52% of the bad-guy lobbyists on health care reform used to work for the govt

No big surprise, but still. Read More......

Poverty gap continues to increase in South Africa

Thabo Mbeki failed South Africa in so many ways. He could have been worse, but it's sometimes hard to see how. AFP:

The Development Indicators report showed that the income of South Africa's poorest 10 percent rose by a third from 783 rand (105 US dollars, 71 euros) in 1993 to 1,041 rand a month in 2008.

The richest 10 percent got richer by nearly 38 percent over the same period.

While the report acknowledges a "racial underpinning" of inequality, figures show that while black South Africans' salaries increased by 38 percent, the incomes of white South Africans jumped by 83.5 percent between 1995 and 2008.

Haroon Bhorat, an economist with the University of Cape Town, said sustained growth up until about 2006 had partially reduced poverty, but at the same time the gap between the rich and the poor had widened.

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Doonesbury has turned on Obama

Usually not a good sign. Read More......

William Safire has died

AP does a good job of highlighting the good, and not so good, of his career. Read More......

Merkel wins a second term in Germany

AP:

German voters handed conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel a second term and a chance to create new centre-right government Sunday, while her centre-left rivals suffered a historic defeat in the national election.

Merkel succeeded in ending her "grand coalition" with the centre-left Social Democrats led by challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current foreign minister, according to television projections. She can now form a government with the pro-business Free Democrats, who performed very strongly.

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Teabaggers and religious right are a "Fifth column of insanity"

(Hat tip, Denialism Blog) Read More......

A little Sunday Paris metro blogging

As much as the musicians on the Paris Metro drive me batty (they're usually not that good, and get annoying after a while), in the main Metro station at Chatelet, there's a little intersection that's quite wonderful. Only the best bands play at this spot (I have no idea how it comes about, but the crappy guys are never here). I caught this band playing about a week ago. If you're in the Metro, it's at Chatelet, right where you get on/off Line 4 - can't miss it. Oh, and this is shot with my iPhone, so be kind. FYI This is the kind of thing I post on my Facebook page, no politics on that page, just fun and interesting things from life.

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CBO: Dropping public option to cost $110 billion; and public option insurance premiums would cost you 10% less than your current private plan

Now there's a bombshell. Advocates of the public option have been saying for a while that one of the good, and necessary, things about it is that it saves money. Now the CBO apparently agrees.

The National Journal is reporting that the CBO determined the robust public option favored by progressives would save the government $110 billion. A weaker “level playing field” public option would only save $25 billion.

This means removing the robust public option from the House bill would require a corresponding $110 billion reduction in affordablity tax credits. Depending on the final shape of the bill that would be somewhere between a 14%-23% reduction in the amount of tax credits to working class Americans. From different CBO reports (1,2) we know that in 2019 the average tax credit for an enrollee in the exchange, who needs help with affording health insurance, will be between $5,000-$6,000. Eliminating the robust public option would reduce the amount of tax credits to an individual by roughly $1,000.

The CBO also reported that, “on average the [robust] public plan would be about 10 percent cheaper than a typical private plan.”

This puts members of Congress and the administration in a tough spot. If they don't push for a public option, then they're pushing to needlessly increase the deficit, and to make your own monthly premiums more expensive than they need to be. The reason? It would be unfair to doctors, who already make half a million a year, if your insurance premiums went down 10%. If anything, we should be pissed that the public option only lowers premiums by 10%. If that's the case, then maybe we need something even stronger, like single payer.

The more people find out these kind of details, the more I think they're going to be increasingly unhappy with what Max Baucus and the Blue Dogs are proposing. Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

For the most part, it's foreign policy Sunday. Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates are doing the shows 'today, as is Bill Clinton. The ubiquitous John McCain is also doing an appearance, of course.

On the political front, "Meet the Press" has New York Governor David Paterson, who has been in the news of late because Obama told him not to run for Governor again.

And, for some reason, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is on FOX. Democrats should not go on FOX -- ever. FOX is not a real news network. It's spews right-wing diatribe and Democrats only provide that network credibility by appearing on its shows. Obama made a smart move last week by doing every network but FOX and FOX didn't like it. Let the right wing idiots talk amongst themselves. Seriously, Democrats, stop going on FOX.

Here's the full lineup:

ABC's "This Week" - Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" - Former President Bill Clinton, New York Gov. David Patterson and Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Jim Webb, D-Va.

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CNN's "State of the Union" - Gates and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

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"Fox News Sunday" - Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Kit Bond, R-Mo.; Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell; conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe.

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Sunday biking

Not that I'm going to do anything similar, but I'm heading out for a long ride this morning with a retired friend who spends a good deal of time in Paris. He helped set up bike paths in northern California and more recently around Miami and is now trying to make the Velib bikes accessible to Americans. (It's a credit card technology problem and US cards use older technology.) My daily routine is a 45 minute circle around town but today is a 4-5 hour ride along the Marne river. In the mean time, the kids above are amazing with their bike tricks. It must be in the UK or somewhere outside of the US because it's missing the usually required "do not try this at home" warning. Read More......

Germany heading to the polls today

Angela Merkel is very likely to win as the left in Germany is in disarray. Maybe she can quit the tough talk following the elections and start focusing more on substance, if that's possible.

Germans decide Sunday whether to return the nation's first woman chancellor to a second term in office following a lackluster campaign centered largely on economic issues and a rash of last-minute threats by Islamic extremists.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is hoping enough of the nation's 62.2 million eligible voters will support her conservative Christian Democratic Party to give them a solid enough standing to form a center-right coalition with their top partners, the Free Democrats.

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163 species discovered near Mekong

Spectacular news on the environment. CNN:

The discovery of 100 new plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species highlights the extent of the biodiversity in the region, said Barney Long, head of the WWF's Asian Species Conservation program.

"It's a melting pot of diverse habitats. It has some of the wettest forests on the planet, high mountains, and a diverse array of terrestrial and marine habitats, including the Mekong River," he said.

"We continue to find new species of fish, primates and mammals, and nowhere else compares to the amount of large mammals that have been discovered in the region. It shows how little we know about species in the region," he said. "From a biodiversity perspective, there are still huge amounts to discover about region."

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Did Barney Frank water down consumer protection?

It certainly sounds like it. Why?

CNBC.com obtained a copy of the discussion draft before its release early Friday morning.

In general, Frank's version gives the agency many of the same rulemaking and enforcement powers of the White House proposal. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Frank and his committee at a public hearing Wednesday that the administration was "very supportive" of the changes.

Analysts, however, consider it less tough on financial firms by dropping the plain vanilla and reasonable standards provisions.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Maybe Barney simply never read his own bill. He does that a lot. Read More......