Last Call Plus

It's worth reading Bob Cesca tonight on the way out.

I wrote a Huffington Post column about this a while back, so I'm glad to see today that I'm not the only writer who thinks a Republican Congress would impeach the president. DougJ from Balloon Juice sees the writing on the wall (or on Glenn Beck's chalkboard as the case may be):

It seems worth asking: what would Republicans do if they gained control of the House? [...] My guess is that politically, the biggest thing would do is start lots of investigations. What do you think they would investigate? Anita Dunn and Van Jones, probably, but what else? Would they delve into Obama’s pre-presidential years? Would they hold hearings on his birth certificate? Would they impeach him? Would the press go along with all of this the way they did with Whitewater and Travelgate and Socksgate? My gut feeling is that the answer to the last three questions is “yes”.

I hate to be so grim, but these are the stakes. And I couldn't be more deadly serious.
In terms of the politics, it's what makes the soft-pedaling on healthcare seem all the more puzzling. Abandoning healthcare creates a snowball that will eventually grow to mammoth proportions and roll right over the White House. They have to pass this bill -- obviously because it will save lives and the economy -- but also to preserve Congress and the Obama White House.

And he's right.  Clinton was impeached on bullshit and nearly convicted.  They've already accused Obama of far, far worse.  A Republican-controlled Congress will be used to impeach Obama if they get into power in 2010.  The Teabaggers will start demanding it November 3rd.  They will say "He's not even a citizen."

It's going to be insanity.

Last Call

We're already up to 15 bank failures in January, on pace to break even last year's 140 bank failures, and looking down the road one of those banks may be Swiss giant UBS.

Switzerland's justice minister warned in an interview on Sunday that top bank UBS could collapse if sensitive talks with the United States over a high-profile tax fraud investigation fall through. 

"The actions of UBS in the United States are very problematic. Not just because they are punishable but also because they threaten all of the bank's activities," Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told Le Matin Dimanche newspaper.

"The Swiss economy and the job market would suffer on a major scale if UBS fails as a result of its licence being revoked in the United States," she said.

Switzerland and the United States have negotiated an agreement under which UBS would hand over information on some 4,500 account holders to US tax police.

But a Swiss court ruling earlier this month put the deal in doubt. 

In other words, the Swiss are warning that if the US plays hardball with UBS, it'll go under.  The problem is, UBS most likely broke the law and defrauded US taxpayers out of millions.  If they go under because we got that money back...is that a bad thing?

I don't think so.  I also think UBS fully expects the DoJ to drop the case or something.  That's up to Eric Holder, but given the new Volcker Rules stance by the Obama administration and the one thing both progressives and Teabaggers can agree on is that banks are ripping us off, I'm not a sure as I would have been a month ago that Obama would fold on this.

We'll see.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

After the beatdown Paul Krugman gave to Roger "Baron Harkonnen" Ailes today on ABC's This Week...


..should we just call him Paul Muad'Dib or what?

Just sayin'.

Chinese Fire Drill, Part 2

Hey guess what kids?  Now we see why China's playing hardball with us on military cooperation.  It's because they have no real intent on that whole cooperation thing at all, but competition worldwide instead.  From the India Times:

China has signaled it wants to go the US way and set up military bases in overseas locations that would possibly include Pakistan. The obvious purpose would be to exert pressure on India as well as counter US influence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"(So) it is baseless to say that we will not set up any military bases in future because we have never sent troops abroad," an article published on Thursday at a Chinese government website said. "It is our right," the article said and went on to suggest that it would be done in the neighborhood, possibly Pakistan.

"As for the military aspect, we should be able to conduct the retaliatory attack within the country or at the neighboring area of our potential enemies. We should also be able to put pressure on the potential enemies' overseas interests," it said.

A military base in Pakistan will also help China keep a check on Muslim Uighur separatists fighting for an independent nation in its western region of Xingjian, which borders the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Beijing recently signed an agreement with the local government of NWFP in order to keep a close watch on the movement of Uighur ultras.

"I have personally felt for sometime that China might one day build a military base in India's neighborhood. China built the Gadwar port in Pakistan and is now broadening the Karokoram highway. These facilities can always be put to military use when the need arises," Ramesh V Phadke, former Air Commodore and advisor to the Institute of Defense Studies told TNN. 

How very interesting.  More on this here.

Hey, what better way to bankrupt the US than to start a new arms race and force us to borrow money from the very country we're competing against?    Should the GOP ever get back in charge our little tiff with China is going to become front burner real fast.  If you think the Republicans are going to prctice fiscal discipline in the face of this, you're mad.  We're going to be adding tens of trillions to our debt in this little game.  Hell, even with Obama we're going to be forced to play the Build-A-Base game.  Brilliant move from the Chinese:  they'll bury us without firing a shot.

The 21st Century will not belong to the United States, folks.

This Week In Bobblespeak

Baba Wawa on Scott Brown and Fluffy, The Axeman and Orange Julius.

Gregory: Obama said we should stop demonize
each other

Boehner: he’s a well-spoken Guinean Witch Doctor

Gregory: the debt isn’t even his fault!

Boehner: yes but it could be

Gregory: huh

Boehner: he’s a crazy leftist terrorist

Gregory: oh ok

Boehner: the people are saying ‘Stop! We don’t Washington to end the recession!’

Gregory: are you prepared to say yes to anything
at all?

Boehner: the government is going to take over health care!

Gregory: so nothing at all??

Boehner: more war, torture, and tort reform

Gregory: awesome

Boehner: what we won’t stand for is government providing health care

Gregory: if people buy health care across state lines then the federal government will regulate health care

Boehner: nonsense - the American people can regulate the whole industry by themselves

Gregory: that’s insane

Boehner: government is evil!

This whole obstructionist thing is starting to hurt, isn't it? You know, eventually somebody going to figure out the reason the Dems can't get some things done is because of the Republicans saying no.

The Kroog Versus FOX's Roger Ailes

And Paul Krugman jacks the mutha up.  Via Media Matters:

Krugman:  "On this health care thing, I am a little obsessed with it because it's a key issue for me, people did not know what was in the plan and some of that was just poor reporting, some of that was deliberate misinformation...I have here in front of when President Obama said, he says rhetorically "Why aren't we going to have a health care plan like the Europeans have" a government-run program and then proceeded to explain why it was different, on FOX News what appeared was a clipped quote (looks at Ailes) "Why do we have a European-style health care plan?"  Right?  Deliberate misinformation."  All this contributed to a situation where the public did...

Ailes:  Wait wait wait wait...

Krugman: I can show you the clip on Youtube if you want to see it.

Ailes:  ...The people are not stupid.

Krugman:  No, they're ill-informed.

Ailes: In the Constitution, the Founding Fathers didn't need 2000 pages of lawyers to hide things...

Krugman: Oh come on.  Legislation is always long.

Ailes:  ...Then tell people, then tell people it's an emergency that we get it, but it won't go into effect for three years.  So you don't have time to read it...

Krugman: Again, deliberate misinformation.  It is...actually it is a Republican plan.  It was Mitt Romney's health care plan, people were led to believe it was Socialism.  And that was deliberate.  That wasn't just poor reporting.

And this is with FOX News head Roger Ailes sitting directly next to him. It's about time somebody told this douchebag to his face that his entire network is there to lie to the American people and do it on purpose.

Good for him.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

Atrios tweets:

why is every male republican with a pulse thought to be a viable presidential candidate

Because Ronald Reagan is dead, and they hate women and minorities.

Duh.

Obama Picks Up Ten Points In Two Days At Rasmussen

President Obama has picked up ten points in two days in Rasmussen's daily tracking poll, going from -17 on Friday to -7 today, his best Rasmussen number since November 7th.

This is the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted since the State-of-the-Union Address and it reflects a bounce for the President. The number who Strongly Approve is the highest in more than four months (since September) and the overall Approval Index rating is the best in more than three months (since October).

The bounce comes almost entirely from those in the president’s party. Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats now Strongly Approve, up from 50% before the speech. However, the speech appears to have had the opposite impact on unaffiliated voters. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 50% now Strongly Disapprove. That’s up from 42% before the speech. The next few days should give an indication as to whether these changes will fade or if they signify the beginning of a new phase in the political environment. 

We'll see if this trend continues.  Right now that -7 is actually pretty damn close to Pollster.com's -2.5% bringing the ODI down to the lowest number I can remember seeing it at, -4.5%.  Still, as you can see, Rasmussen's doing everything they can to spin this as far down the GOP lanes as they can.

I will be very, very interested to see what effect Friday's Question Time had on the polls by mid-week.

Just A Reminder About Congressional Dems

I do complain about what they haven't accomplished so far.  But they have accomplished a massive amount.

The productivity began with the stimulus package, which was far more than an injection of $787 billion in government spending to jump-start the ailing economy. More than one-third of it -- $288 billion -- came in the form of tax cuts, making it one of the largest tax cuts in history, with sizable credits for energy conservation and renewable-energy production as well as home-buying and college tuition. The stimulus also promised $19 billion for the critical policy arena of health-information technology, and more than $1 billion to advance research on the effectiveness of health-care treatments.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has leveraged some of the stimulus money to encourage wide-ranging reform in school districts across the country. There were also massive investments in green technologies, clean water and a smart grid for electricity, while the $70 billion or more in energy and environmental programs was perhaps the most ambitious advancement in these areas in modern times. As a bonus, more than $7 billion was allotted to expand broadband and wireless Internet access, a step toward the goal of universal access.

Any Congress that passed all these items separately would be considered enormously productive. Instead, this Congress did it in one bill. Lawmakers then added to their record by expanding children's health insurance and providing stiff oversight of the TARP funds allocated by the previous Congress. Other accomplishments included a law to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco, the largest land conservation law in nearly two decades, a credit card holders' bill of rights and defense procurement reform.

The House, of course, did much more, including approving a historic cap-and-trade bill and sweeping financial regulatory changes. And both chambers passed their versions of a health-care overhaul. Financial regulation is working its way through the Senate, and even in this political environment it is on track for enactment in the first half of this year. It is likely that the package of job-creation programs the president showcased on Wednesday, most of which got through the House last year, will be signed into law early on as well.

Most of this has been accomplished without any support from Republicans in either the House or the Senate -- an especially striking fact, since many of the initiatives of the New Deal and the Great Society, including Social Security and Medicare, attracted significant backing from the minority Republicans. 

America, this Congress has managed to pass a lot of really, really good legislation in just 12 months.  Remember that when you decide to throw them under the bus and let the Republicans run things again to "teach them the lesson" that they aren't doing enough or that they are "just as corrupt as Bush was".

Patience and stamina, people.

Patience and stamina.

That Volcker, He Rules

Paul Volcker takes to the Sunday NY Times with a guest op-ed on the economy in this morning's must-read on Too Big To Fail.

What we do need is protection against the outliers. There are a limited number of investment banks (or perhaps insurance companies or other firms) the failure of which would be so disturbing as to raise concern about a broader market disruption. In such cases, authority by a relevant supervisory agency to limit their capital and leverage would be important, as the president has proposed.

To meet the possibility that failure of such institutions may nonetheless threaten the system, the reform proposals of the Obama administration and other governments point to the need for a new “resolution authority.” Specifically, the appropriately designated agency should be authorized to intervene in the event that a systemically critical capital market institution is on the brink of failure. The agency would assume control for the sole purpose of arranging an orderly liquidation or merger. Limited funds would be made available to maintain continuity of operations while preparing for the demise of the organization.

To help facilitate that process, the concept of a “living will” has been set forth by a number of governments. Stockholders and management would not be protected. Creditors would be at risk, and would suffer to the extent that the ultimate liquidation value of the firm would fall short of its debts.

To put it simply, in no sense would these capital market institutions be deemed “too big to fail.” What they would be free to do is to innovate, to trade, to speculate, to manage private pools of capital — and as ordinary businesses in a capitalist economy, to fail. 

And this is the guy who should have been running the show at Treasury from the start.  Obama needs to make sure the major thing Dems in Congress can do to win and to do the right thing is get the Volcker Rules made into law ASAP.  Dump Larry Summers.  Dump Timmy.  You had your chance to dump Helicopter Ben but didn't, but that means all the more that Obama's policy needs to be Volcker's, and the rest of the econ team needs to be pushing the Volcker Rules as a good idea.

Make this happen, Dems.  You want to win in 2010?  You want to save the economy?  Make this happen.

A Cincinna-Tea Party

Here in Cincy the buzz today is about Howard Wilkinson's Enquirer article on the local Cincinnati Tea Party trying to rebuild southwest Ohio's GOP from the ground up.

They are doing it here by the hundreds by filing as candidates in the May 4 primary election for the office of precinct executive, the lowest rung of the political party structure.

"It's the place where you can have the most impact,'' said Mike Wilson, the founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party. "It's one thing to talk to the party leaders about change. It's another thing to actually be the party leadership and make the change from within."

It is a strategy that has worked elsewhere - Tea Party activists essentially took over the Nevada Republican Party earlier this month; and, in Florida, they were successful in forcing out a state party chairman who was seen as too centrist.

A Tea Party takeover of a county party organization would, no doubt, result in a far more conservative party organization that would likely field candidates who are hard-liners on taxes and spending.

Wilson and other Tea Party leaders - working with a loose affiliation of conservative groups like Ohio Liberty Council and the Cincinnati 9/12 project - have traveled around Southwest Ohio over the past few months holding meetings where they give Tea Party activists a PowerPoint crash course on how to run for precinct executives.

Leaders of the suburban county Republican Parties agree they've noticed a surge of interest from those with Tea Party affiliations.

Wilson said he alone has talked to at least 5,000 people over the past few months; and said he knows of at least 300 Tea Party activists who plan to run for precinct executive positions in southwest Ohio. The number is likely to grow considerably before the Feb. 18 candidate filing deadline, he said.

"We're asking people to run, regardless of which party they choose,'' Wilson said. "Both parties need reforming."

But Wilson and other Tea Party organizers concede that the vast majority of them will run as Republicans, just because that is the party that most closely represents their anti-tax, anti-government spending philosophy.

For those of you not in Cincy, I can tell you that Southwest Ohio is the battleground part of this battleground state.  Cincy itself has a decently high African-American urban population in the city and not one but four universities:  Xavier, U of C, Cincinnati State and Miami of Ohio.  It has an African-American Mayor in Mark Mallory and a pretty decent cultural core:  the Taft Museum of Art, the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Cincy Zoo, and the Classical Music Hall of Fame is here too.

And all that barely balances out the blood red, heavily pro-life Catholic suburbs in places like West Chester and Dayton.  Democrat Steve Dreihaus is Cincy's rep, but he's a Blue Dog through and through, and surrounding him are Republicans like Mean Jean Schmidt and John "Orange Julius" Boehner.

If there a place where the Teabaggers can do a lot of local damage, it's Cincinnati.  After all, look what they did in Dayton.

These guys plan to push out any semblance of moderation or bipartisan cooperation in Cincy.  They're not here to reform ther government, they're here to dismantle it, to prove it doesn't work to voters by making sure it's not allowed to do anything but cut taxes and create larger budget holes that will have to be filled with the corpses of programs meant to help the least among us, school budgets, city and county social services, and infrastructure projects.

It's Compassion-less Conservatism run by a single question:  "Why does my tax money go to help anyone but me?"  And if that doesn't sum up Cincy Republican politics, I dunno what does.

They will go far here.  Very far.  And they will be with us a long time.

Last Call Plus

One last thing before I turn in for the evening.  Anti-choice zealots are furious that a Kansas jury found Scott Roeder guilty and all, but it's the legal logic they are using for an appeal that should sicken everyone.

Roeder faces a minimum sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years in prison when he's sentenced March 9, although prosecutors will ask the judge to require the 51-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man to serve at least 50 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole. His attorneys plan to appeal, arguing jurors should have been allowed to consider the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, requiring proof that Roeder had an unreasonable but honest belief that deadly force was justified.

The Rev. Donald Spitz, of Chesapeake, Va., who runs the Army of God Web site supporting violence against abortion providers, said the rejection of that argument has upset those who view Roeder as a hero.

"I know there is not a lot of good feeling out there _ everybody is pretty angry," he said.

If as a member of the legal profession you advocate that the killing of abortion providers is not murder but justifiable manslaughter, then you are truly a repugnant human being, and should probably be disbarred to boot.

That's probably the most repugnant thing I've heard in a very long time.

Last Call

As long as we have an ignorant electorate, an equally ignorant Village media, and a government that wants to keep it that way, we're all in a lot of trouble.

Only one in four Americans know how many votes a Senate filibuster requires. One in three know the name of the chairman of the Republican Party. One in two know the Democratic leader of the US Senate.
 
Health care? Fewer than one in three Americans even know that no Republicans voted for the Senate health care overhaul.

Americans' ignorance about politics isn't new, but the latest results from the Pew Poll suggest few are really paying attention.

Half of Americans don't even know that Stephen Colbert is a comedian. And among those surveyed, only one in three Democrats knew that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was the Democratic leader.

How the bloody hell are we supposed to get health care reform and climate change legislation when a majority of America can't tell the difference between Colbert and  El Rushbo?  But the big one is a good 75% of Americans think Democrats can pass anything they want even with 59 votes in the Senate.

This is the Stupid that Zandar is Versus.

Barney, Frankly Part 2

More Barney Frank in our public discourse, please.  Frank at Davos:

So, what hard choices could be made to avert a government debt crisis, at least in America? In his State of the Union speech a few hours later, Obama would call for a three-year government spending freeze, not including national security spending or key entitlements. But Rep. Barney Frank, who attended the Davos session as one of the selected "challengers" for the three presenters, called for large cuts in defense spending as well as tax increases -- particularly on wealthy Davos types. "I think almost every American here pays much less in taxes than you ought to. I'm going to go back and try to raise the taxes of most of the people who attended here," Frank vowed.

Then again as Katrina vanden Heuvel notes, Barney Frank's been talking defense cuts for a very, very long time.

The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy.

I am working with a variety of thoughtful analysts to show how we can make very substantial cuts in the military budget without in any way diminishing the security we need. I do not think it will be hard to make it clear to Americans that their well-being is far more endangered by a proposal for substantial reductions in Medicare, Social Security or other important domestic areas than it would be by canceling weapons systems that have no justification from any threat we are likely to face.

So those organizations, editorial boards and individuals who talk about the need for fiscal responsibility should be challenged to begin with the area where our spending has been the most irresponsible and has produced the least good for the dollars expended--our military budget. Both parties have for too long indulged the implicit notion that military spending is somehow irrelevant to reducing the deficit and have resisted applying to military spending the standards of efficiency that are applied to other programs. If we do not reduce the military budget, either we accustom ourselves to unending and increasing budget deficits, or we do severe harm to our ability to improve the quality of our lives through sensible public policy. 

And this is why anyone who talks of fiscal conservatism without demanding we cut trillions from our defense budget is full of shit.  That basically includes every Republican in Washington (and a fair number of Dems to boot.)

A Little Perspective

Digby gives us some much-needed perspective to temper the euphoria from Question Time yesterday in today's must-read:

I suspect that average voters don't see Obama being persecuted as Clinton was, or subject to non-stop calumny by a rabid Republican majority. The Republicans aren't doing anything (and that's the problem.) I think people see Obama conceding that he hasn't been bipartisan enough and that he intends to keep trying. And that will never be a winner for our side because all the Republicans have to do is continue to obstruct to prove him a failure.

She has a point.  The Village now has to admit that the GOP has 41 votes and now has to take some responsibility for that endless wall of saying no, but let's be honest here, the Village will never actually extract a price from the GOP for actually continuing to block every piece of legislation that Obama could possibly take credit for, especially for the legislation they agree with (every single Republican in the Senate voted against Pay-Go last week.)

I'd argue the "average voters don't see Obama as being persecuted" but then again, racists don't admit they are being racist, so again she has a point there.  But here's the kicker (emphasis mine):

If all this only means that Democrats will continue to move further right in order to reach across the aisle then I don't suppose it hurts anything --- they are already stretching themselves into pretzels to get there. But if the Republicans continue to successfully obstruct and then criticize Obama for failing to achieve his promise of bipartisanship, I think it exacerbates the problems we already have coming up in November. I suppose the American people may see through their ruse, but I think it might be just a little bit too complicated: they just see Obama unable to achieve bipartisan agreement with people he repeatedly portrays as rational actors. Therefore, he is weak and the Democratic agenda isn't mainstream.

I'm happy to be wrong about this and hope fervently that this interaction really did create a whole new dynamic in Washington. At the very least, Obama got to answer his knuckle headed critics so there is some satisfaction in that. But my intuition tells me that it won't change anything and could make things worse in the long run if Obama further backs himself into the bipartisan corner.

So, the question becomes this:  should Obama even try to negotiate with a group of people that have no intent of giving an inch?  One one hand, the Republicans have paid back every single bipartisan effort Obama has made with nothing but bad faith and vitriol.  Even when it's a Republican measure that they supported during the Bush years, they immediately attack, mislead and obstruct every single time.  That got us Scott Brown.  They are very rational, it's just the rationality of fanaticism.


On the other hand, America needs to see Obama correct the lies if anything's ever going to get done.  The Teabaggers refuse to portray Obama as a rational actor in any way shape or form.  To them, he's an amorphous monster, the right-wing equivalent of Cthulhu or something.  If America sees Obama doing this on live television, that starts to break down, and then the burden of rationality flips to the Teabaggers.  Besides, the Village does love them some bipartisan overtures.

On the gripping hand, if Obama doesn't get the foreclosure meltdown fixed, he's screwed and so are we.  It's a moot point.

Anyway, do read Digby's post.

[UPDATE 8:37 PM]  Then again as Steve M. reminds me the Village does love bipartisanship, but only because that means they can criticize both sides instead of merely holding everything against the President and the Dems.

Chinese Fire Drill

China is pretty pissed over America's announcement Friday that we're selling $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, and these days the Chinese can hurt us in the wallet far easier than they can hurt us militarily.

China suspended military exchanges with the United States, threatened unprecedented sanctions against American defense companies and warned Saturday that cooperation would suffer after Washington announced $6.4 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.

The response to Friday's U.S. announcement, while not entirely unexpected, was swift and indicated that China plans to put up a greater challenge than usual as it deals with the most sensitive topic in U.S.-China relations.

"This is the strongest reaction we've seen so far in recent years," said Stephanie T. Kleine-Ahlbrandt, northeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group. "China is really looking to see what kind of reaction it's going to receive from Obama on this."

China's Defense Ministry said the arms sales to self-governing Taiwan, which the mainland claims as its own, cause "severe harm" to overall U.S.-China cooperation, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Vice ministerial-level talks on arms control and strategic security were postponed.

The warning comes as the U.S. seeks Beijing's help on issues including the global financial crisis and nuclear standoffs in North Korea and Iran. Tensions were already high after recent U.S. comments on Internet freedom and a dispute between Google and China, as well as President Barack Obama's plan to meet with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama this year.

China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei told U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman that the sales of Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles and other weapons to Taiwan would "cause consequences that both sides are unwilling to see," a ministry statement said.

The Foreign Ministry also threatened sanctions against U.S. companies involved in the arms sales, which hasn't happened in past sales to Taiwan.

"Our action regarding Taiwan reinforces our commitment to stability in the region," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Saturday. "We know China has a different view. Given our broad relationship with China, we will manage this issue as we have in the past."

It's the whole "sanctions against U.S. defense contractors" that is getting people's attention over this.  That's a card China's not been willing to ever play before, but now they clearly see they can go straight after us where it hurts and that they aren't afraid to do so.

Things are getting interesting:  Chinese "May you live in interesting times" interesting.

There'll Be Time Enough For Countin' When The Dealin's Done

Alex Bolton at The Hill reports that according to Sen. Tom Harkin, health care reform was done and on the way to the CBO to be scored when Scott Brown won, effectively killing it.

Harkin (D-Iowa), who attended healthcare talks at the White House, said negotiators were on the cusp of bringing a bill back for final votes in the Senate and House.

Harkin said “we had an agreement, with the House, the White House and the Senate. We sent it to [the Congressional Budget Office] to get scored and then Tuesday happened and we didn’t get it back.” He said negotiators had an agreement in hand on Friday, Jan. 15.

Harkin made clear that negotiators had reached a final deal on the entire bill, not just the excise plans, which had been reported the previous day, Jan. 14.

Harkin said the deal covered the prescription-drug “donut hole,” the level of federal insurance subsidies, national insurance exchanges and federal Medicaid assistance to states.

Senate Democratic aides declined to confirm Harkin’s account. A White House spokesman also declined to comment.

That's as expected, frankly.  Sidecar reconciliation could go ahead at any time, but isn't.  We need action out of the White House to go with this talk, and I'm just not seeing it.

I keep hearing "We're almost there, we're moving along, we'll get it passed" and now we're hearing "it'll get passed this year".  We heard that last year, frankly.  Anything past April and it's over.  Hell, February may be too late.

It's time for action.  Pass the damn bill.

At Long Last Our National College Football Nightmare Is Over

Eric Holder takes on the Bee Cee Ess.

In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

"Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.

Several lawmakers and many critics want the BCS to switch to a playoff system, rather than the ratings system it uses to determine the teams that play in the championship game.

"The administration shares your belief that the current lack of a college football national championship playoff with respect to the highest division of college football ... raises important questions affecting millions of fans, colleges and universities, players and other interested parties," Weich wrote.

Meanwhile, John Yoo and Jay Bybee get to walk for authorizing the Bush torture regime.  Priorities?  We haz em!

The Kroog Versus Rahmbo

Paul Krugman's opinion of Rahm Emmanuel is not especially glowing right now, but the bigger point is that President Obama has to lead like the man we saw yesterday is capable of doing.

Ezra Klein finds Rahm Emanuel’s apparent willingness to let health reform slide into the indefinite future very depressing. So do I. And it’s not just health reform that will die under this approach — it’s the road to a caretaker presidency.

It’s all very well to say “we’re going to focus on job creation”. But what does that mean? At this point, no major economic programs have any chance of getting passed. Think of it this way: a year ago the question was whether the stimulus would be $700 billion or $1.2 trillion, now we’re talking about $30 billion jobs tax credits.

Maybe financial reform will happen, or at least set up a “teachable moment” battle with the GOP. But by letting health reform slide, the administration is abandoning one really big policy initiative that is just inches from happening. Let this go, and there’s likely to be no achievements worth remembering.

But don’t blame Rahm Emanuel; this is about the president. After Massachusetts, Democrats were looking for leadership; they didn’t get it. Ten days later, nobody is sure what Obama intends to do, and his aides are giving conflicting readings. It’s as if Obama checked out.

Look, Obama is a terrific speaker and a very smart guy. He really showed up the Republicans in the now-famous give-and-take. But we knew that. What’s now in question isn’t his ability to talk, it’s his ability to lead.

And while the one major thing I agree with both the Firebaggers and Krugman on is that Rahm Emmanuel is a real big damn problem right now, Obama is still the man who's payin' the cost to be the boss.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.  What is needed now is to turn the energy of yesterday's Question Time into actual policy.  Obama has now turned around the narrative.  He's stanched the blood flow and gotten the ear of progressives back.  But now he has to deliver, and that starts with Rahm not fouling up the message and allowing the Senate to soft-pedal health care reform, and it certainly means we need to be well the hell past the Snowe Job stage.

That U-6 Number Again

Via Twitter comes this admission from Larry Summers:

Speaking on a panel at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Summers said one in five American men aged 25 to 54 are unemployed. He said given a “reasonable recovery,” that rate could improve to one in seven or one in eight. That still contrasts with a 95% employment rate for that group in the mid-1960s.

That's a big ass problem.  It's going to get worse in 2010.  And I don't know when it's going to actually get better.

Honestly.  One in five men my age are out of a job right now.  That is not sustainable in any way shape or form.

The Crack In The Wall Of Total Opposition

Whether or not you believe that complete and total Republican opposition to Obama's agenda is politically sound policy or not, the general consensus is that the Republicans sure as hell believe that.  Whether the opposition is born of cynical political tactics or firebrand ideology, the opposition has been there, it's a provable fact, and the Republicans are reveling in it as a populist lynch mob.

But on the day where Barack Obama went into the House Republican retreat and basically said "The reason why nothing is getting done is because your Teabagger masters will never let you work with me, for they see me as The Enemy Above All" we have this article from HuffPo's Sam Stein, who signals that maybe in the post-Democratic Supermajority era that the Republicans are actually worried that they just might have to take responsibility for being the Party of No. (Emphasis mine:)

Some senior Republican strategists and party veterans are beginning to fret that the party's refusal to work with President Obama, even when he crosses onto their own philosophical turf, could ultimately erode some of the political gains they've made this past year.

Over the past two weeks, Republicans in Congress have united in nearly unanimous opposition to a series of ideologically conservative policy suggestions, starting with a commission to reduce the deficit, a pay-go provision that would limit new expenditures, and a spending freeze on non-military programs.

Opposition has usually been based on specific policy concerns or complaints that the measures aren't going far enough. But the message being sent is that the GOP's sole mission is presidential destruction. 

Now, some in the party are beginning to worry.

"I can't tell you why they are taking this approach," said Jim Kolbe, a former member of Congress and longtime fiscal hawk from Arizona. "I have doubts about some of them myself but I think that certainly the pay-go and the commission have some merit and we should be supporting those. I don't have an answer to this. Whether this is just part of them being philosophically opposed or are they just being obstructionists, I don't know?

"I do think there is that worry [that we come off as obstructionists]," Kolbe added. "I think this thing can turn around just as fast as it turned against the Democrats, it can turn the other way if the Republican don't respond with serious proposals here." 

Ahh, but there's the rub.  The spittle-flecked Teabaggers will never let the GOP go over and play with Obama in the big ol' Gubment sandbox.  They seek not only the political destruction of not only Obama but the ideologies that form the kernel core of liberal policies as well.

And so far it's been working.  Scott Brown, the GOP will tell you, is proof enough of that.

On the other hand, I've said that Obama just didn't get the GOP Plan for total obstruction leading to his destruction.  I'm glad to say that Obama not only understands the plan perfectly, but showed yesterday that he can win that battle handily.

Maybe that's what the GOP is really afraid of.  They got what they wanted, that 41st Senator.  Now the GOP has to take responsibility for obstruction.  Yesterday was the beginning of Obama winning that battle.  The question now is how will the GOP respond?  Past evidence shows they will double down and expect Obama to implement 100% of their failed ideas.  If Obama can shift the argument towards that battle of substance rather than noise level, he wins hands down.

As Matt Osborne reminded me, the "Obama we voted for" was always there.

Jumping At Shadows

I'm still trying to figure out how Jennifer Rubin arrives at this conclusion where she goes from "Mike Bloomberg doesn't want to pay for the increased security for putting KSM on trial" directly to "AG Eric Holder should be fired."

But something else, I suspect, more fundamental has occurred. The entire premise of the Obama anti-terrorism approach, which entailed  a willful ignorance on the nature of our enemy, a cavalier indifference to the concerns of ordinary Americans (be they 9/11 families or New York tax payers), and a headlong plunge into uncharted legal terrain has evaporated in the wake of the Christmas Day bomber and the general perception that the Obama team has not a clue what they are doing. The public is no longer willing to accept it on faith that the Obami know best. To the contrary, the illusion of competence has been shattered. Elected leaders are now willing to stand up and say what we all knew to be true. As Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University quoted by the Times, observes, “This will be one more stroke for al-Qaeda’s propaganda.” And a nightmare for New York.

The question remains as the White House scramble for Plan B: what is Eric Holder still doing there? It was he, the president tells us, who came up with this scheme. (His Department also implemented the “Mirandize the terrorist” policy.) It appears as though Holder exercised no due diligence (just as there had been none exercised prior to the announcement to close Guantanamo.

Say what?  It seems to me that this proves that we actually have a thoughtful and competent AG, A Justice Department that doesn't try to rule by legal fiat, and a President that practices common sense, unlike the last guy in charge.  It also seems to me that Obama respected the suggestion from Bloomberg, and is still very much holding open the prospect of trying KSM in civilian court.  Plenty of other places to do it.

But Holder being fired over this?  You're taking this decision as a vindication of Ashcroft-Gonzo era stupidity, when as usual you can't see past the nose on your face.

Wishful thinking, madam.  I like how it's perfectly fine to torture people, but actually listening to other people's opinions is a terminal offense for an Attorney General.

Switch to decaf.

The Morning After A Kick Ass Rock Concert

Man I still feel good today after watching Obama go off like that yesterday.  If you haven't seen it, take the opportunity to do so.

Time to make the rounds on the reactions.  HuffPo's Sam Stein:

What resulted was what one Democratic strategist described as "amazing theater" -- certainly for cable news. Standing on a stage, looking down at his Republican questioners, Obama assumed the role of responsible adult to the GOP children, or, at the very least, of a college professor teaching and lecturing a room full of students.

Taylor Marsh:

Every single person who has refused to give Pres. Obama a pass on his lack of leadership, inability to get beyond platitudes and speeches, as well as pushing him to engage in a transparent way beyond slogans, was finally served substance today, with Obama actually delivering it. Pres. Obama’s engagement with Republicans was an unprecedented performance. It also has the potential to be a game changer.

(More after the jump...)

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• NYC officials are worried about an outbreak of rabies among raccoons in Central Park.
• The Republican National Committee passed a resolution requiring candidates to support the entire GOP platform or receive no campaign funding.
• The Senate passed a tough PAYGO law requiring new spending to be paid for in the budget.
• Congress is looking into Toyota's massive stuck accelerator recall affecting millions of cars sold in the U.S.
• Apple's $499 iPad may have trashed the tablet PC market before it ever formed.

Last Call Plus

Entire Right Wing Noise Machine:  "In our continuing effort categorically dismissing everything the President had to say to House Republicans as useless background noise, should we call him Angry Black Man or simply be respectful and refer to him as Arrogant Black Man?"

[UPDATE 11:40 PM] Insomnia Bonus Update!

Marc Ambinder tweets:

"As a journalist who covered the Edwards campaign in '08, who heard the rumors, I didn't do my job well either."

I got news for you, dude.  You're still not doing your job now a good 90% of the time.  Douchebag.

Last Call

Obama to GOP:  "I got your TelePrompTer right here."



My God, it was glorious.  Our political discourse has gone so far down the crapper that even a simple Q&A session between the two parties becomes manna in the desert.  Hey White House?  Find a way to make this a regular event.  Include the Senate.  Include at least one Democrat who has some tough goddamn questions for the man.  And then let Obama fight his fight.

You want to change the way Washington works?  Start with this.  Make this work.  Dare the GOP to do this again.

America needs this.  America needs to see Washington leaders having a normal discussion like human beings, man.

Do it.

Off To Watch The Show

MSNBC has Olbermann and Maddow on tonight with Tweety doing a two-hour special on today's Obama Asskicking.

Go watch.  I am.

If You Want To Help, Try Getting A Better Copy Editor

Steve M. catches the GOP being the Party Of So Last Year (literally) as at today's GOP House Asskicking By Obama that ol' Orange John hands Obama the GOP Manual:

BOEHNER: ... We've compiled the summaries of [our] alternatives into a document that we call, appropriately, "Better Solutions." ... So, Mr. President, I'm pleased today to present you with a copy of our "Better Solutions." ...

Now, could that be the one Stephen Colbert described last night as containing a mere nine pages of solutions, "along with stock photography and the kinds of generous margins usually reserved for eight-grade term papers"? Well, no -- the handbook available here is newer. It's dated today and is a whopping thirty pages long (though that includes cover, back cover, and a six-page list of economists who back the GOP's ideas). The margins are narrow and there are no pictures.

However, I can't help noticing that this oh-so-timely proposal mocked last night by Colbert...



... is still in there:



All heart, these Republicans. I hope the president enjoys his reading.

Well to be honest, Steve...Republicans can't really read, so I'm sure they missed it all too.  Me, I can save the GOP some money next time they go down to FedEx Kinko's:

The GOP plan on the economy:

1. Cut taxes on the rich.
2. ???
3. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Fin.  Exeunt.

Snowe Job, Part 9

She's baaaaaack.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Friday that she has been in conversation with Democrats and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus about a way forward on health care reform.

"I have talked with several of my Democratic colleagues, including the chairman of the Finance Committee, just sorting through these issues, and the process, and what will unfold," Snowe told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC Friday afternoon. "Hopefully, [Democrats] will take measure of what needs to happen now, build some support, those things can happen so that it's not [so] breathtakingly expansive that [it] creates consternation by the American people at a time will can ill-afford intrinsic costs."

But Snowe made it very clear she could not support any form of a bill that came through the reconciliation process—a legislative move she called "wrong and untenable."

Only the great part this time around is A) nobody needs her support for anything that comes out of reconciliation, and B) nobody gives a damn what she thinks anymore.

Don't hold your breath on Obama calling you back, dearie.

Epic All Publicity Is Good Publicity Win

The only thing better than the publicity from paying $2.5 million for a Super Bowl ad is having your Super Bowl ad turned down because you're a gay dating website, and getting even more publicity over several days for free.

Super Bowl network CBS rejected an ad Friday from ManCrunch.com, a gay dating Web site.

"After reviewing the ad, which is entirely commercial in nature, our standards and practices department decided not to accept this particular spot," said CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs. "We are always open to working with a client on alternative submissions."

CBS said it turned down the ad partly for financial reasons, but ManCrunch believes that there's more to it than that.

"It's straight-up discrimination," said Elissa Buchter, spokeswoman for the Toronto-based dating site.

Jacobs of CBS declined to comment on the charge of discrimination.

It sucks to see that CBS was going to turn this down.  EPIC FAIL for CBS.  But the free press from this is gonna be worth a hell of a lot more than $2.5 million, and ManCrunch didn't have to pay a dime for it.

EPIC WIN for them.

The Return Of The King

Obama goes into the House Republican retreat, Republicans figure they've got him in the lion's den and they can televise him getting his ass kicked live with no TelePrompTer.

Only the complete opposite of that happened.

President Obama defended his health care plan Friday as centrist but said Republicans had presented it as "some Bolshevik plot" and called on lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to stop demonizing each other.

"We've got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality," he said, speaking to House Republicans at their annual retreat in Baltimore.

"If the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don't have a lot of room to negotiate with me."

He said even Republicans who vote with the Obama administration become politically vulnerable in their own base.

"You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion," he said.

Obama said Republicans and Democrats both need "to think about tone" in debate.

"This is part of what's happened in our politics, where we demonize the other side so much that when it comes to actually getting things done, it becomes tough to do."

Obama said he has embraced some GOP approaches on health care. "When you say I ought to be willing to accept Republican ideas on health care, let's be clear -- I have. Bipartisanship, not for its own sake, but to solve problems," he said.

"From the start, I sought out and supported ideas from Republicans. I even talked about an issue that has been a holy grail for a lot of you, which was tort reform, and said that I'd be willing to work together as part of a comprehensive package to deal with it. "

Obama walks in there and just pummels the crap out of them.  Live.  In color.  This is the Obama we needed to see time and time again, the smashmouth Obama that kicked McCain's ass in the debates up and down, the one that called out the endless bullshit from the GOP.  It was so bad for the Wingers that FOX News bailed on the event halfway through.

Welcome back, Obama I Voted For.  I've missed you.  Now get this stuff passed.

[UPDATE 1:58 PM] The Village Sensible Centrists are going to squee themselves to death over this display of bipartisan outreach.  The progressives are still squeeing because Obama punched most of the GOP in the mouth and then turned around and went out of his way to acknowledge the few serious Republicans who did have good health care ideas, like Rep. Paul Kirk.  And the Wingers are going to be pissed.

Of course, FOX News cut away before the second half of the event where Obama really lit up the room...so of course to them it never happened.  Even better, Karl Rove's on completely ignoring the President's Q&A session and attacking him anyway.  The most trusted name in Obama Derangement Syndrome.  They Report, You Decide They Are Morons.

[UPDATE 3:21 PM] Transcript of the speech and the Q&A session.  As BooMan notes, the exchange between Obama and Rep. Jeb Hensarling is an outright classic.  Obama roflstomps the guy.

[UPDATE 3:36 PM]  Steve Benen wraps it up:

I'm reasonably certain I've never seen anything like it. GOP House members were fairly respectful of the president, but pressed him on a variety of policy matters. The president didn't just respond effectively, he delivered a rather powerful, masterful performance.

It was like watching a town-hall forum where all of the questions were confrontational, but Obama nevertheless just ran circles around these guys. I can only assume caucus members, by the end of the Q&A, asked themselves, "Whose bright idea was it to invite the president and let him embarrass us on national television?"

Note, however, that this wasn't just about political theater -- it was an important back-and-forth between the president and his most forceful political detractors. They were bringing up routine far-right talking points that, most of the time, simply get repeated in the media unanswered. But in Baltimore, the president didn't just respond to the nonsense, he effectively debunked it.

Republicans thought they were throwing their toughest pitches, and Obama -- with no notes, no teleprompter, and no foreknowledge -- just kept knocking 'em out of the park.

Amen. Best performance from Obama since he took office.  I've been saying that the President needed to use the bully pulpit to get his message out, unfiltered, and do so in a way that debunks the Village GOP talking points.  Today was exactly what he needed and what America needed.

More.  Please.   Make this a regular feature.

He Got It His Way

Well, at least Scott Roeder made it easy on the jury by confessing on the witness stand to killing Dr. George Tiller.  Took less than an hour to convict the asshole.

A Kansas jury deliberated just 40 minutes before convicting an anti-abortion activist of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of an abortion provider.


The jury found Scott Roeder, 51, guilty of gunning down Dr. George Tiller, who operated a clinic in Wichita where late-term abortions were performed. Roeder, 51, faces life in prison when he is sentenced on March 9.

Tiller's family said the jury reached a "just" verdict.

"At this time we hope that George can be remembered for his legacy of service to women, the help he provided for those who needed it and the love and happiness he provided us as a husband, father and grandfather," the family said in a written statement. 

Have a nice day.  Say, when the punishment phase of this shindig, anyway?  Can we come up with some far more creative things other than just killing the guy?  That what he wants, you know...to be a martyr.

Secret Agent Pimp's Secret Plan

James "Secret Agent Pimp" O' Keefe has released a statement about his arrest, but he's not going down easy as Dave Weigel notes.

James O’Keefe has issued a statement on his arrest in Louisiana, portraying himself as a maligned investigative journalist who was merely trying to see whether the phones worked in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office.

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars (sic) in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill.  When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.”  I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken.  In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.

I noted an error in the statement — the controversy is not over whether Landrieu is “taking millions of federal dollars,” but why the Senate added $300 million in Medicaid subsidies that stood to benefit Louisiana. That’s a legitimate issue — O’Keefe, trying to clear the air, bends it into a bribery smear. That, and his use of the statement to demand retractions from “reporters who can’t get their facts straight,” indicate that he’s going to fight this out.

So, if I've got this straight, the guy caught trying to break into a Senator's office after attempting to manufacture a completely fabricated gotcha story by sabotaging the office phones in order to try to sway her vote is now saying that we should completely trust him, because it pales to the crime of the Senator "taking millions of federal dollars".

Right. "Trust me!"  Worked for Bush.

Behold The Power Of Eugene Robinson

The Think Progress crew points out the "liberal Washington Post" is full of...not...liberals on the op-ed page.

In an online chat earlier this week, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz defended Fox News’ conservative orientation by saying there is a “distinction” between Fox’s opinion shows and news programming. “Just as you have to make a distinction between The Post’s news pages and its left-leaning editorial page,” said Kurtz. As Jamison Foser pointed out at the time, the idea that the Post’s op-ed pages are “left-leaning” is laughable. As if to prove that point today, the Post’s op-ed page features columns by two former Bush speechwriters, “Obama’s biggest critic,” and a former National Review editor:

Chuckles, George Will...yeah, those guys are totally Dirty F'ckin Hippies. Either that, or Gene Robinson is the most powerful liberal in the Known Multiverse, and he completely requires all of these half-assed knuckleheads just to balance him out.  One Gene has the fiber of ten bowls of Chuckles.  He's Total Raisin Bran.

Come to think of it, that explains it completely.

Prioritizing The Disaster

NY Times:

The White House on Thursday signaled the outlines of its strategy for breaking the partisan logjam holding up President Obama’s agenda, saying Democrats would move quickly to underline their commitment to fixing the broken economy and to build an election-year case against Republicans if they do not cooperate.

With Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul stalled on Capitol Hill, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview that Democrats would try to act first on job creation, reducing the deficit and imposing tighter regulation on banks before returning to the health measure, the president’s top priority from last year.

But Mr. Obama quickly got a taste of how difficult it would be to bring the opposition party on board. 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Or is that the definition of abject stupidity?  Really guys?  Deficit reduction and working with the GOP comes before health care?  And you think you're going to get this passed?

[UPDATE 10:41 AM] Bob Cesca's optimism is almost equaled by the painful truth.

It's easy to freak out these days. I'm as guilty as anyone. But I simply can't see the Democrats failing to pass healthcare reform. Democrats would lose their majorities. Republicans would take over and, eventually, they would do the only thing they could accomplish in a completely gridlocked government: investigating and impeaching the president. And before you chastise me for being over-the-top, remember the 1990s.

But that's all political. Failing to pass healthcare reform will succeed in killing 44,000 Americans every year. It's always worth reinforcing that Democratic failure would mean a new 9/11 every month. Unacceptable.

Agreed. Unacceptable.  But by that math, we've already lost 22,000 Americans thanks to the Dems no passing this damn bill.  That should infuriate the living hell out of all of us.

The Domestic Product Is Gross

The 4th quarter GDP numbers are in: 5.7% growth annualized in the last three months of 2009.  The bad news, 2.5% of that (more than half) was just companies not liquidating inventory.  The good news, well, that's two quarters of positive growth, right?  Recession over?  Recovery underway?  Everything's fine, right?

Foreclosures probably will reach 3 million this year, surpassing the record of 2.82 million in 2009, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc. That would more than offset an estimated 448,000-unit rise in home sales, based on the average forecast of the National Association of Realtors, the Mortgage Bankers Association and Fannie Mae.

The housing industry remains a challenge for Obama as he enters his second year of office and government assistance programs near expiration. Data this week showed home sales tumbled after the expected end of an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers boosted transactions the prior month.

“The housing market is still on life support, and if government measures are withdrawn too quickly it could sink it, taking the economy down with it,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “Households have such high debt loads, in addition to their mortgages, that any reduction in income, including a job loss, could trigger a foreclosure.”

Employers have cut more than 7 million jobs in the last two years, the biggest employment loss since the Great Depression. The U.S. jobless rate probably will average 10 percent in 2010, according to the median estimate of 59 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That would be the highest yearly rate in government records dating to 1948. Unemployment was 9.3 percent in 2009, the most in 26 years. 

Oh yeah.  That whole "second half of the recession where a jobless recovery knocks us into another downturn in an already broken economy, resulting in an economic depression" thing.  That.

Yeah, that may be a problem.  Even more than a jobs bill and health care reform, we need cramdown legislation.  Now.  Immediately if not sooner.

Greece Is The Word

Greek gyros, Greek history, Greek tourism, and now Greek debt.

European Union policy makers have no “plan B” to help Greece, the bloc’s top economic official said, and Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said he’s not aware of talks of a possible rescue.

“There is no bailout problem,” Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “Greece will not default. In the euro area, default does not exist.”

Greek bonds have slumped on speculation the country will need help from the EU to cut the region’s highest budget deficit and tame its rising debt. Prime Minister George Papandreou yesterday said Greece is being victimized by rumors in financial markets and he denied seeking to borrow from European partners.

Papaconstantinou, in an interview today, said he has no knowledge of any EU bailout talks and promised deeper budget cuts if needed. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told reporters in Davos that Greece, while “not alone” in the euro area, must deliver on its budget-cut pledges.

Almunia dismissed as “sensationalist” newspaper reports that the euro region was discussing options to bail out Greece. Officials in Berlin and Paris yesterday rejected reports that bailout talks were under way. 

Everything is fine with Greece, why do you ask?  We're not bailing anybody out. Things aren't falling apart in southern Europe economically!  Everything's great!

Greek unions representing civil servants plan a strike for Feb. 10 to protest austerity measures in the plan, which includes a state-hiring freeze this year and a wage cap for public workers earning more than 2,000 euros a month. The plan calls for a 10 percent cut in benefits for state employees and in operating expenditures at all ministries.

Greek tax collectors, who are key to the government’s plan to raise revenue though a crackdown on evasion, plan to approve four strikes at a meeting next week, union head Yannis Grivas said. 

What could possibly go wrong?

And That Case Of Depends

Looks like Obama is folding on trying KSM in Lower Manhattan, as NYC Mayor Bloomberg says "You know, we're going to need a lot of money and a lot of massive security for this, and we expect you to pay for it."  The plan:  find somewhere else.

A decision to move the Sept. 11 trial from Manhattan would be a retreat by the administration from its calculated choice in November to bring the defendants to a courthouse just blocks from where the World Trade Center stood.

The dispute over a trial location, touched off when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York complained of costs and disruption, threatened to reopen the divisive question of how those accused of plotting the murder of more than 3,000 Americans should be brought to justice.

Republicans in the Senate and House said they would try to block financing for civilian criminal trials for the alleged terrorists, seeking to force the administration to place them on trial before a military commission in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, or on a military base elsewhere.

Opponents of civilian trials said they hoped new doubts about a New York trial and increased fears of terrorism since the attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day would win more Democratic support for such measures.

The apparent collapse of what had seemed since November to be a settled decision to hold the trial in Lower Manhattan was clear when New York’s senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat, said on Thursday that he was encouraging the Obama administration “to find suitable alternatives.”

The political and economic reality is that idiotic Republican posturing aside,  Obama has significantly less political capital now than he did back in November or even October.  He's saving his fight for health care, not trying KSM in NYC.

At least...that's what the White House is saying.  Whether or not that's what the White House is doing is another thing.  But the real problem is that this was a settled decision, and it's Chuck Schumer throwing Obama under the bus on this one.  Perhaps this is Schumer's price to get him to go along on sidecar reconciliation.  With this administration and this Congress, who knows.

[UPDATE 9:17 AM] Double G wisely tweets that the location of the trial doesn't really matter, as long as it's a real trial and not a military tribunal.

StupidiNews!

• President Obama plans to call for a $5,000 tax credit for every net new hire in 2010 as part of a $33 billion jobs bill.
• Defying Gov. Schwarzenegger's veto threat, California Democrats have passed a plan for a state single-payer health care plan.
• The Obama administration is making its much maligned foreclosure modification program more easily available.
• Some of the world's biggest bank chiefs are planning a response to the so-called "Volcker Rules."
• The success of Windows 7 has given Microsoft a record quarterly report.

Last Call

Which Winger meltdown was the best today?

Andrew Breitbart's screaming match with David Shuster?

Sen. Judd Gregg's hissy fit with Contessa Brewer and Melissa Francis?

How about the Tea Party Convention melting down with Bachmanniac pulling out?

Scott Roeder's meltdown on the witness stand was outright frightening.

Obama's SOTU address has driven the Wingers over the edge here in the last 24 hours.  The Obama Derangement Syndrome Meter is pegged all the way into the red.  They hate the idea of him getting even mildly positive press, and I honestly think many of the Wingers were truly expecting the reaction to SOTU to be so utterly negative that the Village would be actively calling for him to resign.

That wasn't the case.  They thought they had finished him for good.  The Death of Liberalism and all.  But if anything, the SOTU address is getting very positive reviews.  America likes what Obama had to say.

And that drove the Wingers off the cliff today.  As Matt Osborne wisely points out, Obama took back the center last night.  The GOP knows it.  And Obama got them to go postal all over the airwaves today.  All of a sudden it's the Wingers who are on the defensive.  They despise Obama for doing that.  But that anger is what will ultimately undo them.  Just like in July, the mask on the Teabaggers is slipping.

Zandar's Other Thought Of The Day

Andrew Breitbart has a really, really bad will save.  Should you encounter him, exploit it by using mind-affecting spells, appeals to his ego, a white panel van, and a sack of Ginger Snaps.

Also, that rapid fire ka-chunk sound you've been hearing all day is basically every conservative in America rushing to throw James "Secret Agent Pimp" O'Keefe under the bus.

The Peter King Opposite Rule

Whatever Rep. Peter King (R-Captain Insaneo) thinks is a horrible idea should be something the Democrats need to be 100% behind.

Rep. Peter King says he has introduced a bill that would prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist trial from being held in New York City.

King said Thursday that his bill would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in federal civilian courts.

Last month, the Obama administration announced that professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others would be tried in federal court in lower Manhattan.

The New York congressman calls it "one of the worst decisions ever made by any president." He says terrorist suspects should be tried by military commissions. 

I think President Obama should make sure Rep. King gets two things:

1) A front row seat to the trial in the courtroom to see how actual justice works, and

2) A case of Depends. 

Both should be presented to Rep. King on live television.

I Thought You Were In Charge Of Plan B

Despite the headline at TPMDC tonight, it looks like the White House didn't get concerned on Martha Coakley losing up until, oh, January 9th or so.

President Obama's senior advisor David Axelrod said there "wasn't much discussion" about an alternative path to passing health care with just 59 Democrats in the Senate because there was "widespread assumption was that that seat was safe."

"The truth is the flares went up about 10 days before that election," Axelrod said during a briefing today with reporters and opinion-makers.

"There wasn't much discussion about the implications if the thing went the other way," he said.

Hmm.  January 9th was the day that PPP poll came out showing Brown up 48%-47%.  Only then did the White House go into gear.

I was still poo-pooing Brown back on January 5th, myself.   Brown didn't even show up on my radar until New Year's Day, as a matter of fact.

But the fact that it was only ten days before the election that Coakley and the White House got into gear shows there was a major problem.  Brown should have never been that close.  Coakley ran the worst campaign possible, pretending to be an incumbent in a year where incumbents are not doing too well on either side.

My problem is I had faith in these guys, and so did a lot of people.

I Faced It All, And I Stood Tall, And Did It My Way

Scott Roeder, the man accused of murdering abortion provider Dr. George Tiller last year, took to the stand today in his trial in Kansas and admitted to his crime, citing no regrets whatsoever.

"There was nothing being done and the legal process had been exhausted, and these babies were dying every day," Roeder said. "I felt that if someone did not do something, he was going to continue."

Roeder is charged with one count of first-degree murder. Tiller ran a women's clinic at which he performed abortions, including the controversial late-term procedure.

During Roeder's testimony Thursday, Tiller's widow, Jeanne, and other family members sat in the gallery. Initially stoic, they began to dab at tears as Roeder described putting a gun to Tiller's head.

Asked if he regretted what he did, Roeder said, "No, I don't." Upon learning that Tiller's clinic was shut down after his death, he said he felt "a sense of relief."

Dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and a red patterned tie, Roeder calmly testified that he thought about different ways to kill the doctor -- driving a car into his, perhaps, or shooting him with a rifle. His main concern, he said, was that he might harm others.

Under cross-examination, he told Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston he also considered cutting Tiller's hands off with a sword, but decided that would not be effective, as Tiller would still be able to train others.

No regrets, confident that his God will approve of what he did in His name, not even trying to deny the crime of murder in the the first degree.

Here's the kicker:

Asked if there are any circumstances in which he believes abortion is acceptable, Roeder said he thought it could be if the mother's life was in "absolute" danger. "I struggle with that decision," he said, "because I believe that ultimately, it is up to our heavenly father. But if there was a time, that would be it."

When defense attorneys asked about his belief regarding abortion in the case of rape, Roeder said, "I do not believe that is justified. You are taking the life of the innocent. You're punishing the innocent life for the sin of the father. Two wrongs don't make a right."

Asked about incest, he said his beliefs were the same. "It isn't our duty to take life, it's our heavenly father's," he said.

And Scott Roeder's duty is to take that life too.  I would hope that whatever deity does exist out there will correct Scott there when he gets to where he's finally going.  And anyone who says America should be worried about Muslim fanatics killing people, well, Scott's not exactly a Muslim now, is he?

And It Begins, Ladies And Gentlemen

Yesterday's story that Hillary Clinton did not see herself as a two-term Secretary of State under Obama was bound to generate the next obvious question, I just didn't think it would be this quickly.  The Village has fired the first shot in the Hillary Plan 2012 war.  Enter US News's Peter Roff on Hillary:

She is not, unsurprisingly, speaking publicly about her intentions beyond saying, as she told PBS's Tavis Smiley in an interview that airs Wednesday night, that she is "absolutely not interested" in running again for president of the United States. But in the same interview Clinton also allows that her current job is a difficult and time-consuming one and that, while she is honored to have it, she cannot see herself serving in the same post in a second Obama administration.

The ongoing decline in the president's approval ratings has more than a few Democrats concerned. The Democratic defeats in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections and the Massachusetts Senate race have a number of them running scared, in much the same way that the party's poor performance in 1978 helped propel Sen. Edward M. Kennedy forward to challenge incumbent President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

The chatter has increased in recent days about Clinton leaving the cabinet sometime in the first term, likely over some matter of principle, so that she can position herself to challenge Obama in 2012. Perhaps it is just wishful thinking on the part of those Democrats who have already grown tired of Obama. What is true is that Clinton can still mobilize the political infrastructure necessary to mount an effective challenge to the sitting president. A primary challenge against a sitting president whose approval numbers are above 50 percent and one mounted against an incumbent who is below 50 percent are two very different things, a fact of which the Clinton political team is surely aware.

And so it begins.  How long until the Village turns this into The Story Of 2010?

My guess is it won't take long.  An Obama/Hillary "fight" for the next three years?  You can hear the fapping already.  And somewhere, Karl Rove has his fingers steepled and is saying "eeeeeeexcellent."

Helicopter Ben Flying High Again

In the end, Republicans really do love Helicopter Ben and the banks because they refused to filibuster the hell out of his nomination.

Enough Senators voted Thursday to clear the way for a final confirmation vote for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's second term.

The vote to end debate on the nomination passed by a 77-23 margin. The procedural move required 60 votes and depended on Republicans, because several Democrats voted no.

The vote cleared the way for a subsequent final confirmation vote requiring only 51 votes, Senate leaders said. That vote was also expected to pass more smoothly.

Bernanke's term is scheduled to end Sunday.

The final vote came after heavy lobbying by Democratic leaders and the Obama administration. President Obama, himself, made calls last weekend. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been talking with Republicans, making sure he had enough votes.

Making sure banksters get their billions, worth bi-partisan cooperation for 77 Senate votes.

Health insurance coverage for poor people?  Screw 'em.  God I hate Washington at times.

Epic Grounded For Life Fail

James O'Keefe, the new Jack Reacher, has had his brilliant career as a conservative black-ops field agent interrupted by The Man sending him to live with his parents.

As if James O'Keefe hasn't suffered enough indignity after botching an alleged phone tampering operation at a U.S. senator's office, getting arrested, and being photographed leaving jail, the judge in the case has now ordered that he reside with his parents until the next hearing.

Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O'Keefe, 25. (Read them here)

The young conservative filmmaker is free on $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for February 13.

Grounded, dude.  Totally grounded.

EPIC FAIL.