Kucinich reportedly will vote for Senate HCR bill

Jane is reporting. Read the rest of this post...

On the GOP's hypocrisy over process

Norm Ornstein, from the conservative American Enterprise Institute, destroys the GOP's latest round of lies over Congressional procedure:

In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from 2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of “deem and pass.” That strategy, then decried by the House Democrats who are now using it, and now being called unconstitutional by WSJ editorialists, was defended by House Republicans in court (and upheld). Dreier used it for a $40 billion deficit reduction package so that his fellow GOPers could avoid an embarrassing vote on immigration. I don’t like self-executing rules by either party—I prefer the “regular order”—so I am not going to say this is a great idea by the Democrats. But even so—is there no shame anymore?

Of course, many in the traditional media (not just the GOP-owned media like FOX), buy the GOP's lies. Might be good if this Ornstein post got sent around MSNBC and CNN. They Republicans are hypocritically attacking over things they've done. Even Dana Bash should be able to grasp that. Read the rest of this post...

Lehman sacked whistleblower who called out accounting games

It's all fun and games on Wall Street until someone wants to tell the truth. Reuters:

Lehman Brothers Holdings ousted whistle blower Matthew Lee just weeks after he had raised concerns with Lehman's auditor about the firm's accounting in 2008, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Lee, a former senior vice president, Finance Division, in charge of global balance sheet and legal entity accounting, was let go in late June 2008 amid steep losses at the firm as it tried to wade through the global financial crisis, the paper said.

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A Teabagger picture says 1,000 words

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Prototype device allows blind soldier to 'see'

What an amazing advance.

The BrainPort converts visual images into a series of electrical pulses which are sent to the tongue. The different strength of the tingles can be read or interpreted so the user can mentally visualise their surroundings and navigate around objects.

The device is a tiny video camera attached to a pair of sunglasses which are linked to a plastic "lolly pop" which the user places on their tongue to read the electrical pulses.

L/Cpl Lundberg explained: "It feels like licking a nine volt battery or like popping candy.

"The camera sends signals down onto the lolly pop and onto your tongue. You can then determine what they mean and transfer it to shapes.

"You get lines and shapes of things. It sees in black and white so you get a two-dimensional image on your tongue - it's a bit like a pins and needles sensation.

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Former Bear Stearns economist to run for Senate seat in NY

He's arguing that the Democrats have not been effective at creating jobs. Uh huh. Soooooo, I guess failed businesses like Bear Stearns imploding didn't help much with the whole job creation situation, no? Maybe he should have paid closer attention to the economy inside his four walls at work. CNBC:

“[My] message is so clear that I think it will be compelling for voters,” Malpass told CNBC Tuesday. “We need jobs and growth, and we need Washington to stop the tax and spend policies that they’ve been doing for so long.”

Malpass, a Republican, criticized Democrats’ jobs bill and financial reform legislation.

“We need financial reform legislation but one that gets us toward more jobs and growth, not one that gets us toward more Washington,” he said.

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CNN hires right wing blogger as pundit

I've always said, you're asking for trouble when you hire one side and not the other. This is the same mistake the Washington Post made a few years back - they hired as a conservative blogger and didn't bother hiring a liberal one at the same time. Alex at Salon points out a few other problems. Read the rest of this post...

This time David Brooks is wrong about Reconciliation

From Jonathan Chait at TNR:

Today David Brooks has written the platonic ideal of a David Brooks column. It is in some sense the template for nearly every David Brooks column, but it captured the major elements so perfectly that it almost feels as if every previous David Brooks column has been an homage to this one.

Reconciliation has been used with increasing frequency. That was bad enough. But at least for the Bush tax cuts or the prescription drug bill, there was significant bipartisan support. Now we have pure reconciliation mixed with pure partisanship.

Once partisan reconciliation is used for this bill, it will be used for everything, now and forever. The Senate will be the House. The remnants of person-to-person relationships, with their sympathy and sentiment, will be snuffed out. We will live amid the relationships of group versus group, party versus party, inhumanity versus inhumanity.

Bill Clinton passed the signature domestic achievement of his presidency, the 1993 deficit reduction bill, through reconciliation with zero Republican votes. Sadly, Brooks was not there to explain how this denied the Republicans' humanity. In 2001, George W. Bush did get some Democrats to support his tax cut, most of them after it was a fait accompli. Why did he go through reconciliation, rather than regular order? It certainly had costs -- he had to sunset the whole thing after ten years. He did it because he didn't want to make the compromises he would have needed to get 60 votes. And if you think he would have given up the tax cut if a handful of Democrats hadn't jumped aboard, you're delusional.

Ezra has more:

[N]one of Brooks's evidence is true. Literally none of it. The budget reconciliation process was used six times between 1980 and 1989. It was used four times between 1990 and 1999. It was used five times between 2000 and 2009. And it has been used zero times since 2010. Peak reconciliation use, in other words, was in the '80s, not the Aughts. The data aren't hard to find. They were published on Brooks's own op-ed page.

Nor has reconciliation been limited to bills with "significant bipartisan support." To use Brooks's example of the tax cuts, the 2003 tax cuts passed the Senate 50-50, with Dick Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote. Two Democrats joined with the Republicans in that effort. Georgia's Zell Miller, who would endorse George W. Bush in 2004 and effectively leave the Democratic Party, and Nebraska's Ben Nelson. So I'd say that's one Democrat. One Democrat alongside 49 Republicans. That's not significant bipartisan support.

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Alan Grayson on Palin: 'The most intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush'

Last week, Sarah Palin went to Florida and made the mistake of attacking Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL). While Palin can get away with slinging abuse at many Democrats, Grayson isn't one of them. He shows how to respond to the GOP/Teabagging Superstar. There's only one way to do it. Unrelenting mocking:

In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida. Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

When asked to comment about what effect Palin's criticism might have, Grayson pointed out, "As the Knave's horse says in Alice in Wonderland, 'dogs will believe anything.'" Earlier, as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson said, "I'm sure Palin knows all about politics in Central Florida, since from her porch she can see Winter Park," which is part of Grayson's district.

Grayson said that the Alaskan chillbilly was welcome to return to Central Florida anytime, as long as she brings lots of money with her, and spends it. "I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them," Grayson added, alluding to Politifact's "liar, liar, pants on fire" evaluation of much of what Palin has said.

There's just so much material. And, Grayson isn't afraid to use it. Read the rest of this post...

Arizona's GOPer J.D. 'Marry your Horse' Hayworth gets the Maddow treatment

This was some good TV. For some reason, J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging John McCain in Arizona's Republican Senate primary, appeared on Rachel Maddow's show last night. This interview came one day after Hayworth compared same-sex marriage to marrying one's horse. Yes, Hayworth outdid Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum. On Rachel, he was way, way out of his league.
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Convicted pedophile priest linked to Pope suspended

Justice is rapid in the Catholic Church. Sure the Pope - then Archbishop Ratzinger - reviewed his case in 1980 but you can't expect him to make a quick decision for a known child abuser. Shuffling abusive priests around and hiding the problem has long been the standard operating procedure for the church and in this case, Ratzinger was no different from any other church leader. Pretending as though he didn't know and getting caught in the lie is now a much bigger problem. The Pope is very much a part of the problem.

Benedict not only served as the archbishop of the diocese where the priest worked, but also later as the cardinal in charge of reviewing sexual abuse cases for the Vatican. Yet until the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising announced that Father Hullermann had been suspended on Monday, he continued to serve in a series of Bavarian parishes.

In 1980, the future pope reviewed the case of Father Hullermann, who was accused of sexually abusing boys in the Diocese of Essen, including forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex. The future pope approved his transfer to Munich. On Friday, a deputy took responsibility for allowing the priest to return to full pastoral duties shortly afterward. Six years later, Father Hullermann was convicted of sexually abusing children in the Bavarian town of Grafing. Father Hullermann’s identity was revealed Sunday, when a man whose marriage he was scheduled to perform in the spa town of Bad Tölz stood up in the pews and began shouting as the head of the congregation was speaking in vague terms about the scandal.

Note from Joe: Yesterday, at AMERICAblog Gay, our resident German scholar, Liz Newcomb, posted a map she found in Munich's main newspaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, of the priest sex abuse cases in Germany. Interestingly, there are several in the Pope's former diocese. Read the rest of this post...

Justice Stevens considering retirement this year

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times printed an article titled "Obama losing chance to reshape judiciary," which began:

An early chance for the Obama administration to reshape the nation's judiciary -- and counter gains made in the federal courts by conservatives -- appears close to slipping away, due to a combination of White House inattention and Republican opposition.

Here's something that will get the White House's attention. There's the possibility that the President will get the chance to make another Supreme Court appointment this year. Justice Paul Stevens may retire:

Justice John Paul Stevens, at 89 the Supreme Court's oldest member, says he will decide in the next month or so whether this term will be his last.

Stevens tells The New Yorker magazine that he definitely will retire in the next three years. His comments suggest that President Barack Obama, whom Stevens says he admires, will likely nominate his successor.

The leader of the court's liberals, Stevens is the second oldest justice in U.S. history and fourth longest-serving. He says that breaking those records doesn't interest him.

The New Yorker article mentioned is Jeffrey Toobin's excellent profile on Stevens:

With the election of Barack Obama, the question of Stevens’s retirement has become more pressing. Even though Stevens was appointed by a Republican President, many assume that he would never willingly have turned his seat over to George W. Bush. I asked Stevens about his plans.

“Well, I still have my options open,” he said. “When I decided to just hire one clerk, three of my four clerks last year said they’d work for me next year if I wanted them to. So I have my options still. And then I’ll have to decide soon.” On March 8th, he told me that he would make up his mind in about a month.

Hopefully, Obama will appoint another liberal judge to replace Stevens (when Stevens retires.) But, the balance of the Court won't shift until Kennedy, Scalia or Thomas retires. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The pressure is building as the vote gets closer in the House on the health care bill. The House Budget Committee got the process rolling last night by passing a reconciliation bill. Obama appears to be fully engaged now. He was in Ohio yesterday giving a barn burner of a speech, invoking "courage." (Where's that guy been for the past year?)

This afternoon, the President is meeting with Secretary Gates. Perhaps they can finally decide on a strategy for repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. As Barney Frank made abundantly clear yesterday (several times), there is no White House plan to repeal despite what we've been led to believe. In Barney's words, the Obama administration has been "ambiguous." That's not helpful. Barney has now called on the White House to publicly state that they want DADT repealed this year. It's been a day. No word from the President.

I think Atrios made an important point yesterday on Twitter:

senator ensign is still in office. just a reminder.

Yeah. How is that? The FBI is investigating Ensign's shenanigans, which started with an affair with a staffer and payoffs to her family. It's spiraled downward from there. Yet, every day, he's part of the cabal that blocks progress. We need to keep reminding people about Ensign.

And, we need to get threading the news... Read the rest of this post...

China warns Google - censor or be blocked

China has been on a major bullying and big talking spree lately. I could see the big talk if they finally managed to break $10,000 for the average family income but they're having a bit too much fun attacking the west and talking about the economic crisis. Sure, as if China isn't sitting on a massive real estate credit bubble itself. It's going to be interesting to see how the discussion changes when the bubble fully bursts. In the mean time though, censorship continues to be all the rage.

Why did Google even play this game in the first place? It was obvious from the start Baidu was making every effort to be the government's leading boot-licker who would stay at the forefront of censorship. When the game is rigged like that it's obvious what the end result will be though Google did its best initially to join the censorship party.

It warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong was speaking at China's annual legislation session.

"We need to preserve our nation's interest, our people's interest, we cannot be relaxed with any information that will cause harm to the stability of our society, to our system, and to the health of our under-age young people," he said.

"So, of course, what needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked."

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White House continues push for peace talks, GOP sides with chaos

Why does John Boehner like to encourage terrorism? Or maybe he's terrified that Obama may have success with building a peace plan. We all know that invading and spending billions makes so much more sense than peace talks, right? The White House isn't backing down and so far neither is Netanyahu. Shaking up the relationship is not such a bad thing and it just may deliver positive results. The old model obviously has not been effective at leading towards peace.

The White House has steadily built up the heat on Israel over the last few days, with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, berating Netanyahu in a 45-minute call on Friday and David Axelrod, the chief White House adviser, describing Israeli behaviour as an insult yesterday.

The US wants Israel not only to backtrack on the East Jerusalem building plans but to enter into talks with the Palestinians on substantive issues and not just talks about talks, as Israel wants. Washington also wants Israel to make gestures towards the Palestinians, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and withdrawing more Israeli forces from Palestinian territory. The US special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian territories, the former senator George Mitchell, is to visit Israel this week in the hope of hearing that Israel will bow to at least some of the US demands.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a meeting in Washington early next week of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the powerful Israeli lobbying group. The US does not yet know whether he will attend in person or make a televised address.

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