The Dazed and Confused Days of David Brooks

Buzzfeed has three photos of New York Times columnist David Brooks from his high school stoner years. Teenage David Brooks looks like a character from the stoner classic Dazed and Confused.

Republicans Lied About Contents of Benghazi Emails

This is what the media should do to political figures that feed bogus information for political purposes. I wished CBS News went a step further and publicly outed the congressional Republicans that were feeding was quote from the Benghazi emails.

Republicans told CBS News that deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes wrote this in an email. Republicans alleged that Rhodes was trying to protect the State Department and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. This is the bogus quote congressional Republicans fed to CBS News.

"We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want to undermine the FBI investigation."

CBS News reports that Rhodes doesn't mention Clinton or the State Department in the actual email.

"We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation."

Republicans lied about the contents about an email by State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland. The CIA had asked the State Department to not reveal their role at the Benghazi consulate. The CIA was running operations out of the consulate. This is the actual Nuland email.

"The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings."

At the request of the CIA, Nuland cut out mention of the CIA. Republicans made up a fake quote that gave the impression that the State Department was ignoring terrorist threat warnings from the CIA.

"The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda's presence and activities of al-Qaeda."

This is an utter smear campaign by Republicans.

BACKGROUND: the CIA was running several different operations in Benghazi. David Petraeus' mistress, Paula Broadwell, was being briefed by the CIA. Broadwell even had classified CIA materials. After the affair became public, Broadwell's house was searched by the FBI. What was more disturbing is Broadwell publicly talking about the Benghazi annex.

"Now I don't know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually -- had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that's still being vetted," she said.

David Brooks has an excellent op-ed defending his friend Nuland. Brooks also points out that Benghazi was mainly a CIA operation.

Remember, this was at a moment when the State Department was taking heat for what was mostly a C.I.A. operation, while doing verbal gymnastics to hide the C.I.A.’s role. Intentionally or not, the C.I.A. seemed to be repaying the favor by trying to shift blame to the State Department for ignoring intelligence.

Brooks goes on to point out the under-reported fact that Petraeus gave Congressional lawmakers the anti-Muslim video talking points. The question should also be why is a CIA director for a Democratic administration giving Republican lawmakers talking points. Brooks reports that Nuland was asking the same question.

On Friday evening of Sept. 14, the updated talking points were e-mailed to the relevant officials in various departments, including Nuland. She wondered why the C.I.A. was giving members of Congress talking points that were far more assertive than anything she could say or defend herself. She also noted that the talking points left the impression that the C.I.A. had issued all sorts of warnings before the attack.

Remember, this was at a moment when the State Department was taking heat for what was mostly a C.I.A. operation, while doing verbal gymnastics to hide the C.I.A.’s role. Intentionally or not, the C.I.A. seemed to be repaying the favor by trying to shift blame to the State Department for ignoring intelligence.

The whole scandal started by Republicans attacking the false administration reports that Ambassador Chris Stevens death was related to protests over an anti-Muslim video. David Petraeus gave his mistress classified intelligence and Congress horrible talking points. Obama's biggest fault in the Benghazi saga is appointing someone as incompetent as Petraeus.

David Brooks is 'All Out of Love'

Sipping his glass of red wine to go with his Red Lobster takeout meal. David Brooks sits in his study and listens to the soothing sounds of Air Supply's All Out of Love.

"How?" Brooks asks himself. "How can Barack Obama propose tax increases on the rich. I thought he was a centrist Republican. Just like me?"

Brooks shakes with unease that his man-crush has forsaken him for cynical politics. Brooks types painfukl words into his laptop for his New York Times op-ed.

I liked Obama’s payroll tax cut ideas and urged Republicans to play along. But of course I’m a sap. When the president unveiled the second half of his stimulus it became clear that this package has nothing to do with helping people right away or averting a double dip. This is a campaign marker, not a jobs bill.

Brooks suddenly starts crying.

"Good God!," Brooks laments. "I'm crying like Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give"



Brooks thinks back to his visits to the White House. He remembers talking to the President. How the President would put his hand on his shoulder. Brooks remembers how he felt like a school girl when his knees trembles." The best part part of all was when the President looked into his eyes and said he has to go to the bathroom and that the Secret Service would show him out.

"He looked at me," Brooks kept saying to himself as he was led out.

Brooks remembers when the romance between him and the President was in full bloom. The President gave the private insurance industry millions of new customers with the the signing of the Affordable Health Act. Senior White House staffers told Brooks that the President wasn't going to use the Justice Department to after banks that were illegally foreclosing on homeowners. Brooks finally found a Democrat committed to real change. This administration would have less prosecutions on Fortune 500 companies than the Bush administration. Brooks was now feeling cast aside like one of President Clinton's mistresses.

Being a sap, I still believe that the president’s soul would like to do something about the country’s structural problems. I keep thinking he’s a few weeks away from proposing serious tax reform and entitlement reform. But each time he gets close, he rips the football away. He whispered about seriously reforming Medicare but then opted for changes that are worthy but small. He talks about fundamental tax reform, but I keep forgetting that he has promised never to raise taxes on people in the bottom 98 percent of the income scale.

Brooks hits repeat on his Ipod to hear All Out of Love one more time.

Anwar Richardson School of Economics Award: John Boehner

Anwar Richardson School of Economics Award is named after the Tampa Tribune sports writer. Richardson boldly predicted Brett Farve coming to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers "It's actually gonna pump some money into this economy. Especially, in the Tampa Bay economy." Farve never came and several economic stuidies have shown sport franchises have zero economic impact on the community. Tampa area residents are still paying for the construction of Rayomond James Stadium.

Minority Leader John Boehner calls for a spending freeze. Policy-wise this would accomplish nothing. Politically, Boehner can attack Barack Obama's stimulus package as pork. Boehner was in the Republican House leadership during the Bush years. Where was his concern about spending then? In 2006, Boehner backed President Bush's wildly off-the-mark projection there would be a surplus in 2012.

"Raising taxes . . . won't help balance the budget -- it will slow the economic growth that is creating the new jobs of tomorrow and increasing revenue to the federal government," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote in an essay distributed yesterday by his office. "Keeping our economy strong and promoting fiscal responsibility will get the job done. Raising taxes won't."

Boehner attacked Obama's stimulus package as raising taxes. The Citizens For Tax Justice found Obama's Making Work Pay tax cuts will be be savings for most Americans.

Lowest 20% - 12.2 percent

Second Lowest 20% - 16.1 percent

Middle 20% - 20.2 percent

Fourth 20% - 26.4 percent

Next 15% - 22.5 percent

Next 4% - 2.5 percent

Top 1 0.0 percent

Boehner and other Republicans are false about Obama increasing taxes. If Boehner's political strategy hinges on fighting to restore Britney Spears' tax cuts then good luck in the midtern elections. The CTJ study found:

Tax cuts are generally less effective in stimulating demand than direct government outlays. But tax cuts targeted to the people who are most likely to immediately spend any money they receive, namely low- and middle-income people, are more effective than upper-income tax reductions. Tax cuts for business are far less likely to be an effective stimulus.

The middle and lower class are a larger part of the population than the top one percent income earners. Their spending is the best chance the economy has to itself out of recession.

Tax cuts do not pay off the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office found without the Bush tax cuts there would have been a surplus in 2005. The Bush/Republican tax cuts cost three times more than domestic spending.

I'm not even sure where Boehner is going with a spending freeze. Obama has brought back paygo in the stimulus bill. Conservative columnist David Brooks calls the spending freeze idea "insane."

BROOKS: The problem with them and the problem with Limbaugh in terms of intellectual philosophy is they are stuck with Reagan. They are stuck with the idea that government is always the problem. A lot of Republicans up in Capitol Hill right now are calling for a spending freeze in a middle of a recession/depression. That is insane. But they are thinking the way they thought in 1982, if we can only think that way again, that is just insane.

John Boehner, you are the first winner of the Anwar Richardson School of Economics Award.

The Disaster That is the NY Times Op-Ed Page

I always wondered how Thomas Friedman could get away with declaring the world is flat and that a scholarship named after Osama bin Laden is a good idea. Does Friedman's New York Times editors read his op-eds? Turns out The Times doesn't care how bad their op-ed columnist are.

Bill Kristol was caught wrongly attributing a quote to Michelle Malkin. The quote came from Michael Medved column.

Kristol:

Still, as the conservative writer Michelle Malkin put it, “For the work-hard-to-get-ahead strivers who represent the heart and soul of the G.O.P., there are obvious, powerful points of identification.”

Medved:

It’s not just Christian zealots who recognize Huckabee as “one of us”; I’ve spoken to non-religious Russian immigrant Jews who love him because he’s down-to-earth, plain-spoken and unpretentious non-celebrity. For the work-hard-to-get-ahead strivers who represent the heart and soul of the GOP, there are obvious, powerful points of identification.

Not to be outdone, David Brooks confuses Ward Churchill with Ward Connoly. It must be their striking physical resemblance.


Ward Churchill


Ward Connerly

Churchill is a neo-Nazi and Connerly is a black Republican. See how easy it is to confuse the two.

Update: Tas correctly takes me to task for calling Ward Churchill a neo-Nazi. I should say that Churchill is a radical nut. Churchill sees racism where there is none. He was also a member of the American terrorist group the Weather Underground.