I'm going on CNN at 10am-ish Eastern Sunday morning to talk about Limbaugh and FOX News

It seems that Rush and FOX both have their panties in a twist. Rush, because his extremism scared the NFL away from selling him a team, and FOX because they're upset that the White House is finally standing up to them after all the smears. A glaring example of just how up the GOP's tailpipe FOX is, here's FOX's own resident Joe McCarthy on the "communists" and "Marxists" who have taken over the Obama administration.

Oh, and he almost cries in this video too. And do check out ThinkProgress' post on this - it points out that John McCain, Ralph Reed, and George Bush must have been communists too.

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Grab a mop

It's good.

"What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. Another way of putting it is when, you know, I'm busy and Nancy is busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else's mess --- we don't want somebody sitting back saying, you're not holding the mop the right way. Why don't you grab a mop, why don't you help clean up. (Applause.) You're not mopping fast enough. (Laughter.) That's a socialist mop. (Laughter and applause.) Grab a mop -- let's get to work," - Barack Obama.

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House Vote On Insurance Industry Antitrust Exemption Coming

Ryan Grim at Huff Post reports that the effort to repeal the health insurance industry's antitrust exemption is gaining steam on the Hill:

The battle against the health insurance industry is steadily intensifying. House Democrats have formally scheduled a vote to revoke the industry's cherished antitrust protection, according to a statement from Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). The move comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) have put up a unified front, calling for an end to the anti-competitive practice.

On Thursday, Pelosi noted to reporters that the Judiciary Committee had held a hearing on repealing the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which exempts the insurance industry from antitrust laws.

Conyers announced Friday he'd take it to the next level and hold a vote on October 21.

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The Goldman Sachs "magic"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

How the ball bounces in their favor every time. Forget about you getting your investment money back because it's years away. Goldman is first in line and they want it all. (H/T Madonna) Read the rest of this post...

Pre-Plato Greek city discovered under the sea

Wow.

Explored by an Anglo-Greek team of archaeologists and marine geologists and known as Pavlopetri, the sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer's heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented, experts say.

"There is now no doubt that this is the oldest submerged town in the world," said Dr Jon Henderson, associate professor of underwater archaeology at the University of Nottingham. "It has remains dating from 2800 to 1200 BC, long before the glory days of classical Greece. There are older sunken sites in the world but none can be considered to be planned towns such as this, which is why it is unique."

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White House accuses major union of "gratuitous slap" for standing up for real health care reform

This is what happens when you don't reach out to people, when you take friends for granted, when you care more about appeasing the opposition than pleasing your allies. It's surprising, frankly, that it took this long for a major Democratic organization/constituency to finally stand up to the White House and say "enough."

The White House is now saying that it's a "gratuitous slap" for AFSMCE to demand that its views be taken into account in the final health care reform bill. If that's true, then was it a gratuitous slap to most Democrats when the White House decided that Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley were more important than Democrats when putting together health care reform in the first place? And is it a gratuitous slap to every single member of the Democratic caucus that the White House has empowered Republican Senator Olympia Snowe to basically run the show at this point? And is it a gratuitous slap to the base of the Democratic party that when we ask the president to simply keep his promises on health care reform, the White House responds by calling us names, repeatedly?

There is a serious attitude problem here, and it's not with AFSCME. You don't treat your friends with disdain and then express shock when they've finally had enough. The White House needs to start actually working with Democrats - not lecturing them, not calling them names, not condescending to them, not threatening to defund them, and not ignoring them - but actually working with them as allies, as equals. Otherwise, I suspect we're going to see more and more unions, and constituencies (e.g., immigration, gays), follow AFSCME's example and finally realize that they can sit back and shut up, and never be heard, or they can do what the Republicans and the conservative Democrats do all too successfully - stand up and yell at the White House, and then watch everyone fall all over themselves to make you happy.

PS You never hear this kind of language about Olympia Snowe, Bill Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Joe Lieberman, the Blue Dogs or much of anyone else giving the White House a hard time about reform. And that includes Max "Bought by the Insurance Industry" Baucus. Read the rest of this post...

A wee bit of optimism from Krugman the Glum

I jest. We love Krugman. But he's not one to pull punches. So if he sees a glimmer of hope in the economy, that's good.

We won’t be getting a 3rd-quarter GDP estimate until October 29, but we do have industrial production — and it’s growing seriously fast: 5.2% annual rate for 3rd quarter, even faster in the last month....

On the other hand, it would take two years of 5% growth just to get unemployment back to around 7%. So we’re a long way from being out of the woods, or even to the point where the Fed should lift rates above zero.

So not too much optimism — but the picture isn’t entirely black.

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Real change in the air for Wall Street reform?

Sounds like someone might be running out of patience. It's hard to see how it could have been accepted (if not embraced) for this long but provided change is coming, that would be good progress. If there is a change, how hard will Obama fight against these very strong interests who are shafting Americans? Hopefully the health care reform saga is not what they consider "fighting back." Obama really needs an ass-kicker to take this one on though it would be highly out of character.

White House officials say they are growing frustrated that the banking industry is fighting President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul financial regulations after taxpayer bailouts helped firms restore profits and near- record compensation for executives.

Their anger is directed even at firms such as New York’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that have paid back their government assistance and reported a surge in third- quarter earnings this week. The issue, according to administration officials, is the industry is generally on sound footing because of government help and lobbying against Obama’s regulatory plans goes against the nation’s long-term interest.

“We are disappointed by the lobbying of anyone in the financial industry against regulatory reform, considering the obvious need for change on that front,” Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama, said.

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Jewel - Morning Song

So has everyone gone through the Flickr photos yet? I loved looking through so much I went through a second time last night. For anyone needing a smile check it out. There is so much love in the photos, it's hard to pry yourself away from them. We have friends visiting from Brussels with us this weekend so our furry friends have been sleeping on us all night. It's been cooling off this week so they're doing a great job with keeping the bed extra warm.

Heading out for my big ride of the week after slacking off due to work travel. Heading up the Canal de l'Ourq and out of town and will be bundled up. Read the rest of this post...

Sarko the American

Well, if by "American" you mean the modern development of nepotism in politics, then sure. It seemed like only yesterday that the police were taking DNA samples to track down evidence for his stolen scooter. Naturally they would have done the same for anyone. Or was that the time he was involved in an alleged hit-and-run with his scooter yet was never pursued? Getting nominated to run the Paris business district by a kid who never worked a day in his life is pretty routine stuff as well.

Despite a lack of political experience, and the fact that he's still only a second-year university student, the ruthlessly ambitious Jean Sarkozy now heads the rightwing majority on the regional council, presiding over some politicians old enough to be his grandparents, many of whom are his parents' friends.

But this week, the French political class rose up in fury at what it deemed the last straw in the "Sarkozy royal family" saga. Sarkozy Junior, before even finishing his degree, is in line for election to head the powerful public body running Paris's La Defense, Europe's biggest purpose-built business district.

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Zimbabwe unity government collapsing

It's difficult to maintain unity when the opposition (who is really the majority) continues to be persecuted. The unity government was worth a try but it's time to move on and let the real majority run the government. Send Robert Mugabe and his thugs away.

Zimbabwe's prime minister announced he was boycotting the country's troubled unity government Friday, citing the "persecution" of a top aide being tried on what are widely seen as trumped up coup allegations.

At a news conference Friday, longtime opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said, "We are not really pulling out officially," but that his party would not attend Cabinet meetings or engage in other executive work with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change party would continue parliament activities.

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