The Commentariat -- June 13

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square. Even if you don't comment, the threads are worth reading, as at least a thousand readers a day have discovered.

Robert Reich: "We’re in a vicious cycle in which lower wages and net job losses and high debt are causing consumers to cut their spending — which is causing businesses to cut back on hiring and reduce pay. There’s no way out of this morass without bold leadership from Washington to rekindle consumer demand." Thanks to commenter Pam Criscione for the link.

Paul Krugman explains why Sen. Joe Lieberman's idea to raise the Medicare eligibility age is "so bad, so wrongheaded, that you’re almost grateful. For really bad ideas can help illustrate the extent to which policy discourse has gone off the rails." CW: The best thing about January 2013, no matter who wins the presidential election & who controls the House and Senate is that Joe Lieberman will be OUTTA THERE.

Here's our old friend Larry Summers giving another demonstration of how an economist admits he fucked up without admitting he fucked up. While he worked in the Obama Administration, Summers declared the 2008 stimulus package, like Goldilocks' porridge, "just right." (See, ferinstance, Summers' speech in July 2009, which Krugman highlighted in this blogpost.) But now, in a Washington Post op-ed, Summers finds that porridge was "too cold" & is promoting additional stimulus, mostly in the forms of a payroll tax cut to employers & infrastructure improvements. Oh, Larry, you are just too hot. ...

... And here's why Larry proposed primarily tax cuts instead of a more targeted & effective stimulus: E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "Last Thursday, Senate Democrats devoted their weekly policy lunch to a simple question: What proposals to spur job-creation have any chance of passing Congress, given Republican control of the House and the effective veto power the GOP has in a Senate where a simple majority no longer rules? ... The senators concluded that the only stimulative measures with any chance of getting Republican votes involve tax cuts. That’s why you’re hearing a lot of talk about extending the payroll tax cut another year, and perhaps extending it to the part of the tax that employers pay."

Felix Salmon of Reuters can't see much daylight between the testimony of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. When the views of a Democratic Secretary of the Treasury are indistinguishable from those of a big bank CEO, we no longer have to wait for the oligarchy to begin. It is here.

Big Brother, Chapter 'Leventy-'Leven. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention."

David Hilzenrath of the Washington Post: "Regulators are having such a difficult time translating into action the Wall Street overhaul Congress ordered last year that they are cutting the investment industry-- and themselves-- some slack. New requirements governing certain financial instruments are scheduled to take effect on July 16, almost a year after enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act. But the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that it is providing 'temporary relief' from some of the provisions. With the deadline looming, the SEC said it will extend some temporary rules and offer relief from others that predated Dodd-Frank. At issue are 'security-based swaps,' a form of derivative."

For the New York Times, Scott Turow favorably reviews Tangled Webs, "James B. Stewart’s engrossing re-examination of a quartet of celebrated federal investigations, all of which culminated in convictions for lying: the insider-trading probe that ultimately ensnared the homemaking diva Martha Stewart; the complex inquiry to determine who leaked to reporters the identity of the former C.I.A. covert operative Valerie Plame Wilson, which led to the perjury conviction of the ex-vice-presidential chief of staff I. Lewis Libby; the long-running San Francisco grand jury probe into steroid use by athletes that implicated the sprinter Marion Jones and (after the book was finished) the home-run king Barry Bonds; and the Securities and Exchange Commission inquiries in which the reigning king of swindlers, Bernard L. Madoff, managed to gull overworked young investigators and keep his Ponzi scheme alive, prior to his ultimate undoing in 2008."

Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "With wildfire season starting early and fires already raging across Arizona, the U.S. Forest Service is confronting a longtime problem that many inside and outside the agency think needs an immediate fix: The large tanker planes leased by the agency to fight such blazes have been flying, on average, about 50 years and are rapidly becoming unsafe to deploy. As worries deepen, the Forest Service is preparing — finally, critics say — to ask Congress this summer for money to replace its fleet of 18 large air tankers.... Owners and operators of private aviation companies that lease air tankers under contract or on a call-when-needed basis have been pressing for this kind of action since two air tanker crashes in 2002."

Right Wing World *

Steve Benen on the double standard Republicans apply to sex scandals: Weiner must go and it's "a failue of Democratic leadership" that they took two or three days to call for his resignation; but Republican leadership has never called for the resignation of Sen. David Vitter, who broke the law by making dates with prostitutes five years ago, or Sen. John Ensign, who probably broke the law by paying off his mistress's husband two years ago. (Vitter is still serving; Ensign quit to avoid having to testify before the Senate Ethics Committee.)

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: Presidential candidate & former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) says doctors who provide abortions to rape & incest victims (or any other woman) should be criminally charged. With video, in case you can't believe anyone would say such a thing.

* Is a dangerous place for reasonable, responsible people.

Local News

Eric Kleefeld of TPM explains how Wisconsin Democrats are countering the Republican dirty trick of running Republican challengers (that is, fake Democrats) to force Democratic primary recall elections.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Obama said on Monday that if he were in Representative Anthony D. Weiner’s position, 'I would resign,' according to NBC, which conducted an extensive interview with him."

New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected a First Amendment challenge to a Nevada law that barred officials there from voting on matters in which they had a conflict of interest. Such legislative recusal laws are common, and a decision striking them down or even subjecting them to strict First Amendment scrutiny would have reshaped politics across the nation." You can read the decision, written by Justice Scalia, here.

New York Times: "Lulz Security, a group of hackers who have claimed responsibility for a number of recent online data breaches, claimed two more victims on Monday, including Bethesda Softworks, a gaming company, and the Web site of the United States Senate."

After meeting with his Jobs & Competitiveness Council (CW: which is a cruel joke on the American people) in Morrisville, North Carolina, President Obama will make remarks at 1:45 pm ET. Politico: "President Barack Obama heads to an energy plant in North Carolina on Monday to talk once again about the job-creating power of a green economy. The catch? Nearly three years into Obama's presidency, the White House can't point to much solid evidence that significant numbers of Americans are scoring the green jobs the president has been touting." ...

     ... Updates: Washington Post follow-up story here. The transcript of the President's remarks is here.

AP: Republican presidential candidates will debate this evening at St. Anselm's College in Manchester, New Hampshire. It's the first debate in which usual frontrunner Gov. Mitt Romney will participate. ...

     ... The Hill Update: "Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) announced during Monday evening's presidential debate that she'd filed paperwork to run for president." AND here's the Washington Post story on the debate: "Given opportunities to critique one another’s stances, the seven competitors repeatedly deflected the questions to attacks on the president."

Reuters: "Rerouting ambulances away from overcrowded emergency rooms may be costing patients their lives, U.S. researchers say. For patients with heart attack, high levels of rerouting are tied to a three percent higher risk of death, they report in the Journal of the American Medical Association." CW: this is another consequence of people not having access to health insurance. Even though you yourself may have insurance, people who have no insurance are crowding the emergency room. They could kill you.