Bananas exploding on face

I'm not convinced that this is art. Funny, yes.

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My Bad. Apparently the meeting with Geithner was more on the record than I thought.

I just got back from dinner with a number of the bloggers who joined Joe and me at the Geithner meeting earlier today, and I learned a funny thing. Apparently there was a mis-communication and the meeting was not as off the record as Joe and I had understood. We still can't quote anything anyone said, but we can paraphrase what was said, so long as we don't attribute it to any one of the handful of senior Treasury officials who were at the meeting. I know, not perfect, but it's better since Joe and I can now talk openly about what happened at the meeting, and about our impressions about Treasury.

So, tomorrow Joe and I will be posting in more detail about what happened, and what we think, but in the meantime both Sam Stein and Ryan Grim at Huffington Post, both of whom understood that they could post more content, did. Here's Ryan's piece, and here's Sam's. Read the rest of this post...

MIT student creates wheelchair for developing world

Instead of showering praise on the usual self-centered egomaniacs that run the corporate world (as the media loves to do), people like this deserve much more recognition. Maybe he won't make millions but millions of people around the world will be very appreciative. Here's the full story. Read the rest of this post...

Joe and I just met with Treasury Secretary Geithner

UPDATE: Apparently the ground rules for the meeting were not entirely clear. Contrary to what I wrote below, we apparently were permitted to write about what was said at the meeting, provided that we did not quote anything directly, and provided that we did not attribute anything by name to anyone at the meeting. I know, it's still a bit silly, but at least it will permit Joe and me to write tomorrow about what actually happened substantively at the meeting. I've written a bit more about this here.
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It was pretty fascinating, and there's not much we can tell you about it because Treasury wanted the entire meeting with Geithner, and most of the rest of our time at Treasury, on deep background. Meaning, we could use everything we were told, but could never attribute it to anyone, anywhere. So, if I learned a fact at the meeting, I could mention it some day in passing, but couldn't say how or why I know it.

The meeting was the second time, I'm told, that Treasury has invited a group of bloggers to meet with some of the senior staff and the Secretary (second time?) It took place in the Treasury building next to the White House, and it included around 18 bloggers. I know I'm going to leave someone out, but those I could recognize (or read their name plates) included: Faiz and Amanda at ThinkProgress, John Amato at Crook & Liars, Duncan Black of Eschaton, Sam Stein, Shafein Nasiripour and Ryan Grim of Huff Post, David Kurtz of TPM, Felix Salmon of Reuters, Megan McArdle of the Atlantic, Matty Yglesias of ThinkProgress, Patrick Garofalo of the American Prospect, James Kwak, Joe Sudbay of AMERICAblog and me. From Treasury, among others, were Secretary Geithner, Deputy Secratary Neil Wolin, Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Michael Barr, Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Allen Kruger, and Counselor to the Secretary Gene Sperling. Quite an impressive, high level group.

The meeting took place in an absolutely stunning room of what is the most stunning federal office building I've seen in all my years. Much of official Washington is kind of old. State isn't exactly a pretty building on the inside, nor is DOD, nor a number of other agencies, and even the White House has parts that are kind of eh. Not Treasury. Stunning building, stunning hallways, stunning meeting rooms. This room was amazing. It's called the Secretary's Conference Room. Huge pendulum clock on the wall. Huge. Wide dark wooden doorways framed in gold. Beautiful etched transoms above the doors, ornately painted ceiling, and a beautiful 200 year old portrait of George Washington on the wall. Simply stunning. You can read more about the room here.

The meeting began on the record with the Deputy Secretary telling us about a new policy to permit private citizens in Iran, Sudan and Cuba to be able to legally have access to free US-based Internet services like Twitter and YouTube. It was a bit vague, and we pressed for more specificity, but perhaps this post over at Tapped will help explain it better.

From that point on, we entered secret-agent land where none of us were permitted to tell you what happened, other than who we met with. Judging by the content, it's not terribly clear why Treasury didn't want us reporting back to you, especially since everyone in attendance from Treasury did a damn fine job. There wasn't one person who in any way said or did anything that the agency might have wanted to keep off the record. It's unfortunate really. Sam Stein from Huffington Post, to his credit, registered a rather large protest over the fact that the meeting was off the record.

Here's the thing. I've argued before that I think it's necessary, sometimes, to have meetings off the record. It just is. Sometimes you need to conspire with like-minded souls, or even your political enemies, out of the public eye, especially if you're partisans and not simply objective journalists. In this case, the meeting wasn't about having a private strategy session with fellow partisans. At least it didn't seem that way. The bloggers in attendance asked questions about a large range of topics of the day, much as any journalist would. And we got the kind of answers you might expect Treasury officials to give mainstream journalists on the record. So, it just isn't clear why it was off the record. Or why, for example, I wasn't even permitted to photograph the meeting as I did for our blogger meeting at the White House.

Speaking of the White House blogger meeting, you might recall that at the WH meeting I had a back and forth with the VP's top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein over whether bloggers were partly to blame for the stimulus not selling well, and more generally, over the White House's lack of effective messaging on the stimulus and other issues. Without going into the content of our deep-background discussions at Treasury, I can say that the blogger questions for Geithner were as hard, if not harder, than the question I raised at the White House for Bernstein. And the reaction from the folks at Treasury, including Geithner himself, to the tough blogger questions was simply fabulous. Geithner handled himself extremely well. Shockingly so, really. He walked in, didn't have any opening remarks, and just opened the floor up to questions for a good hour. We all got our say. Repeatedly. It was great. Geithner handled himself so well, and was so impressive, intellectually and personally, that it's all the more harder to understand why we're not permitted to talk with you about the substance. Geithner doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation among a lot of Democrats. If they were to see him as we saw him today, that view might begin to change.

Overall it was a very interesting meeting with Geithner. The administration should have started holding these kinds of meetings a year ago. Still, I think it was worthwhile, and other agencies should copy what Treasury did today (but on the record - or at least part on, part off).

PS On a personal note, Orszag has nothing on this guy. Read the rest of this post...

Teabaggers not having success at the ballot box

Politico:

In Tuesday’s Texas GOP primary, tea party-inspired contenders found themselves blown out in races across the state. Gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, who closely aligned herself with the grass-roots conservative movement, picked up just 19 percent of the vote. And while a host of House GOP incumbents faced challenges from tea party opponents, the only one who faced anything remotely close to a scare was Rep. Ralph Hall — who dispatched his nearest competitor by nearly 30 percentage points.

It wasn’t the first electoral blow for tea party faithful. In last month’s Illinois primary, tea party favorite Patrick Hughes won just 19 percent against GOP Rep. Mark Kirk in the Senate primary, while gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski, who aggressively sought the support of tea party activists and won high praise from conservative outlets like RedState.com, finished a distant fifth place in the Republican contest.

And in November,Doug Hoffman, whose Conservative Party campaign for an upstate New York House seat was the beneficiary of support from grass-roots activists across the country, fell short to Democrat Bill Owens.

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Danny Glover is right about Hugo Boss

Over twenty years ago I worked landscaping jobs for around the same hourly wage and I was only a college student. Hugo Boss seems to be more interested in more bloated salaries at the top than anything else. If the Cleveland team is somehow having such a negative impact on a business that sells suits starting at $800 a pop, they really need new management to figure out much bigger problems. When is enough enough? Even if I wanted to pay this much for a suit, I sure wouldn't choose Hugo Boss.

Workers United, which represents most of the plant's employees, said the plant is profitable and the company is shutting it because it can make clothing more cheaply in Europe. The clothing company, famed for its stylish fashion, has a facility in Turkey and contract workers in Romania and Bulgaria.

The union, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, is asking fans to join Glover by signing an online petition urging Hollywood to shun Hugo Boss at the Oscars.

Hugo Boss AG, based in Metzingen, Germany, said the plant is under capacity and isn't globally competitive. It makes two lines of men's suits there.

During union negotiations last year, the company told workers it wanted to lower wages from $13 an hour to $8.30, Ohio union director Dallas Sells said.

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Stimulus created 2,000 jobs in New Hampshire

From the conservative NH paper, the Union Leader:

New Hampshire has used its $708 million in federal stimulus funding to create more than 2,000 jobs, pay for scores of road projects, upgrade health centers, fund research projects at universities and provide public schools with computers and supplies.

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Guess which health reform opponent used to 'to hustle over the border' to get health care in Canada?

Sarah Palin. You betcha:

The vocal opponent of health care reform in the U.S. steered largely clear of the topic except to reveal a tidbit about her life growing up not far from Whitehorse.

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," she said. "And I think now, isn't that ironic."

That's some "tidbit." Palin was the beneficiary of Canada's socialized medicine. She really is shameless. And, a hypocrite.

We need more details. Read the rest of this post...

Romney says that his health care plan in Massachusetts is nothing like Obama's (except it is)

Sam Stein explains:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney insisted on Sunday that the health care reform plan he implemented in Massachusetts had no similarity to the one President Obama is championing, in part because Romney's was state-based and Obama's is a national overhaul.

The logic was a bit tortured. Romney, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," defended the universal health care system he put into place as governor as the "ultimate conservative plan," the "ultimate pro-life effort" and one that is "working well." But the Massachusetts Republican seemed incredulous that Obama would think of doing similar reform on the federal level.

Romney refused to acknowledge that his plan was similar to Obama's. Though, as host Chris Wallace point out, on many key measures -- an individual and employer mandate, subsidies for those who would have trouble buying insurance, and minimum standards for coverage -- the two plans converged. The likely 2012 presidential candidate pointed out that the president's plan included cuts to Medicare and additional taxes. But both of those measures are designed, in part, to provide funds to keep per capita spending down -- something that the Massachusetts plan failed to do. Finally, Romney touted the fact that his plan included "no controls over insurance premiums, price controls," which provides some explanation for why premiums in the Bay State are the highest in the nation.

So Romney's new definition of a conservative is someone who acts like a liberal, but at the local level. Read the rest of this post...

Rep. Massa hits back. Blames Dem. leaders for pushing him out.

David Dayen has the details of Rep. Eric Massa's latest weekly radio address. The New York Congressman, who is resigning as of 5:00 P.M. today, explained the ethics charges against him. And, he let the Democratic leaders, primarily Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer, have it. I agree with David's conclusion:

I don’t know what the facts are, but certainly this re-opens a case that Democratic leaders probably wanted closed.

Here's Massa On Hoyer:

Massa also accused Steny Hoyer of lying about the investigation when he said that he told Massa’s office to file the allegations with the Ethics Committee. “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me at all, never, not once. Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly, before findings of fact. Ever.”

And, on Emanuel:

"Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn," Massa said in a radio interview. "He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."

Massa told us he was a salty-talking sailor. I suspect we haven't heard the last of him or this story. Read the rest of this post...

With Biden en route, Israel approves new settlement homes

I'm no expert on the Middle East, but it sure looks like the Israeli government trying to send the U.S. a signal. From the pool report, we were told Biden's plane left for Jerusalem at 8:30 PM EST and arrived at 4:08 Israeli time (seven hours ahead of EST.) So, the Israel government made this announcement while the Veep was on his way:

Israel authorized the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank despite a pledge to slowdown settlement building, the government disclosed Monday — a decision that enraged the Palestinians a day after they reluctantly agreed to resume peace talks.

Word of the new construction in Beitar Illit came amid a flurry of activity by the US to try to salvage peacemaking.

US Vice President Joseph Biden is due to land later Monday on the highest-level visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by an Obama administration official. Washington's special envoy to the Mideast, George Mitchell, is also meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

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EJ Dionne called out Orrin Hatch's lie while sitting next to Orrin Hatch

There was a great exchange between Orrin Hatch and E.J. Dionne on "Meet the Press" yesterday. Well, it was great for Dionne, not Hatch. Last week, Dionne wrote a column challenging the lies in Hatch's op-ed about reconciliation. Then, Dionne did it right to Hatch's face:
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Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The pressure is on to pass the health insurance reform bill. This morning, the President is heading to suburban Philadelphia to make a pitch for the plan. Later this week, he's heading to St. Louis to do the same thing.

House leaders are counting the votes to see if they can pass the Senate bill. Then, the fixes will come through reconciliation. But, expect to keep hearing the GOPers lie about the reconciliation process. Lindsey Graham lied yesterday on "Face the Nation." You'd think with all the talk about Karl Rove's new book that some in the traditional media might recall how he trained the Republican Party to lie. He knew that reporters and pundits were patsies who would never call call them liars. But, the reconciliation lie is so easy to disprove. Think Bush tax cuts.

So, it should be another interesting political week. Never a dull moment. Rarely a gratifying moment anymore, but never dull.... Read the rest of this post...

So-called Travel Promotion Act signed into law

What a terrible idea. As I've said before, if Vegas and Disney want a marketing budget let them do it themselves like other businesses. I've been charged fees like this before with some countries and it's never in rich countries. It's small time and adds another hassle to travel. The idea that it will help international marketing is laughable. Everyone who travels already knows that coming into the US is an enormous hassle, especially since the US added in new visa requirements for places like Europe. Slapping an additional $10 charge only adds to the insult. Obama was a fool for signing this and he should expect the EU and other regions to return the favor for Americans very soon.

Sorry to say but in a global competitive travel market, the US is not a friendly place to visit. It's expensive and it's a hassle. There are too many other countries who are much more welcoming. Let's just call this the Don't Bother to Travel to the US Act.

"We generally oppose tourism taxes, which this is," said Steve Lott, a North America spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, which represents 230 airlines worldwide. "We're concerned about retaliatory action by other countries."

Lott added that national resources would best be directed toward addressing barriers faced by global travelers in the United States. For example, cutting the time required for foreigners to obtain a visa and minimizing security hassles at U.S. airports would do much to improve perceptions about traveling to America, Lott said.

The non-profit U.S. Travel Association said there has been a drop in overseas travel to the United States each year since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Last year, 2.4 million fewer overseas visitors came to the United States than in 2000, it said.

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Tsvangirai to run against Mugabe next year in elections

It's going to be interesting to see how the new South African president Zuma reacts to calls for international peace keepers to monitor the election. Previous attempts to campaign against Mugabe have been met with threats, violence and death. The Indepedent:

The unity government is supposed to prepare for elections in 2011, but it has been beset by disputes among the partners. No election date has been set.

"I am ready to stand for elections," Mr Tsvangirai told about 20,000 members of his Movement for Democratic Change party.

"We want a peacekeeping force to protect people during the election period," he added, saying he would ask the African Union and a regional group known as SADC to send the troops.

He also said he wanted foreign observers to help guarantee a free and fair vote.

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