Chuck Todd Defines the Debate

Chuck Todd on Twitter today.

"Defining 'bipartisanship.' White House believes it's about legislation with something for both parties; the GOP argues for the passage of just what they agree with."

I'm guessing he'll never say that on the air where it would actually do some good.

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Krugman smacks down Roger Ailes

Whoa. I love it when Krugman gets shrill. Killer slap at Faux News' Roger Ailes, sitting right next to him.



And I know it's shallow to mention it, but doesn't Ailes just look like a thug? He exudes this scum sucking parasitic fatcat vibe. Doesn't he look remarkably like Big Daddy Warbucks in the Orphan Annie comics? Or maybe Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life.

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We need a hero

This Frank Rich op-ed hits on what is driving the disenchantment with Obama.

The historian Alan Brinkley has observed that we will soon enter the fourth decade in which Congress — and therefore government as a whole — has failed to deal with any major national problem, from infrastructure to education. The gridlock isn’t only a function of polarized politics and special interests. There’s also been a gaping leadership deficit. [...]

Americans like Obama far more than they like any Congressional leader. They might even like more of his policies if he spelled them out. But none of that matters if no Democrat fears him enough to do any of his bidding and no Republican believes there’s any price to be paid for always saying no.

Leaving aside the whole question of whether anyone should have expected him to advance a progressive agenda -- and they shouldn't have -- what people did expect was that he would be a strong leader who used his rhetorical gift to inspire the nation to action. I have to admit while I was sure he wouldn't be nearly liberal enough, I had hoped he would be more of a leader than the facilitator he's been so far.

Of course, it's only been a year and his smackdown of the GOPers at their retreat this week did provide a glimmer of hope that he can rise to greatness yet. Keeping my fingers crossed even as our ridiculous political discourse has me cross-eyed with frustration.

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Laugh in haste, repent at leisure

Not all teabaggers are stupid. While the lefties are amusing themselves by mocking the deluded teabaggers and sipping on schadenfreude over the implosion of the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, there is a Tea Party faction out-organizing us. This is no joke.

These Tea Party people are playing it smart. Infiltrating the party organization at the local caucus level is exactly how you challenge the party machine from within. This is how we got Robert Reich on the ballot in Massachusetts in that long ago governor's race. The pundits said it couldn't be done. He threw his hat in late and he had no money. But what he did have was an enthusiastic base who stormed the local elections prior to the state convention. We got enough voting slots there to put him on the ticket. They barely beat us in the primary and that was only because there were so many candidates running. In a two man race or under IRV, we would have won.

So progressives can spend their time laughing and pointing at wingnuts and bitching on the sidelines about our president's failure to change things for us but victory will go to those who step up and actually fight on the field. The old maxims may be stale but they're still true. He who laughs last, laughs best. Progressives would do well to remember that or the joke will be on us in November.

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Obama fangirl Virginia Foxx

I haven't been able to bring myself to follow my crazy House Representative Virginia Foxx on Twitter. It's too irritating and it ruins the refuge from wingnuttery that I've built for myself over there. Not like it's necessary anyway. When she says something particularly amusing, it gets retweeted repeatedly. Have to agree that this is the funniest wingnut tweet ever -- at least so far.

Pres gave us another lecture. Our guys asked great questions. Need independent fact checker for his comments. Got autograph.

As you can imagine, this inspired an hours long blitz of hilarious parody tweets along the lines of, "Hitler lectured us on Aryan Nation. Asked some good Qs. Got autograph."

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Dear Dems: Where's the outrage?

There's some new poll out that unsurprisingly shows most of the general public is completely unaware of how far the GOPers have gone to obstruct necessary governance. Steve Benen has a simple request for the Democratic majority.

Put simply, I'd like Democratic leaders to think about what Republicans would do if the situations were completely reversed. Then they should do that.

Granted it's easier for the GOPers to get the *liberal* media to air their grievances, but still, if the Dems made enough noise the tradmed wouldn't be able to ignore it forever.

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Paging Harry Reid

Thinking Nancy Pelosi doesn't get nearly enough credit for the work she's done on getting progressive legislation passed through her chamber. Quote of the day is her description of her health care reform strategy:

You go through the gate. If the gate's closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we'll pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we'll parachute in. But we're going to get health care reform passed for the American people.

Harry Reid, are you listening? Take a lesson.

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Breitbart not so bright

I wouldn't bother to post this except I've never seen Andrew Breitbart speaking before. I had no idea he was so bizarre on camera. Or is it just that he's melting down under the pressure of his star citizen felon being arrested. He was apparently embarrassed enough by this interview that he felt he had to tell the world he was tricked into giving it under the pretense he wasn't going to have to speak about his boy O'Keefe's arrest.



This is the guy that's supposed to save journalism? Or take it back for conservatives. Or something. I guess we can start hanging the black crepe then, because journalism will surely die if this guy is its future. [via Bob Cesca. ]

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JD Salinger and Me

"People always clap for the wrong things." ~Holden Caulfield

Truthfully, I haven't thought about him in years so it's a bit odd that I'm feeling so affected by his death. Guess that's the way of the world in this age. So much to distract us and since he dropped off the grid, I didn't remember until JD Salinger died, how much he meant to me in my formative years.

I read Catcher in the Rye when I was 12 years old. I may even been as young as 12 actually. I don't remember exactly, but I do recall that I read the book because my friends' older siblings were all talking about in whispers, as if it was daring and somehow illicit to view his prose. Wanted to see for myself what the buzz was about. I was hooked for life. I read everything he ever wrote and it formed, and informed, my view of the world.

One of the reasons I started dating my first husband was because he owned Salinger's complete works. That didn't work out so well, but the books got me through some rough stages. That was a long time ago. Thinking the best memorial I can give Salinger now is to read them all again.

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Too nice to blog

Everyone else seems to be having snow or bad weather and hearing the weather is going to fall apart here for a few days, starting tomorrow. But at the moment it's a gorgeous afternoon in the little city so I'm going out for a walk. Be back in couple of hours with my post-SOTU thoughts.

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Oregon votes to tax the wealthy

Unlike the frenzy surrounding last week's special election in MA, it doesn't appear our "liberal" tradmed is keen on obsessively dissecting the "the lessons of Oregon." Yesterday's vote passed by decisive margins. All the more remarkable in that a state that's historically anti-tax passed such strong taxation measures.

Measure 66 raises income taxes on individuals who earn more than $125,000 and on couples who earn more than $250,000, less than 3 percent of the state population. Measure 67 raises taxes and fees on most businesses.

Completely contradicts the narrative of the MA Senate race that the populist uprising indicates the public's shift to right. Considering the supporters of the measures were up against Freedom Works tea party astroturfers and big business interests, it looks instead like a demand for progressive policies. The tradmed will ignore it since it doesn't fit their template, but the politicians would do well to wake up and see where the votes really are going to found, which is sure as hell not going to be at the Tea Party Convention.


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Andy Breitbart's New Found Patience

Given its history and Andy's total lack of integrity, the headline at Breitbart's smear site is especially hilarious: MSM Leaping to Conclusions -- While Big Government Waits for Facts. No I'm not going to link to it. I'm going quote extensively so you don't have to give him the traffic.

Wait until the facts are in.

Mainstream Media, ACORN, Media Matters (all the supposed defenders of due process and journalistic ethics) are jumping to conclusions over the arrest today of James O’Keefe, with the clear intention to smear and, if possible, convict O’Keefe and his alleged co-conspirators in the court of public opinion in order to taint the “jury of their peers.”

The ACORN story was a huge black eye for the organized left and their allies and cohorts in the mainstream media. So they are relishing every minute of this breaking story, making it their top story – while they ignored the initial ACORN story until they no longer could.

MSNBC and other “news organizations” are even billing this developing story as “Watergate”. What do Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow know? And when did they know it?

Actually, most people are calling it "Buggergate" and the most popular Twitter hashtag for the multitude of mockery is #teabugger. Moreover, considering that an independent investigation cleared ACORN of any illegal activity and found O'Keefe's tapes had been heavily edited, it's particularly amusing to hear Andy whine about tainting public opinion.

I’m sure they would like to believe O’Keefe is stupid enough to try to “wiretap” a sitting U.S. senator in broad daylight during office hours, while recording the entire sequence of events on his cell phone camera. And they’d like you to believe it, too.

Why yes. Yes we do believe that O'Keefe is not only stupid enough to do it, but arrogant enough to think he would get away with it.

But there is absolutely no allegation in the criminal complaint that “wiretapping” or “bugging” is any part of this case, just the charge that O’Keefe and the others entered Sen. Landrieu’s office in New Orleans “for the purpose of interfering with the office’s telephone system.”

So nice to see Breitbart's sudden concern for semantics. I mean, there's a million reasons for "interfering with a phone system" isn't there?

In other words, speculation is rampant, but facts are few. And basic logic suggests that there’s much more to this story since there is so little information.

Well except for the affidavit where the perps already confessed. But you know, kids -- they just love to illegally tamper with phone systems, just for the fun of it.

Let me state clearly for the record: wiretapping is wrong. But until I hear the full story from James O’Keefe, I will not speculate as to what he was doing in Louisiana.

I'm hearing that since Landrieu is on the Homeland Security Committee this is an especially serious crime. Small wonder that Breitbart is frantically distancing himself. Meanwhile, I'm still enjoying his discomfort way too much. Can't help taking satisfaction in seeing this scumbag and his salaried citizen felon get some karmic kickback for recklessly ruining so many innocent lives with their bogus "journalism."

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End Legalized Robbery by Law Enforcement

I've ranted about the forfeiture laws so many times I expect most of the readers here don't need any background. If you do, by all means read the entirety of Radley Balko's excellent piece. However, here's something I didn't know before:

The 1984 law lowered the bar for civil forfeiture. To seize property, the government had only to show probable cause to believe that it was connected to drug activity, or the same standard cops use to obtain search warrants. The state was allowed to use hearsay evidence—meaning a federal agent could testify that a drug informant told him a car or home was used in a drug transaction—but property owners were barred from using hearsay, and couldn’t even cross-examine some of the government’s witnesses. Informants, while being protected from scrutiny, were incentivized monetarily: According to the law, snitches could receive as much as one-quarter of the bounty, up to $50,000 per case.

So not only does law enforcement have a compelling interest in trumping up "probable cause" in order to enrich their own coffers, the snitches have an incentive to lie. Our LEOs already rely way too heavily on snitches entrapping vulnerable people in order to get their conviction rates up. This is no way to run a "justice system." It's long past time to abolish this practice.


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Breitbart's ACORN con man James O'Keefe busted by Feds

I'm probably enjoying this story too much, but it is so good to see the karmic kickback once in a while. Con man James O'Keefe, who rose to fame when Andrew Breitbart posted his doctored ACORN sting videos on the Big Gov website, was arrested by the FBI for illegal wiretapping of Louisiana Sen Mary Landrieu's phones. He was busted with three other young men, including a Louisiana US Attorney's son and a guy who apparently runs some kind of bizarre "spy school" to prepare students for a career in intelligence work.

The US Atty's son is connected to a astroturf wingnut think tank whose attorney offers a glimpse of a possible defense.

Robert Flanagan's attorney, J. Garrison Jordan, said he believes his client works for the Pelican Institute. Asked the motivation for the alleged wiretap plot, he said: "I think it was poor judgment. I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."

Actually, illegally wiretapping a federal office is a crime. Period. And O'Keefe videotaped the crime on his cellphone. Forgive me for hoping they get convicted based on that. Breitbart and his prized "citizen investigator" don't appear to have grasped the concept of rule of law in the past, though Breitbart may be getting a clue. In the instant matter he claims to have no prior knowledge.

And what will the 31 House Republicans who sponsored a resolution honoring O'Keefe have to say now, I wonder? Probably nothing unless the "liberal media" decide to ask them. Don't hold your breath.

TPM has the FBI affidavit and the defendants have already admitted much of their involvement. So far no word on who funded this little criminal enterprise. Can't wait to find out.

Just in: Story keeps getting more amusing. Unconfirmed as of yet, but it's possible Flanagan was an intern for a House GOPer from Oklamhoma. Seems likely to pan out to me. Turning into a big story...

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Tax the Rich

I'm out for few hours this morning to do family stuff and I'm not going to join into the mass freakout about the proposed spending freeze for the moment. There will be more than enough blogviating about that today. I'll be watching these tax the rich initiatives being voted on in Oregon today. Be very interesting to see if a state that is historically and adamantly anti-tax will decide to ask the wealthy to pay more, since they have more.

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Cutting the bootstraps for the poor

Hoping this is a typo, but Matt says the SOTU preview has this tiny problematic proposal:

[T]he president is calling on Congress to nearly double the child care tax credit for families earning less than $85,000 — a proposal that, if adopted, would lower by $900 the taxes such families owe to the government. But the credit would not be refundable, meaning that families would not get extra money back on a tax refund.

Admit the difference was lost on me, but as Matt explains it, it won't be of any benefit to poor people and it's exactly the opposite of what the administration said during the transition. Of course, only DFHs and other "far left" liberals care about poor people, so maybe it's a brilliant political move to throw low income taxpayers to the wolves. Certainly, the AP summary of the speech doesn't seem concerned about the non-refundable part and unless the tradmed decides to make it an issue, probably most people won't even notice.

Nonetheless, I can't imagine how this is going to help poor people break the cycle of poverty. Decent daycare is the key that allows low income parents improve their employment status.

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No bedwetting

While the media is ginning up a fake narrative, portraying his return as some panic stricken response by the White House, which I don't think is true, it's still good to see David Plouffe take a public face for Obama again. He pens a good op-ed worth reading in full, but this is the take-away point for the Dems:

* No bed-wetting. This will be a tough election for our party and for many Republican incumbents as well. Instead of fearing what may happen, let's prove that we have more than just the brains to govern -- that we have the guts to govern. Let's fight like hell, not because we want to preserve our status, but because we sincerely believe too many everyday Americans will continue to lose if Republicans and special interests win.

It's so simple and the only solution that can save the Democrats in the long term. This was the mandate they were given when the people gave them the majority they claimed they needed in order to "change DC." The desire for bipartisanship is a fantasy of The Village. What the average voter wants to see is a righteous smackdown of the people and policies that got us into this mess. They might want to try that while they still have the power to do it.

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Kristol: Rather be wrong than gone

I'm so old I remember when being wrong would keep you off the teevee. Not any more. The King of Quackery, Krazy Bill Kristol suffers no consequence for being so wrong his own father is embarrassed. Worse yet, he apparently does it on purpose. So he can stay in the spotlight.

“He would rather take an interesting wrong position than a dull correct one,” says a longtime neocon who did not want to be named because the two are friendly. Several people who know Kristol describe his Palin boosterism—his very public campaign to persuade John McCain to put her on the Republican ticket—as a schoolboy-like infatuation, sparked when a Weekly Standard cruise docked in Juneau. [...] “Bill’s a very close friend of mine, but he does an awful lot of things just to get publicity,” says one prominent Republican who also did not want to be named for fear of offending Kristol. [...]

Even his father had his qualms. “My poor son has got it wrong again,” he sometimes lamented to an old family friend.

I'd have more sympathy for Irving if he didn't create this monster. He's the one that dumped his son into the arms of the wingnut welfare system so they could pretend he has acheived something, no matter what the cost to civil society.

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Post racial society

Guilty of being on the street while black. I'm sure this is somehow Obama's fault for failing to keep his "promise" to create a post-racial society.

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The people are confused about reform

You know how much I hate polls but Kaiser’s January Health Tracking poll [pdf] was fascinating. I did a long form at DetNews on this one but the short version is: A majority supports the specific provisions of the reform bill. The volume of GOP lies that have been taken as fact and the ignorance of the specifics among the electorate is alarming. You can thank our useless tradmed for that.

The Democrats screwed this up by dicking around so long that the GOP had time to build a completely false narrative, playing into the peoples' fear. Just like they have for the last decade. And the only way the party is going to save its sorry ass is to find the balls to tell the GOP and their own corporatists to fuck off and pass a good bill. And I mean now.

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Why Brown won in MA

There's so many polls that contradict each other it's difficult to take them too seriously, but this one explains why the mighty DEM GOTV machine in MA didn't turn out that vote. It would appear the rank and file union workers didn't get aboard.

A poll conducted on behalf of the AFL-CIO found that 49% of Massachusetts union households supported Mr. Brown in Tuesday's voting, while 46% supported Democrat Martha Coakley. The poll conducted by Hart Research Associates surveyed 810 voters.

The poll showed Ms. Coakley drew more support among voters with a college education, by a five-point margin, while she lost by a 20-point margin among voters without a college degree.

Guy Molyneux, a pollster with Hart Research Associates, said the poll showed "pretty strong evidence" of voters who worried the health-care overhaul moving through Congress would tax their employer-provided benefits, even though Mr. Obama had agreed to a deal that exempted workers in collective bargaining agreements until 2018. Unions stepped up their campaign efforts for Ms. Coakley after that, but it wasn't enough to turn the tide.

I don't know whether union people register as Democrats or not, but this probably explains why they lost the independents as well. Blue collar workers and indys mostly don't follow politics closely. These are the subset of voters who are most easily fooled by optics and sloganery. Brown was allowed to paint himself as a populist without challenge and Coakley couldn't have across as more elitist and out of touch with the working class.

That pretty much describes the current dynamics on the national level too.

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Fixing the Filibuster

I've spent a lot of time defending the filibuster in the past. I still think it has the potential to be a useful tool if it's used properly. The problem, of course, as we've witnessed since the GOP became the minority party, is its potential to be abused and used to grind the business of the government to a total halt is too easily exploited. This new proposal by Harkin to modify the filibuster rules seems like a good start toward bringing it back to its original purpose and restoring some functionality into our non-functional Senate.

It's certainly worth a try and I'll be supporting it fully if it goes anywhere. Keep your fingers crossed...

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So who voted for Scott Brown

The link is subscription only, but I'm posting this post MA Senate election quote because it's so shocking to me that this comment comes from a kid living in Amherst.

"I really would not like to see health care turned into an American right," said Blodgett, 29. "I don't want certain decisions to be made by government, like how much we are going to spend for someone to live on extended care, abortions, a right to cosmetic surgery or sex change operations. These are not things we are able to deal with as a country."

Happy Valley kids are often uninterested and uninformed about politics, but I never encountered any who would bother to cast a ballot based on misinformation straight out of the GOP Book of Lies. I blame the media.

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Protest voting

While I think President Obama is being criticized too much about things over which he really doesn't have control and not given nearly enough credit for the good things he has accomplished in the last year, Congress is a whole other matter. Ezra is right in noting that at least for one cycle, it would send a strong message to the Democrats if the progressives stay home on election day.

Seems to me that we're never going to have a safer time to try that strategy than this year. If the Democrats cave on health insurance reform now, and especially if they start racing to the right because they're so freaked out by a stupidly handled special election in MA, it's an option I'm very likely to consider.

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The Volcker Rule

Here's something President Obama is doing right. Cracking down on the banksters would make me very happy.

— President Obama on Thursday will publicly propose giving bank regulators the power to limit the size of the nation’s largest banks and the scope of their risk-taking activities, an administration official said late Wednesday.

The president, for the first time, will throw his weight behind an approach long championed by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve and an adviser to the Obama administration. The proposal will put limits on bank size and prohibit commercial banks from trading for their own accounts — known as proprietary trading.

Of course a proposal is not a law and I have my doubts that Congress will ever get serious about financial reform of their biggest funders, but I'm willing to hold on to some hope that it could happen. I'm an optimist that way.

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SCOTUS Screwed Us

I've been expecting this since I read about the case months ago, but it still rankles that SCOTUS struck down limits on corporate money being spent to influence elections. The only bright side I see here is that they actually have been doing this already by stealthily funding front groups to do their dirty work, so maybe we'll see some of those dismantled.

Probably a fool's hope though since the court insisted on a disclosure rule that forces them to identify the funders of the advertising. Seems more likely we'll see even more scummy astroturf orgs to provide cover.

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What's the matter with Democrats

I'm a rampage against anonymously sourced stories, but this is one time when it's warranted. TPM posts an anonymous email from a long time insider staffer on Capitol Hill. It's as depressing as it is illuminating.

First, I admit I don't really understand how the archaic rules of the Congress work, but I've been trying to figure out how the GOP managed to push through so much legislation and block Democratic interference so successfully with a much smaller majority. These excerpts explain some of the tricks.

Every bill came to the floor under a closed rule so we couldn't propose amendments and our Senate colleagues faced a full amendment tree on every bill such that unless they had Republican patron they couldn't get votes either. Kennedy fought like hell for things like minimum wage and sometimes could arm-wrestle a procedural vote win out of them but things would just die in the hands of the Hammer in the House. ...

The Republican Majority in the House had steadily eroded so that by the end of the Clinton years they had only a 5 seat cushion (223) in the House, but their strong majority in the Senate (55) kept them firmly in control. ...

We got occasional fig leaves, and maybe could get a witness or two included in a hearing, but were essentially not a part of the final discussions to put together bills. ...

And this explains why Reid is such an epic failure as the Senate *leader*.

It was disheartening when it seemed that Reid was allowing McConnell's disingenuous narrative of "it's always taken 60 votes to get anything done" to take hold, but we were later even saved from that when Specter switched. ...

Of course, it didn't make any difference because Reid simply refused to use his power to push the Dem's agenda. But here's the really depressing part.

The worst is that I can't help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They're afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That's the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.

I've suspected since Coakley started to crash that the national Dems deliberately let her implode just so they could have their excuse for self-serving spinelessness back. Seeing it affirmed makes it all the more tragic. And infuriating.

I urge to read the whole thing. It's an education.

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What Now for Health Insurance Reform?

Predictably, the Democrats are now in total panic mode and ready to jump ship on reform. That, of course, would be an incredibly stupid move, the GOP is going to use it as a blungeon this year and in 2012 no matter what they do. The only difference will be the framing. The narrative will either be big government takeover of health care or the Dems were too incompetent to pass their own bill. They should take a look at Ezra's proposal.

Democrats could scrap the legislation and start over in the reconciliation process. But not to re-create the whole bill. If you go that route, you admit the whole thing seemed too opaque and complex and compromised. You also admit the limitations of the reconciliation process. So you make it real simple: Medicare buy-in between 50 and 65. Medicaid expands up to 200 percent of poverty with the federal government funding the whole of the expansion. Revenue comes from a surtax on the wealthy.

And that's it. No cost controls. No delivery-system reforms. Nothing that makes the bill long or complex or unfamiliar. Medicare buy-in had more than 51 votes as recently as a month ago. The Medicaid change is simply a larger version of what's already passed both chambers. This bill would be shorter than a Danielle Steel novel. It could take effect before the 2012 election.

If health-care reform that preserves the private market is too complex and requires too many dirty deals with the existing industries, then cut both out. But get it done. Democrats have a couple of different options for passing health-care reform this year. But not passing health-care reform should not be seen as one of them.

It's not perfect but it's the best solution I've heard so far.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

MA Senate Race: Too Little, Too Late

I'm posting my long form thoughts at Detroit News so see What Happened and The Lessons for the deep analysis. The short answer is the Dems were outplayed by Brown, who actually ran a brilliant campaign, and they had better start taking charge instead of allowing themselves to be rolled at every turn by the GOPers.

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Like an atheist prayer for Coakley

Sorry I disappeared yesterday. Been doing GOTV for Coakley. I'm also pushing a meme that's a modified version of my Red Sox theory that I'm convinced helped them break the curse of the Bambino and you can help. It's simple.

Group synergy is a powerful and overlooked tool. Visualize victory. *See* the headline, "Coakley Wins!" and hold it in your mind today. It couldn't hurt. And of course if you're a MA resident, please get to the polls and vote for Coakley.

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Unsourced rumors

Building on the post just below, huge scoop at CNN. Multiple White House insiders say they've privately predicted Coakley will lose the MA Senator to the teabagger guy, Brown. That would be multiple unnamed sources. Atrios links in and I saw it several times on Twitter. I assume this implies a fairly wide and instant deploy of the story.

Thinking this is a deliberate leak and a good strategy for the Democrats. Enthusiasm is tanking, so they engender some panic in the Dem base to boost the turnout. They probably need it. Brown ran a slick, Romneyesque campaign and it's going to be close. So this time it serves a purpose I approve. But still, in the bigger scheme of life, depending on unnamed leaks is no way to run a media, or a government.

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Named sources ensure accountability

Haven't been following the buzz about the Obama administration's relationship with their health care reform modeler Gruber that has Glenzilla and FDL so excited. From what I've read, although disclosure would have been better, I'm not seeing that one as a major problem. But this piece by NYT public editor Clark Hoyt looking at conflicts of interest more generally highlights some I find more egregious, like Chertoff's business interest in full body scanners at airports.

The lack of disclosure is an ongoing problem in the media. Most of their expert pundits have some kind of conflict, the most serious and mostly unaddressed within the industry being the retired military experts routinely trotted out during the last administration to push Bush's wars. But the real takeaway here for me is the importance of using named versus the anonymous sources that have become a staple of big media "reporting." At least when the sources are named, people can do their own research to determine credibility based on conflicts. All too often, a buzz and subsequent outrage builds on anonymously sourced rumors. Seems to me the remedy to that is to refuse to take the bait unless it's clear the source has a legitimate reason to protect their identity.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

John McCain Puts Afghanis First

This slipped under the radar during the holidays, and it's still worth archiving. McCain and his sidekick Lieberman were on the road last month, praising the US military unmanned drone attacks. But it was this quote from McCain that caught my eye:

"So we will be seeking both the funding and the policy that would mean that the Afghan military can be built up to a total of 400,000 troops in order to fulfill the responsibilities and meet the challenges that they face," he said.

This was around the same time of the release of this McCain campaign ad.

A narrator calls McCain “Arizona’s last line of defense” against Obama’s agenda and says McCain leads the charge against “ridiculously unaffordable ideas like government-run health care.”

So GOP Johnny wants full funding for the Iraqi Afghani army, but doesn't want the US government to spend any money on Americans' health care. Except, one assumes, his own that has been pretty much provided by the government from birth.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Kill the Bill and What Do You Get....

Nothing. You get to keep the status quo.

I've been staying out of the intercine lefty blogwar but I've finally had enough of this misguided campaign. While I think that Dave Weigel is giving FDL too much credit for the announcement today that another incumbent Dem, Shadegg Vic Snyder of AK, is retiring, their stupid push polls and Kill the Bill campaign are not helping the progressive cause as far as I can tell. If anything, it's moving the Overton window to the right. Shadegg was a moderate who often voted progressively. How does pushing him out move the window to the left?

The fact is the health care bill is ridiculously complicated and nobody really knows what it will do once it's enacted. What we do know for sure is the price of allowing the status quo to remain unchallenged. We're living with the empirical evidence of that. And I can't fail to recall how many times FDL and the other kill the bill people mocked the Democrats for not knowing how to play the game. I'd suggest they check the rule book themselves. It's not easy to get over 500 politicians to agree on a big measure and compromises have to be made in order to make any progress. Any change is better than no change at all. Even if it's for the worse -- which is not at all clear -- it's movement and if the bill fails to improve the situation, at least we'll know what doesn't work.

Down with Tyranny has a much better approach. They've been critical of the bill and of Obama and managed to do it without throwing in their lot with Grover Norquist or adopting right wing framing that only helps the GOP. DWT links to a really good piece that reminds us how the game works. Nobody gets everything they want. And for crying out loud, change we can believe in was a slogan, not a promise to demolish the broken system we've had for decades and completely rebuild it to progressive specs in under a year.

And I'm sorry. Much as I like Jane and respect her work in the past this all smacks too much of putting personal advancement above advancing the cause. One can't fail to remember when FDL joined in roundly deriding Democrats for appearing on Fox and legitimizing the GOP outlet. Now we see Jane appearing on Fox, smiling sweetly at those bobbleheads she villified only months ago and complaining when they don't credit her site for doing their oppo work. And who doesn't know that in today's media environment, that the surest way to get attention, big media links and teevee time is to speak against the President and the Democratic agenda?

Further, Jane has survived three operations for breast cancer, so I assume she has insurance coverage that she feels secure in keeping. I suspect most of the Kill the Bill people do as well. I'd remind them that for the millions of people who can't afford to buy coverage, or can't get coverage at all under the current system, this quixotic quest for progressive purity looks not only self-serving, but a little selfish. If they succeed in killing the bill, they also condemn thousands of Americans to an untimely death from lack of health care. Last I looked, that's not a progressive value.

Tactics matter. Holding their feet to the fire is good, but burning down the house to do it just doesn't help anyone -- except the teabaggers and the Republicans.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Hope in Haiti

Out of the vast devastation and tragic deaths, one small wonder of survival.


A tiny child reunited with his mother after being rescued from the rubble.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The media is the money

So let me get this straight. Sarah Palin signs with Fox to be an on air personality and when she gives her $100,000 speech next month to the Tea Party convention, only Fox and their sister news org WSJ get media access? How rogue.

She's not running for president anymore. Everybody who predicted she quit progressing Alaska to get a juicy Fox contract -- wins.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

What Would Bush Have Done?

I know Obama is far from perfect, but this response makes me proud of my President again.

He’d just gotten off the phone with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to talk about rescue and relief efforts after the Haitian earthquake. A larger meeting in the Situation Room is scheduled for 7:15 pm EST.

“I expect a full report at 7:15,” the president told his team, according to NSS chief of staff Denis McDonough. “I want to know why it is we’re doing what we are -- and why it is we’re not doing more.”

This is why we voted for him. Also seeing on Twitter that Michelle Obama is going to be cutting a PSA today, asking people to help. And the Red Cross texting for donations campaign raised $1 million* in the last 24 hours. Makes me proud to be an American. (* Updates now saying between $2-3 million)

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

"All of Them"

Breaking my Palin embargo because this is really too funny and needs to be archived. Meet Fox's newest pundidiot. Isn't the chemistry between Beck and Palin just awesome? They should do a show together, or better yet - Beck/Palin 2012. Or would that be reversed? With those egos they would never be able to decide. Maybe they could run as co-presidents.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Wingnuts Hating on Haiti

The ghouls of the far right didn't waste any time trying to score points on this tragedy. Moralizing bible thumper Pat Robertson was first to blame the Haitians for allegedly making a pact with the devil to get rid of the French or something like that.

Meanwhile, the GOP's number one gasbag, Limbaugh leaps straight to the hate. Couldn't bring myself to listen to the audios, but he apparently couldn't wait to accuse Obama of using Haiti to "boost his credibility with 'light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country'." Then he followed that up with some general hate on the dark people saying, "[W]e've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax." Trying to grasp the cosmic logic of taking so many innocent lives on that island and allowing these two hateful morons to live on, and on...

How inhuman do you have to be not to be moved to some tiny bit of empathy by photos like these, which are the best I've seen picturing the scale of the devastation. Also if you want to follow breaking news from the ground, this general twitter feed is updating frequently. And I'm sure I don't have to tell you high denominator readers that if you're moved to donate, be careful of the scammers. Seems those vultures also arrive on the heels of Limbaugh like vultures circling road kill.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Grayson Slaps GOPers

Ouch! How can you not love Alan Grayson?



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Obama's First Veto

I suppose this is newsworthy because it is Obama's first veto but it's not much of a story. It's about procedure, not really the politics. The takeaway point for me is the rules of goverance on Capitol Hill have become much too convoluted to get anything of substance done in a timely manner.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Health Insurers Hate Reform

The kill the bill crowd keeps telling me how much the insurance industry loves the reform bill and granted they did say they wanted to help pass it. But like a cheating lover, they were getting cozy with the national Chamber of Commerce behind our backs and quietly pumped millions into attack ads, funneling through the Chamber''s coffers.

That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint, according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The companies are all members of the powerful trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.

The funds were solicited by AHIP and funneled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help underwrite tens of millions of dollars of television ads by two business coalitions set up and subsidized by the chamber. Each insurer kicked in at least $1 million and some gave multimillion-dollar donations.

"There's no question that AHIP has quietly solicited monies from their members which were funneled over to the chamber for their ads," said a source. The total donated by the health insurers, according to one estimate, was as much as one-quarter of the chamber's total health care advertising budget.

So maybe, millions of forced consumers or not, they don't really love this bill. It suggests to me that they feel threatened by reform. If they really stood to make millions more in profit on the proposed changes, it seems unlikely they would be sneaking around trying to kill it in order to preserve the status quo.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Fed Turns Profit on Bailout

Much as the bankster bailouts pissed me off, this is a small bit of good news:

Wall Street firms aren't the only banks that had a banner year. The Federal Reserve made record profits in 2009, as its unconventional efforts to prop up the economy created a windfall for the government.

The Fed will return about $45 billion to the U.S. Treasury for 2009, according to calculations by The Washington Post based on public documents. That reflects the highest earnings in the 96-year history of the central bank. The Fed, unlike most government agencies, funds itself from its own operations and returns its profits to the Treasury.

There are still many ways the Fed can lose money on this, so I'm reserving the champagne. On the other hand, this development cheers me up much more. Don't know what will come of it, maybe nothing, but it's a good first step in cracking down on irresponsible bankster compensation practices.

The FDIC, which collects fees from all banks to repay depositors in failed banks, is considering a plan to impose higher fees on banks with compensation practices that the agency regards as encouraging reckless pursuit of short-term profits without sufficient regard for the risk of long-term losses.

The agency's board voted Tuesday by a narrow 3 to 2 margin to seek public comment on a preliminary version of the proposal, the first step in a process likely to take at least a year.

I'd guess it's more likely to take many years to see fruition but you have to start somewhere. It's not much, but I'll take it.


[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Anonymous Sources

A prime illustration of media fail. The largest source of outrage about the crotch bomber was that no one picked up on the obvious flag that he bought a one-way ticket. It appears that pervasive media meme was false.

But published reports on Dec. 28 cited the conclusion of the Nigerian government that Abdulmutallab had a round-trip ticket to Detroit. It had been purchased in Ghana on Dec. 16 for $2,831, according to the AP, citing Civil Aviation Authority director Harold Demuren.

TPM traces the origin of this mistake to "anonymous U.S. government sources." It also seems the only major media outlet to issue a correction was the NYT. Doubt that will make much of an impact on the zombie lie after it's traveled around the world a dozen times. This is what happens when legacy media tries to be first, instead of best and most accurate.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

AIG's Secret Slush Fund

This is rather stunning. On the day AIG almost went under they had to come up with $14 billion in collateral. So how did they do it? They reached into the corporate equivalent of the cookie jar:

Wilmustad understandably wondered how they were supposed to come up with $14 billion in the next several minutes. Then it dawned on them: the unofficial vaults. The bankers ran downstairs and found a room with a lock and a cluster of cabinets containing bonds – tens of billions of dollars’ worth, dating mostly from the Greenberg era. They began rifling through the cabinets, picking through fistfuls of securities that they guessed had gone untouched for years. In an electronic age, the idea of keeping bonds on hand was a disconcerting but welcome throwback. (p. 400)

As Yves says:

WTF? This is a company about to go out of business, then it suddenly remembers it has a secret stash….worth at least 1/6 of the initial government rescue commitment? $14 billion was only what they coughed up to satisfy the Fed. How much more was left in those cabinets?

Very good question. Can't wait to get an answer.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The rubber bands are heading in the right direction

The title of this post was the fortune in the cookie from my Chinese takeout last night. I leave it to you to decipher the greater portent of that. Meanwhile, I have a bunch of photos links and other easy reading for a Sunday night.

Thanks to Mary for the coolest birthday gift.

This from Litzz11 is fresh. It seems the GOP Senate candidate in MA, Scott Brown, did a nude centerfold. Litzz thought the pics might get him votes and I think she's right. Many pundits speculated that the beach shots Romney used in his ads when he ran for governor, were significantly responsible for his win.

The Atriots blogroll grows again today. Putting this one under Lifestyles because it's not political. Sweet pix though at the Liou True Family Blog.

Greg Mitchell's personal Photo of the Day is a nice one. Frigid sunrise over the Hudson from outside my house.

From that last big snowstorm, Mark Knoller sends in White House against a fresh blanket of snow.

ErgVT sends a deck in Vermont.

And can't remember if I posted this, but it's so cool it's worth posting again. How to preserve snowflakes forever.

My NY tweep John de Guzman has my fav, the Chrysler looking glorious and Chrysler building detail at night.

I adored this from Roger Ebert. I had a few drinks and designed the damn thing. I want one.

Best garden gnome ever.

Okay this is shallow, but I admit I looked at all of these. Slideshow of celebrity houses, all up for sale for various reasons.

And finally a mystery photo. Found this stray link that losts its caption. No idea but I hope it's something nice.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Blood Sucking Mega-Corporations

It's not just a figure of speech. This mega-corp made its money by literally sucking poor people's blood.

Cerberus Capital, one of Wall Street’s most notoriously ruthless leveraged-buyout firms (or “private equity firms” in PC-speak), recently made a $1.8 billion killing on its human plasma investment, a company called Talecris. Talecris was purchased for a mere $82.5 million just four years earlier, meaning Cerberus made 23 times its investment on human plasma. This was accomplished by the most savage, heartless means possible: by paying peanuts to impoverished human plasma donors, who increasingly come from Mexican border towns to blood-pumping stations set up on the American side, jacking up the price of plasma by restricting supply (a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission accused Cerberus Plasma Holdings of “operat[ing] as an oligopoly”), and then selling the refined products to the most desperately ill—patients suffering from hemophilia, severe burns, multiple sclerosis and autoimmune deficiencies. The products cost so much—one, IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin) cost twice the price of gold as of last summer—that American health insurance companies have been dropping or denying their policyholders in increasing numbers, endangering untold numbers of people.

As I said a couple of days ago, I think we're missing the boat by going after the politicians. It really is the mega-corps that are killing us and they're taking over the world. Consider this:

1. Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are now global corporations; only 49 are countries.

2. The combined sales of the world's Top 200 corporations are far greater than a quarter of the world's economic activity.

Much more eye-opening statistics at that link and they're on the oldish side. It's only become worse. Really thinking, if the people want to take the power back, first we need to break up the mega-corps. [h/t Lance Mannion]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Old Enough to Lie About My Age

Posting died yesterday because it was my birthday. It was a very good day but people, I'm so old now, I really have to start lying about my age. From now on, I'm going to celebrate the anniversary of my 39th birthday, just like Jack Benny.

Meanwhile, I have a ton of links so I'm going to try to resume more normal posting, starting now.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Reid isn't the villian here - Updated

I expect I'll be sorry I jumped into this one, but I'm just not getting the outrage here:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologized Saturday following reports he had privately described then-candidate Barack Obama during the presidential campaign as a black candidate who could be successful thanks in part to his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

Journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported the remarks in their new book “Game Change,” which was purchased by CNN Saturday at a Washington-area bookstore. The book is slated for official release next Tuesday.

The way I'm looking at this is Harry Reid is a highly placed political operative. He's privately discussing the prospects of prospective candidates. Is there a politically correct way to express a perfectly true assessment? Let's be real people. If Obama was a dark-skinned black who talked like some rapper fresh from the ghetto, he wouldn't have had a prayer. It was a valid observation, made without malice.

Nothing would make me happier than to get rid of Reid. I think he's useless as majority leader and we have plenty of better talent in the Senate that could do a better job of running the ship. But it's not like Reid was making a speech to the Rotary Club. It was a private remark. Seems to me the outrage should be directed at Halperin and Heilemann for publicly disclosing a private conversation for personal profit. They have to have known that in today's political climate it would generate a huge buzz that will draw PR for their book.

And by the way, the trash talking GOPers can bite me. Who the hell are they to be calling for Reid to apologize? Let them apologize for every lie they told and the last decade of hell they put us through first.

Update: Mark Kleiman basically says the same thing I did, only with much fancier language. To be clear, I don't think anyone disputes that the phrasing and the mindset of the remark is offensive in terms of how little progress we've made in becoming a color-blind society, but Reid is just not a villian here. As much as I would like to see him taken down, I would prefer it to be because of an acknowledgement that he is inept, ineffective as a leader and compromised by corporate interests. Taking him down with this ginned up media kerfluffle feels like a win for the GOP and the Village idiots, rather than for enlightened thought to me.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

How can a corporation be a person when it has no heart?

So infuriating. These big box corporations are really just large scale, low class con men. They come into a community with big promises. But they won't build without big tax breaks. They drive out the small independent merchants and further erode the tax base. They structure their employee compensation so their workers need social services that the city can't afford. And then they do this:

"This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so they are unwearable."

Southern Beale has the rant on this already, so I'll just add I assume trashing the goods is the most profitable business decision, but what's good for the corporation is bad for the people and the planet.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Hard to Boycott Tweety

I don't actually watch Chris Matthews. Haven't tuned in for well over a year. He can be so annoying, but then again, sometimes he can be so on target. I'm rather convinced he does this Jeckyll and Hyde trick to keep both sides of the political spectrum pissed off at him. I think it's a cheap trick but I also want to reward him when he does good. Fortunately, they invented YouTube for this. Someone always watches and puts it up there eventually. And this clip deserves to be promoted.



Love this GOP strategist. He'll tell you all the good stuff about the GOP's accomplishments when he writes his book. Think it's going to be a short book.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Idle Thought

Politics is the gateway drug to cynicism.

I just can't deal with the *news* today. I looked at Memeorandum and the top three new stories were:

Michael J. Totten:
An Interview with Christopher Hitchens, Part I Find

10 minutes agoChris Cillizza / The Fix:
Tumultuous Tuesday: Winners and Losers Find

15 minutes agoBen Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Palin's first 2012 event — The Southern Republican Leadership … Find

15 minutes agoThe Cook Political Report:
2010 SENATE RACE RATINGS Find

The rest of the stories were 90% horserace, process, polls or gossip. The only news is the idiot NJ Senate killed the gay marriage bill and our President made a good speech about the UndieBomber. Shorter version: Chill. I got this.

I believe he does, as much as anybody can.

New Sheriff in Town

This didn't get enough attention yesterday. For all the griping about how we aren't seeing any change in an Obama administration, it's not exactly true. For example, take Hilda Solis:

Soon after she became the nation's labor secretary, Hilda Solis warned corporate America there was "a new sheriff in town." Less than a year into her tenure, that figurative badge of authority is unmistakable.

Her aggressive moves to boost enforcement and crack down on businesses that violate workplace safety rules have sent employers scrambling to make sure they are following the rules.

Solis made a splash in October when OSHA slapped the largest fine in its history on oil giant BP PLC for failing to fix safety problems after a 2005 explosion at its Texas City refinery.

Garnering less attention, she just finished hiring 250 new investigators to protect workers from being cheated out of wage and overtime pay. She also started a new program that scrutinizes business records to make sure worker injury and illness reports are accurate. And she is proposing new standards to protect workers from industrial dust explosions — an effort the Bush administration had long resisted.

This is a vast difference from the Bush administration's "compliance assistance" approach, which loosely translated means turn a blind eye to violations and hope industry polices itself. It's not making the big business groups happy.

"Our members are concerned that the department is shifting its focus from compliance assistance back to more of the 'gotcha' or aggressive enforcement first approach," said Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business' small business legal center.

Seems to me this is exactly the sort of change we badly needed. This is why, for all their failings, we elected Democrats to a majority. [via ql]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Good Question

Sully gets an email that asks a very good question about the crotch bomber. Why didn't he just blow himself up in the bathroom? Clearly, he should have known that the passengers would try to stop him when he lit the bomb in his pants.

Short answer: Because the point wasn't to bring down the plane, but rather to scare us into over-reacting. They don't care if they kill us. They just want us to live in terror. And the GOP is playing right into their hands.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Pipe dreams in MA

Et tu Josh? I expect the usual wingnut screamers to be predicting the implausible but didn't expect Josh to jump on that bandwagon, even if he still has one foot dragging on the ground.

I suppose as Josh points out, anything might happen, but I'm thinking we have a better chance of being personally hit by a meteor this week than we do of seeing a Republican elected to Ted Kennedy's seat in this month's special election.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The 00s: Decade of the Cons

I rarely link to Kos. Hell, I rarely read the site anymore unless someone flags a specific post but this one on Remembering the Naughts is the must read of the day. As Devilstower says:

Don't forget the naughts, because this decade, no matter what anyone on the right might say, was conservatism on trial.

The failures were many and cost us dearly but the electorate is notoriously forgetful. We should all do our best to make sure they remember the 00s was the decade when conservatives got every single cursed thing on their wish list and it almost ruined us forever.


[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Who's to blame for the housing bubble

Helicopter Ben says it wasn't the low interest rates:

Regulatory failure, not low interest rates, was responsible for the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis of the last decade, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, said in a speech on Sunday.

“Stronger regulation and supervision aimed at problems with underwriting practices and lenders’ risk management would have been a more effective and surgical approach to constraining the housing bubble than a general increase in interest rates,” Mr. Bernanke said in remarks to the American Economic Association.

Barry Ritholtz says, not so fast Ben:

Inadequate regulations and “nonfeasance” in enforcing existing regs were, as Chairman Bernanke asserts, a major factor. But in the crisis timeline, the regulatory and supervisory failures came about AFTER the 1% Fed rates had set off a mad scramble for yields. Had rates stayed within historical norms, the demand for higher yielding products would not have existed — at least not nearly as massively as it did with 1% rates.

If the Fed Chief wants to avoid seeing this occur again, he needs to recognize that this was not a single factor event; rather, this was a complex event set off by numerous factors.

The sooner we learn that, the better a grasp we will have on what actually happened . . .

All I know for sure is they had better figure it out and do something real about it or it will surely happen again. And whether or not the interest rates were responsible, we clearly need much, much stronger regulatory controls on the industry. I'm fine with starting there.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Winguts hit peak pathetic

Just when you think the remnants of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists can't sink any lower into irrelevancy, the Ole Perfessor and his minions leap feet first into the cesspool of stupid. And no, I'm not going to link to any of them. Go over to Memorandum and click if you must, but TBogg posts the ultimate answer so I'm not going to say any more about it. However, if you really need more, Mr Johnson finds the ultimate site for deep analysis of body language.

Honestly, these people have truly sunk from merely annoying to profoundly pathetic.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Last look back

I didn't get around to an end of year retrospective but there was no dearth of them. Beyond my personal losses, the Grim Reaper seemed especially greedy this year. NYT runs down some notable obits and this TCM Remembers video of lost Hollywood celebs is devastating.

Then of course there were the "wars." Spencer Ackerman's post on his trip to the Guantanamo Gift Shop spoke volumes about that legacy.

As did these two photos. Kabul in 1969 and Kabul, same view, 2009. Hard to imagine why they aren't erecting statues to celebrate.

This was a great retrospect. The Rude One reviewed with haikus. And his readers joined in.

And this is one for the archives. A history of Republican offenders. Don't think they got every single one, but it's a good overview of GOP criminality.

But to end on a brighter note, here's a blast from the way past. Amazing Springsteen footage from 1972: First gig after signing record deal.

And the sweetest personal retrospect came from my friend Alex, who fell in love. Here's hoping we all find this kind of joy in the new year.

[Hat tips to Misha, Roger Ebert and Greg Mitchell.]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Fifty Years Ago

I meant to post this last night, so it's actually 50 years ago yesterday that this historic moment happened.



On this day in 1960 Senator John Kennedy announced his candidacy for the President of the United States.

[Via Jake Tapper]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Starting off easy

I have lots of links saved that I never got to during the flurry of holiday gatherings. Since it feels kind of like a Sunday, figure a good place to start is with the pretty pictures.

A new follow of mine on Twitter, Hudsonette had been a treasure trove of links to fabulous galleries. My favorite was this one, Found Landscapes – photographs by landscape architect Ken McCown.

But they're all great. From the Museum of the City of New York The Look Magazine exhibit.

10 years of NYT Readers' photos.

Maira Kalman's fantastic op-ed art on the subject of democracy.

And this single shot, two egrets flying across the river on a foggy morning.

Moving on, my own Detroit News posts some amazingly good photo galleries. Like this one: 104 ways to remember 2009.

Greg Mitchell also regularly posts great photo links. This is officially my favorite personal photo of his in 2009, Up in the Air.

And I adore him for posting this fun roundup of Jesus sightings from around the world with photos--including the famous cheese/Jeez sandwich.

Don't remember where I picked up these vintage WPA posters but I do love them.

And via watertiger, this was amazing and very moving somehow. Made me a little weepy but in a good way. How to draw gorilla portraits.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Say Hello

This is a good start for the new decade. My friends ms fahrenheit and Uncle Blodge have started a new blog. Click over to Life on the VW Bus and say hello. They'll also be listd on the blogroll under Atriots.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Last word on the UndieBomber

The wingers are still trying to make the failed crotch bomber a problem for the Obama administration and it appears no amount of facts tying the incident to the Bush administration's failure to properly construct an effective system to screen travelers is going to crack their cognitive dissonance. So it is and will be with that crowd.

As far as I'm concerned everything that needs to be said is right here:


In Hawaii, Obama hears about investigation of govt failures in airliner bomb attempt. [WH Photo]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Happy New Decade

Okay, so maybe it's not really the new decade yet but I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve. Exciting night for me here in the little city. Fell asleep before 11:00 watching some PBS program about setting up a stage on a beach for a Rolling Stones concert. Woke up at 12:30 to Stevie Ray Vaughn singing live at concert, obviously while he was still living. Took an aspirin and went back to bed.

I'm off to one last family gathering this afternoon. Posting should resume to somewhat normal levels starting tomorrow. Here's hoping this new decade will be better than the last one. Wishing everyone a wondrous and joyful 2010. [graphic via NASA]