Ukraine's got talent

The first minute is a tad slow. After that, wow. Turn on your speakers, sit back, and watch the entire thing. (Anyone know what the song, and singer, are at 2:39?) More on this remarkable woman here and here.

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Taliban targeting descendants of Alexander the Great

Why are we still hearing from Mullah Omar? For seven years, George Bush let the leaders behind September 11 get away with it. And Democrats said little. So the problem continues. And Republicans don't get their rightful blame for it. Instead, Afghanistan now becomes President Obama's problem, and he'll get the blame for George Bush's mess because, for some reason, Democrats were too chicken, or too nice, to routinely talk about how George Bush took his eye off of Afghanistan for his war of convenience in Iraq.

Different issue, same problem as always. Read More......

GOP hoping to "break Obama's agenda"

Not a great surprise. Though I'm more concerned that Biden is "worried" about losing current Dems seats that "traditionally Republican." You know where that's heading: "We have to move to the middle to save those 35 seats - only THEN can we keep our promises." Uh huh. Read More......

Dear God they're all so f-ing stupid

Again, the Democrats, and their highly-paid "advocacy" groups, are surprised - SURPRISED - that the Republicans are pulling out all stops to take down the health care reform bill. They actually thought the Republicans were going to play fair. Remember that ridiculous article I linked to a few weeks ago in which Democrats were crowing that Republicans shot their wad in August, and won't have any more trick to pull now? I noted at the time that this was a tad naive.

Our party, and our advocacy groups, are run by freaking morons. Read the end of the blurb below - the very end, and try to stifle a laugh. I dare you.

Democrats are bracing themselves for a new line of conservative attack against a provision in the health care legislation once considered so non-controversial that it was endorsed by several major Republican officials.

On Tuesday, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) described the health care legislation being considered by the Senate Finance Committee as a "stunning assault on liberty" due to a provision that would require individuals to buy insurance.

Earlier in the week, the individual mandate also came under attack when Tim Phillips, who heads Americans for Prosperity, described it as an assault on individual liberty.

"When you have health care, that's a choice that impacts yourself," Phillips told MSNBC's Hardball. "Drivers' insurance impacts other drivers you may have accidents with."

The attacks have confounded Democrats in and out of government, who noted quickly that mandating coverage was, until recently, a relative given when it came to health care reform.

"It's f--ing ludicrous," said one health care reform activist, who noted that when Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) asked committee members to air their disagreements with an individual mandate during a meeting on May 5, no one chimed in.

LOL Baucus and the Democrats actually thought the Republicans were going to tip their hand on May 5 BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATS ASKED THEM TO. And since the Republicans didn't express any concerns, the Dems just figured the Republicans weren't going to voice any. Way to go, Baucus. Aren't you glad the administration put their health care reform eggs in his basket? Read More......

YouTube video woman gets Bank of America to lower credit card int. right, but they still haggled with her till the end

The woman made an enormously successful YouTube video (nearly 245,000 viewers) calling out Bank of America for raising her credit card interest rate from 12.99% to 30%. Because of all the press she got, B of A succumbed. But not until they haggled with her over the rate, which only goes to show that they have far more power to lower the rates than what they claim.

The executive "tried to get me to agree to 16.99 percent and I said, 'No, nope, I believe because you guys are getting your money from the Fed at zero percent interest... that 12.99 percent is a more than generous profit margin for you guys.' So he did finally agree to that and he also agreed to send me that in writing."

If we, unfortunately, need people using credit to get the economy rolling again, then why isn't the government cajoling people like Bank of America to stop charging usury rates for credit?

Here's the video:

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SEC signals tougher stance against Bank of America

Nobody likes having their kindness rubbed in their nose the way Wall Street has done in recent months. The public was never that keen to bail out the spoiled gamblers on Wall Street but did so with the understanding that it prevented an even worse recession. (And that remains true.) This better be the start of a tougher stance against Wall Street in general.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that it will broaden its investigation into alleged wrongdoing at Bank of America and may seek additional charges as it prepares for a trial against the bank.

The move was the latest effort by the agency to combat the impression that it took a soft approach in a high-profile investigation stemming from Bank of America's acquisition last year of Merrill Lynch. The SEC suffered a serious setback last week when a federal judge ordered a trial after rejecting a $33 million settlement in the case.

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Pelosi dumps Blue Dogs

Yellow dogs is more like it. Good for her. Read More......

Why all the official Democratic Party attention directed at the Baucus' markup?

Oh the flurry of emails flitting about official Washington in defense of the Baucus health care mark-up today. Funny thing, Joe just mentioned to me. We've had a number of other health care reform bills marked up already in the House and Senate, and they didn't get this kind of support from the Democratic machine, even though their bills were more in line with what the president promised and asked for.

Who already marked up health care reform legislation?

1. House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce
2. House Ways and Means
3. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

But they never got help from anyone in the Democratic party. But now, when Max Baucus, who is in the pocket of the insurance industry, marks up his bill - legislation that is about as far from what President Obama promised than any of the committee bills being discussed in Congress - suddenly it's as if angels on high have descended, and all official Washington is aflutter.

Baucus isn't the only game in town. He's not the only committee chair in the Senate with jurisdiction over this bill. He is, however, the sole Democrat that the White House anointed as better than everyone else. So now all their eggs are in the Baucus insurance-industry bought basket.

What's worse, it doesn't appear that anyone other than Republicans, and the insurance industry and Big Pharma, were consulted about the Baucus bill. How many Democratic Senators were consulted on the Baucus bill? Two, maybe? What Democratic interest groups? Which unions? If anything, "senior White House officials" were proud to tell the media how much they neither cared about, nor needed, Democrats on board in order to pass Baucus' bill. Supporters of President Obama's actual health care plan, the one he promised during the campaign, were derided by one White House official as "the left of the left."

The White House never cared about giving Democrats a stake in the Baucus bill. They intended to buy Republican votes by caving on the President's biggest promises, and reportedly plan to buy Democratic votes with pork. Well, good luck with that, because as it stands, the Baucus bill doesn't have much of a Democratic constituency to support it. Read More......

There will be an interim replacement Senator from Massachusetts to take Kennedy's place temporarily

The legislation to allow the appointment of an interim Senator from Massachusetts until the January 19, 2010 special election cleared a big hurdle today:

The state Senate passed a bill this afternoon that would allow Governor Deval Patrick to name an interim successor to Edward M. Kennedy, potentially paving the way for appointment of a new US senator later this week.

The Senate approved the measure by a 24-16 vote, leaving one final procedural hurdle in both chambers before the bill heads to Patrick's desk. The House and Senate are expected to enact the bill on Wednesday, a formality unlikely to derail the effort.

This means there will be 60 Democratic Senators, provided Senator Byrd is healthy enough to show up. (He did end up in the hospital again today.)

The Obama administration was actively involved in the process in Massachusetts. As both the NY Times and Washington Post noted on their respective front pages today, the political crew at the White House is unabashed about engaging in state political issues. Read More......

Tom Delay on "Dancing With the Stars" shakes his booty

It think we may need another constitutional amendment.

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Insurance companies need our help

It's very funny, and from MoveOn - watch it.

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

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Wash Post: "U.S. Faces Doubts About Leadership on Human Rights"

Don't expect bold leadership internationally when at home we've gotten fear, weakness and compromise. Of course, internationally when you exhibit those traits, people often die as a result. Read More......

It would be cheaper to give illegal immigrants a round-trip ticket to Paris, than ban them in the health care reform bill

The Republicans, and President Obama, want to ban illegal immigrants from benefitting from the health care reform bill. Yeah, the only problem is that under US law hospitals still have to treat them, and are reimbursed by the government. So in fact, we're still paying, regardless. All we're doing is sending them for more expensive care. I did a little math and found out that in some cases, we could actually save money over the GOP/Obama plan by simply sending the illegal immigrants to Paris for a week.

1. Average cost of an emergency room visit in the US (per AARP): $1,000.00

2. Fixed cost of an emergency room visit in France: 23 euros ($33.80)
3. Flight, DC-Paris-DC*: $700 (with one week stay, bought one week in advance)
4. One week in a Paris hospital: $164.50 ($23.50-a-night times 7)
5. Grand total of sending the illegal immigrant to Paris instead of treating in a US emergency room: $898.30

*Note that if it were a true emergency, you'd have to get a same-day ticket to Paris and that would cost around $2200. But, many times, people go to the emergency room for non-emergency care (and a real emergency wouldn't permit you to fly and delay treatment). But, if it weren't an emergency, if you wait just one week, the price of a round-trip ticket to Paris drops to just under $700, provided you stay for a week. And at the absurdly cheap rate charged for a night in a French hospital, almost $24, you can afford to spend a week, and then some. Read More......

Krugman: It's time to reform the financial industry

Paul Krugman:

I was startled last week when Mr. Obama, in an interview with Bloomberg News, questioned the case for limiting financial-sector pay: “Why is it,” he asked, “that we’re going to cap executive compensation for Wall Street bankers but not Silicon Valley entrepreneurs or N.F.L. football players?”

That’s an astonishing remark — and not just because the National Football League does, in fact, have pay caps. Tech firms don’t crash the whole world’s operating system when they go bankrupt; quarterbacks who make too many risky passes don’t have to be rescued with hundred-billion-dollar bailouts. Banking is a special case — and the president is surely smart enough to know that.

All I can think is that this was another example of something we’ve seen before: Mr. Obama’s visceral reluctance to engage in anything that resembles populist rhetoric. And that’s something he needs to get over.

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Republicans offer 27 amendments to make health care less affordable

And if those amendments get accepted, they still won't support the bill. Read More......

Obama does Letterman

To start your morning on the light side.


Hat tip to Taegan. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's a big foreign policy day for your president who is in New York CIty at the United Nations. He's got a slew of meetings, including a trilateral with the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of the Palestenian Authority. That's the one likely to get most of the attention, although Obama is also doing a session on climate change, meeting with the President of China and speaking to the Clinton Global Initiative. All in a day's work.

Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee begins marking up the Baucus bill today. Baucus already made some changes to his own bill. The real Democrats on that committee need to make a lot of changes to make this legislation reasonable and workable for real people -- and it needs a public option. We should be getting answers to our questions on health insurance reform for Senator Sherrod Brown later today. I'll post as soon as we get the video.

The Massachusetts legislature should give final approval to the bill allowing an interim appointment for the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy. The appointee would hold the seat until the election of a replacement, which is scheduled for January 19, 2010 (with a primary on December 8th.) The interim appointment would bring the Democratic caucus in the US Senate back to 60 instead of waiting until January.

Lots going on... Read More......

Airlines vow to reduce carbon footprint at UN meeting

In general good news but cutting the number in half by 2050 sounds like painfully slow progress. Good for them for promoting modernization but giving the industry forty years to cut its pollution in half isn't awe inspiring.

The British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, will unveil an agreement between airlines, airports and aircraft companies to cut emissions to 50% below 2005 levels by 2050. In a bid to seize the initiative from environmental groups clamouring for higher taxes on the industry, the plan will be presented to world leaders at the United Nations forum on climate change in New York.

Airlines have been accused of dragging their heels over climate change, but the strategic shift reflects industry concerns that it could be ambushed at the global warming summit in Copenhagen in December if it does not address its growing emissions.

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Bank of England, Big Oil warn on oil price shock

Oh great. This is about the last thing any of us need now so hopefully they're all completely wrong about this. However, it is rather strange to see oil prices so high during a recession. They are obviously down from the $150 high, but even around $70 sounds very excessive when looking at how deep the recession has been.

There were similar warnings from the oil industry itself yesterday. Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of the French energy giant Total, said oil is set to move back above $100 and warned that if recession-hit oil producers continue to delay investment the world faces shortages by 2015.

Mr Sentance's warning also echoes remarks from the Bank Governor, Mervyn King, last week. He described commodity prices as one of the "headwinds" facing the economy, not least because of recent growth in Asia. "Because their growth is more energy-intensive than in other parts of the world so we may see a pick-up in commodity prices," Mr King said. "[So] recovery may be more protracted than we might otherwise have thought."

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EU crumbles on tuna fishing ban

Say goodbye to the bluefin tuna. Commercial fishing fleets never know when to stop though soon enough, there won't be anything left. At that point they will demand government support since there are no more fish to catch.

Officials from EU member states met yesterday to consider a recommendation by the European Commission to support a ban on trade in the species. Britain had backed an official proposal by Monaco to champion efforts to place bluefin tuna on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

The proposal had been expected to be adopted until Mediterranean members – notably France, Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece, and Cyprus – joined forces to block it despite both France and Malta having earlier pledged to support it.

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GOP member of Congress sends pro-life campaign mailing to accused abortion-doctor murderer

That's nice. Read More......