It's been a long day and this really made me laugh

Not even going to post a single detail here. Read More......

Doctors support the public option, too.

So, opposition to the public option is limited to right-wing/Blue Dog/Lieberman/Baucus Democrats, Republicans, insurance companies and those pundits and talking heads who very good health insurance. Even a very healthy majority of doctors are on board with it according to a poll publishing in the New England Journal of Medicine, via John Cole. Who knew docs were also the notorious "left of the left"? Read More......

Roubini continues to see problems with economy

Somehow "death by a thousand cuts" isn't the most promising forecast. Let's hope he's more wrong than right.

"It's going to be death by a thousand cuts," said Roubini, chairman of RGE Monitor and economics professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. "The financial system is severely damaged, and it's not just the banks."

Roubini predicted more than 1,000 financial institutions could fail before all is said and done.

At the same time, he said housing prices are likely to fall another 12 percent in the next year—40 percent overall since the market began its steep decline—and about half of all homeowners will owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.

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Stiglitz: "For all Obama's talk of overhaul, the US has failed to wind in Wall Street"

Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz writing in the Guardian::

Unquestionably we should not have allowed banks to become so big and so intertwined that their failure would cause a crisis. But the Obama administration has created a new concept: institutions too big to be resolved, too big for capital markets to provide the necessary discipline. The perverse incentives for excessive risk-taking at taxpayers' expense are even worse with the too-big-to-be-resolved banks than they are at the too-big-to-fail institutions. We have signed a blank cheque on the public purse. We have not circumscribed their gambling – indeed, they have access to funds from the Fed at close to zero interest rates, and it appears that "trading profits" have (besides "accounting" changes) become the major source of returns.

Last night Barack Obama defended his administration's response to the financial crisis, but the reality is that a year on from Lehmans' collapse, it has failed to take adequate steps to restrict institutions' size, their risk-taking, and their interconnectedness. Indeed, it has allowed the big banks to become even bigger – just as it has failed to stem the flow of profligate executive bonuses. Obama's call on Wall Street yesterday to support "the most ambitious overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression" is welcome – but the devil, as ever, will be in the detail.

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ACORN considering suing FOX

That would be fun. Read More......

41% still think Obama's plan includes "death panels"

It's extremely difficult to play catch up once the other guy outmaneuvers you on the PR front. Democrats have one vehicle, one constituency, that's good at fighting, and launching, these kind of attacks. The Netroots. But the Democrats have never really embraced the blogosphere and the larger Netroots community. And if we don't use all of our resources, early and often, and wisely, we will continue to see poll numbers like this. Read More......

Newly uncovered video of Joe Wilson interrupting Obama's address

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ABC: NYC raids disrupted possible terror attack

At least we finally have a government we can trust about this sort of thing. Read More......

Solid majority of Arkansans support the public option

You wouldn't know it from some of Arkansas leading Democratic politicians, namely Senator Blanche Lincoln who now opposes the public option, but the majority of voters in her state support the public option according to the latest DailyKos poll. Overall, 55% of Arkansans support the public option; 38% oppose it and 7% are unsure. Markos has more:

Over one in five Republicans support the public option, which is more "bipartisanship" than you'll ever see in Congress. Meanwhile, the public option enjoys solid support among Democrats (obviously), and Independents. In addition, the public option is supported among all age groups (including 50-42 among those older than 60), and both among blacks (81-5) and whites (51-43).

Yet, Lincoln is siding with Republicans and insurance companies over the majority of her constituents. As McJoan notes, her colleague, Mark Pryor, isn't much better.

Earlier today, we reported that Senator Tom Harkin, the new Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, stated that the final bill will have the public option. It's become fashionable among the talking heads set to think the public option is waning, but I think Harkin is right. And, he needs to add Senator Lincoln and her colleague, Mark Pryor, to his whip list. Read More......

Researchers to track trash movements

This ought to be an interesting study to follow. The public will be able to follow the trash migration from an exhibit in Seattle but it would be interesting if this was also available online.

Where does that coffee cup, disposable razor or unwanted television end up once it's tossed to the curb?

Using an electronic tracking device about the size of a matchbook, MIT researchers are tagging about 3,000 pieces of Seattle trash to get people thinking about what they throw away and where it ends up.

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Obama and the "extremes on both sides"

Last night, on 60 Minutes, President Obama, as he did in his speech on Wednesday night, took a jab at "the extremists" on both sides of the partisan spectrum:

I think we're debating something that has always been a source of controversy, and that's not just health care, but also the structure, and the size, and the role of government. That's something that basically defines the left and the right in this country. And so, extremes on both sides get very agitated about that issue.

We know who the "extremes" on the GOP side are. A lot of them were in DC protesting on Saturday, but it also includes Republican members of Congress who heckle Obama and question his citizenship. And, there's Rush and FOX News. Their message is that they want Obama to fail (and many of them don't think he's legitimately the President.)

But who does Obama think the "extremes" are on the Democratic side of the aisle? He's made the analogy numerous times, so clearly he has someone, or some group, in mind. A few weeks ago, the White House castigated the "left of the left" for pushing Obama to keep his promise on the public option. Is that the standard for "extreme" on the left - supporting the public option, or expecting the president to keep, at the very least, his major campaign promises? If so, the "extremists" on the left would include the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the netroots, the unions and, of course, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. What is it that these groups all want? For Obama to keep his campaign promises.

If those aren't the extremists on the left, then who are they? Is President Obama labeling Blue Dog Democrats in the House as "extremists"? Is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an extremist for saying the House would pass a bill including the public option? For that matter, is new Senate HELP Committee chair Tom Harkin, for promising the same?

It's difficult to imagine who on the left is as extreme as people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Joe Wilson. Perhaps a reporter could ask the president, or his press secretary, to explain just who the extremists on the left are. Because it simply isn't clear, and it might help all of us to know. Read More......

Is it cuz he's black?

I think the conservatives would demonize Obama if he were a turnip. The fact that he's black is simply icing on the cake for a political party that never has gotten over its core commitment to intolerance.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, agreed with his colleague that elements of the opposition can’t accept the reality of a black president.

“There’s a very angry, small group of folks that just didn’t like the fact that Barack Obama won the presidency,” Honda said, adding: “With some, I think it is [about race].

Said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) about the race factor: “There are some issues that have been swept under the rug and we’re not witnessing them come out.”

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Obama blasts Dems in Congress for wanting to censure Joe "You Lie!" Wilson

Politico:

Even as Democrats on Capitol Hill call for a rebuke of Rep. Joe Wilson for his outburst last week at the president’s address, Barack Obama downplayed the need for a further censure of the South Carolina Republican, saying the whole thing is becoming a “big circus.”

“See, this is part of what happens,” Obama said, when asked about Wilson by interviewer Steve Kroft on Sunday’s “60 Minutes.” “I mean, it just becomes a big circus instead of us focusing on health care.”

Some Democrats, led by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), are pushing for an official censure of Wilson, with a floor vote on the resolution coming as early as Tuesday.

Joe Wilson is the best thing to happen to Barack Obama in nine months in office. The last thing you do, politically, is try to squelch the fires. The same anger and extremism that led to Wilson's outburst also led to the August townhall meetings fiasco that derailed Obama's health care reform. Wilson's overt, public, nuttiness finally gave Obama the chance to knock the teabag crowd on its collective butt. Rather than pile on, Obama and Senate Democrats chose to oblige Wilson by tightening the anti-immigrant (and anti-abortion) provisions of the legislation. Wilson (among others), as a result, is now saying that he was justified in doing what he did, and that Obama did lie, otherwise there would have been nothing for Obama and the Senate Dems to tighten. And today, Obama is undercutting the effort again.

Why? As we've already noted, Obama doesn't do drama, which he has apparently interpreted to include fighting for policy initiatives, and more generally, taking on Republicans. But what's really happening here, I think, is that the president is trying to boost his own numbers at the expense of Democratic members of Congress. By referring to Democratic efforts to censure Wilson as a "circus," the president is feeding the public's negativity towards Congress, and towards Democrats specifically, since they're leading the effort. Obama has repeatedly drawn an equivalence between far-right nuts and core constituencies and members of Congress in his own party. While this mini-Sista-Souljah may help Obama position himself as some kind of above-the-fray adult, it also makes it harder for Democrats in Congress to ge re-elected, and hold their majorities, next year. And at some point, Democrats in Congress may decide that it's more important to keep their own jobs, and hold their majority, than defend a president who doesn't have much interest in defending them. Read More......

Yglesias on excluding abortion from health care reform

One of the ironies of the Democrats caving to the pro-lifers is that the pro-lifers still don't believe it. They think Obama wants to kill babies, and use federal money to do it. So in the end, what's the point of caving if it doesn't change the status quo, if it wont' change your opponents' minds? Yglesias:

The anti-abortion side won this debate because many Democrats wanted to do health reform without feeling their wrath. But if the wrath continues even when you do what they want, then there’s very little incentive to make concessions in the future.

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Ben Smith asks "Who's afraid of Barack Obama?"

A few points:

1. As I've noted before, once people start discussing whether you're a wimp, you're already in serious trouble. Ben Smith is not some troll Politico reporter, he's a good level-headed guy, and has never suffered from the stigma of being a right-wing sap.

2. The problem goes beyond whether anyone fears Obama. Obama seems more comfortable snubbing fellow Democrats than he is Republicans. I'm not sure anyone fears him, but Democrats know that he is unlikely to support their cause simply because he has professed he would. Republicans, on the other hand, know that all they need do is scream, and Obama will come around to their point of view, if simply to avoid a confrontation. So, at least on the Democratic side, there is certainly a "fear" that Obama won't keep his word on major promises to core Democratic constituencies. But it goes farther than that.

3. Not only does no one fear Obama, but the opposite is true as well. It's not entirely clear why it's to your benefit being Barack Obama's friend, at least if you're a Democrat. Joe and I have written about this a lot. During the campaign, lots of Democrats on the Hill, and in the private sector, including key Democratic constituencies, never quite felt the love from the Obama campaign. Even if you stuck your neck out to help elect Obama, you never got anything in return. I don't mean a pay off, I mean a simple thanks. Politics is a lot like people. You don't do good deeds expecting to be paid in return (well, sometimes that is the goal in politics, but not always), but being blown off in return, as if the person did you a favor by letting you help them, is a powerful disincentive towards helping in the future.

Democrats are learning that their love of Barack Obama will usually go unrequited. That's not a good recipe for keeping friends and influencing people.

Here's Ben:

And he has yet to take a tough stand, or pick a difficult fight, on many of the major policy issues of the day. He continues to search for a Goldilocks solution in Afghanistan - not too hot, not too cold, and projected nothing more than caution when Iranians took to the streets. He has allowed disfavored proposals from allies - like the Employee Free Choice Act - to die of their own accord, professing support all the while.

The question is where this personal and strategic blurriness turns into a more dangerous political sense of weakness, a dangerous perception for American presidents George H.W. Bush learned when Newsweek labeled him a "wimp" on its front page. His son labored to avoid that mistake, his obsessions about projecting strength sometimes coming off as swagger.

When Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) was reduced to abject, groveling apologies for bellowing "You lie!" at Obama during his address to a joint session of Congress, it wasn't just an opportunity for Democrats to cast Republicans as less than constructive; it was also a reminder of presidential stature and power.

But Wilson, within 24 hours, had come back around to his own defense, and he's a rare Republican to have paid any price for attacking the president. After early internal debates over whether accommodation would be more effective than confrontation, congressional Republicans have clearly decided that they have little to lose from a fight.

One Republican consultant, Nelson Warfield, traced that realization to the passage of energy legislation through the House over near-unified Republican opposition.

"After the uniform stand against cap and tax [as Republicans deride the bill], there was no price to be paid," he said.

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Excerpts from new book authored by Ted Kennedy

Politico has the excerpts. And you can order the book on Amazon via the link at left, and we'll get a commission.

ON BOBBY’S DEATH: “The months following Bobby’s death are a blur in my memory. One day I decided that going back to work would help relieve the emptiness. I got into my car and drove toward Capitol hill. When the Senate Office Building came into view, I began breathing heavily. I turned the car around and went back home. When I finally was able to enter the building, I found that I could not concentrate on my Senate work. I would go and visit my father on the Cape for a couple of days, and then I would go sailing. Sometimes I sailed alone. Sometimes I sailed with a friend. Sometimes I sailed for long distances. Sometimes I sailed to Maine. I surrendered myself to the sea and the wind and the sun and the stars on these voyages. I let my mind drift, when it would, from my sorrows to a semblance of the momentous joy I have always felt at the way a sailboat moves through the water. I love sailing in the day, but there’s something about sailing at night. And on these nights in particular, my grieving was subsumed into a sense of oneness with the sky and the sea. The darkness helped me to feel the movement of the boat, and the movement of the sea, and it helped displace the emptiness inside me with the awareness of direction. An awareness that there is a beginning to the voyage and an end to the voyage, and that this beginning and ending is a part of the natural order of things.” (pages 273-274).

ON THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS: “I still chuckle when I recall that even my mother was more involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis than I – although not in a way that Jack especially appreciated. At the height of the standoff, when nuclear warfare remained a live option on both sides, the head of the KGB in Moscow burst through the door of Khrushchev’s office. He carried a letter to the Soviet premier from one Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy of Hyannis Port and Palm Beach. Mrs. Kennedy wanted the premier to autograph some of his books and send them to her. The transatlantic cables hummed with this baffling new development. When Jack found out about it, he called up our mother and demanded, ‘What in the world are you doing?!’ Rose assumed that Jack new very well what she was doing. Each Christmas, Mother made it a practice to give her children books signed by heads of state. This year, it was Mr. Khrushchev’s turn, and she had methodically forged ahead according to her schedule. ‘The Russians won’t assume this is innocent!’ Jack sputtered. ‘They’ll give it some interpretation! Now I have to get my CIA people speculating on what the interpretation might be! The strengths! The weaknesses! The contingencies!’ The kicker is that, after the threat of World War III had been defused, Khrushchev did send Mother the autographed books.” (page 189)

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Senator Harkin: Health bill will "have strong public option"

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is the new chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. His committee has already passed its version of health insurance reform, a bill similar to what's been moving in the House. Yesterday, at his annual steak fry, Harkin predicted the outcome of the final bill:

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin predicted Sunday that a health care reform bill would pass Congress before Christmas, with Republican votes.

Speaking in Indianola at his annual steak fry fundraiser, Harkin also declared that the legislation would "have a strong public option."

Establishing government-run insurance plans that Americans would have the option of buying has been one of the most controversial aspects of the health care reform bills before Congress.

It's good to hear a Democratic Senator sounding strong, forceful and like a Democrat. We've heard way too much from Senators Max Baucus and Kent Conrad. Those two have dominated the debate and sold out Democratic principles along the way.

Harkin was accompanied at the steak fry by another real Democrat, Al Franken. Three years ago, this event gave Obama his first taste of presidential buzz back in 2006. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

As Chris notes, the President is headed to Wall Street today. Lehman Brothers went under a year ago today. It was a stunning economic event -- and changed the trajectory of the presidential campaign. At this time a year ago, John McCain was leading in many polls. But, McCain's erratic response to the economic crisis changed the election. Thankfully.

Wall Street, of course, wants to put this whole mess behind it and continue with business as usual.

This week, we should get a clearer sense about the health insurance reform debate. Tomorrow is September 15th -- a date used by many as a deadline for some kind of closure from the "Gang of Six." We need some leadership in the Senate. ASAP.

Let's get it started..... Read More......

Obama to nicely ask Wall Street to act responsibly

Maybe when you spend your vacation golfing with bank CEOs or hand out the best foreign ambassador positions to bankers who are of course, your largest campaign contributors you hear a different side to the Wall Street collapse story. Maybe Obama ought to open up his Blackberry and take calls and emails from the rest of the country who were screwed by these people. While they're quite popular amongst themselves few others see any value. If they weren't so obsessed with getting their own pay back on track years (a decade, maybe) before consumers recovered from their losses, they wouldn't be disliked so much. Time for being the nice guy is long past.

Without a blistering flurry of new regulations to control this shady bunch, we might as well move out political leaders in Washington and just let Wall Street run the show. Well, run the show more than they're doing already. Congress is clearly at fault for failing to progress with reform but it's not as though the White House has been forceful either. Obama has been MIA for far too long as the issue drifted away and now he's hoping to restart after all momentum has disappeared. Underwhelming and disappointing, again. Do we really have to wait for every issue to collapse before Obama decides it's time to take action?

"President Obama will discuss the administration's plan to wind down government involvement in the financial sector, lay out a strong case for immediate action on regulatory reform and reiterate the importance of global coordination in preventing future crises," the official said.

"He will also urge the financial community to take responsibility, not only to support reforming the regulatory system but also to avoid a return to the practices on Wall Street that led us to the financial crisis, and to recognize their obligation to help produce a wider recovery on behalf of the American people," the official said.

They must be shaking in their boots. Read More......

AP poll: 7 in 10 have no confidence in Washington fixing Wall Street

Whoever those 3 in 10 people are, they need to get some serious help. Not. Going. To. Happen. Who would then fund political campaigns for president and Congress? Those 3 in 10 probably think one of those heart-warming stories about online capaign contributions of $10 will somehow lead to receiving a foreign ambassador position. If any real change was actually delivered, maybe Americans would be more optimistic.

One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of 10 Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Even more — 80 percent — rate the condition of the economy as poor and a majority worry about their own ability to make ends meet. The pessimistic outlook sets the stage for President Barack Obama as he attempts to portray the financial sector as increasingly confident and stable and presses Congress to act on new banking regulations.

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Executive pay increased last year despite recession

Results stopped meaning anything a long time ago both in top management. Much like our dysfunctional political system, even the worst disaster in a lifetime has no impact. Wouldn't it be nice if these rules applied to everyone else?

Executives at Britain's top companies saw their basic salaries leap 10% last year, despite the onset of the worst global recession in decades, in which their companies lost almost a third of their value amid a record decline in the FTSE.

The Guardian's annual survey of boardroom pay reveals that the full- and part-time directors of the FTSE 100, the premier league of British business, shared between them more than £1bn.

Bonus payouts were lower, but the basic salary hikes were more than three times the 3.1% average pay rise for ordinary workers in the private sector. The big rise in directors' basic pay – more than double the rate of inflation last year – came as many of their companies were imposing pay freezes on staff and starting huge redundancy programmes to slash costs.

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Toxic water violations go unchecked

Is someone a socialist if they ask for clean water? Aren't they blocking business from being business? It comes as no surprise that the Bush administration would shy away from enforcing existing laws. At the state level, rather than coordinate, each state is terrified to enforce laws and then watch jobs run to the next state so they're willing to accept anything, regardless of how toxic or offensive the business may be. Being afraid of bathwater and teeth rotting from chemicals is not what anyone should tolerate in the US. NY Times:

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.

However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene.

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