Harry Plays Hardball

Harry Reid has actually followed through on a threat for once, canceling the Senate's Columbus Day week recess so they can get their work done passing a freaking health care bill.

Reid had threatened earlier this month to cancel the break, but unlike similar warnings in the past, the leader followed through on Wednesday.

Reid has often threatened to cancel recesses or long weekends to spur colleagues to pick up their legislative pace. But he usually relents, letting fellow lawmakers fly home to visit their families and constituents around the country.

The pressure on Democrats to pass healthcare reform, however, has raised the stakes. Some Senate aides speculated that Reid did not want to give conservative activists a chance to stall progress by staging a second round of angry demonstrations during townhall-style meetings over the recess.

“The Columbus Day [recess] is fast approaching,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “It’s the week after next and with all the things going on here, it just would not be right for us to take that week off.”

Reid said the Senate would only work three days that week, taking off Columbus Day (a Monday) and the following Friday. The Senate would not vote until 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

But hey, it's at least three days to get work done. Must be nice, being exhausted from those three-day work weeks.

Home Is Where The Heart Is (Ripped Out Of Your Chest, Still Beating)

More than half of homeowners who have taken advantage of loan modifications have once again fallen behind on their payments.

More than 50 percent of homeowners with loans modified in the first half of last year had missed at least two months of payments a year later, the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said Wednesday.

But the results were better among those who saw their payments drop substantially.

About one in three borrowers whose monthly payments were reduced by 20 percent or more had fallen behind again within a year. That compares with more than 60 percent for borrowers whose loan payments were left unchanged or increased.

The report highlights a significant challenge for the Obama administration's plan to tackle the foreclosure crisis, backed by $50 billion in money from the financial industry bailout fund.

Some people are being helped by this, but the reality is all the loan mods in the world aren't going to help you if you've lost your job and your insurance rates have gone up again, and you car breaks down, etc.

Sadly, this is only going to get worse.

That's It, It's Officially "The Left Is Just As Crazy" Day

The Wingers have now absolved themselves of everything remotely nasty ever said at a health care Town Hall Blitz thanks to Florida Democrat Alan Grayson.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) warned Americans that "Republicans want you to die quickly" during an after-hours House floor speech Tuesday night.

His remarks, which drew angry and immediate calls for an apology from Republicans, were highlighted by a sign reading "The Republican Health Care Plan: Die Quickly."

Veteran Tennessee Republican Jimmy Duncan abandoned customary reticence to chastise Grayson.

"That is about the most mean-spirited partisan statement that I've ever heard made on this floor, and I, for one, don't appreciate it," Duncan said.

"It's fully appropriate that the gentleman return to the floor and apologize," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, another Tennessee Republican.

And actually, Grayson should apologize and clarify his statement and say "You know, the Republicans don't want you to die. They only wants traditional Democratic voters to die. And they are bastards for it. They don't give a damn about health care reform for Americans, they only care about political power. Screw them with a chainsaw. San Dimas High School football rules."

Which probably explains why I'm not a Capitol Hill aide and speechwriter.

How is that any different that the hundreds of Republicans who said the President wants to kill people with "Death panels"? Should they also apologize? Sarah Palin? Newtie? Bachmanniac? Glennsanity? El Rushbo?

Still waiting on those apologies...and what about YOU LIE!?

Hmm? Hundreds of Republicans on TV can do whatever they want. One Democrat calls them out on it, it's breathtaking and shocking and the wiorst thing ever.

Republicans are truly bastards. My country for a real opposition party to the Dems.

Stupidity Equivilency

Via John Cole, we get Tom Friedman concern trolling Obama Derangement Syndrome and pulling this kind of "It's just like that!" Village Idiot crap. First, the concern:

What kind of madness is it that someone would create a poll on Facebook asking respondents, “Should Obama be killed?” The choices were: “No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.” The Secret Service is now investigating. I hope they put the jerk in jail and throw away the key because this is exactly what was being done to Rabin.

Even if you are not worried that someone might draw from these vitriolic attacks a license to try to hurt the president, you have to be worried about what is happening to American politics more broadly.

Our leaders, even the president, can no longer utter the word “we” with a straight face. There is no more “we” in American politics at a time when “we” have these huge problems — the deficit, the recession, health care, climate change and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — that “we” can only manage, let alone fix, if there is a collective “we” at work.

And then the trolling.

Sometimes I wonder whether George H.W. Bush, president “41,” will be remembered as our last “legitimate” president. The right impeached Bill Clinton and hounded him from Day 1 with the bogus Whitewater “scandal.” George W. Bush was elected under a cloud because of the Florida voting mess, and his critics on the left never let him forget it.

Because the attacks on Clinton and Obama's legitimacy by lunatics who impeached one and advocating a military coup against the other are just like the attacks on Bush's election screwup in Florida.

They are equivalent you see: the left is just as misguided and insane as the right. Village has always seen it that way and always will. Completely, 100% alike.

[UPDATE 11:53 AM] Hey look, Cap'n Ed Morissey can pull the equivalency card too. Gore Vidal is nuts too, so that absolves the entire right wing from the military coup thing from yesterday!

"The Left is just as crazy and violent" is no longer a valid excuse, people.

[UPDATE 2:32 PM] And Michael Steele still thinks Friedman is a "nut job" despite the fact that Friedman's column basically exonerates the Winger base by comparing the military coup freakos to those who thought Bush was not legitimately the President in 2000.

Classic.

Jobapalooza Preview

ADP's job loss report for September is still pretty grim, another 254,000 jobs estimated lost.

The decline was greater than the 200,000 loss economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast. But the difference was "not statistically meaningful," according to Joel Prakken, an ADP spokesman and chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC.

"The pattern of improvement in headline number is undeniable at this point," Prakken said. Private sector payrolls will continue to decline at a slowing rate for the next few months before modest job growth resumes "in the first few months of 2010," he added.

Large businesses, those with 500 or more workers, let 61,000 workers go. Medium-sized businesses, with between 50 and 499 workers, shed 93,000 jobs. And small businesses, those with less than 50 workers, reduced payrolls by 100,000.

Small businesses held will continue to shed more workers than larger and medium-sized firms, Prakken said. That's because large businesses started shrinking payrolls earlier and therefore will recover sooner, he explained.

It's not statistically significant unless you're one of those 54,000 I suppose...or are somebody who is currently employed because of those 54,000...you get my drift.

Modest job growth in early 2010, huh?

Don't see that happening, frankly.

Writing Off A Problem

The IMF is reporting that international bank losses still have a very long way to go.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday lowered its estimate for global writedowns for banks and other financial institutions to $3.4 trillion but warned that loan losses were set to rise as unemployment grew.

In April the IMF estimated in its Global Financial Stability Report that global bank losses could reach $4 trillion but said it cut the figure by $600 billion to reflect rising securities values and new methodology for calculating writedowns.

"Global financial stability has improved, but risks remain elevated and the risk of reversal remains significant," the IMF said. It added that the economic downturn was troughing but the recovery in advanced economies would be extremely slow.

The report said that while banks have enough capital to survive, their earnings are not expected to fully offset writedowns expected over the next 18 months.

It said stronger action was needed to bolster bank capital and earnings capacity to ensure banks could support a recovery.

The Fund said while private-sector credit growth has contracted in big economies, overall borrowing needs have not slowed as quickly because of burgeoning government deficits.

"The likely result is constrained credit availability," it said, adding that continued support by central banks may be required to alleviate this.

More bailouts and dirt-cheap loans will be needed, and in turn these banks will be sitting on the loans making money rather than risking lending that out to the cash-strapped American consumer or the businesses that employ them (for now).

The problem is that the banks will still need yet more money to stay up. We're maybe halfway through this mess at best. 2010 will not be pretty.

Going Coup-Coup

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog has a damn good point on yesterday's NewsMax.com article advocating a military coup against the President:

If the Democrats don't step up and shut this kind of talk down right now, I fear we are going to see violence in this country. And yes, it will be the Republicans' fault. But it will also be the fault of the Democratic party for watching the crazy talk grow, and not doing a thing to stand up to it. At some point, silence abets.

Let's see some response to the Obama Derangement Syndrome, guys. It's gone way the hell too far. And as Logan Murphy at C&L reminds us, it's not just fringish stuff like NewsMax and World Net Daily openly talking treason, it's guys like El Rushbo too.

This thread of commentary clearly is pushing toward a single thought -- to push people in the armed forces into seeing Obama as a usurper and traitor, just like the Honduran president, and toward the idea that a similar military-based removal of him from office might be justified.

Keep in mind that Limbaugh is only of only four pundits still broadcast daily on Armed Services Radio, so our men and women in uniform are getting fed this garbage on a daily basis. (And Wes Clark was right: It is well past time to take him off.)

Dismissing these guys as harmless cranks isn't an option anymore, guys. It's time to stand up here and say something. The Wingers have become so insane with hatred that being out of political power for less than a year already has some of them talking about a military coup against Obama.

This is deadly serious stuff here, guys. It's no longer a funny fantasy or a comic absurdity. It's borderline treason.

[UPDATE 8:55 AM] Even Rick Moran thinks this guy is insane. Mainly because this guy is insane.

The Public Option Playbook

TPMDC's Brian Beutler takes a look ahead at the future of the public option after yesterday's twin defeats in the Senate Finance Committee.

Soon, Reid will have to decide whether or not to import the HELP Committee's public option into the package he brings to the floor. If he does, it would completely shift the onus on to the skeptics. As it stands liberals are forced to make the push for the public option; if Reid adopts it, conservative Democrats would be smoked out: either they'd have to accept it, or come out strongly against it by voting with Republicans to strip it, or by filibustering the entire bill.

But he probably won't do that. So what then?

Assuming he doesn't (a safe assumption) there will be more amendments, and, soon enough, the entire Democratic caucus will have to go on the record anyhow. More than that, they'll have to decide whether a public option is worth filibustering. That will be a key test of party unity.

And to take things one step further still, if a public option is not in the final bill that passes the Senate, Democratic leaders could still adopt one in negotiations with the House of Representatives. Maybe they will and maybe they won't, but if they do, then conservative Democrats will have to decide yet again whether it's worth tanking the entire reform project over the inclusion of a fairly modest provision.

That's a lot of choke points, and a lot of pressure on public option skeptics. So while it's much too early to predict what will happen, it's also extremely premature to say the public option fight is over. As you can see, there are much more favorable battlefields ahead.

And while Beutler is right on the fights to come, the whole point is that there shouldn't be Democrats fighting against this in the first place.

The public option is a no-brainer, folks. It will save Americans money, it will lower health care costs by giving insurance companies competition, and it will make more affordable health care more widely available to millions of Americans, yet with sixty Senators, Democrats are whining that they just don't think a bill with the public option has the votes to pass.

In other words, there are Democrats that plan to filibuster the bill or vote against the bill if it has the public option in it. That's a problem. And it's one that the Democratic leadership better make clear to the rank and file that failure to pass a real reform bill will cost a lot of Democrats their job in 2010 and 2012.

BooMan has more:

The ideal situation from a parliamentary point of view is to include the HELP version of the public option in the base bill, and then force the opponents to strip it out with an amendment. But that might not work out for the best. For example, if the Senate has a knock-down drag-out fight over the public option and defeats it, it will be harder to get them to turn around and support it if it comes back at them in the Conference Report. The liberal majority in the Senate Democratic Caucus might be better served to save their ammunition. Pass whatever can pass without a lot of fuss and then fight like hell to include the House's public option in the Conference Report. I could go either way on the strategy. The most important thing is that the progressives in the House hold firm in their pledge to vote against a Conference Report that doesn't have a public option. They must make sure it is included in the House bill and they must prevail for its inclusion in the Report.

If they do, the only way they can fail is if there are Democrats (or Lieberman) in the Senate who will filibuster this at the end of the process. And, if that happens, we just go to the reconciliation process. I don't sense that the administration is wobbly on this at all, although I'm sure they are plenty nervous. They are a lot of balls in the air at the moment, and anything can still go wrong.

But that still means Democrats will be the ones killing this bill, not Republicans. It may be the best chance for real reform to pass, but if it fails, the Democrats will take the blame, not the Republicans.

StupidiNews!

• A massive 8.0 earthquake off the coast of American Samoa has created a tsunami disaster across the Pacific Islands, killing dozens.
• A bizarre situation in a small town in Montana has an unregistered security firm posing as the local police.
• Security and terrorism experts doubt the validity of reports that Al Qaeda is considering attacks with "internal explosive" laden bombers.
• America's biggest banks may have to fork over $10 billion in fees to replenish the tapped FDIC's tapped reserves.
• Data storage technology is advancing as firms consider new methods, including holographic disks.

Heart Of Darkness

Paging Colonel Kurtz...Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, please pick up the white courtesy phone. The Wingnuts are calling. NewsMax.com's John L. Perry fantasizes darkly:

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.

America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it.

Wow, now isn't THAT a copout. Suuuuure you're not advocating treason. That's what an armed military coup taking over the leadership of America is, after all...but because this is a nutcase Winger fantasy, nobody gets hurt but the bad guys.

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don't shrug and say, "We can always worry about that later."

In the 2008 election, that was the wistful, self-indulgent, indifferent reliance on abnegation of personal responsibility that has sunk the nation into this morass.

"You know, if we HAVE to have a magically bloodless coup where we take the military, relive the President of his power at gunpoint, and create an interim government, why I'm sure these military patriots will surrender that power back to the people in a just and peaceful manner."

Because world history is full of examples of that over the last 4,000 years. Jesus.

I really don't know what's more frightening, casually rattling off the inference that our military is packed full of officers and generals ready to execute a plan for high treason against the United States of America, or the completely moronic failure of this guy to understand even the most basic tenets of the history of military might over the last four millennia: Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.

But this is the discourse our neocons have, and Perry brilliantly represents the dichotomy that is Homo Wingnuttius: on one hand, he claims to have a inner knowledge of our military to the point where as an expert, he believes a coup is not only possible but necessary, and at the same time he demonstrates such a laughable lack of even a rudimentary grasp of military history that he and his "expertise" should be laughed out of the room by any sane and thinking individual. He perfectly encapsulates the neocon of the last decade: somebody who through his own claims demonstrates complete and total ignorance of the subject matter he claims to be opining on in capacity as an authority.

Better to ask a rock about high-energy particle physics. The rock at least has the sense to keep its mouth shut, putting it ahead of the Neocon.

And yet these people are taken seriously by the Village and terrify the Democrats.

Gaming The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court may take up California's controversial law banning violent video game sales to minors, one that was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court before the law ever even went into effect.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to discuss today whether it will hear arguments on an appeal of a California videogame law that would ban the sale of certain games to anyone under 18 and required game manufacturers to label violent games with a four-inch square marker with “18” printed on it.

This is the first time the country’s top court has considered a case involving sales restrictions within the video game industry.

Despite being signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005, the controversial proposition never took effect. A U.S. District Court blocked it after the gaming industry sued the state, citing First Amendment concerns.

In February of 2009, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violated the rights of minors under both the First and 14th Amendments.

California appealed the decision to the Supreme Court in May.

Justices were scheduled to meet Tuesday in a closed conference, where they will decide whether to put the case on the docket. A public information officer at the court said the orders list, which will either grant the request for oral arguments (and move the case forward) or deny it with no further comment (letting the lower court ruling stand), is expected to be issued as soon as Wednesday.

It'll be interesting to see how this one turns out. The video game industry is hurting badly, and should the California case pass muster, you'd better believe other states will follow suit or even national laws will be on the books by 2010.

That will blow a pretty fatal hole in the already struggling console market. Not good.

Max Baucus Returns, Part 7

Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer put up a pair of public option amendments to the Baucus plan in the Finance Committee today, and Maxie killed them both.

The amendments by Democratic Sens. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Charles Schumer of New York were opposed by all 10 Republicans on the committee and a few Democrats, including committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

Baucus explained that he liked much about the idea of a public option but that he knew a health care bill containing the provision would fail to win enough support in the full Senate to overcome a Republican filibuster.

"I fear if this provision is in the bill, it will hold back meaningful reform this year," Baucus said.

Let's review, class:

Democrats will have 60 votes once Ted Kennedy's replacement is sworn in.

Democrats will need 60 votes to beat a GOP filibuster.

There are Democrats that will not vote for cloture to stop the GOP filibuster on health care reform if a public option is included, one that will save Americans money. One of those Senators, and it only takes one, is Max Baucus. He was not the only one.

This is why millions of Americans will not get meaningful health care reform this year or any other year, because your Congress is owned by insurance companies.

What do you suppose voters should do about Max Baucus?

Class dismissed.

[UPDATE 4:53 PM] Your extra credit work is from Pam Spaulding.

[UPDATE 5:09 PM] D-Day runs down the roll call:

Here's the vote on the Rockefeller amendment: Rockefeller, Aye; Conrad, No; Bingaman, Aye; Kerry, Aye; Lincoln, No; Wyden, Aye; Schumer, Aye; Stabenow, Aye; Cantwell, Aye; Bill Nelson, No; Menendez, Aye; Carper, No; Grassley, No; Hatch, No, Snowe; No; Kyl, No; Bunning, No; Crapo, No; Roberts, No; Ensign, No; Enzi, No; Cornyn, No; Baucus, No.

8 Ayes, 15 Nos. Conrad, Lincoln, Bill Nelson, Carper and Baucus have been ferreted out. We'll see if anyone flips on the Schumer "level playing field" amendment. Given the debate on the prior amendment, I'd say that MAYBE Bill Nelson could go that route. Probably not anyone else.

Now we know which Democrats want to protect the insurance industry at the expense of people.

And on that Schumer Amendment?

..here's the vote: Schumer Aye; Rockefeller Aye; Bingaman Aye; Kerry Aye; Cantwell Aye; Stabenow Aye; Wyden Aye; Menendez Aye; Bill Nelson Aye; Baucus No; Conrad No; Carper Aye; Lincoln No; All R's no.

So Carper and Nelson flipped. Amendment fails 10-13. Only Lincoln, Conrad and Baucus against it.

Tom Carper of Delaware, Bill Nelson of Florida, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, and Max Baucus of Montana, folks. Owned by the insurance companies. They should be disowned by voters.

Quote Of The Week

Sully on Sister Sarah:

She remains the hood ornament for a marketing campaign that now passes for the conservative movement.

When he's on, brother he's dead on.

No Longer Buying What You're Selling, Mike

Poor Michael Steele. He holds a conference call with reporters to attack the President on health care (which is not news, because the GOP is irrelevant on health care reform by their own admission), and then makes the mistake of attacking the President on the Olympics (which the Village, being the Village, thinks is news.)

Dems are now seizing on that as proof that reporters don’t believe the GOP has credibility on health care, or at least have no interest in Steele’s views on it.

“It speaks directly to the RNC’s complete lack of credibility on health insurance reform that they would hold a conference call on health care and no one was at all curious about how Republicans felt about health care,” emails DNC spokesperson Brandi Hoffine. “I guess that’s what happens when you have no plan.”

To be fair, the Republicans who might better be questioned about health care are those with a direct say over it: Members of Congress. And Steele did get in some health care licks, hammering Obama’s reform plans as imposing untold costs on “businesses and families that will not hasten recovery but prolong recession.”

It’s also worth noting that the GOP’s health care opinions just aren’t relevant. The final proposal will pass with a handful of Republicans at best. It’s up to Dems.

But Dems counter that the RNC billed the call as being about health care — and couldn’t even get a reporter to ask Steele for his views about the big topic of the day.

I don't honestly know what's worse, the Village, or how completely awful Michael Steele is at playing their games.

[UPDATE 3:50 PM] Speaking of attacking the President on the Olympics, why do the GOP insist on saying idiotic stuff like this?

"I think it's baffling that the president has time to travel to Copenhagen," said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri. "[Obama's] got a lot of responsibilities. His number one responsibility is to keep our country safe."

Yes, because at this point in George W. Bush's first term we had just been hit by the worst terror attack in our nation's history. I'm going to say in comparison, Obama's doing a great job on that.

No Longer The Big Cats

The Bengals and the Lions now have better records than my 0-3 Carolina Panthers after last night's interception debacle cost them the game on MNF.

I like coach John Fox. But I think he just lost his job last night. The bye week Charlotte media is not gonna be happy.