Shutdown Countdown, Part 6

Here's 15 minutes that should leave every American looking for the exits on our little roller coaster of fun here.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said on "Face the Nation" Sunday that she is not in favor of raising the government's debt ceiling, which if not dealt with could shut down the government as early as March.

The government is authorized to borrow up to $14.3 trillion, but that limit is expected to be reached in a few months. Congress must vote to increase the borrowing ceiling before the capacity is reached, or the U.S. could be forced to default on its debt, which would shut down government operations.

Bachmann told moderator Harry Smith that at this point she would not vote for raising the ceiling.

"Congress has had a big party the last two years. They couldn't spend enough money. And now they're standing back, folding their arms, saying, oh, taunting us - ‘How are you going to go ahead and solve this big spending crisis?’” Bachmann said about the Democrats. She said that she has started a petition on her Web site urging voters to tell their representatives to oppose raising the debt ceiling.

Republican Representative-elect Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania went further.

"Raising the debt ceiling to me is absolutely irresponsible. We've been spending money for so long that we don't have and keep saying, 'Well, it's OK, we'll just raise taxes, we'll find it somewhere,'" Kelly said.

Rep. Andrew Weiner, D-N.Y., rebuked Kelly and Bachmann for their positions.

"The first thing the Republicans did when they took back the House the last time is they drove the government to a shutdown," Weiner said. "I guess from what I've heard Michele say and you say, that's what's going to happen again."

Bachmann accused Weiner of maligning the Republicans: "You've got it exactly wrong. That is not what we're looking to do. You're stating it falsely. We are not looking to go shut the government down. No one benefits. But at the same time we're not looking at wanting to continually raise the debt ceiling. That's something that the Democrats want to do," she said.

"I don't know what you call it, but that's shutting down the government," Weiner retorted. 

It is.  And Dems have a winning issue here and are beginning to push it, like Rep. Weiner there and inthis clip with White House econ point man Austan Goolsbee.

President Obama's top economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, warned today against "playing chicken" with raising the country's debt ceiling, saying it would cause "a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008."

"This is not a game. The debt ceiling is not something to toy with," said Goolsbee, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in an exclusive interview on "This Week."

"If we hit the debt ceiling, that's ... essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history," he said. "The impact on the economy would be catastrophic."

As I have said two months ago, there's no way corporate America is going to risk the bond market going up in flames for the sake of the Tea Party making a point.   They will be made to heel on this and many more issues, and the Tea Party is going to find out just how little power they truly have.

Which is funny, because that's what the Republicans said about progressives in 2006, I know.  Believe me, the parallels are obnoxious...but they are there.

Going Gentry Into That Good Night

Less than 24 hours after I noted Gentry Collins was the long-shot Tea Party choice for replacing Michael Steele as RNC chair, Collins has dropped out for the simple reason that Tea Party support at the RNC resulted in just three of 168 votes.

Former Republican National Committee political director Gentry Collins dropped his bid to become chairman of the RNC Sunday night, explaining in an interview that members of the committee preferred to have one of their own lead the party.

Collins won the support of only three members of the 168-member committee and it was clear that he faced long odds heading into the final weeks before the party holds its vote for chairman. 

Tea Party's getting a crash course in political reality here.  Maybe some GOP-controlled states are going to go the full Galt's Gulch, but at the national level it's the same old country club Repubs that are running the show.  If anything, 2010 proved just how much for granted the Republicans can take the Tea Party right:  unlike progressives, the GOP figures they'll show up and vote Republican no matter what crap sandwiches they are forced to eat.

Exactly what the cynical GOP is counting on.

Janet! Brad! Janet! Gov. Scott! Rocky!

The Gov. Rick Scott Galtian Utopia Tour 2011 warms up the opening aria of anarchy as the former CEO of Florida's largest for-profit hospital chain (busted for billions in Medicare and Medicaid fraud) of course says state run public hospitals need to go.

Florida's government-owned hospitals will be in the political cross hairs after Tuesday's inauguration of Rick Scott, once leader of the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain.

The governor-elect's transition team has recommended creation of a panel to study whether government-owned hospitals -- Miami-Dade's Jackson Health System and Broward's two hospital districts among them -- are necessary.

"This is going to be a very hot topic during the legislative session,'' said Barney Bishop of Associated Industries of Florida, lobbyists for the state's large businesses.

The new focus on public hospitals comes as a related crisis looms: Because the state has failed so far to deliver promised Medicaid reforms, Florida stands to lose $350 million in special funding from the federal government unless it can get an extension of a waiver.

These funds, called the Lower Income Pool, are crucial to Jackson, which received $258 million from the pool last year.

Jackson -- with its record of financial troubles -- may face particular challenges in the new administration, according to Alan Levine, who chaired the committee that made the healthcare recommendations to Scott.

"Make no mistake,'' Levine said. "The governance of Jackson has historically been very poor. . . . They're going to find that the Legislature is going to be increasingly unwilling to fund the infamous misadventures of Jackson.''

Scott and his buddies want to convert all the state's government run public hospitals to non-profits, which means they'd be able to turn away patients without insurance...and leaving those who can't pay the option of expensive ER trips or no health care at all.

But Ricky there says it's time to pull the plug on the poor who don't have insurance or Medicaid, and if you think the state's going to play ball with the Affordable Care Act over the next four years, you need to be admitted yourself.

Rick Scott is going to dismantle as much of the safety net for Florida's poor as he can.  He figures they'll probably leave for other states and become somebody else's problem...while he pockets the difference.

StupidiNews!

• Iran claims to have shot down two "Western spy planes" in its airspace on Sunday.
• Australian officials say it may take months for the state of Queensland to recover from "biblical" flooding.
• Pakistan's government has been thrown into chaos as the Zardari coalition now lacks enough seats to be a majority.
• Italian car-maker Fiat may boost its share of Chrysler from 20% to 51% ahead of the company's stock offering.
• Hackers have exploited a flaw in the PlayStation 3, and a fix may be a long time coming.

Last Call

Dollar stores are a major player in the retail game.  These stores used to be considered mainly for the lower end of shopping, but after the economy took its toll on middle class consumers, the shopping trends have allowed them to not only expand but offer day to day products such as produce and office supplies.  Their smaller sizes and price tags appeal to folks living hand to mouth as well as shoppers who are looking for a low price on general items, or who miss the fun of harmless trinket shopping in tight times.


In this article, Time explains how Wal-Mart is responding to this threat.  The dollar stores typically do not have enough inventory or selection for customers to do all of their shopping there, but in convenient locations (focused near bus stops or other areas with high foot traffic) they have mastered the grab and go style of shopping that appeals to people on a budget, or in a hurry.  Wal-Mart is responding by underselling the products the dollar stores carry, but the most interesting part is that they plan to start mini-stores to compete with the convenience and locations of dollar stores.  


The CEO of Family Dollar says they live off "the crumbs" that Wal-Mart leaves behind.  An entire industry can survive off of this, and has so far.  Wal-Mart has grown successfully while failing miserably at generating any loyalty of affection from its customers.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and how it will affect consumers if Wal-Mart takes over this market as well.  

The Worst Thing I've Heard All Year

Jody Lynn Bennett, 37, was arrested and booked in the Indiana County jail after stealing two Game Boy consoles from the casket of a teenager who died on Christmas day after a car accident.  Bennett also stole "several" game cartridges, also intended to be buried for the teen.  He is currently being held on a $15,000 bond.  


This is the stuff that just makes me cringe.  I am ashamed to be of the same species as this man.  The article briefly mentions a history of drug and alcohol abuse, and while I understand that addiction can make us do things that are far removed from our character, there is no explanation for this.  This is just disgusting.  

Stupidinews: Bad Day For Arkansas Critters

In two (seemingly) unrelated events, more than a thousand blackbirds fell dead from the sky in the town of Beebe, AR.  An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman also says dead fish cover at least 20 miles of the Arkansas River, near the town of Ozark, AR.  So far, there are no answers for why either event took place, but the two towns are about 270 miles apart.

It makes one wonder.  Twenty miles of water is a lot of sickness or contamination, more than can be attributed to the meth lab or farm runoff that is usually to blame.  Coincidence? If so, it's a big one.   Right now, living fish are being examined, because the surviving drum fish are showing signs of illness.

The GOP Perpetual Motion Machine

Steve Benen is right:  the GOP-controlled House knows absolutely that their first order of business come next week, to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, is just so smoke and mirrors.  They have the votes to do it in the House.  It won't get past the Senate, and it certainly won't get past a Presidential veto.  So why do it?

...But there's almost certainly a realization on everyone's part that House Republicans are doing this for show. If passed, their repeal measure can't pass the Senate, and wouldn't overcome a veto. The GOP wants to pursue repeal just so they can say they pursued repeal. This isn't going to be policymaking from responsible, problem-solving lawmakers; this is going to be a public-relations stunt. We can probably expect quite a bit of this over the next two years -- Republicans are great at campaigning, but tend to have trouble governing once the election has come and gone.

But I continue to think there are opportunities here for Democrats. To hear Upton tell it, one of the very first votes House Republicans will cast in the new Congress is raising taxes on small businesses. And adding over a trillion dollars to the debt. And taking away health care coverage for millions. And making seniors pay more for prescription drugs while weakening Medicare. And allowing insurers to discriminate against children with pre-existing conditions.

To be sure, Republicans won't put it this way, but their rhetoric is irrelevant against the reality -- by voting for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, they're voting for the consequences that come with the law's elimination.

If Dems fail to go on the offensive on this, they're missing an opportunity.

No offense, Steve...but Democrats failed to take that opportunity for all of 2010.  As a result it cost them 60 plus seats and control of the House.

What would ever possess you to believe that the Democrats will attack the Republicans on this now?

Republicans are doing the "people's business".  They will try to repeal the ACA again and again.  And they will get away with it because the Democrats will not act, as Steve M. points out.

And that happened not because the law was so awful, but because the Democrats squandered every opportunity to push back against anti-reform propaganda, from the beginning of the effort to pass the law until the present day. So now the Democrats are so far behind that it isn't enough merely to sing the law's praises -- selling this law is like selling a tainted brand, Tylenol after the poisonings or BP after the oil spill.

I'm not saying Democrats should give up. I'm just saying it's a long, long slog. It's a fight that will be won, if it is won, primarily on the basis of emotion, not facts.

Frankly, if Democrats are going to win, they're going to win because of time. Their best hope is to let the law come into effect and say, after some time has passed, "Oh, you like that? That's Obamacare." (Of course, many provisions of the law don't take effect for years.)

On the other hand, there's one potentially huge pitfall for Republicans in their plan to fight the bill a hundred different ways (total repeal efforts, repeal efforts by pieces, defunding efforts, legal challenges): in the next two years, unemployment will still be high, and they'll be the party that seems obsessed with health care rather than the economy and jobs. That was the Democrats' downfall over the last two years; maybe now it will be the Republicans'.

Sure.  But unemployment will be Obama's fault too.  And the Dems won't push back on that, either.  I'm becoming increasingly convinced that we will have to go through four, maybe eight years of complete Republican control before America realizes what it has lost.

Of course by then it will be far, far too late for our country.

Houston, We Have An Air Pollution Problem

The state of Texas has decided it doesn't think greenhouse gases are a problem.  The Lone Star State has decided it will not obey the EPA's ruling that the Supreme Court confirmed in 2007 that greenhouse gases are a pollutant, and has filed for an injunction against EPA rules that take effect today.  The injunction that the state filed last month was turned down flatly, so Texas is filing again.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state was determined to fight the EPA's intentions, saying that Congress had rejected such carbon rules but the EPA was now trying to legislate them itself through administrative rules.

"Texas law does not currently deem greenhouse gases to be pollutants," Abbott said. "Once again, the federal government is overreaching, and improperly intruding upon the state of Texas and its legal rights."

Backed by a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the EPA issued a finding last year that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare.

Since then the agency has moved forward with developing rules under the Clean Air Act to limit emissions blamed for climate change. Beginning January 2, EPA will require large emitters such as power plants, refineries and cement makers to obtain permits for polluting greenhouse gases.

EPA also said it will issue permits for Texas, which has refused to adopt rules for emissions. Opponents of the climate rules say they will hurt the economy and kill jobs.

Earlier this year, Abbott said, EPA indicated it would give states one year to implement new greenhouse gas limits before taking control of permits.

"Today, the EPA said that, rather than giving Texas even a year, it would unilaterally take over the state's air permitting responsibilities on January 2, 2011," Abbott said.

The petition asks the appeals court to step in immediately and halt the EPA's "exercise in administrative fiat."

Hey Texas?

Don't like it?

Leave.

Bunch of folks decided 150 years ago that would be a pretty good idea.  Didn't work out so well.  You don't want to play by federal law?  The other 49 states would like Texas's federal money back.  Lord knows we need it.  Real simple solution to this.  Supreme Court settled this four years ago. 

We'd like our border agents back, too.  We'll need them to patrol to keep you guys from heading north.

Go for it.

Look For The Union Scapegoat Label, Part 2

Another day, another NY Times article about how public employee unions must be the source of all fiscal evil.

A new regime in state politics is venting frustration less at Goldman Sachs executives (Governor Christie vetoed a proposed “millionaire’s tax” this year) than at unions. Newark recently laid off police officers after they refused to accept cuts, and Camden has threatened to lay off half of its officers in January.

Fred Siegel, a historian at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, has written of the “New Tammany Hall,” which he describes as the incestuous alliance between public officials and labor.

“Public unions have had no natural adversary; they give politicians political support and get good contracts back,” Mr. Siegel said. “It’s uniquely dysfunctional.”

Even if that is so, this battle comes woven with complications. Across the nation in the last two years, public workers have experienced furloughs and pay cuts. Local governments shed 212,000 jobs last year.

A raft of recent studies found that public salaries, even with benefits included, are equivalent to or lag slightly behind those of private sector workers. The Manhattan Institute, which is not terribly sympathetic to unions, studied New Jersey and concluded that teachers earned wages roughly comparable to people in the private sector with a similar education.

Benefits tend to be the sorest point. From Illinois to New Jersey, politicians have refused to pay into pension funds, creating deeper and deeper shortfalls.

In California, pension costs now crowd out spending for parks, public schools and state universities; in Illinois, spiraling pension costs threaten the state with insolvency.

And taxpayer resentment simmers. 

Incestuous. Dysfunctional.   This is how we have trained a generation of private sector workers who have seen nearly everything taken from them, and seen their real wages and benefits stagnate for decades, to attack public workers and their unions on sight.

In Tea Party America, teachers, firefighters, cops and city workers are held beneath contempt.  Hundreds of thousands have been laid off.  Hundreds of thousands more have seen their hours and benefits cut, just like the rest of us.  While the real robber barons continue to shift the country's wealth to themselves, we fight over who gets the larger table scraps.

The Village media exists to protect their wealthy owners.  And they have done a better job than anyone could have possibly imagined.  We have tens of millions of Americans willing to strip money from their fellow working class wage earners, the people who protect our communities and teach our children, in order to cut taxes for the rich and for corporations, as record profits continue to roll in.

And when public employees are stripped and shoved out into the snow, the next attack will come upon the schools, police, and firefighters themselves.  Why should taxes pay for them, will be the cry.  Let's privatize them to save money.  Why should people without school-aged children pay for schools?  Why should people who live in the urban parts of the county pay the same taxes for fire and police protection as the exurbs?

A la carte government, privatized, corporatized, pick your provider.  The hand of the free market will dispose of those who can't compete...and those who don't pay.  Only one police provider authorized in the county?  Pay up or else.  Gotta be better than those union guys, right?  One of your neighbors got robbed, protection rates for the block just went up.  You get what you pay for in Tea Party America.  Don't like it?  Protect yourself with the Second Amendment.  Libertarian utopia.

That's where all this is heading, of course.  It won't stop with public employee unions.  It won't until everything is for-profit, and the profits go to the top.

They're Steele Gunning For Him

The race for RNC chair is getting serious now with Michael Steele still wanting to keep his job and a fair amount of support coalescing around Steele's former ally, Reince Priebus.

In many ways, it seems odd that Steele could very well lose, after a cycle in which the GOP made big gains in offices large and small. And if there's one thing we've learned about Steele, it's that he has an impressive ability to weather scandals and gaffes that would fell others. But now, after all those gaffes and scandals, his opponents are now striking back in the open at election time.

Steele faces a crowded field of challengers that includes: Priebus, a former Steele ally whose smashing success at painting his state red this year has helped him shoot to the top; former Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis (also a previous 2009 RNC candidate, and the first challenger to get in this time); former Bush Administration official Maria Cino (who has been endorsed by Dick Cheney); former Missouri GOP chair Ann Wagner; and to top it all off, former high-ranking Steele aide Gentry Collins.

As the most recent whip counts from Politico and National Journal show, Priebus is in first place with the support of 26 RNC voters, followed by Steele at 15 -- an awful place to be for an incumbent -- with Anuzis and Wagner at 11 apiece, Cino 6, and Collins 3.

The problem is a number of Tea Party Republicans aren't any happier with the front-runners than they are with Steele.   The Tea Party long-shot is the guy currently in the back of the pack:  Gentry Collins.  Collins is picking up some unlikely endorsements, too, like Connecticut state RNC head Chris Healy.

These are the hard truths. Each Member is entitled to support who they believe is best suited to lead our Party through a critical time. I am supporting Gentry Collins because he comes to the job with experience, knowledge and credibility. He handled his job under difficult circumstances and saw it through before opting to run for it himself. Some have questioned his loyalty, but if anything, Gentry showed he was true to the Members and the activists by sorting out conflicting information and unmet commitments from Steele and his inner circle.

The fight will heat up on Monday at Grover Norquist's annual government drowning party RNC candidate debate.   We'll see who comes out swinging to get the brass ring...or in this case, the Steele one.

Drill Buckeye Drill

Fresh off turning down hundreds of millions of federal stimulus dollars that would have created thousands of Ohio jobs and a green rail line from Cincy to Cleveland because it would be "a trap", incoming Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich says it's time to drill in Ohio state parks and the Great Lakes for oil and gas.

In announcing his appointees to run the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Natural Resources yesterday, Gov.-elect John Kasich used one word over and over: business.

"These departments are going to send a message to Ohio that we are open for business," Kasich said in naming Scott Nally of Indiana as head of the EPA and former American Electric Power executive David Mustine as director of Natural Resources.

Kasich, a former Republican congressman who will take office Jan. 10, emphasized that he doesn't plan to empower business at "the cost of environmental degradation." But in the next breath, he said he wants to "exploit the wonders of our state."

"When you have something that's really valuable, use it," he said in a briefing at the Rhodes Tower. That includes drilling for oil and gas in state parks and on state land, he said. But he was cautious when asked about drilling in Lake Erie.

"Lake Erie is a jewel," Kasich said. "When it comes to Lake Erie, we're going to be extremely careful."

You know, just like BP was extremely careful.  One of Kasich's campaign promises was to in fact ban drilling along Lake Erie.  I bet that promise will be kept any day now.  The Marcellus shale field in eastern Ohio, WV, Pennsylvania and western NY could be very profitable too...at the expense of major environmental impact along those areas, particularly to the water table.

Ohio is "open for business" but at what environmental cost?  Kasich doesn't even seem to care.  He just promises to "be careful".

A New Year Means Good Health

Several new health care reform provisions take effect today, including two major ones.  TPM's Brian Beutler gives a review.

Starting Saturday, two of the new health care law's most significant reforms take effect -- or at least begin to take effect.

The first will dramatically clamp down on insurance industry waste, abuse, and excesses. Starting on New Year's Day, insurance companies will have to spend at least 80 percent of the revenues they receive from premiums on actual health care. Not on salaries or overhead.

Like so many of the law's early reforms, the impact of a strict "medical loss ratio" will be invisible to most consumers. But don't mistake that for insignificance. The bill's most strident critics cite this one provision as the basis for the claim that the government is "taking over" the health care system. That's a false claim, no matter how you slice it -- this is about insurance companies, not, say, hospitals or pharmaceuticals, and those insurers are all still private. They'll just have to play by stricter rules.

The other is much more visible. Senior citizens -- a demographic that's skeptical of the bill -- will see real benefits. In 2011, the law will begin to close the Medicare Part D coverage gap -- the infamous "donut hole." Seniors who reach the donut hole will now receive a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs, the first step in a 10 year plan to fill the hole completely. Seniors will also now receive free annual checkups, screenings and other preventive care. 

So more efficient use of health care dollars, and the Medicare donut hole gets covered for seniors.  Two things Americans can take to the bank.  We'll see how many people want those provisions repealed when they start saving Americans real money.

The Moose And Mr. Silver

Nate Silver takes a second, updated look at Sarah Palin's chances in 2012 and finds some tarnish on her banner compared to 12 months ago.  But his conclusions seem very solid that Palin is still a candidate to be respected in the primaries.

On balance, these factors look somewhat less favorable to Ms. Palin than they did a year ago. In particular, it should be alarming to her how quickly some figures in the Republican establishment have turned against her. It is probably not a coincidence that these attacks began to escalate shortly after this November’s elections, in which Republicans were perceived as having sacrificed several Senate seats, like in Delaware and Nevada, because of having nominated unelectable candidates.

Meanwhile — after an interim period in which she seemed to be playing the role of the happy warrior, endorsing and raising money for Republican candidates — Ms. Palin recently seems to have become less selective about the arguments that she is engaging in. Her choice to attack Ms. Obama’s anti-obesity initiatives, for instance, suggests that she is either not listening to advice or that her advisers are not highly competent. Instead, she should be erring on the side of turning the other cheek: one thing that has generally been true is that presidential candidates who project a sunnier, more optimistic disposition tend to outlast those that come across as angrier. This may be especially important for Ms. Palin, who is always a lightning-rod for criticism; she doesn’t need to instigate any conflicts that she isn’t already engaged in.

Still, Ms. Palin has some unique strengths, like her ability to use new media to attract the political world’s attention virtually at her whim. It remains conceivable, also, that the attacks that Ms. Palin will receive from members of the Republican establishment — and those which she will eventually begin to receive from other Republican presidential contenders — could be turned to her advantage if she manages them in the right way, considering the anti-establishment mood in some corners of the party.

In the near term, I would look toward two things. First, what is being said about Ms. Palin on conservative blogs, on conservative talk radio, and on Fox News? These reflect the middle ground between elite and popular opinion and may provide a leading indicator — perhaps more so than polls — about how much the elite’s criticisms of Ms. Palin, and their concerns about her electability, are penetrating into the general public.

Second, I would look toward whom Ms. Palin is hiring as her support staff. A presidential campaign is a huge endeavor, comparable to a medium-sized business. Perhaps, because of her facility in commanding attention, Ms. Palin requires less assistance than a typical candidate might. Perhaps, because she sometimes seems to have an impatience for details and has not run for president before, she requires more. But all presidential candidates need some help: those candidates, like the Republican Fred Thompson, who have become too enamored with the notion of running a “viral”, nontraditional campaign from the confines of their living rooms have usually failed miserably. Is she hiring good pollsters, media strategists, fundraisers, consultants, logisticians, and advertising gurus? If so, she may still be as likely as anyone to prevail from a large, but fairly weak, Republican field. If not, her campaign, if she decides to run one, is liable to be a bust.

That should sober you up this morning, I know it did for me.   I agree with Nate's assessment, adding that I don't think she has the discipline to listen to Nate's advice here.  If she's serious about running and winning in 2012, she's going to need to learn to listen to other people to direct her going forward.

It's painfully clear that Sarah Palin's ego won't allow that.  She has to be the center of attention, and she has been rewarded too many times by the Village in that way.  All she has to do to "win" the 24-hour news cycle right now is make a Facebook post.

However, she loses as much as she wins in the long run on this.  Her recent attacks on Michelle Obama's obesity initiative for kids is too much for most conservatives to handle.  Most importantly, it's a stark reminder that Palin has bad instincts as often as she does good ones.

If she hires the right people and learns to control her attacks, she's going to be dangerous.  I don't think she will be able to do either.  Just too much ego there.

StupidiNews, New Year's Weekend Edition!

• Joe Miller has resolved to accept Sen. Lisa Murkowski's win as Alaska senator...for now.
• A University of Cincinnati student resolved to go through airport security, stripped to his underwear, and had the Fourth Amendment written on his chest.
• Chief Justice John Roberts wants Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to resolve to fill dozens of vacant federal judge appointments.
• Estonia resolves to do the best it can joining the countries using the euro today.
• Japan resolves to warn parents not to let kids under six use Nintendo's new 3DS handheld.