "The United States is at risk of developing a cadre of military leaders who are cut off politically, culturally and geographically from the population they are sworn to protect, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told an audience at Duke University on Wednesday night." CW: no kidding. ...

... Mark Thompson of Time: Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, predicts that the number of military suicides will keep rising.

Dana Milbank: NOW President Terry O'Neill confronts Alan Simpson in the Catfood Commission meeting room, urging him to resign. Simpson changes the subject to trashing former labor leader Andy Stern. Let's go to the videotape:

Unhinged. Maggie Haberman of Politic, September 29: "New York Republican gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino alleged Tuesday that Democrat Andrew Cuomo was unfaithful to his ex-wife years ago.... Paladino offered no proof of his claim, despite requests for substantiation, and he made it minutes after angrily declaring his 10-year-old daughter—a child from his own affair 10 years ago—off limits to the press." ...

     ... Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Hours after the phone interview [with Politico] was conducted, Mr. Paladino nearly came to blows with a New York Post reporter who confronted him about the comments." Here's the videotape:

      ... Update: Oh, goody! The Atlantic has made the corniest possible animated version of the confrontation between Paladino & reporter Dicker. Where is Taiwan when we need them? ...

      ... See more about Paladino on the Campaign 2010 New York page.

Constantly Creepy. CNN: Andrew Breitbart protege James O'Keefe, "a conservative activist known for making undercover videos, plotted to embarrass ... CNN correspondent [Abbie Boudreau] by recording a meeting on hidden cameras aboard a floating 'palace of pleasure' and making sexually suggestive comments, e-mails and a planning document show."

     ... Here is part of the outline O'Keefe prepared. Take a look at page 3, which details his props for the "seduction." They include, "a condom jar, dildos..., lube, ceiling mirror...." It goes on. Breitbart & O'Keefe -- the Woodward & Bernstein of the right.

Barton Gellman writes the cover story for Time on the "twisted patriotism" of right-wing militias.

Jonathan Martin & Keach Hagey of Politico: "With the exception of Mitt Romney, Fox now has deals with every major potential Republican presidential candidate not currently in elected office.... The matter is of no small consequence, since it’s uncertain how other news organizations can cover the early stages of the presidential race when some of the main GOP contenders are contractually forbidden to appear on any TV network besides Fox."

Ryan Reilly & Rachel Slajda of Talking Points Memo describe a right-wing conspiracy theory gone mainstream Republican that non-whites are lolling around welfare offices cooking up voter fraud schemes. These allegations are so offensive in content & tone I can't bring myself to type them. Oh, and they're untrue.

Tim Egan of the New York Times talks to his old friend Jeff Dowd, the model for the Dude in the film "The Big Lebowski," about California's Prop 19, a ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana.

CW: something I missed in the Pew religious knowledge survey: 41 percent of Americans can't name the Vice President of the United States.

Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post: the Federal Trade Commission has instituted new rules to rein in scams & shady practices of many debt settlement companies, companies that claim to help consumers manager & reduce their outstanding debts.

The Commentariat -- September 29

Here's the third of three articles based on Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars.

Fred Kaplan of Slate gets something out of Obama's Wars that Woodward may not have fully understood -- how the Afghanistan war may end.

Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post warns businesspeople who are hoping for Republican victories to be careful what they wish for. He singles out Sen. Jim DeMint as an example of a Republican legislator who is bad for business, but he says that all Republican obstructionism is a net loss for the economy. Here the backstory from Politico: "South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint warned Monday evening that he would block [i.e., place a hold on] all legislation that has not been cleared by his office in the final days of the pre-election session.

"Power without Responsibility." Dana Milbank writes a serioius column: as top Administration officials leave the White House, Valerie Jarrett gains even more influence over the President. Jarrett, however, has been his advisor on areas where he has made the biggest blunders: his relationships with Wall Street & with liberals. Oh, & Desiree Rogers was her idea.

Ticket to Ride. Arianna Huffington promises to provide "Sanity Buses" to take people from New York City to Washington, D.C., October 30, for Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity":

     ... Politico Update: In Richmond, Virginia, President Obama "endorses" the Stewart rally (& bores the kid seen on the right of the shot):

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "As he mounts an outrage-filled campaign for governor of New York, Carl P. Paladino has vowed to forcibly rid Albany of the wayward officials and misbehaving bureaucrats..., promising to 'take out the trash.' But some of the people whom Mr. Paladino has recruited to run his campaign are plagued by checkered pasts.... [His] driver was jailed over his driving record; his campaign manager has tax troubles; and a strategist is charged with stealing $1.1 million." See more stories on the New York gubernatorial race on the New York page of Campaign 2010.

"Ya Can't Drive." You've probably heard President Obama use this metaphor a number of times. He used it again yesterday in Madison. Here he was speaking in May:

     ... It turns out "ya can't drive" is more than a metaphor. Republicans really can't drive:

     ... Although Sen. John McCain blamed illegal immigrants for purposely causing accidents on Arizona highways, it appears that it's his own voters who don't know how to drive. According to a Daily Beast analysis, "Nine of the 10 worst-performing states [i.e., had the most accidents per capita] went for McCain, while nine of the 10 best performers voted for Obama." The states with the worst drivers were North Dakota (the worst), Montana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alaska, Missouri, Delaware, Idaho & Texas. The best were Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Ohio, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, & -- best of all -- Connecticut.

Glenn Beck. New York Times photo.Mark Leibovich has a profile of Glenn Beck to be published in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine. CW: it's unlikely I'll read it.

CW: this New York Times story by Damien Cave peaked my interest because Al Capone reputedly used to stay in the house I live in now. But the real thrust of the Cave's article, about a re-enactment of a Capone trial, is that things haven't changed much in South Florida in the eight decades since the real trial.

The Commentariat -- September 28

President Obama's rally in Madison, Wisconsin:

     ... Post-event New York Times story here. AND Wisconsin State Journal report of the event here. Expanded New York Times story here. See video above.

Supreme Court Press Release: "Beginning with October Term 2010, the audio recordings of all oral arguments heard by the Supreme Court of the United States will be available free to the public on the Court’s Web site, www.supremecourt.gov, at the end of each argument week.  The audio recordings will be posted on Fridays after Conference."

The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition. It is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it's been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it's that Fox is very successful.
-- Barack Obama

Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone interviews President Obama. Full interview. ...

... Tom Curry of MSNBC: "President Barack Obama’s lecture to his supporters to snap out of their lethargy is getting a frosty reception from some on the left side of the Democratic coalition."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka invites us to join "One Nation Working Together" at the Lincoln Memorial on October 2. The sign-up Website he mentions is OneNationWorkingTogether.org:

     ... At a forum held in New York City's Cooper Union, "Trumka said it is vital to channel working-class anger away from Fox News and Tea Party extremists who are delivering"

a cynical, deeply dishonest and incoherent message—that big government is somehow to blame for the current crisis that the budget deficit will eat our children, and that illegal immigrants took all the good jobs.

Here's the second of three articles adapted from Bob Woodward's book Obama's Wars. An audio clip of Woodward's interview of the President:

     ... Here's the transcript.

The Voodoo Factor, a/k/a the Hypnotic Oath. Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul belongs to a conservative doctors’ group that, among other things, has expressed doubts about the connection between HIV and AIDS and suggested that President Barack Obama may have been elected because he was able to hypnotize voters." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. See more about Rand Paul on the Campaign 2010 Kentucky page.

Bob Herbert shares the content of some of the images & videos New York's Republican candidate for governor, Carl Paladino, thought were so hilarious he had to forward them to friends & acquaintances. Here are two:

A photo showing a group of black men trying to get out of the way of an airplane that is apparently moving across a field. The caption reads: 'Run niggers, run.'

A video clip of a nude couple engaged in intercourse with the title: “Miss France [expletive].” Mr. Paladino characterized it as 'a keeper.'

The Decided. Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "At least one-third of all ballots across the country this year will be cast before Election Day, party officials said, reflecting a steady rise in early voting that is profoundly influencing how political campaigns are conducted in many parts of the country."

The Editors of the Louisville Courier-Journal explain American politics to visitors from other countries:

Republicans, riding a tide of corporate cash and public anger, are counting on voters to have such short memories they'll bring back the disastrous policies of the Bush years. And Democrats, who hold the White House and large majorities in both chambers of Congress, are too fumbling and afraid to call the Republicans out.

Vice President Biden kicks of Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC show, "The Last Word." The Vice President & O'Donnell discuss a range of issues from the tea party to the Afghanistan war:

No Surprise Here. Hope Yen of the AP: "The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession. The top-earning 20 percent of Americans — those making more than $100,000 each year — received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S....." The ratio of rich to poor income is nearly double what it was in 1968.

No Surprise There. Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "Women made little progress in climbing into management positions in this country even in the boom years before the financial crisis, according to a report to be released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office."

Worse than I Thought. Katie Curnutte of Zillow Blog: almost one-third of Americans who apply for home mortgages have credit scores so low banks won't lend to them. Via Huffington Post.

Greg Sargent: if quitting her governor's gig & nattering on Fox "News" was part of Sarah Palin's strategy to become President, it isn't working.

Massimo Calabresi of Time: "CQ reports a deal, months in the making, between [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and the White House on tougher Congressional oversight of covert intelligence programs." [The CQ story is subscriber-firewalled.]

Believing Isn't Knowing. Rachel Zoll of the AP: "A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths." ...

     ... Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News puts some southern seasoning on the story: "People in the South – the Bible Belt – tended to score lower on the survey than those in other regions."

... "Junkets for Jesus." In Mother Jones, Jeff Sharlet details how Congressional "Family" members "travel the world to preach [Christianity] to dictators on the taxpayers' dime."

It's a little bit like Custer. He underestimated the number of Indians on the other side of the hill and he paid the ultimate price for it.  -- Sen. Bob Graham, on Adm. Thad Allen's assertion that underestimatetion of the Gulf oil flow was inconsequential

William Broad of the New York Times:"Federal prosecutors have charged [Los Alamos nuclear scientist] Dr. [Leonardo] Mascheroni with trying to sell nuclear secrets to Venezuela as part of a complicated scheme to have that country bring .... to life... his plan to build a giant laser for the achievement of nuclear fusion.... According to the indictment, he negotiated the deal in 2008 and 2009 with the undercover F.B.I. agent, who paid him $20,000 out of an overall promise of nearly $800,000."