The Commentariat -- April 10
David Plouffe talks to ABC News' Christiane Amanpour about the "historic" & "draconian" budget cuts:
... Print story here.
Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "... in agreeing Friday night to what he called the largest annual spending cut in the nation’s history, the president further decoupled himself from his party in Congress, exacerbating concerns among some Democrats about whether he is really one of them and is willing to spend political capital to defend their principles on bigger battles ahead." ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times asks historians & other political observers what President Obama is all about. Not surprisingly, Baker doesn't really get a definitive answer. ...
... Dan Balz of the Washington Post looks at the practical considerations surrounding the Unknowable Mister Obama: "Nervous Democrats fear that Obama gave away too much in the last-minute agreement that averted a government shutdown. They worry even more about the coming fights over raising the debt ceiling and particularly Obama’s response to the budgetary blueprint outlined last week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.)." ...
... ** For an excellent essay on "how the left learned to be helpless," novelist Kevin Baker's year-old analysis -- which appeared in Harper's -- is still right on target. Thanks to reader Patricia H. for suggesting it. (You may want to zoom in; the print is pretty teensy.) ...
... Paul Kane, et al., of the Washington Post on how Obama, Boehner & Reid negotiated the budget deal: "In the end, Boehner got the huge budget cut conservatives wanted. Obama got to take credit for bringing the sides together. And Reid got a chance — in a dispute over funding for women’s health groups — to rally a beleaguered Democratic base. Outside the White House and Capitol, their long staredown had a serious cost. For days, a city had been creakily, and expensively, preparing to shut itself down. And a country had watched in amazement: Was the U.S. government really fighting over whether to reauthorize itself?" ...
... No Democracy for D.C. If you are a resident of Washington, D.C., a district that is 90-some percent Democratic, your lords and masters are white Republican right-wingers from places far and wide. That's not what this post by the Washington Post's Ben Pershing says, but that's what it means.
Karen Garcia notes that the real sticking point for the GOP in the budget battle was about sex -- not about abortion, as they claim -- but about sex between responsible men and women who want to stay healthy.
Steve Benen on the efficacy of the Republican hostage strategy, and BTW, how the media help them.
James Horney of the nonpartisan Center on Budget & Policy Priorities: "Chairman Ryan’s widely reported claim that his plan produces $1.6 trillion in deficit reduction proves illusory. In fact, the numbers in his plan show that his budget produces just $155 billion in real deficit reduction over ten years (see graph). That means that, despite proposing $4.3 trillion in what would be the most severe and wrenching budget cuts in U.S. history — two-thirds of which would come from programs for people of low or moderate incomes — the plan barely reduces deficits at all over the next decade. That’s because his budget cuts are offset by $4.2 trillion in tax cuts that would go disproportionately to those at the top. In essence, at least for the next decade, this plan is far less a blueprint for addressing deficits and far more a proposal to redistribute large amounts of resources from those at the bottom to those at the top." ...
... Jim Fallows of The Atlantic ticks off a handy list of why Paul Ryan's budget plan is neither "brave" nor "serious," the punditocracy's characterizations notwithstanding.
There’s nothing serious about this plan. And the way our pundit class swooned over this fantasy document suggests that all those people lecturing the American people about our unwillingness to face up to reality and make hard choices should spend some time looking in the mirror. -- Paul Krugman, on Paul Ryan's budget proposal & media reaction
New York Times Editors: "In the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling about a school-choice program in Arizona, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion leaves intact a program that has disbursed almost $350 million of state funds, most of it to schools choosing students on the basis of religion. The holding all but overrules a landmark decision of the Warren court, Flast v. Cohen. As Justice Elena Kagan says powerfully in her first dissent, 'by ravaging Flast in this way,' the majority 'damages one of this nation’s defining constitutional commitments.'” Here's a pdf of the opinion, concurring opinion & dissent.
In my constant search for interesting stuff, I just came across this nearly month-old plea from the Newspaper Guild, a Communications Workers of America union:
The Newspaper Guild is calling on unpaid writers of the Huffington Post to withhold their work in support of a strike launched by Visual Art Source in response to the company’s practice of using unpaid labor. In addition, we are asking that our members and all supporters of fair and equitable compensation for journalists join us in shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company. Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical picket line, we ask that they honor this electronic picket line.
... It so happens that at about the same time (mid-March), for similar reasons and entirely on my own, I started boycotting the Huff Post, too. It just pissed me off that AOL paid Arianna Huffington $315 million for an operation where she exploits unpaid writers, then unceremoniously laid off hundreds of paid AOL staff. Some of you have sent me stuff from HuffPo writers. If I can find a similar story elsewhere -- and nine times out of ten I can -- I'll link to the other story. But I'm just not interested in helping out the AOL/Huffington Post conglomerate. -- Constant Weader
Richard Leiby of the Washington Post: "... as Egypt purges elements of its old order and gropes to structure a new one, [Ahmed Ezz, the country's 'steel king'] has emerged as perhaps the most hated symbol of a system that rewarded the few and oppressed the many. Fairly or not, Ezz — the oligarch who cornered the market on steel production in the Arab world — represents for millions of Egyptians a pervasive crony capitalism that, before the revolution, was simply a fact of life."
CW: I hadn't linked to Maureen Dowd's & Nicholas Kristof's columns because I don't think they're particularly worthwhile, but if you want to read them -- here's Dowd on Dylan and here are the comments to her column; here's Kristof on the budget battle and here are the comments. ...
... NEW. As to Dowd's thesis that Dylan sold out, Jim Fallows, who just returned from China, publishes a few reactions from people who actually know what they're talking about: one refers to the "truly moronic piece by Maureen Dowd." Lyrics from "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" with which Dylan opened both shows:
Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna put my good foot forward
And stop being influenced by fools
So much oppression
Can't keep track of it no more
So much oppression
Can't keep track of it no more.
... Maybe there's a message to the Chinese somewhere in there. -- CW
... on Kristof's claim that Ryan is courageous, see Krugman comment above & mine in the Kristof comments section.
Local News
Lisa Pease of Consortium Blog: "... late in the day, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus reported she had 'forgotten' to report results from one city in her heavily Republican County. And when she did 'remember' to report the results, which she had kept at home on her personal computer despite having been told before the election not to do this, not only did the votes from that city put the Republican Prosser over the top, but the margin put the election itself just over the margin for which an automatic recount would kick in. As the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live would have said, 'How convenient.'” Read Pease's whole post. Her conclusion that Nickolaus' story is "hard to swallow" is an understatement.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was relieved of command in Afghanistan after a magazine profile quoted his subordinates as disparaging senior civilian leaders, has been invited back to public service by the Obama administration to help oversee a high-profile initiative in support of military families, White House officials said Sunday.... The appointment of General McChrystal ... can be seen as an effort to mend any perception of a civilian-military breach following his forced retirement."
Al Jazeera: "Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has accepted a 'road map' for a ceasefire with rebels, according to a delegation of African leaders. The announcement followed a meeting between the leaders and Gaddafi on Sunday in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, just hours after NATO air raids targeted his tanks, helping the rebels push back government forces who had been advancing quickly towards their eastern stronghold. The African Union (AU) delegation was due to meet the rebels on Monday."
New York Times: "French and United Nations helicopters fired missiles on Sunday at key positions held by forces loyal to the entrenched strongman Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan, the country’s economic capital, partly destroying Mr. Gbagbo’s residence, according to one of his top aides.... The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, suggested Sunday that Mr. Gbagbo’s camp had fooled Western powers seeking his withdrawal by pretending to engage in surrender negotiations last week."
USA Today: On Wednesday, "President Obama will deliver a major speech ... about plans to reduce federal budget deficits and long-term debt, senior adviser David Plouffe said this morning." New York Times story here.
Nope. Zero. -- Barack Obama, in response to Speaker Boehner's repeated urgings to eliminate Title X funding for Planned Parenthood
New York Times: "A day after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested that American troops could remain here for years, tens of thousands of protesters allied with Moktada al-Sadr, the radical anti-American Shiite cleric, flooded the streets demanding an end to the American military presence. The protests were scheduled before Mr. Gates’s comments — made on Friday during a visit to troops in northern Iraq — although his statements may have fueled some of the day’s fervor."
New York Times: "Military forces loyal to Col. clashed on Sunday with Libyan opposition fighters for control of Ajdabiya in a bid to claim control of the strategically vital rebel city." ...
... Update: "Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s military forces appeared to falter on Sunday in a second day of assault against the rebel city of Ajdabiya, as opposition fighters aided by heavy NATO airstrikes retook positions through much of the city."
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