Occupy Troublemakers Merely Fringe, But Tea Party 'Responsible for the Behavior of People' at Rallies
'Many [OWS] protesters say the lawless visitors constitute a tiny fringe and are not representative of the movement, which, they say, has espoused nonviolence and mutual aid. Some have suggested moving the kitchen area and the comfort station out of the park to discourage freeloaders from congregating there. But there are concerns that even if the criminal and antisocial elements are a small minority, they are becoming visible enough to tarnish the image of the entire group.' – From a November 6 story by Cara Buckley and Colin Moynihan.
vs.
'It was difficult, if not disingenuous, for the Tea Party groups to try to disown the behavior. They had organized the rally, and under their model of self-policing, they were responsible for the behavior of people who were there. And after saying for months that anybody could be a Tea Party leader, they could not suddenly dismiss as faux Tea Partiers those protesters who made them look bad.' – Reporter Kate Zernike on page 139 of her 2010 book 'Boiling Mad – Inside Tea Party America.'
Sentences He'd Like to Have Back: OWS Edition
'But I think the explosion of this movement really suggests that there were an awful lot of people who were just waiting for somebody to say it, and here we are, and it's a wonderful thing.' – Columnist Paul Krugman discussing Occupy Wall Street on PBS's Charlie Rose, October 12.
Yuck: 'For Children's Sake, Taking to the Streets.'
'Malka Lubelski marched for economic justice last Sunday dressed as Minnie Mouse....And so it goes in the second month of Occupy Wall Street, where children are becoming an increasing presence as parents try to seize a 'teachable moment' to enlighten them on matters ranging from income inequality to the right to protest.' – An October 27 story on Occupy Wall Street by Helaine Owen, headlined 'For Children's Sake, Taking to the Streets.'
Worth's Worthless History: Arab Revolt Lacks 'Standard-Bearer' Like Lenin or Mao
'More than 10 months after it started with the suicide of a Tunisian fruit vendor, the great wave of insurrection across the Arab world has toppled three autocrats and led last week in Tunisia to an election that many hailed as the dawn of a new era. It has not yielded any clear political or economic project, or any intellectual standard-bearers of the kind who shaped almost every modern revolution from 1776 onward. In those revolts, thinkers or ideologues - from Thomas Paine to Lenin to Mao to Vaclav Havel - helped provide a unifying vision or became symbols of a people's aspirations.' – Robert Worth, writing on the 'Arab Spring' in the October 30 Week in Review.
Editor 'Alarmed' at 'Right Wing' Pushback on Cain Story, Whines About Willie Horton Ad
'I've always been impressed, well alarmed really, at how quickly the right wing jumps on an issue almost in unison. This week, it was the news that Herman Cain, one of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, was sued on claims of sexual harassment when he was running the National Restaurant Association....it was the Republicans who perfected the art of injecting racial fears into modern-day politics (remember Willie Horton in 1988?) and have conducted an unrelenting personal attack on President Obama that sometimes has not-so-subtle racial overtones.' – Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal in a November 1 blog post.
Krugman, Voice of Reason: [Rep. Paul Ryan's] Voucher Would Kill People, No Question"
Paul Krugman: 'To be a little melodramatic, the voucher would kill people, no question.'
Gloria Borger: 'His ideas infuriate liberals, like Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.'
Krugman: 'The cuts in Medicare that he's proposing, the replacement of Medicare by a voucher system, would in the end mean that tens of millions of older Americans would not be able to afford essential health care. So that counts as cruelty to me.' – Columnist Paul Krugman on CNN's 'Up Close' profile of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, September 25.
Classy
'Even Barack Obama couldn't be lucky enough to waltz past two wacky black conservatives, first Alan Keyes and then Cain.' – Columnist Maureen Dowd, November 2.
I'm Sure They Used Those Exact Words
'The champions of Alabama's far-reaching immigration law have said that it is intended to drive illegal immigrants from the state by making every aspect of their life difficult.' – Lead sentence of Campbell Robertson's October 28 story on stronger enforcement of immigration law in Alabama.
'It wasn't that long ago that Republican moneymen and operatives in Washington were moping around K Street like Eeyore in the Hundred Acre Wood, lamenting their party's extremist image and casting about for a candidate with a chance of beating Barack Obama in 2012....in September, not long after I saw Reed, far-right Republicans staged another successful mutiny in the House, temporarily blocking a spending bill that [House Speaker John] Boehner had championed....And a progression of ideological uprisings inside the party - the Reagan revolutionaries, Pat Buchanan's pitchfork brigades, Newt Gingrich's band of guerrilla lawmakers and now the Tea Partiers – have only pushed the anti-Washington argument closer to its illogical extreme. ' – From Matt Bai's October 15 cover story, headlined ''ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS LOOK AT THESE GUYS AND SAY, "YOU'RE NUTS!"' – The G.O.P. elite tries to take its party back.'
Condescending Times: 'Do the Bankers Get It?'
'As the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have grown and spread to other cities, an open question is: Do the bankers get it? Their different worldview speaks volumes about the wide chasms that have opened over who is to blame for the continuing economic malaise and what is best for the country.' – Nelson Schwartz and Eric Dash, October 15.
Allegation Blame Falls Solely on Cain?
'Michael, you invoked Elvis Costello in talking about the blame game when it comes to Herman Cain. But isn't the more fundamental question, that he has no one except himself to blame? And does it really matter where this story is coming from? Isn't the more important thing the substance of the story itself?' – 'Caucus' podcast host Sam Roberts questioning co-host Michael Shear in the November 4 installment.
Stubborn Americans Averse to Controls on 'Right to Bear Arms Or Children'
'As recently as the 1970s, the subject of population control was less controversial, partly because the baby boom years had given rise to concerns about scarcity of resources, some population experts and environmentalists said. Then came China's coercive one-child policy and a rise in social conservatism in the United States, combined with the country's aversion to anything perceived as restricting individual freedoms, be it the right to bear arms or children....But the notion that curbing births is an effective way to control emissions is not an easy sell.' – Mireya Navarro in a November 1 article.
GOP 'a Danger to Itself and to the Country'
'When the G.O.P. presidential candidates were asked during their debate on Aug. 11 whether any of them would accept a budget deal that involved $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases - and they all said no - the Republican Party officially became a danger to itself and to the country. The G.O.P. became a danger to the country because it announced, in effect, that it would not be a partner for the kind of Grand Bargain that many economists believe we need - something that provides more near-term investment in the economy that spurs job growth, combined with a credible long-term plan to increase tax revenues and trim entitlements so the country's debt-to-G.D.P. ratio stays in a safe range.' – Columnist Thomas Friedman, October 5.
Aww: Violent Thugs in Britain 'Lacked Hope'
'Economics have been one driving force, with growing income inequality, high unemployment and recession-driven cuts in social spending breeding widespread malaise. Alienation runs especially deep in Europe, with boycotts and strikes that, in London and Athens, erupted into violence....Protests in Britain exploded into lawlessness last month. Rampaging youths smashed store windows and set fires in London and beyond, using communication systems like BlackBerry Messenger to evade the police. They had savvy and technology, [left-wing author Owen] Jones said, but lacked a belief that the political system represented their interests. They also lacked hope. 'The young people who took part in the riots didn't feel they had a future to risk,' he said.' – Nicholas Kulish, September 28.
GOP Missing 'Nuance' of Obama's Economic Success
'Despite repeated Republican claims to the contrary, the stimulus bill created at least hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to nearly all nonpartisan analysts, including the Congressional Budget Office. But it's impossible to compress the nuance onto a bumper sticker.' – Political editor Richard Stevenson, November 5 'Political Memo.'
When Does the Movie Come Out?
'The vanishing began Wednesday night, the most frightened families packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news....Not far from the plant, in the Hispanic neighborhoods, it is hard to differentiate the silence of the workday, the silence of abandonment or the silence of paralyzing fear.' – Campbell Robertson, October 4.
Occupy Wall Street Lefty Campout: Like Socrates in the City
'The protesters, clustered together in a kind of ad hoc Athenian democracy in the canyons of Lower Manhattan, firmly deny that their demonstrations against corporate greed and the political power of banks exhibit antagonism that singles out Jews.' – Joseph Berger, October 22.
'Zuccotti Park has in fact become a miniature polis, a little city in the making.' – Architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, October 16.
Stupid White Men for the G.O.P.?
'With growing cities and suburbs, they are populated by increasing numbers of educated and higher-income independents, young voters, Hispanics and African-Americans, many of them alienated by Republicans' Tea Party agenda....Except for Indiana, a long shot, Obama advisers say the president will be favored or competitive everywhere he won before, including Ohio. But polls underscore how tough a task he will have with independents in the industrial belt, where income and education levels are below the national average, compared with states like Colorado and Virginia with higher-income, better-educated independents.' – Jackie Calmes and Mark Landler, September 30.
Clinton Book 'Lucid One-Man Rebuttal of the Tea Party's Anti-Government Agenda'
'Bill Clinton's new book, 'Back to Work,' is really several books in one slender volume. It's a lucid one-man rebuttal of the Tea Party's anti-government agenda. A series of shrewd talking points for Democrats trying to hold on to the White House and battling for control of Congress in the midst of a sour economy and growing voter discontent....At a time when anti-government ranting dominates the Republican debates and the Democrats often seem on the defensive, Mr. Clinton serves up a succinct common-sense argument for why America needs a strong national government....' – Book critic Michiko Kakutani, November 8 review of the former president's new book, under the headline 'Bill Clinton Lays Out His Prescription for America's Future.'
Gail Collins: Tea Party Just Latest 'Crazed Right-Wing Upheaval'
'It's two different things entirely. The Tea Party, whatever it pretends, is just the latest manifestation of the right wing's refusal to accept the idea of Democrats running the government. Every time one gets elected, there's this crazed right-wing upheaval.' – Former Editorial Page Editor turned columnist Gail Collins, in an exchange with fellow columnist David Brooks after Brooks compared the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street. From the October 5 edition of Q&A, their weekly chat on nytimes.com.
Keep Hope Alive
'Today, Republican candidates are competing over who can talk the toughest about illegal immigration - who will erect the most impenetrable border defense; who will turn off 'magnets' like college tuition benefits. But after such pointed proposals heated up yet another Republican debate, on Tuesday night, some party officials see a yellow light signaling danger in battleground states with large Hispanic populations in November 2012. Will Hispanic voters remember and punish the eventual Republican nominee?' – Opening of Trip Gabriel's October 20 story, headlined 'Tough Immigration Talk Heats Up Debate, and Alienates Some Hispanics.'
On P.C. Patrol at the Movies
'Over a two-hour dinner at a trendy restaurant here earlier this month, ['Cars 2' director and Pixar founder John Lasseter] was at turns solemn and introspective yet genuinely ebullient when describing how much he loves the 'Cars' franchise. He didn't want to talk much about certain aspects of Pixar, like the studio's shortage of directors who are women and female protagonists in its films.' – Hollywood reporter Brooks Barnes, October 18.
Former Reporter: GOP Peddling 'Easy Fairy Tales;' Stimulus 'Saved Millions of Jobs'
'These candidates are peddling the worst kind of easy fairy tales to those voters who value simplistic prescriptions over hard choices. President Obama may have oversold the effects of his 2009 stimulus program, but it unquestionably saved millions of jobs. Mowing down regulations and government programs at the rate favored by Republican candidates might lower the deficit, but at an enormous cost to public safety, educational quality and innovation that would damage the economy for generations.' – From a November 19 posting by David Firestone, a former Washington correspondent, now editorial board member.
'The Wealthiest of the Wealthy Control More of the Country's Treasure...'
'When the federal income tax was first imposed in 1913, the richest 0.1 percent of households reaped 8.6 percent of the nation's income. In 2007, as the recession began, the share going to that sliver of megarich Americans was 12.3 percent....Those numbers suggest that the Occupy Wall Street protesters can make a compelling case when they complain that the economic scales are unfairly tilted toward the wealthy. The megarich hold more of the nation's wealth and collect more of the overall income today than at any time since right before the Great Depression....The wealthiest of the wealthy control more of the country's treasure than at any other time for which data are available.' – From an October 26 analysis by Sam Roberts headlined 'As the Data Show, There's a Reason the Protesters Chose New York.'
Times Warns Perry Tax Plan Would Send Us Back to 'Drastically Austere'...Clinton Years
'The plan also proposes reducing the scope of the federal government by requiring drastically austere federal budgets - compared with what exists now - that spend no more than 18 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, which analysts said would most likely force big cuts in government spending at almost every level. That would equate to a cut of one-quarter of the budget from 2011 expected levels, and it would mark the lowest level of spending relative to G.D.P. since the mid-1960s, though rising tax receipts during the roaring economy of a dozen years ago temporarily brought the level close to 18 percent.' – Richard Oppel Jr. on October 26. : In 1999, during the Clinton administration, federal spending was 18.5% of gross domestic product, compared to around 24% today.
The 'Populist' Commies at Occupy Wall Street
'Inspired by the populist message of the group known as Occupy Wall Street, more than 200 Facebook pages and Twitter accounts have sprung up in dozens of cities during the past week, seeking volunteers for local protests and fostering discussion about the group's concerns.' – Jennifer Preston, October 9.
Sure the Times Is Liberal, if by Liberal You Mean Cool
"We are liberal in the sense that we are open-minded, tolerant, urban. Our wedding page includes - and did even before New York had a gay marriage law - included gay unions. So we're liberal in that sense. Socially liberal." – Former executive editor Bill Keller in an event at the LBJ presidential library in Austin, Texas on October 6.