Sunday Papers – November 9, 2008

New York Times Magazine

• After the Imperial Presidency– Jonathan Mahler
• Payday Lenders, Check Cashers – Redeemed?– Douglas McGray
• Deprogramming Jihadists– Katherine Zoepf

New York Times

• Obama team weighs what to take on first
• Harsh words about Obama? Never mind
• Citing workload public lawyers refuse new cases
• How Merrill fell
• Pelosi, Reid want aid for U.S. automakers
• Op-Ed, Frank Rich: It still felt good morning after
• Op-Ed, Al Gore: The climate for change
• Op-Ed, Thomas Friedman: Show me the money
• Op-Ed, Nicholas Kristof: Obama and the War on Brains
• Rice visits West Bank
• U.S. electricity project in Afghanistan
• Back home, Palin finds landscape changed
• After push for Obama, Unions seek new rules

Washington Post

• Preparing for the Obama era
• Reid, Pelosi urge Treasury to extend aid to automakers
• Self-sufficiency evades Iraqi security forces
• Obama positioned to reverse Bush actions
• Medvedev calls Obama; Kremlin describes call
• Congressional Democrats say economy first priority
• Op-Ed, Rich Lowry: The right needs to get centered
• Op-Ed, Joseph Stiglitz: More pain to come even if he’s perfect
• Op-Ed, Ron Suskind: U.S. has power – it could use authority
• Op-Ed, David Broder: Governors know best
• Op-Ed, George Will: Democratic ironies and Republican Afflictions

Los Angeles Times

• Democrats set sights on Texas
• Public works on the table once again
• Obama relies on a close-knit inner circle
• Op-Ed, Norman Ornstein: The GOP’s deep hole
• Op-Ed, James Rainey: Right-wing media feeds its post-election anger
• Political blogger be nimble, be quick
• Election leaves gay couple feeling isolated

Why I’m Voting for Obama – Reason 2 of 3 – Our Standing in the World

Where you can blame about half of our economic woes on Congress and Clinton-era policies, there is no doubt that our poor standing within the family of nations lies squarely at the feet of Bush and Cheney. Around the world we are either derisively snickered at for being brutish or boorish, or, worse, feared or hated. The tragedy is that sometimes the fear and hate are born of events and rational analysis due to our seeming irrational actions in places like Iraq. Read more

Sunday p.m. - Woodward’s new book, Fannie, Freddie, Prez Campaign, Pakistan

Bob Woodward’s New Book - WaPo Series Kicks Off

• Doubt, Distrust, Delay - Washington Post
• Spying on Iraqi Leader - Worth the Risk? - Washington Post

Watch CBS Videos Online

National & World News

• Palin’s politics and family mix - Washington Post
• U.S. unveils takeover of two mortgage giants - New York Times
• A tangled web with many masters - New York Times
• What the takeover means for your mortgage - Washington Post
• Bhutto’s widower elected Pakistani president - Washington Post
• Talibanistan - New York Times Magazine
• The vanishing Republican voter - New York Times Magazine
• Rival tickets are redrawing battlegrounds - New York Times
• Coming to grips with Russia’s new nerve - New York Times
• Hurricane Ike kills 59 on Hispaniola, headed for Cuba - Chicago Tribune

P.M. Update – Iraq, Wall Street biggies try to explain meltdown, McCain, Whole Foods sinks, USAF tankers, Freddie Mac, Coffee

$79 billion surplus in Iraqi coffers – Are you pumpin’ me?!

• As Iraq surplus rises, little goes into rebuilding – New York Times
• Iraqi army willing, but not ready to fight – New York Times
• Sorting out coffee’s contradictions – New York Times
• McCain at nuclear plant highlights issue – New York Times
• Bin Laden’s former driver found guilty – New York Times
• Freddie posts loss, cuts dividend – Bloomberg
• Whole Foods plunges – Business Week
• Bidding starts anew for $35 B tanker deal – International Herald Tribune
• Wall Street Report tries to dissect financial meltdown – New York Times

Catching Up on the Natl Media – Sunday Night: Obama, McCain, Hillary’s Fundraising, Pakistan, Iraq, Housing, Paulson, FDIC

2008 Race

• Black radio on Obama’s left is answer to Limbaugh – New York Times
• Lobbyist reports show $181,000 for McCain – New York Times
• Going for that presidential look, but trying not to overdo it – New York Times
• Obama on vacationing and time to think – Associated Press (New York Times)
• Op-Ed, Frank Rich: How Obama became acting president – New York Times
• Hillary on the money trail: twice the challenge – Washington Post
• Op-Ed, Chris Cillizza: A time to gain, a time to lose – Washington Post
• Challenges await Barack Obama at home – Los Angeles Times
• Op-Ed, Walter Russell Mead: Obama the irony man – Los Angeles Times
• Insider has Obama’s ear, can she help him win – Chicago Tribune

Other Stuff

• U.S. war on terrorism loses ground in Pakistan – Los Angeles Times

This subject has been dealt with recently on C&C here and here.

• Editorial: Dream on – Why Federal Housing Policy is Due for Overhaul – Washington Post
• Op-Ed, David Ignatius: A history for Iraqis to write – Washington Post
• A Shiite militia in Baghdad sees its power ebb – New York Times
• Congress sends housing relief bill to president – New York Times
• FDIC takes over two banks – Associated Press (New York Times)
• Can Hank Paulson defuse this crisis? – New York Times
• Op-Ed, Alan S. Blinder: A modest proposal: Eco-friendly stimulus – New York Times
• Letter (From Energy Secretary Bodman) – New York Times

McCain: Grumpy Old Man or Just Willing to Say Anything? Includes Full Transcript

McCain Comes Off As Desperate

Read this John McCain exchange with George Stephanopoulos regarding the candidate’s over the top statements this week about Barack Obama:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve also taken some heat this week with your comments saying that Senator Obama would rather lose…

MCCAIN: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: … a war than win a political campaign.

MCCAIN: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I can’t believe you believe that.

MCCAIN: Well, I’m not questioning his patriotism. I’m questioning his actions. I’m questioning his lack, total lack, of understanding. His…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that is questioning his total…

MCCAIN: I…

STEPHANOPOULOS: When you say someone would rather lose a war, a candidate, that’s questioning his honor, his decency, his character.

MCCAIN: All I’m saying is — and I will repeat — he does not understand. I’m not questioning his patriotism. I am saying that he made the decision, which was political, in order to help him get the nomination of his party.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, putting lives at risk for a political campaign — you believe he’s doing that.

MCCAIN: I believe that, when he said that we had to leave Iraq, and we had to be out by last March, and we had to have a date certain, that was in contravention to — and still is — the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General David Petraeus.

When he never asked to sit down for a briefing with General Petraeus, our commander on the ground, when he waited 900 days to go back again, where young American lives are on the line, I think that’s a fundamental lack of understanding. And I think the American people will make the appropriate choice.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you’re questioning his motives.

MCCAIN: I say that it was very clear that a decision had to be made. And I made it when it wasn’t popular. He made a decision which was popular with his base. And that is a fundamental difference. And he does not understand, and did not understand and still doesn’t understand, that the surge was the vital strategy in us not having to lose a war. Chaos, genocide, increased influence of Iranians in the region. The consequences of failure would have been severe.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But…

MCCAIN: Now, the benefits are enormous of a stable ally in the region, of a country that is a friend of ours, a brake on Iranian influence — certainly a brake on al Qaeda and other jihadist organizations. So, he made the decision that that was the best way to go to get the nomination of his party.

Give me a break Johnny Mac.

Here’s what’s going on. I imagine McCain was sitting around in the back of the campaign bus with his advisers after the trip to see Poppy Bush in Kennebunkport. Someone was getting the reaction to the golf cart event and said, “Ooops.”

“Senator, this thing with you and 41 looks a little … well … it’s not the kind of contrast we want to paint between you and Obama.”

McCain looked at the consultants and said, “What you think?”

They started throwing out ideas to make news and someone said, “What if you say Obama would rather win an election than win a war?”

This is the point in the meeting when the candidate should have said, we’re getting a little out of control here – nobody believes that, I’ll look desperate if I say it. But, no. They probably had a good laugh, congratulated whomever with shouts of “That’s a great line!” They went with it.

If I recall correctly, McCain has always been a more principled campaigner. He has pledged to not dwell in the gutter and talk about the issues. When you attack someone’s patriotism in any political environment, let alone these days in the Bush/Cheney/Rove world, you’re hitting below the belt. Since when did one or the other side of an argument on foreign policy and war strategy become a patriotic litmus test?

McCain has had the reputation in the past of being the type of campaigner that would attack another candidate or campaign for their gutter sniping, but not lose his cool. Now, within sniffing distance of the presidency, he’s the gutter snipe.

For the whole transcript of Stephanopoulos’ interview of McCain Read more

The Case Against Torture – Transcript: Bill Moyers inverview of Jane Mayer

Jane Mayer, a writer with the New Yorker and formerly of the Wall Street Journal has published her new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. She was interviewed Friday night on Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS. Moyers’ report on the Congressional hearings on Bush Administration-sanctioned torture and lengthy interview with Mayer was riveting television. It also made me feel like I’ve been tuned out of a debate that no American should ignore.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee subcommittee which conducted the hearings on torture, detainee treatment, etc., did so over the course of around six weeks. They should have had these four hearings, back to back, four days in a row and gotten more of the public’s attention to this issue.

Philippe Sands, a University College of London law professor has also written a book detailing story behind the so-called torture memo signed by then SecDef Rumsfeld. Material from Sands’ book, Torture Team, became this article in Vanity Fair.

 

Now is the point in the post where I should write something about the rule of law, unintended consequences, and a presidency which tramples the Constitution, U.S. and international law. But, Sands said it best in his prepared testimony before the House Judiciary Committee:

From these conversations it became clear to me that the Administration has spun a narrative that is false, claiming that the impetus for the new interrogation techniques came from the bottom-up. That is not true: the abuse was a result of pressures and actions driven from the highest levels of government. The Administration claims that it simply followed the law. My investigation indicated that – driven by ideology – the Administration consciously sought legal advice to set aside international constraints on detainee interrogations. The Administration relied on a small number of political appointees, lawyers with no real background in military law, with extreme views on executive power, and with an abiding contempt for international rules like the Geneva Conventions. These are rules that the United States has done more to promote and put in place than maybe any other country. As result, under international law war crimes were committed: I have no doubt that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions was violated, alongside provisions of the 1984 Convention prohibiting Torture. The spectre of war crimes was raised by US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the 2006 judgment in Hamdan v Rumsfeld. That judgment corrected the illegality of President Bush’s determination that none of the detainees at Guantanamo had any rights under Geneva.

For the complete transcript of Bob Moyers’ interview of Jane Mayer Read more

No light, but there may be an end to the tunnel …

• U.S. and Iraqis agree to set goals for troop cuts - New York Times

Wednesday A.M. - Obama, McCain, Cordray, U.S. Economy, Iraq War, Iran

• Consumer prices surge – New York Times
• Obama has 7 point edge on McCain – Reuters
• Mallory: Options open on becoming Ohio State Treasurer – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Keno set to hit venues soon – Lancaster Eagle Gazette
• State schools superintendent must be ‘wooed’ – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• What are Ohio’s elected leaders driving – NewsChannel 5 (Cleveland)
• Cordray, Fed want your take on credit cards – Columbus Dispatch
• Suburbs brace for impact – Columbus Dispatch
• Ohio kicks off ad campaign to forestall foreclosures – Columbus Dispatch
• McCain, Obama battle over war policies – Philadelphia Enquirer (from Plain Dealer)
• Editorial: Fears about banks are overblown – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Editorial: San Francisco gets opposite of tech support – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Another poll: Obama not closing divide – New York Times
• Policy Shift seen in U.S./Iran Talks – New York Times

Tuesday Mid Morning – Politics and Faith Podcast, Iraq, Peak Oil, Obama, Bush at G8, McCain on the Economy, Fed

• Go here to listen to the Columbus Dispatch’s Joe Hallet discuss politics and faith with the Dispatch’s Faith & Values reporters – Columbus Dispatch
• Democratic platform to have public input – Associated Press (Dayton Daily News)
• Editorial: Soft words don’t hide impact of economic downturn – Dayton Daily News
• Shell CEO makes presentation of two future energy scenarios – Ethical Corporation
• G8 Pledges to cut emissions by half by 2050 – Washington Post
• Maliki Suggests U.S. Troop Timetable – Washington Post
• Shares of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Plummet – Washington Post
• Editorial: Mr. Obama on Iraq – Washington Post
• Adding up the cost of Obama’s agenda – Los Angeles Times
• McCain pledges broad based tax cuts – Baltimore Sun
• Fed to clamp down on exotic and subprime loans – Washington Post
• McCain plan for budget: fiscal hawks vs. tax foes – New York Times
• New Jersey’s painful lesson – New York Times
• Blagojevich gets heated with reporters – Chicago Sun-Times

Happy Fourth -

• Age and Experience Matter in Investment World: Study – New York Times

  “The two professors say the experience thesis helps to explain why stock market bubbles are relatively uncommon. “Once investors have experienced a bubble and subsequent crash, they are less willing to participate the next time through,” they write. “The younger fund managers we study in this paper, and perhaps also the retail investors that allocated money to their funds, may have learned from their experiences during the technology bubble.”

  If that lesson spills over into housing, it could be a long time before we see a housing price expansion of the magnitude that took place in the middle years of this decade.” New York Times

• Bush Administration allows sweetheart Iraq oil deals counter to its own policy – New York Times

Last week we learned of no-bid contract proposals for several western-owned oil companies to begin rendering “technical help” to the Iraqi government in getting its oil industry back up and running. The U.S. government apparently helped the Iraqis write those contracts. Today the Times reports that Hunt Oil has been in talks with the semi-autonomous Kurds in northern Iraq to sign an oil deal – even though official U.S. policy is to dissuade the private sector from side deals with regional Iraqi interests. This is because the Iraqi central government has not passed an oil bill which would lay the legal groundwork for a new Iraqi oil industry.

It’s taken several years to get to this point, but Bush and Cheney are still telling us this war wasn’t about oil?

Ray L. Hunt, ceo of Hunt oil, is a Texas oil man with ties to Bush. His company has angered the Iraqi national government for pursuing this side deal with the Kurds. You would think that the President or his staff would abide their own State Department policy and ask Hunt Oil to cool its jets. No, Ray is a friend of W. An already complex set of political and diplomatic circumstances with the Iraqis is exacerbated by actions like this. Read the story.

Red, White, and Boom – Neal Lauron, Columbus Dispatch

• Threats to American Way are Overstated – David Broder column, Washington Post Writers Group

Afternoon Read

• How Long will GM Be No. 1? - Wall Street Journal
• Iraq does not sign no-bid consultancy contracts with oil majors … for now - Forbes
• What would a world with $200 per bbl oil look like? - LA Times

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