13 hours, bitch

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Special Comment: Prosecute Torture

Keith Olbermann:

In point of fact, every effort to merely 'draw a line in the sand' and declare the past dead, has only served to keep the past alive -- and often to strengthen it.

We compromised with slavery in the Declaration of Independence --and four score and nine years later we had buried 600,000 of our sons and brothers in a Civil War.

After that War's ending, we compromised with the social restructuring and protection of the rights of minorities in the South. And a century later, we had not only not resolved anything, but black leaders were still being assassinated in the cities of the South

We compromised with Germany and the reconstruction of Europe after the First World War -- nobody even arrested the German Kaiser, let alone conducted War Crimes trials, and 19 years later there was an indescribably more evil Germany and a more heart-rending Second World War.

We compromised with the Trusts of the early 1900's, and today we have corporations too big to let fail.

We compromised with The Palmer Raids and got McCarthyism, and we compromised with McCarthyism and got Watergate, and we compromised with Watergate and the junior members of the Ford Administration realized how little was ultimately at risk, and grew up to be Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

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Joe and Rob will be covering inaugural events over the next 24 hours

I'm still getting over the flu from hell, so I'll be covering things from headquarters (also known as my living room). Speaker Pelosi's office was kind enough to offer us tickets to the swearing in, so Joe and Rob will likely be attending along with several of our friends, and they'll be taking pictures and videos and more generally reporting the flavor of the day. It was very nice of Pelosi's office to do this. In spite of our sometimes differences with the Speaker, she has always been ready and willing to play ball with the blogosphere. Two years ago she started doing regular conference calls with the blogs, including just days after she wont the speakership (I'm pretty sure our first conference call with her was two days after the election - I was like, um, don't you have better things to do?). Agree with her, or disagree with her, the lady is a class act. Read the rest of this post...

Bush issues last pardon, won't pardon Scooter or Stevens or Cheney or anyone else?

Huh?

President Bush on Monday commuted the sentences of two former border patrol agents who had been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for shooting and seriously wounding a Mexican drug dealer in Texas in 2005.

With a day left in his presidency, Mr. Bush exercised his constitutional power to grant clemency — for the last time, according to a senior White House official — in a case that has touched off fierce debate in the Southwest. The two former agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, had attracted considerable support among advocates of tougher border security, who argued that the agents were just doing their jobs....

There had been speculation that President Bush would grant clemency to some high-profile defendants, but the White House official said the two ex-agents would be the last to benefit.

I. Lewis Libby Jr., former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, could have been granted a pardon for his role in the leaking of a C.I.A. agent’s name and an attempted cover-up. In July 2007, Mr. Libby’s prison sentence was commuted. Nor was there any clemency for former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who in late October was convicted of ethics violations for not reporting gifts and services given by friends. Mr. Stevens would lose his bid for a seventh term.

President Bartlett pardoned Toby with like 20 minutes to go. I'll believe it when the clock strikes 12. But this is very good, if true. Has our president suddenly grown a soul in his 11th hour? There are still 18 more hours for all of his little buddies to lobby him. I doubt this will be the last. Read the rest of this post...

Future of abstinence-only funding is in limbo

As it should be.

With the exit of the Bush administration, critics of abstinence-only sex education will be making an aggressive push to cut off federal funding for what they consider an ineffective, sometimes harmful program.

How quickly and completely they reach their goal is uncertain, however, as conservative supporters of abstinence education lobby Congress and President-elect Barack Obama to preserve at least some of the funding, which now totals $176 million a year.

And even if federal funding is halted, some states — such as Georgia — are determined to keep abstinence programs going on their own, ensuring that this front in the culture wars will remain active.

It ain't over till it's over, but this is a sign of the kind of thing we should expect from an incoming Obama administration. In spite of our concerns about various issues, overall this change is a good thing. Let's just hope the white hats don't mess it up.

Oh, and if Georgia wants to waste its own money, in the middle of a nasty economy, God bless 'em. Read the rest of this post...

20 hours, bitch

From SoLongCowboy.com

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Obama: We'd always intended for HBO to broadcast Robinson

HBO says it was Obama. Obama throws it back at HBO in this statement I just received:

“We had always intended and planned for Rt. Rev. Robinson’s invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday’s program. We regret the error in executing this plan – but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event.” -- PIC communications director Josh Earnest

At least the Obama people think it important enough to weigh in, and that's a good thing. A lot of good people were disappointed by this. Read the rest of this post...

HBO owns Obama's inaugural concert. If you took any photos or videos you'd better destroy them now.

This land is their land.

HBO has been busy. Not only did they pick a fight with the Obama Inaugural Committee over openly-gay Bishop Gene Robinson (HBO censored Robinson's invocation, so no one will be seeing it), they've been scouring the Internet to make sure no one sees evidence of yesterday's Obama inaugural event.

Yesterday, I posted a clip of Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen singing "This Land is Your Land" at the "We Are One" Obama inaugural concert. Perhaps you've heard of the concert - it's that amazing event down on the Mall set to kick off the inauguration of our next president. But that song is HBO's song. They took down my video claiming copyright infringement. That's the spirit, HBO. You own the inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall which is is officially part of the swearing in of our next president. Nice.

I get that HBO has rights, but when they're broadcasting news -- and the concert was news -- they need to relax. It's not like I copied one of their stupid shows (and after "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City," most are pretty stupid.) And, the Presidential Inaugural Committee should have thought through the concept of letting a corporation own Obama's inaugural concert. Again, it was at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall and was an official event of the inauguration of our president. We all own that, not HBO.

YouTube sent this email:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Home Box Office, Inc. claiming that this material is infringing:

This is Your Land: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-PCpRWqXv8)

Class act, HBO. God forbid people get to see Pete Seeger sing "This Land is Your Land." And, doesn't this violate the spirit of the idea that corporate America doesn't own D.C. anymore??

Ben Smith at Politico has more:

There is something a bit intuitively objectionable about barring other networks and random citizens from pointing their cameras at a public event like this on the Mall, and effectively prevent the broadcast of a key public part of the event, though the Inaugural Committee argues that selling the exclusive rights were the only way to pay for the extravaganza in tough economic times.

Here's the video of Bishop Robinson's invocation yesterday. Let's see if HBO is truly dumb enough to have this taken down, after they censored the broadcast already.

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24 hours, bitch

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HBO blames Obama inaugural team for Bishop Robinson slight

Not what we needed 24 hours before the chimp gets shown the door. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited that Bush is leaving and that Obama is getting sworn in. I'm just growing a bit weary of "mistakes" that keep sending the message that some Obama supporters are less worthy than others.

Sunday afternoon, HBO televised the Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial — a concert planned by the Presidential Inauguration Committee — to kick off the festivities surrounding Obama's inauguration on Tuesday.

Openly gay bishop Gene Robinson delivered the opening prayer before the start of the concert, but the prayer was not included as part of HBO's broadcast.

Contacted Sunday night by AfterElton.com concerning the exclusion of Robinson's prayer, HBO said via email, "The producer of the concert has said that the Presidential Inaugural Committee made the decision to keep the invocation as part of the pre-show."

Uncertain as to whether or not that meant that HBO was contractually prevented from airing the pre-show, we followed up, but none of the spokespeople available Sunday night could answer that question with absolute certainty.

However, it does seem that the network's position is that they had nothing to do with the decision.

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Pardon Us, George Bush

We'll know in the next 24 hours just who George Bush will pardon as his final acts.

There's a long list of crooked Republicans who would love to be pardoned. Alaska's convicted felon/former Senator Ted Stevens is one of them, we learn via the Anchorage Daily News,

With less than 48 hours left of the Bush presidency, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's spokesman said Sunday that Murkowski had asked the White House to pardon the former senior senator of Alaska, Ted Stevens.

The Politico is also placing bets. Alberto Gonzales and Scooter Libby make that list. Writing at the Daily Beast, Kenneth Roth wonders if Bush will pardon himself.

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First 100 days? How about the first 100 hours.

Via Politico, Team Obama isn't wasting any time. They've got a very, very busy work plan from the first hour of the new administration:

Vans will be poised at the Capitol to take a few top aides of Barack Obama's to their new offices at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as soon as he is sworn in, transition aides told Politico.

About 20 senior officials have had their paperwork cleared to enter the White House complex on Tuesday. Some will attend a traditional lunch with the new president in the Capitol, then get to work while the inaugural parade is under way.

The quick start on Tuesday is indicative of the months of planning that Obama’s transition team has put into preparing for his opening days in office.

Officials say on Wednesday, which is being referred to as “Day 1,” he is scheduled to meet with his economic team to discuss the latest calibration of his stimulus package, which is likely to be about $900 billion by the time it reaches his desk, probably in mid-February.

Obama will also meet Wednesday with his national security team to discuss “next steps in Iraq and Afghanistan,” an aide said.

On the Middle East, “You’ll see him act quickly,” incoming senior adviser David Axelrod told John King on the debut edition of CNN’s “State of the Union.”

They have to start fast to undo the damage of the past eight years. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Happy Martin Luther King Day.

Happy Last Full Day of the Bush Presidency.

Happy Eve of the Obama Inauguration.

There is much to be happy about. Over the next few months and years, I have no doubt we'll be irritated and frustrated with the Obama administration. Witness Rick Warren. But, our country is different on a fundamental level. We're part of it again. And, that's a very good thing.

So, let's get started... Read the rest of this post...

Flight 1549 and the age issue

In a story that is already extraordinary in every way, what it especially impressive is pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III and his age. How often does the corporate world throw aside workers who are over 50? In France roughly 55% of those 55 and above are unemployed. My own father was forced into early retirement (at 59) and many friends and family tell me similar stories. Obviously there is an age when the abilities to think quickly start to decline, but the entire US Air team was well under such an age.

This amazing story shows that just because someone is over 55 or even over 50 doesn't mean that they're as useless as the corporate world thinks. It was precisely because of the crews age and experience that the plane made a successful (crash) landing and everyone survived. The co-pilot is 49 (nearing that "dangerous" age for employment) and the flight crew also had decades of experience. Could it be that the corporate world is wrong? Gasp! Maybe there's a lot more talent out there that could be providing even mini miracles or just making business run well but aren't given the chance. What a pity for all of us. Read the rest of this post...

British bank set to announce record loss today

CNBC must be preparing an updated "that's the final loss, now's the time to buy!" story, again. In the case of RBS it just happens to be yet another overgrown bank who smashed competitors and grew too large. Naturally they were chopping staff along the way and paying tens of millions to investment bankers for organizing deals. Now, like at Citi and Bank of America, it's the taxpayers who are stuck with the ugly bill, but none of the juicy payouts that were previously passed around like candy. Great work, when you can get it.

Royal Bank of Scotland was today on course for the biggest loss in UK corporate history after revealing it expected to write down as much as £20 billion on the falling value of its assets.

RBS said a review of past acquisitions, most notably its share of Dutch bank ABN Amro, would result in a hit of between £15 billion and £20 billion.

In addition, the bank said credit and market conditions in the fourth quarter of the year meant it achieved full-year losses of between £7 billion and £8 billion. The final haul will easily exceed the deficit of £15 billion reported by mobile phone group Vodafone in 2006.

Royal Bank of Scotland also said it had reached agreement with the Treasury to replace £5 billion of preference shares with new ordinary shares, effectively increasing the Government's stake in the bank.

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