Via Glenn Greenwald, Ruth Marcus reveals again something is not right with her:

Emma Sullivan, you’re lucky you’re not my daughter. . . . If you were my daughter, you’d be writing that letter apologizing to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for the smart­alecky, potty-mouthed tweet you wrote after meeting with him on a school field trip. . . .

Marcus states that "I may sound alarmingly crotchety here, but something is upside down in the modern world, which has transformed Sullivan into an unlikely Internet celebrity and heroine of the liberal blogosphere[.]" You don't sound crotchety Marcus, you sound insane. Sullivan was too mean in her tweet about a politician? And you claim to cover these people?

Something is upside down in this world when a so called journalist can get this up in arms over a tweet that is disrespectful to a pol while being just fine with the past decade in Washington, DC.

Yes indeed, Emma Sullivan is VERY lucky Ruth Marcus is not her mother. She has a chance of having a moral compass and sense of what matters in this world because of that.

Speaking for me only

Of all the political events in Gandhi’s life, perhaps none is more famous than the Salt March of 1930. That theatrical act of defiance—in protest of the heavy tax on salt imposed by the British in India—catapulted Gandhi to new heights in his political career, as the image of this frail individual challenging a mighty empire captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of people around the world. [Emphasis supplied] - Ian Desai, Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 2010

Gandhi would reject the division between the 99 percent and the 1 percent. Gandhi did not believe in enemies: he worked on the premise that solutions emerged only from cooperation. [. . .] Noncooperation is best understood as an invitation to cooperate. “We are the 100 percent” may not make for a dramatic slogan, but from Gandhi’s perspective, it is the only way to achieve true and lasting change in society. - Ian Desai, November 30, 2011 New York Times Op-Ed

I think Desai might better understand the situation if he thought of the 99%-1% argument as one of a 1% empire. The 1% of course are not the enemy, and I doubt anyone in the Occupy movement is thinking of them as enemies. The 1% is, though, an empire - a plutocratic empire that controls the workings of our institutions. The Occupy movement is engaged in a campaign of noncooperation with the 1% empire. Thus, Occupy shares Gandhi's view, as described by Desai:

[P]olitical freedom [. . .] to Gandhi implied the ability of a society’s system of self-governance to serve the interest of its citizens completely and without corruption.

That seems to me to express, in a nutshell, the ethos of the Occupy movement. It seems hard to imagine Gandhi would disagree with that tenet of the Occupy movement. More . . .

>

It's time for Key West and the 29th annual NORML Legal Conference. For those who haven't been to Key West, also known as the Conch Republic, it is a tiny treasure only 4 miles long, 2 miles wide and 90 miles from Cuba. It is the southernmost point in the U.S. and about as laid back as you can get. There's lots of pirates. And you can't beat the weather.

Big Tent Democrat will be around, I may pop in now and then, and we'll have our usual open threads like this one, all topics welcome.

Via John Cole, funny Gawker:

Sullivan writes: "No one is arguing that "that black people are dumber than white," just that the distribution of IQ is slightly different among different racial populations, and these differences also hold true for all broad racial groups[.]"

Translation: "No one is arguing that black people are stupider than white people, just that black people are stupider than white people in a slightly more complicated way."

Standard deviation!!!!

Speaking for me only

Bump and Update: Dr. Conrad Murray has been sentenced to four years in jail. A restitution hearing has been set for January. Dr. Murray waived his right to be present. The defense will file a Notice of Appeal.

He was remanded to the custody of the LA Sheriff. They didn't handcuff him this time, and as he left, he blew a kiss to his family. [More...]

Paul Krugman writes:

A few years ago Gauti Eggertsson published a a persuasive analysis (pdf) of the big economic recovery of 1933-37; he argued that it had a lot to do with changed expectations of future monetary policy. Specifically, by taking America off the gold standard — a shocking move at the time — and explicitly calling for a return to pre-Depression price levels, FDR created an expectation of rising prices that had a salutary effect on demand.

The paper explains that FDR did more than that:

What ended the Great Depression in the United States? This paper suggests that the recovery was driven by a shift in expectations. This shift was triggered by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) policy actions. On the monetary policy side, Roosevelt abolished the gold standard and announced an explicit policy objective of inflating the price level to pre-Depression levels. On the fiscal policy side, Roosevelt expanded real and deficit spending which helped make his policy objective credible. The key to the recovery was the successful management of expectations about future policy. [MORE . . .]

Won't Have "Herb" Cain To Kick Around Much Longer:

Herman Cain told members of his campaign staff on Tuesday that he was reassessing whether to proceed with his bid for the Republican presidential nomination[.]

I've not written about Cain much, because I knew he had no chance to win the GOP nomination (contra Nate Silver) and in fact he was just engaged in a speaking tour to raise his profile (ironically, I think Newt Gingrich was too, but he may stumble into being the GOP nominee - Obama is a lucky guy, nothing to sneeze at) and speaking fees.

Cain stumbled into the "anti-Mitt" role, and a lot of things he probably did not want to discuss have been reported on. If I was advising Cain, I would tell him not to drop out. If leaves now, it will look like he was driven out by scandal. If he just goes and loses, getting say, 6% of the vote in Iowa, he'll still have a viable "speaking career."

Speaking for me only

I was bunkered in my Decadent Left enclave mounting a Fifth Column (actually I was working for The Man all day), so I missed the chance to engage in one of my favorite pasttimes, bashing Andrew Sullivan. Better late than never. Sully rides the Bell Curve Again. Some good responses here, here and here.

Speaking for me only

Krugman:

What’s unforgivable is the way policymakers, both at the Fed and elsewhere, basically declared Mission Accomplished as soon as the panic in financial markets subsided and stocks were up again. When spring rolls around, we’ll reach the third anniversary of Ben Bernanke’s declaration that “green shoots” were making an appearance — and there will still be 4 million Americans who have been out of work for more than a year. Yet there has been no sense of urgency about dealing with unemployment; indeed, most of the elite conversation has been about stuff like cutting Social Security payments a decade or two from now.

As Drum says, that’s the true radicalizing experience.

I'm curious to know how Drum, and Krugman for that matter, have been "radicalized." I mean, we all know Tim Geithner was the person who fought hard for the approach the Obama Administration has taken. Shouldn't someone "radicalized" be asking why Geithner is still the Treasury Secretary? Sure, the GOP won't let you name a Treasury Secretary afterwards, but wouldn't the removal of Geithner be a positive in and of itself? If not, why not?

Speaking for me only

There's still time to contact your Senator and ask to vote for the Mark Udall Amendment to the Defense Authorization Act. (Background here.)

After passing two of the many Amendments (Menendez amend #1414 and Leahy Leahy amend #1072 )and confirming Christopher Droney as a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Senate recessed until tomorrow.

Sen. Mark Udall will make a floor statement tomorrow on the Amendment. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a procedural vote on the Defense Bill for sometime Wednesday.

Today, FBI Director Robert Mueller sent a letter to the Senate objecting to the detainee provisions in the bill.

Unlike accuser #4, Herman Cain admits to knowing his latest accuser, Ginger White, who went on TV today to detail their 13 year consensual affair.

She says during the next 13 years, he would fly her to cities where he was speaking and he lavished her with gifts. She says they often stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead and dined at The Four Seasons restaurant. She says he never harassed her, never treated her poorly, and was the same man you see on the campaign trail.

Cain admits knowing Ms. White for 13 years but denies having an affair with her. He says he's just been trying to help her financially. [More...]

We're back at work today. Some news:

Barney Frank is retiring at the end of his term.

The feds seized 150 websites as counterfeit.

I haven't bought anything on Cyber Monday.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.