Hitler isn't loving the iPad

I'm sorry, I just find these Hitler videos a fascinating phenomenon. And yeah, they're cliché, but that's part of what makes them even funnier. Read More......

Poll: Giannoulias only Dem who beats GOP candidate for US Senate race in Illinois

from Taegan:

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Illinois finds Alexi Giannoulias (D) leading Rep. Mark Kirk (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 42% to 34%.

However, Kirk leads the other two candidates, topping Cheryle Jackson, 38% to 36%, and edging David Hoffman, 37% to 36%.

The primary to choose the candidates is next week.

PPP is the polling firm Joe actually trusts. Read More......

Hackers hit Web sites of House members with anti-Obama screeds

There was intense security at the Capitol yesterday in anticipation of the State of the Union. But, there was a vulnerability. Online security was breached. A number of House websites were hacked according to Hotline On Call:

Hackers struck at least 10 House websites overnight, substituting expletives aimed at Pres. Obama just hours after his State of the Union address.

The hackers targeted many House Dem freshmen, including Reps. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Harry Teague (D-NM), John Boccieri (D-OH) and Steve Driehaus (D-OH), as well as at least 5 other more senior Dems and the site owned by GOPers on the House Oversight Committee.

"F--- OBAMA!! Red Eye CREW !!!!! O RESTO E HACKER!!! by HADES; m4V3RiCk; T4ph0d4 -- FROM BRASIL," the messages read.

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Judd Gregg flips out on MSNBC reporters who ask him what he'd cut in the budget

Put aside for a moment that Gregg is insane if he thinks the economy is out of the woods. And he clearly thinks that. But his treatment of these two reporters is equally insane.

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Eugene Robinson: Someone at White House said 'probably not this year' for DADT repeal

So not helpful. Read More......

SEC will now require climate change risk details

Very interesting development. As you might imagine, the Republican members rejected the idea. Heaven forbid such a touchy subject be addressed.

The commission, in a 3 to 2 vote, decided to require that companies disclose in their public filings the impact of climate change on their businesses -- from new regulations or legislation they may face domestically or abroad to potential changes in economic trends or physical risks to a company.

Chairman Mary L. Schapiro and the two Democrats on the commission supported the new requirements, while the two Republicans vehemently opposed them.

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Isn't it illegal to use soldiers as political props?

Rob Diamond over at Huff Post would like to know. So would I. Imagine had a Democrat done this. Read More......

Michele Bachmann pulls out of Teabagger conference

Apparently the entire thing is crashing down. But Palin is still going. Read More......

Obama to lay out plan to repeal DADT in next few weeks, senior adviser says

That's a lot 'o promising going on, the last 24 hours in Obama-land. I think it's great. Doesn't mean I'm convinced it's going to happen. But it does mean they've now given us concrete promises with concrete timetables that we can now hold them accountable to. So this means Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal will be in the budget submission next week? Read More......

Alito's 'You Lie!' moment

Glenn Greenwald explains why this video of Alito, shaking his head and saying "not true" to Obama, during the State of the Union, matters:

On a night when both tradition and the Court's role dictate that he sit silent and inexpressive, he instead turned himself into a partisan sideshow -- a conservative Republican judge departing from protocol to openly criticize a Democratic President -- with Republicans predictably defending him and Democrats doing the opposite. Alito is now a political (rather than judicial) hero to Republicans and a political enemy of Democrats, which is exactly the role a Supreme Court Justice should not occupy.

So did Alito just become a teabagger? Read More......

If we sent the men home, we'd reach a health care reform deal

Maybe in the House. But in the Senate, Olympia Snowe had her chance, and blew it. Then there's Blanche Lincoln. And Susan Collins was being a pain as well. In the House, you can just ignore the likes of Michele Bachmann. In the Senate, the Republican women are no more helpful than the men.

Want to get health care legislation passed in Congress? Send the elected men home, one congresswoman reportedly suggests. Shea-Porter, a New Hampshire Democrat, said as much at a Manchester town hall meeting last weekend, according to The Hill.com. It reports someone released 55 seconds of her remarks, which went viral and made national headlines.

"We go to the ladies room and the Republican women and the Democratic women and we just roll our eyes," she said. "And the Republican women said when we were fighting over the health care bill, if we sent the men home. ..." At that point, The Hill.com reports loud applause interrupted Shea-Porter's remarks.

She continued, "You know why? I'm not trying to diss the men, but I'm telling you it's the truth that every single woman there has been responsible for taking care of a [relatives] and so we think we can find a common ground there," according to The Hill.com.

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Pelosi signals renewed momentum for health care reform

From Greg Sargent:

This got a bit lost in the noise yesterday, because of the excitement in the runup to Obama’s speech and also because of some inaccurate reporting, but it’s important: Yesterday Nancy Pelosi strongly suggested there’s real momentum behind passing the Senate bill in the House with a reconciliation fix.

Pelosi met with a group of columnists yesterday and talked about the bill, and initial reports wrongly said she had flatly predicted she had the votes for passing the Senate bill as is. Then Pelosi’s office disputed that interpretation, and everybody more or less forgot about her comments.

But what she actually said is worth a look. A transcript is right here. Here’s the key bit, in which she addresses the likelihood of passing the bill if the Senate agrees to pass fixes to the billl via reconciliation, or what she calls “constitutional majority rule,” making the bill more palatable to House members:

“If there is a willingness for us to pursue with the constitutional majority rule, then I think we’ll be able to come up with something that sufficiently addresses the concerns of House Members of the policy in the Senate bill. All of this was agreed to, say a week and a half ago, and we’re pretty confident about going on a positive course there, because the changes were I think very important and we could make a case for them.”

By constitutional majority rule, I think she means a process by which 51 Senators vote up or down the legislation - e.g., reconciliation (or eliminating the filibuster). Read More......

Jt Chiefs dissed Obama last night on DADT repeal

It seems the Jt Chiefs are not required to stay all stoney-faced as a matter of protocol. The only time they don't clap about military matters is when they don't like what their commander in chief is ordering them to do. But as Joe Jervis notes, then they like something he says, they clap. Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal, not so much. Insubordination is alive and well in inside the uniformed military. Read More......

Ford makes a profit

When a U.S. car company is profitable, it's considered breaking news in 2010. I got "Breaking News" alerts from all the major outlets because Ford is making money again:

The Ford Motor Company earned $2.7 billion in 2009 and said Thursday that it now expected to be profitable in 2010 as well.

The profit for 2009, equal to 86 cents a share, was a swing of $17.5 billion from 2008, when the company lost $14.8 billion. It is Ford’s first full-year profit since 2005.

The company ended 2009 with $25.5 billion in cash reserves, nearly twice the $13.4 billion it had at the start of the year.

Ford was the only U.S. auto maker that didn't get a bailout. But, the government (meaning taxpayers) did save the auto industry (including Ford)::

To be sure, the industry's modest progress has come at a large cost to taxpayers. Fitch, the credit-rating service, estimates total direct and indirect government assistance to the U.S.-based manufacturers during the recession at a staggering $125 billion. That includes the cost of capital injections for GM, Chrysler and their respective financial arms, as well as Cash for Clunkers, supplier guarantees, Energy Department loans (which Ford also has tapped) and aid from other governments such as Canada.

Looks like our investment is paying off, in the short term anyway. Read More......

Obama's speech approval hit 83% in CBS poll. Teabaggers disapprove.

Obama's speech was a big hit with the American people according to a CBS poll:

A large majority of Americans who watched President Obama's State of the Union Address generally approve of the proposals he outlined in his speech, according to a CBS News Poll conducted online by Knowledge Networks immediately after the President's address.

Of the randomly selected 522 speech viewers questioned by CBS, 83 percent said they approved of the proposals the President made. Just 17 percent disapproved — typical of the high support a president generally receives among those who choose to watch the State of the Union. In January 2002 — when George W. Bush gave the State of the Union Address a year into his presidency — 85% of speech watchers approved.

Keep in mind that was when Bush was riding high in the polls and the country was still relatively united after September 11th.

You get the sense that people do really want this President to succeed. Because, most people get that his success matters to their daily lives. And, the GOP now represents those 17 percent who disapproved. That's the hard-core, teabagger crowd. And, no surprise, the Teabagger Party did not approve of Obama's speech calling it "hot air."

In the CBS poll, while people approved of the speech, they didn't expect Obama to deliver:

However, a sizable 57 percent said the President will not be able to accomplish all of the goals he set out in his speech. Most Democrats who viewed the speech (63 percent) said the man they elected would be able to accomplish all of his goals, but only 11 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of independent voters agreed.

Most Democrats and independents who watched said the president shares their priorities, while most Republicans did not.

Getting the economy moving again and creating jobs for Americans isn't a priority for the Republican party. And, they admit it. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Well, it's the day after the BIG speech and the reviews are mostly good. But, we've been down this path before. We've seen great speeches from Obama. What we need to see is action. He was pretty tough on the GOPers last night over their obstructionist tactics. But, let's face it, they've been calling his bluff for a year. Obama needs to follow through.

That's true for the promise to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." He said "this year." The best indicator of whether he's serious will come on Monday when the President submits his budget to Congress. SLDN wants the repeal in the budget. We'll soon see if the rhetoric matches the reality.

And, finally, how about Justice Alito pulling a Joe Wilson? John posted video here. That was shocking and so beyoned the pale for a member of the Supreme Court. Wow. Alito really is a Republican hack.

So, your thoughts on this Thursday morning.... Read More......

New Bank of America CEO to receive 19% pay raise

And really, why not? Just because his company is still floundering and his industry is not lending money - as they were supposed to do with the massive handouts - he really worked hard. Definitely harder than me or you. You don't deserve a pay raise though because you're not part of the privileged elite who can't fall down no matter what screwup they churn out. The bank has such little regard for the White House that it didn't even bother to consult the pay czar. Imagine that. Another banker kicking sand in the face of the president because they know the consequences will be minimal. For the brilliant minds working inside the White House, this is precisely what annoys the public. It's good to be da king.

Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan will be paid $950,000 a year for his new job, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The bank's board of directors has approved the salary, which is 19 percent more than Moynihan's 2008 base pay, according to the Journal.

Moynihan will not receive a bonus for 2009, the Journal reported, citing sources familiar with matter. Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg was not consulted, the source said.

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Will cash win the day in Afghanistan?

It sounds like it's been a driving factor for building troops on the other side so why not try it? If it helps win over the marginal supporters who are driven by hunger and poverty it's worth the effort.

The multimillion-pound "peace and reintegration" fund would seek to lure low ranking Taliban fighters, who join out of poverty rather than ideology, by giving them jobs, schooling or land for farming. An effective amnesty for these men, now believed to make up 75 per cent of the insurgency's ranks, means that even those who took part in attacks involving the deaths of British or US soldiers would be rehabilitated.

The UN sanctions had been imposed under a resolution aimed at punishing the Taliban for their support of Osama bin Laden's network. More than 100 Taliban names including that of Mullah Omar, the hardline Taliban spiritual leader, remain on the list. But the move to rehabilitate five former senior Taliban officials, greeted with deep suspicion by human rights groups, could be a pathway to direct negotiations with senior figures in the movement. While they remain on the UN blacklist, they cannot appear in public or attend talks. The decision was warmly welcomed yesterday by Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan, who said it was "a long overdue step".

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Housing recovery to take a decade?

I guess quick recoveries are only for the bankers who created the crisis. Washington Post:

Even as the housing market shows signs of improvement, including in new data released Tuesday, economists warn that it could take up to a decade for many homeowners to regain equity in their homes, while some people in the hardest-hit regions of the country may not see a recovery during their lifetime.

Home prices have fallen 30 percent since reaching their peak in 2006, and many economists think they will take another tumble this year as more foreclosures pile on the market. The pace of recovery will vary throughout the country, with homes in the most battered markets taking the longest to regain value. Meanwhile, millions of homeowners who are "underwater" -- owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth -- face years of negative equity that puts them at a higher risk of foreclosure.

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Les Petits Chanteurs a la Croix de Bois

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