Since I’m an optimist, I’ll offer a hopeful observation that this labor conflict at the Times ought to make the paper’s coverage of the #OWS Movement more respectful and less dismissive, as so much of their reporting has been over the past few months, like this snarky article by Ginia Bellafante from last September. I’ll be watching for any change of tone, even as I realize my optimism is probably unwarranted. // more. . .
Though Repub officials and candidates would clearly prefer to see the rest of the country forget about George W. Bush, all current polling shows that much of the country continues to hold him responsible for our economic troubles. Meanwhile, Repubs, hoping to fumigate the bad odor of Bush from the midst of voters are quick to claim that any mention by President Obama of the Bush years is sour grapes or somehow offensive. That’s crap, and the president should not refrain from mentioning the preceding administration when necessary, but it can be handled well by national DEMs and articulate surrogates. All supporters of the president should make sure the country remembers the twisted, ideological partisanship of the Bush administration, the nightmare at the beginning of this century, lest the country saddle itself with a replay of Republican extremism in the White House.
Carl Franzen of TPM’s IdeaLab reports that for several hours today News Corp. was erroneously corroborating that the Twitter handle of @wendi_deng was in Twitter-speak a ‘verified account’. Turns out they were wrong, as was Twitter. . . . I detest seeing errors in books I’ve published–I get sick to my stomach the first time I see an error in a book I’ve edited–so my outlook here is informed by that. And yet, I know that I am fallible, along with other people, and that we’re all probably more mistake-prone in our screen-dominated age than in eras past. Mistakes will continue to occur in communications. But what’s inexcusable is to make errors on top of errors. Both companies here failed as organizations to correctly assess the matter at hand. I guess you might say they’re simply too complex to be simple when they need to be. // more. . .
This is pretty funny–Matthew Yglesias considers what would’ve happened had the government tried to create time zones and enact daylight savings time in the current political climate. This is the brief piece from Slate.com.
“The Big Government Takeover Of Time: A Parable by Matthew Yglesias
As I watched the entire Eastern Time Zone engage in a chorus of syncronized “Happy New Year!!!!!”-ing last night, I couldn’t help but think that a modern-day version of the 1918 Standard Time Act would probably prompt no end of hysteria on Fox News about the big government takeover of time. Newt Gingrich would note that God put the sun where he wanted it, and that having congress monkey with it is the height of secular socialism. Rick Perry would cite the 10th Amendment. Ezra Klein would try to explain that this is an industry-backed proposal developed by railroad executives with a long history of Republican support. Tim Carney would retort that this just goes to show how far the big government so-called “progressive” agenda is entwined with corrupt crony capitalism. John Boehner would probably try to put some sunset provision into the proposal so that time itself comes to a grinding halt unless the Keystone XL pipeline gets regulatory approval.”
Now, according to Sargent’s cogent analysis, those same Repubs plan to channel the electorate into blaming President Obama for supposedly falling short of what he’d pledged to accomplish–and which a clear majority of the country was, and may well still be, eager for him to achieve. Apart from the transparent sabotage of the president and the economy that’s been the undeniable plan of the Repubs, it was never likely that Barack Obama could in four years repair what had been in broken over the previous eight years. This among many reasons is why I will work for the president to give him, and the country, the second term he needs to really do the job. Meantime, I’ll be reading Greg Sargent for lucid analysis of the shifting political tides. Thank you, Greg! // more . . .
#Fridayreads Philip Kerr’s Field Gray, a Bernie Gunther novel featuring the detective who’s navigated the amoral world of Berlin before, during and after WWII in seven magnificent books. The latest has especially brilliant plotting, w/the narrative taking Gunther and his memory through all the war years as he endures harsh interrogation from Yanks who arrest him in Cuba in 1954. I find inflections of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib in the book. Kerr is a master. If you’ve never read a Bernie Gunther novel, I urge you to begin the series. March Violets is the first, and I do recommend you read them in order, though one could also just start with Field Gray.
I love how rapidly Verizon caved on their plan to charge subscribers a $2 fee for processing certain kinds of monthly payments. As reported in the New York Times, reactions from customers, communications industry watchdogs, and FCC officials ranged from outrage to threats of investigations. The recent campaign that made Bank of America drop its proposed $5 debit card fee took a few weeks to reach its goal, while this explosion of anger at Verizon was over in a scant 24 hours. This says something about the anti-corporate mood prevalent in the U.S. right now, thanks to the #OWS movement. Only at their peril do companies blithely try putting anti-consumerist policies into place. GoDaddy’s loss of subscribers over their support for SOPA, which I posted about last night, is another example of the same impulse in the consumer zeitgeist.
Josh Marshall at TPM is definitely on to something here–Mitt Romney and his campaign are willing to put up with reporters asking embarrassing questions about his refusal to release his tax returns, probably because what’s in them is even more embarrassing, and potentially damaging, than all the pesky questioning they’re getting and will continue to get for the foreseeable future. Invoking the “Buffet Rule” Josh points out that Mitt’s tax rate has likely been at the effective capital gains rate of 15% for years and not the rate about twice that paid by ordinary wage-earners. // more
Late update from TPM: A weird remark by one of Mitt Romney’s many sons, Matt–suggesting the Romney campaign may release Mitt’s tax returns once President Obama discloses his grades and birth certificate–has given Mayor of Minneapolis M.T. Rybak, DNC Vice-Chair, an opening to hit Romney over his lack of transparency. “It’s a bad joke that the Romneys think they can repeat a lie to distract from his failure to be honest about his income.”