Cop who pulled gun on snowball fight makes the Swedish press

Not a good sign when one of our DC cops makes us an international embarrassment. Read the rest of this post...

Obama responds to criticism in the black community

Politico:

President Barack Obama deflected criticism Monday that he has not been attentive enough to the African-American community, telling American Urban Radio Networks that he was unconcerned to see that kind of message coming from former supporters such as actor Danny Glover.

"If you want me to line up all the black actors, for example, who support me and put them on one side of the room and a couple who are grumbling on the other, I'm happy to have that," Obama said, adding that polls show African-Americans express "overwhelming support for what we've tried to do."

We've seen similar responses to the liberal base and the gay community. Namely, that only a few of us are actually upset with the President's, and the party's, leadership. I hope the President is simply spinning here, and not voicing his actual opinion that people aren't upset. Because they very clearly are. You can read the entire interview here. Read the rest of this post...

Wash Post on Obama admin's reasoning for disobeying judge's order to provide benefits to lesbian

From the Washington Post, via AMERICAblog Gay:

With logic only a lawyer -- and perhaps only a government lawyer -- could love, the Obama administration is refusing to obey a federal judge's order that agrees with a position the administration supports.

Last month, Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, ordered the Office of Personnel Management to allow health insurance companies serving federal staffers to provide benefits for same-sex spouses of the court's workers.

But on Friday, the OPM told the attorney for Karen Golinski, a court employee, that the agency would not obey the judge's order.

What would George Bush have done? The exact same thing. Read the rest of this post...

Palin keeps promoting "death panels" lie

She really is desperate for attention. Read the rest of this post...

Now the Republicans are threatening climate change legislation

The Republicans are going to block every single thing the Democrats attempt to do. They are single-mindedly focused on taking back control of the Congress, and blocking Obama's agenda to better help a Republican take the White House in 2012. This should not surprise anyone. The real question is what effect will this have on the Obama administration's and the Democratic Congress' approach on climate change. Will they still try to work out a bipartisan deal with members of Congress who has already said they want to block this deal?

This is setting us up for a repeat of the health care debate. It's all going to come down to 60 votes, and 60 Democrats and Independents. The White House needs to launch a campaign, now, to get this legislation passed, to build public support, and ultimately pressure recalcitrant Democrats and Indies to support the legislation - if you can build enough support with the public, you can sometimes pressure members of Congress to do the right thing. But as we found with health care reform, if you don't build enough support, members of both parties start to go rogue.

The President needs to get over his aversion to controversy, and the White House needs to start campaigning hard, now, for the best deal. Let's all work together and do this. For real this time. Read the rest of this post...

Obama doesn't think he compromised one bit on health care bill

Washington Post:

President Obama rejected in an interview Tuesday the criticism that he has compromised too much in order to secure health-care reform legislation, challenging his critics to identify any "gap" between what he campaigned on last year and what Congress is on the verge of passing.

"Nowhere has there been a bigger gap between the perceptions of compromise and the realities of compromise than in the health-care bill," Obama said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Post about his legislative record this year. "Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill."

If he's trying to cover his behind, and make the best of it, that's one thing. But if he truly believes that he didn't compromise on some of his core promises, then this is very troubling, as it indicates he'll do it again without a moment's hesitation, because he doesnt recognize caving as caving.

To beat a dead horse one more time, this is why Joe and I keep arguing that what happened during health care reform is indicative of a larger problem, and has implications far behind this debate. Read the rest of this post...

Please help us give a Christmas bonus to our writers and moderators

Every Christmas I like to take up a special collection for Christmas bonuses for the AMERICAblog family. If the spirit moves you, feel free to use the button above to give via PayPal. As always, we appreciate you guys hanging with us through a sometimes trying year, and I appreciate Joe, Chris, Tim, Naomi and all of our moderators (I'm not sure which of them are public with their names, so I'm holding back for the moment) who have helped me manage the blog for over five years now. Thank you in advance to anyone who can help out, and I hope everyone has a peaceful holiday with family and friends. Thanks, JOHN

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Key House liberal says could accept HCR without public option if...

If House liberals think the Senate bill comes up short, then moving the date up on a bill that is short doesn't really solve the problem:

In a sign that House liberals may be bracing to swallow much of the Senate bill with minimal changes, a key House progressive suggested in an interview with me that he might be able to support a bill without a public component, if the coverage in the bill were to kick in earlier than it currently does in the Senate proposal.

The larger problem is that any significant changes to the Senate bill will kick in the Lieberman/Nelson problem, where one or the other will threaten to join a filibuster. There will be no significant changes to the Senate bill, period. This is the price we pay for the White House dropping the ball months ago. And actually, it's the price every American pays for the White House's lack of spine.

The White House likes to disseminate talking points about how anyone who is upset about the Senate bill clearly doesn't appreciate the needs of the 30 million Americans who will get (be forced to buy) insurance via the bill. One could just as easily note that the White House doesn't appreciate the needs of the 300 million Americans who now won't have access to a much better and much cheaper public option because the President refused to put up a fight.

There is simply no way to fix the bill at this point. Lieberman and Nelson pwn the president and the Congress. This is why Joe and I have been complaining for a good half a year about the President not being sufficiently involved in this process. Once you screw it up, it can't be fixed. Hopefully a lesson has been learned for coming debates on climate change, immigration, gay rights and beyond. Read the rest of this post...

RNC Chairs smackdown: Former GOP leaders criticize Steele for taking tens of thousands for speeches

I don't like to link to the Washington Times. But, when there's an intra-GOP battle, I'll make an exception. And, when former chairs of the GOP are openly critical of the current GOP chair, how can we not? Michael Steele has been raking in thousands in speaker fees. That's just not done:

Harry Sandler, who handles Mr. Steele's bookings at Newton, Mass.-based American Program Bureau, told The Washington Times that Mr. Steele "tends" to charge between $10,000 and $15,000 for an appearance and that he received roughly that amount for a Sept. 21 speech at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. Mr. Steele has an upcoming speaking engagement at DePaul University in Chicago, for which he will be paid $12,500.

"Holy mackerel, I never heard of a chairman of either party ever taking money for speeches," said Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., RNC chairman under President Reagan and CEO of the American Gaming Association.

"The job of a national chairman is to give speeches. That's what the national party pays him for. We didn't have a rule book back then, but being national chairman was and is a full-time job," Mr. Fahrenkopf said.

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson, who served in that position from 1997 to 2000 and was President George W. Bush's Veterans Affairs secretary from 2005 to 2007, said the job "demands so much of your time that you can work 24/7 and not get everything done, so taking time out to speak for the benefit of one's own bank account is not appropriate."

Read the rest of this post...

Naomi Klein: For Obama, No Opportunity Too Big to Blow

Naomi Klein, the author of "The Shock Doctrine," writing at Huffington Post:

There's plenty of blame to go around, but there was one country that possessed unique power to change the game. It didn't use it. If Barack Obama had come to Copenhagen with a transformative and inspiring commitment to getting the U.S. economy off fossil fuels, all the other major emitters would have stepped up. The EU, Japan, China and India had all indicated that they were willing to increase their levels of commitment, but only if the U.S. took the lead. Instead of leading, Obama arrived with embarrassingly low targets and the heavy emitters of the world took their cue from him....

I understand all the arguments about not promising what he can't deliver, about the dysfunction of the U.S. Senate, about the art of the possible. But spare me the lecture about how little power poor Obama has. No president since FDR has been handed as many opportunities to transform the U.S. into something that doesn't threaten the stability of life on this planet. He has refused to use each and every one of them.

What's fascinating is how, writing on a completely different topic, Klein channels what Joe and I have been saying of the President's non-strategy on gay rights, and what everyone has been saying of his non-strategy on health care reform. Read the rest of this post...

Bankrupt and failed Lehman to pay massive bonuses

You can't even make up stories like this it's so crazy. CNBC:

The Wall Street bank which collapsed last year plunging the world into a deeper financial crisis is paying generous bonuses and recruiting middle and back office staff to help administrators sort millions of transactions, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

Lehman's European business is trying to stop employees defecting as it is helping administrators Pricewaterhouse Coopers reconcile transactions with clients and trading partners to determine what is owed or can be claimed.

Last week, a judge overseeing Lehman's US bankruptcy approved an extra $50 million in bonus pay-outs to 230 derivatives traders who are working to unwind the bank's $10 billion portfolio.

Read the rest of this post...

Rudy makes it official today. He's not running for Senate or Governor in NY.

We won't have Rudy Giuliani to kick around in 2010 and that's not necessarily a bad thing. He actually could have caused some trouble for Democratic candidates:

So long, Rudy.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to announce Tuesday he is not running for U.S. Senate or anything else in 2010, effectively ending his storied - and often stormy - electoral career, The Daily News has learned.

The announcement, at which he'll also endorse Republican Rick Lazio for governor, marks the end of a year-long political dance by Giuliani, who mulled bids for governor and then Senate before backing away from both.

He had reason to weigh each run: surveys showed him a clear favorite to win primaries for either office, and as recently as last week a poll showed Giuliani crushing freshman Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand by 10 points.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The Senate continues its trek towards passage of the health insurance bill. Check out the Senate's "Orders" for today. Incomprehensible. This morning, Senators will vote on the the "manager's amendment," which is the fix-it part of the bill containing all the latest compromises. They had to wait 30 hours following the cloture vote which took place early, early yesterday morning. (UPDATE @ 7:57 a.m.: The "manager's amendment just passed: 60 - 39.) There will be another cloture vote this morning, too, on what's called the "substitute" amendment. (UPDATE @ 8:13 a.m.: Cloture was invoked on the substitute amendment: 60 - 39.) Then, they'll wait 30 hours to take the final vote on that. Then, there will be one more cloture vote on the final bill itself, sometime early tomorrow afternoon. So, after another 30 hour wait, it looks like they're still on schedule to pass the bill on Christmas eve. Complicated, I know. And, who knows what tricks Tom Coburn may still have up his sleeve.

I'm sure a lot of Senators and Senate staffers are upset about delaying their holiday plans. Such hard lives. But, having Christmas in D.C. isn't as rough as having it in Kandahar or Fallujah.

The looming question is: can or will the Senate bill be fixed? Will the conference with the House, which has a far better bill, even matter? Nothing about this process has given me any confidence that will happen.

I think Christmas is this week.

Let's thread... Read the rest of this post...

Larry Summers recommended new cyber czar

So what's worse between Summers recommending him or his background working with the Bush administration. Change we can believe in.

After months of wrangling and delays, President Barack Obama has chosen a national cyber security coordinator to take on the formidable task of organizing and managing the nation's increasingly vulnerable digital networks.

Obama has tapped Howard A. Schmidt, longtime computer security executive who worked in the Bush administration and has extensive ties to the corporate world, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement will not be made until Tuesday.

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Pope Benedict promotes Pope Pius XII for sainthood

Is it really that difficult to see the problem here? Is the Vatican and Pope Benedict honestly this tone deaf? Obviously they haven't been listening nor do they care.

Among those to criticise him was the World Jewish Congress, whose president, Ronald Lauder, said: "As long as the archives about the crucial period 1939 to 1945 remain closed, and until a consensus on his actions ‑ or inaction ‑ concerning the persecution of millions of Jews in the Holocaust is established, a beatification is inopportune and premature.

"While it is entirely a matter for the Catholic church to decide on whom religious honours are bestowed, there are strong concerns about Pius XII's political role during world war two which should not be ignored."

He called on the Vatican to immediately open the files on the controversial figure. "Given the importance of good relations between Catholics and the Jews, and following the difficult events of the past year, it would be appreciated if the Vatican showed more sensitivity on this matter," he added, referring to Benedict's rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying cleric, Richard Williamson.

Read the rest of this post...