memeorandum: Bill Moyers: “Welcome to the Plutocracy!” (truth-out.org)

1:10 PM ET, November 4, 2010

Top Items:

GOP senators fight over failure — Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party's failure to capture the Senate. — With tea party-backed candidates …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Yahoo! News, Left Coast Rebel, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Wonkette, The Plum Line, Taylor Marsh, NewsBusters.org, The Washington Independent, New York Magazine and CNN

Manu Raju / The Politico:

Mitch McConnell doubles down against President Obama — An emboldened Sen. Mitch McConnell on Thursday will declare that President Barack Obama must be defeated in 2012 because Republicans “can't plan” on the White House to listen to voters and cooperate on some of his party's top political priorities.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, Ben Smith's Blog, Outside the Beltway, SpeakEasy, TPMMuckraker and The Hill

J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:

Senate Dems warn GOP not to block legislation — The top three Senate Democrats said the onus was on the newly strengthened GOP conference to cooperate on legislation next year. — Republicans picked up six Senate seats Tuesday night, not enough to take control of the chamber …

Wall Street Journal:

The Boehner Evolution — House Republicans and the challenge of divided government. — John Boehner is no Newt Gingrich, which suits the current public mood. Americans have had their fill of triumphalism and revolution in a House Speaker. But Barack Obama is also no Bill Clinton …

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Booman Tribune

Patrick O'Connor / Washington Wire:

McConnell: No Mood for Compromise — An emboldened Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell isn't in the mood to compromise following the party's historic gains in the House. — The Kentucky Republican is expected to tell a conservative audience later today that the White House can either …

Discussion: Moe Lane

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:
The First War of the Next Congress: The Debt Ceiling

Discussion: TPMDC

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
McConnell: GOP's ‘only’ option is to defeat Obama in 2012

Discussion: The Politico

Ray Sanchez / ABCNEWS:
Exclusive: Speaker Nancy Pelosi Says She Has ‘No Regrets’

Discussion: Yglesias, The Politico, The Foundry, Online NewsHour, TPMDC, The Sundries Shack, Gateway Pundit, IMAO, Scared Monkeys, Politics Daily and Weasel Zippers

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Golf and banter won't suffice for Boehner, Obama relationship

Discussion: The Note, Time and First Draft

New York Times:

Democrats Outrun by a 2-Year G.O.P. Comeback Plan — The PowerPoint slides presented to House Republicans in January 2009 seemed incongruously optimistic at a time when the very word “hope” belonged to the newly ascendant Democrats and their incoming president, Barack Obama.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Monkey Cage, Mother Jones, TPM LiveWire, Prairie Weather, Outside the Beltway, The Maddow Blog, Wall Street Journal and msnbc.com

George F. Will / Washington Post:

A recoil against liberalism — Unwilling to delay until tomorrow mistakes that could be made immediately, Democrats used 2010 to begin losing 2012. Trying to preemptively drain the election of its dangerous (to Democrats) meaning, all autumn Democrats described the electorate as suffering a brain cramp …

Discussion: The New Republic, Commentary, Balloon Juice, Achenblog, Daily Kos, Betsy's Page, The Glittering Eye and No Left Turns

The Politico:

Michele Bachmann bid adds drama to the GOP leadership race — House Republicans look like they've largely been spared any uncomfortable leadership races as they cruise into their robust new majority, except for one little speed bump: Michele Bachmann. — The often fiery and always …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, TRAIL BLAZERS, Daily Kos, RedState, The Caucus and New York Times

The Politico:
John Boehner's boys: The new power club

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Outside the Beltway and Democratic Strategist

The Politico:
Michele Bachmann bid adds drama to the GOP leadership race

Discussion: The Note

Washington Post: For tea party, victories may trigger identity crisis

J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:

You think '10 was tough? Check out '12 — For the first time in two cycles, Democrats will have more seats up for grabs than the Republicans, and the party could see its shrunken majority erased altogether. — Several of the senators up for reelection came in on the 2006 Democratic wave …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, Riehl World View, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit and iOwnTheWorld.com

NDTV.com:

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit — New Delhi: The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday. — Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Jawa Report, theblogprof, JammieWearingFool, Don Surber and Pundit & Pundette

Telegraph:
Coconuts removed from trees in preparation for Barack Obama's India trip

Discussion: Moonbattery and theblogprof

Ben S. Bernanke / Washington Post:

What the Fed did and why: supporting the recovery and sustaining price stability — Two years have passed since the worst financial crisis since the 1930s dealt a body blow to the world economy. Working with policymakers at home and abroad, the Federal Reserve responded with strong …

Discussion: New York Times, Economist's View, Daniel W. Drezner, YID With LID, Macro and Other Market Musings, naked capitalism, Wall Street Journal, The Big Picture, Guardian and Eschaton

Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Both Hands:
The Mountain Labored, and Gave Birth to a Mouse

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Paul Krugman, MarketWatch, Crooked Timber, Real Time Economics and Economist's View

R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:

In new memoir, Bush makes clear he approved use of waterboarding — Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former president George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving the simulated drownings of CIA detainees, a practice …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress, Emptywheel, TPMMuckraker, Little Green Footballs, Raw Story and Guardian

truth-out.org:

Bill Moyers: “Welcome to the Plutocracy!” — Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series. — I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn's life and legacy. I was also surprised. I am a journalist, not a historian.

Discussion: Latest Open Salon Blog

Shira Toeplitz / The Politico:

Washington, Alaska races not over — One of the lingering, unresolved Senate races was taken off the board late Wednesday afternoon, when Sen. Michael Bennet was declared the winner in his agonizingly close Colorado matchup with tea party Republican Ken Buck.

Discussion: CNN

Seattle Blogs:
Murray-Rossi race: ‘no one knows how many ballots are left’

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Seattle Times, Daily Kos, National Review and Seattle Post-Intelligencer

First Read / msnbc.com:

Just 32% of Tea Party candidates win — A Don't Tred On Me flag flies above protesters at a rally in April in Macon, MO. — From NBC's Alexandra Moe — For all the talk of the Tea Party's strength - and there will certainly be a significant number of their candidates in Congress …

Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online: The Tea Party Takes On Washington

A. G. Sulzberger / New York Times:

Ouster of Iowa Judges Sends Signal to Bench — DES MOINES — An unprecedented vote to remove three Iowa Supreme Court justices who were part of the unanimous decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the state was celebrated by conservatives as a popular rebuke of judicial overreach …

Discussion: Politics Daily, National Review, The Snitch, Law Blog, GayPatriot and Election Law

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Pulling a Clinton? — John Harris, the noted Clinton biographer, considers the notion of a 1994 repeat: — [T[he widespread speculation that what Obama needs to do now is simply “pull a Clinton”—replicating Bill Clinton's comeback after being trounced by Newt Gingrich in 1994 …

Ben Smith / The Politico:
Democrats find common ground: It's the White House's fault

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The New Republic, Hot Air, The Bilerico Project, Pirate's Cove, RedState, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, The Maddow Blog and Gawker

CNN:

Poll: GOP candidates top Obama in hypothetical 2012 race — Washington (CNN) — His party got its clock cleaned in Tuesday's midterm elections, but President Barack Obama still remains competitive in some hypothetical 2012 presidential election matchups, especially against Sarah Palin, a new poll shows.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, AmSpecBlog, Mediaite and Latest Open Salon Blog

Erin McPike / Real Clear Politics:
FOX News Debuts 12 in '12 Series; Romney Declines Interview

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story, Conservatives4Palin.com and WANE-TV

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Sarah Palin takes victory lap — Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin is out with a new video Thursday touting the victories of her chosen candidates — and brushing aside the many who fell to defeat on Tuesday. — “Across the country, everyday Americans are standing up and they're speaking out …

Discussion: CNN, New York Magazine and The Awl

Corky Siemaszko / NY Daily News:
‘Sorry, mom!’ …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Mediaite, Raw Story and PopEater

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Prop 19 Postmortem — I've been busy and only just now got around to looking at the final results for Prop 19, the California initiative to legalize marijuana. Here it is: — I know this won't be much solace to everyone who worked on Prop 19, but.....this isn't so bad, really.