Tag: Politics

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Paul Krugman: Vouchers for Veterans

American health care is remarkably diverse. In terms of how care is paid for and delivered, many of us effectively live in Canada, some live in Switzerland, some live in Britain, and some live in the unregulated market of conservative dreams. One result of this diversity is that we have plenty of home-grown evidence about what works and what doesn’t.

Naturally, then, politicians – Republicans in particular – are determined to scrap what works and promote what doesn’t. And that brings me to Mitt Romney’s latest really bad idea, unveiled on Veterans Day: to partially privatize the Veterans Health Administration (V.H.A.).

What Mr. Romney and everyone else should know is that the V.H.A. is a huge policy success story, which offers important lessons for future health reform.

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Super Collusion: Will Obama and Capitol Dems Betray the Middle Class, Seniors and the Poor?

Two new reports suggest that the President and Congressional Democrats are about to betray everything Democrats once stood for. Under pressure from Barack Obama, Democrats on the “Super Committee” have sketched out an appalling “compromise” proposal that would almost certainly doom both their 2012 electoral chances and his own.

They’d have it coming. Their draft plan literally takes crutches away from poor people to protect tax breaks for the wealthy.

Unfortunately, middle class and impoverished Americans would suffer much more than they would. Career politicians can always look forward to comfortable sinecures from the wealthy interests who will benefit from their proposal. But the rest of us would once again be punished for the excesses of the rich, then left to the untender mercies of our new Republican leaders.

Occupy Wall Street NYC now has a web site for its General Assembly  with up dates and information. Very informative and user friendly. It has information about events, a bulletin board, groups and minutes of the GA meetings.

A musician took a stand at last night’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gala, which was attended President Obama and a slew of world leaders.

Hawaiian guitarist Makana, who has performed at the White House, wore a shirt that read “Occupy With Aloha” and played a song inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests.

“We’ll occupy the streets, we’ll occupy the courts, we’ll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few,” he sang at the Wakiki event. “The time has come for us to voice our rage.”

Last night, Portland television viewers were treated to wall-to-wall, all-local-channels, helicopters-hovering coverage of the approach – and uneventful passage – of Mayor Sam Adams’ three-day deadline of 12:01am to close the public parks where #OccupyPortland camped. [..]

It was a sad example of vast local newscaster resources marshaled around an approaching deadline – three days ago, Mayor Sam Adams told #Occupy that the downtown parks would be closed at 12:01am Sunday morning. The broadcast news folks created as much tension as they could muster as the deadline approached: helicopters in the air providing overhead views of streets and the parks, on-the-street correspondents interviewing patient, calm and friendly Police Bureau spokesmen who described their core mission: keeping people safe while encouraging everyone to leave. There were shaky handheld camera pans across the – mostly empty – campgrounds, as well as shaky video of – not terribly scary – protesters hiding up in trees! [..]

The palpable frustration among the local newscasters – no local Emmy nominations were generated last night – helped me understand that from the very top of our broadcast media to the very lowest rungs, there is a fundamental conflict between the message of the demonstrators and the needs of the media. Media requires conflict. The demonstrators were peaceful. In the very best #Occupy cases, like in Portland, the communication and engagement of the local police was calm, patient, and trustworthy. Despite the media’s best efforts, news wasn’t made last night in Portland. But not for lack of trying.

Some for the best coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests has been by Kevin Gosztola @ FDL. Kevin is currently in the Northeast delivering supplies to the Occupy camps from donations collected from the OccupySupply drive by FDL.

Occupy Wall Street NYC now has a web site for its General Assembly  with up dates and information. Very informative and user friendly. It has information about events, a bulletin board, groups and minutes of the GA meetings.

Much more than a movement against big banks, they’re a rejection of what our society has become.

I have a confession to make. At first, I misunderstood Occupy Wall Street. [..]

What both sides missed is that OWS is tired of all of this. They don’t care what we think they’re about, or should be about. They just want something different. [..]

But now, I get it. People want to go someplace for at least five minutes where no one is trying to bleed you or sell you something. It may not be a real model for anything, but it’s at least a place where people are free to dream of some other way for human beings to get along, beyond auctioned “democracy,” tyrannical commerce and the bottom line. [..]

People want out of this fiendish system, rigged to inexorably circumvent every hope we have for a more balanced world. They want major changes. I think I understand now that this is what the Occupy movement is all about. It’s about dropping out, if only for a moment, and trying something new, the same way that the civil rights movement of the 1960s strived to create a “beloved community” free of racial segregation. Eventually the Occupy movement will need to be specific about how it wants to change the world. But for right now, it just needs to grow. And if it wants to sleep on the streets for a while and not structure itself into a traditional campaign of grassroots organizing, it should. It doesn’t need to tell the world what it wants. It is succeeding, for now, just by being something different.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Chris Hayes:If you are an earlier riser on weekends or, like me, up all night working, I’ve heard that Hayes is a good watch and has had some very interesting guests and discussions. Guests are not announced adding to the spontaneity of the format.

This Week with Christiane Amanpour:Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett (R) will discuss the child sexual assault case at Penn State.

There are two roundtables: one on politics with George Will, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, conservative radio host Dana Loesch, and ABC News senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl. Plus, USA Today columnist and ABC News contributor Christine Brennan joins in to discuss the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State.

The second roundtable will focus on this week’s International Atomic Energy Agency report Iran’s nuclear program the with former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright and Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer:Sunday’s guests will be Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Governors Haley Barbour (R-MI) and Martin O’Malley (D-MD); Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, former U.S. Ambassador to China; a political roundtable with CBS News Political Analyst John Dickerson, National Journal’s Major Garrett, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker, and former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers.

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests: Nia-Malika Henderson, The Washington Post National Political Reporter, Joe Klein, TIME Columnist, Major Garrett, National Journal Congressional Correspondent, and Katty Kay, BBC Washington Correspondent.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Making the morning rounds. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett (R); Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN); Chairwoman of the DNC, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL); a special roundtable with A special discussion with the New York Times’ David Brooks and the Washington Post’s EJ Dionne on this weeks political news and the Penn State child sexual assault.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley:An exclusive interview with the Co-chair of the Super Committee, Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX); the Senate perspective Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK); Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus; the first installment of our “America’s Cities” series, a look at mayors trying to bring jobs back to their city. We start with the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Paul Krugman: Legends of the Fail

This is the way the euro ends – not with a bang but with bunga bunga. Not long ago, European leaders were insisting that Greece could and should stay on the euro while paying its debts in full. Now, with Italy falling off a cliff, it’s hard to see how the euro can survive at all.

But what’s the meaning of the eurodebacle? As always happens when disaster strikes, there’s a rush by ideologues to claim that the disaster vindicates their views. So it’s time to start debunking.

First things first: The attempt to create a common European currency was one of those ideas that cut across the usual ideological lines. It was cheered on by American right-wingers, who saw it as the next best thing to a revived gold standard, and by Britain’s left, which saw it as a big step toward a social-democratic Europe. But it was opposed by British conservatives, who also saw it as a step toward a social-democratic Europe. And it was questioned by American liberals, who worried – rightly, I’d say (but then I would, wouldn’t I?) – about what would happen if countries couldn’t use monetary and fiscal policy to fight recessions.

Andew Feintein: Arms and the Corrupt Man

LAST week’s conviction of Viktor Bout, the so-called Merchant of Death, was a rare moment of triumph in the fight against the illicit arms trade.

But it points to the fundamental hypocrisy at the heart of the global trade in weapons: Governments protect corrupt and dangerous arms dealers as long as they need them and then throw them behind bars when they are no longer useful.

Arms deals stretch across a continuum of legality and ethics from the formal trade to the gray and black markets. In practice, the boundaries between the three markets are fuzzy.

Occupy Wall Street NYC now has a web site for its General Assembly  with up dates and information. Very informative and user friendly. It has information about events, a bulletin board, groups and minutes of the GA meetings.

Joan Baez sings in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street “My Apple Pie” a song she wrote in the 70s changing lyrics to “Time To Occupy”

On Veteran’s Day, we set out to write about Occupy Wall Street without any idea of what to expect. We had word that there were going to be demonstrations all over the city- one in Central Park, and a concert in Foley Square.

We devoted the most time to the concert, where around 300 people stood smiling in the cold. Joan Baez was headlining, and it seemed like a good opportunity for pictures.

Check out the pictures

But it ended up being much more- because it was there that we noticed something had happened to Occupy Wall Street without it trying, and perhaps without it knowing. The amorphous movement had become a structured thing.

In the early days, we would enter the park and ask questions. We would receive answers, but they were without authority. ‘Well, this is what you should know, but I am no one to tell you. We all speak for each other in this place.’

Now it’s different. Occupy Wall Street now has a structure and a culture all its own, developed rapidly though the use of technology, the confrontation of adversity, and self-imposed isolation. They do, after all, live in a park on their own.

On Veteran’s Day it all showed. [..]

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

John Nichols: Occupying the Home Front: Veterans Deploy With the 99%

This Veterans Day has a certain numerical resonance. World War I ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Today, we recall the end of that horrific conflict, and those that have followed it, on the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of a new century.

Unfortunately, World War I was not the “war to end all wars.” American soldiers continue to be thrust into unnecessary conflicts, fighting and dying in recent years in the undeclared wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States has not learned much about avoiding unwarranted wars.

And if has not learned much about respecting the veterans of wars.

Just as in the aftermath of World War I veterans were abused when they made reasonable demands for economic justice at home, so veterans are today abused when they make the same sort of demands.

After World War I, veterans seeking bonuses they had been promised were shot in the streets of Washington.

This fall, veterans were who survived the fighting in Iraq were wounded on the streets of Oakland, as they joined protests inspired by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

Paul Krugman: Paul Krugman to Paul Ryan: “The Truth Hurts”

During a recent speech, Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, expressed outrage over what President Obama has been saying lately.

“Just last week, the president told a crowd in North Carolina that Republicans are in favor of, quote, ‘dirtier air, dirtier water and less people with health insurance,’ ” Mr. Ryan said at a gathering at The Heritage Foundation on Oct. 26. “Can you think of a pettier way to describe sincere disagreements between the two parties on regulation and health care?”

Just for the record: Why is this petty? Why is it anything but a literal description of Republican proposals to weaken environmental regulation and repeal the Affordable Care Act?

Occupy Wall Street NYC now has a web site for its General Assembly  with up dates and information. Very informative and user friendly. It has information about events, a bulletin board, groups and minutes of the GA meetings.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination aboard the USS Yorktown in Charleston, SC was interrupted by an OWS mike check. Ms Bachmann looked confused and was escorted off the stage by a police officer and staffer. When she returned to the stage she quipped “Don’t you love the First Amendment?” Yes. we do, Michelle, and it would have been “presidential” moment, if you had told your supporters to let them speak instead of being shouted down and you walking away instead of listening and responding to their message.

Across the country, police have used undercover and/or plainsclothed police officers to monitor occupations and protests that are a part of the 99 Percent Movement. [..]

Shavies thinks his fellow police officers are over-using heavy-handed tactics.

Across the country, police have used undercover and/or plainsclothed police officers to monitor occupations and protests that are a part of the 99 Percent Movement. Earlier today, the Tennessean published excerpts from emails sent by the Tennessee Highway Patrol that confirmed not only that police were infiltrating Occupy Nashville but that they were hoping for the movement’s demise.

In a video released last month, Oakland Police Officer Fred Shavies was outed as one of these plainsclothed officers at Occupy Oakland. Watch it.

Now, in an interview with Justin Warren, Shavies said that he was just doing his job and that he actually supports the movement. He said that the police brutality that occurred could be our generation’s Birmingham – referring to the civil rights struggle in the South – and that he hopes the movement is a turning point for changing the country:

   SHAVIES: I’m a police officer. I’m part of the 99 percent. […] In the ’60s when people would protest, would gather in order to bring about change, right? Those protests were nonviolent they were peaceful assemblies. They were broken up with dogs, hoses, sticks. […] It looks like there was a square, and police shot tear gas. That could be the photograph or the video for our generation. That’s our Birmingham. So, twenty years from now this movement could be the turning point, the tipping point, right. It’s about time your generation stood up for something. It’s about time young people are in the streets. […] Ya’ll don’t need to throw gas canisters into a group of people occupying an intersection.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Dean Baker: Greece, Home of Democracy, Deprived of a Vote

Armed by Papandreou with a referendum, the Greek people had clout. Now, they’re powerless before the troika’s austerity plan

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou touched off a firestorm last week when he proposed putting the austerity package designed by the “troika” (the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Union) up for a popular vote. The idea that the Greek people might directly be able to decide their future terrified leaders across Europe and around the world. Financial markets panicked, sending stocks plummeting and bond yields soaring.

However, by the end of the week, things were back under control. The leaders of France and Germany apparently laid down the law to Papandreou and he backed off plans for the referendum. While the government is in the process of collapsing in Greece, the world can now rest assured that the Greek people will not have an opportunity to vote on their future.

Matt Taibbi: Why Mitt Romney’s Entitlement-Privatization Plan Is Crazy

David Brooks, the (gratuitous insult deleted), wrote this this morning entitled “Mitt Romney, the Serious One.” In it, he explained how Romney’s recent decision to unveil a plan for reforming the entitlement system “demonstrates his awareness of the issues that need to define the 2012 presidential election.”

   Romney grasped the toughest issue – how to reform entitlements to avoid a fiscal catastrophe – and he sketched out a sophisticated way to address it.

So we had a giant financial crash in 2008 that necessitated a bailout costing a minimum of nearly $5 trillion and perhaps ultimately costing $10 trillion more, we have foreclosure crisis with more than million people a year losing their homes, and we have a burgeoning European debt disaster that threatens to devastate the global financial system – and the chief issue facing the country, according to Brooks and the Times, is reforming the entitlement system?

Occupy Wall Street NYC now has a web site for its General Assembly  with up dates and information. Very informative and user friendly. It has information about events, a bulletin board, groups and minutes of the GA meetings.

NEWARK – Twenty-two protesters planning to walk 240 miles to Washington, D.C., hiked through Newark on Broad Street about 6 p.m. tonight bearing backpacks, dish soap and American flags.

These mobile Occupy Wall Street protesters hoped to gather supporters as they walk through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, on their way to Washington for a protest planned for Nov. 23.

That’s the date for a congressional committee to decide whether to support President Obama’s extension of Bush-era tax cuts.