Huckabee criticizes Palin

Politico:

"Now I must say I did not think that either the Charlie Gibson interview or the Katie Couric interviews were unfair. In fact, if anything, Katie Couric was extraordinarily gentle, even helpful. [Palin] just . . . I don't know what happened. I can't explain it. It was not a good interview. I'm being charitable."

The two will probably run against each other in 2012 for who can best represent the neanderthal wing of the Republican party. So this is gonna get way more fun. Read the rest of this post...

Prostitute-loving Senator questions Hillary's ethics

Louisiana-Republican family-values prostitute-paying married Senator David Vitter, a man who brings new meaning to the phrase "stimulus package," had the audacity to question Hillary's and Bill's ethics today during Hillary's confirmation hearings. Read the rest of this post...

Obama dining with conservatives?

It's not like he's letting Limbaugh hold the Bible. (Is he?)

I don't necessarily have a problem with this. I suspect Brooks is the only one even possibly movable, and Limbaugh and Kristol are simply treacherous. Still, it's an interesting move. Oh, I say Limbaugh because he's rumored to be part of the posse.

Here's the pool report:

Pool Report #4
1-13-09
Hay-Adams to George Will's house

The PEOTUS departed Hay-Adams at 6:17 p.m. and at arrived at 6:34 p.m. at No. 9 Grafton St., Chevy Chase (right off the circle). Thanks to the good work of Hans Nichols (of Bloomberg and "Daily Show" fame), Montgomery County property tax records showed this is the home of conservative columnist George Will (valued at $1.9 million, according to the 2008 levy).

We're still awaiting confirmation that this is indeed Will's house from the transition, but your pool is satisfied with the documentation.

Your pool has been told it's a dinner party.

And, thanks to an enterprising photographer, a shot through a window showed op-ed stalwarts William Kristol and David Brooks are also part of this unlikely gathering of tight, right suits.

Transition mouthpiece Tommy Vietor was also spied inside the manse.

This is for real, folks. The bloggers are going to love this one.

Read the rest of this post...

Some lobbyists actually are more equal than others

The press is having some heartburn over Obama's appointment of William Corr as Deputy Secretary of HHS. Corr worked until a few months ago for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, lobbying Congress to get tobacco away from kids. Per the media, that makes him a "lobbyist," and Obama promised not enable the Washington "revolving door" of lobbyists, industry and government.

Yeah. Only problem? A guy who works for a children's group on tobacco issues isn't the kind of lobbyist we're worried about.

John McCain made an early gaffe during the campaign that wasn't totally untrue. He said something about lobbyists being good people. Many of them are. The ACLU? Lobbyists. The Human Rights Campaign? Lobbyists. American Cancer Society? Ditto. When I worked on the Hill, I worked with lobbyists from AOPA, a group that represents small pilots. They didn't have my ear because they bribed me, or had thousands of constituents pester me every day. They had my ear because Alaska is small pilots. AOPA represented my constituents. They were a critical resource in helping me understand how specific legislation and FAA rules would impact small pilots in our state.

There is an inherent difference between letting chemical and commercial industry lobbyists weaken safety standards for arsenic in our drinking water, and putting an expert on the dangers tobacco poses to kids at the Department of Health and Human Services. Perhaps Obama is partly at fault for using overly simplistic terms like "lobbyists," which paint with far too broad a brush. But we do our country no benefit attacking good people like William Corr because we are too interested in following the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit. Read the rest of this post...

Geithner's Tax Error A Common One, Expert Says

From Huff Post:

"When one is self-employed you do owe self-employment taxes which are essentially the employee and employer portion of your taxes," said George Yin, a tax professor at the University of Virginia Law School and formerly Chief of Staff of the U.S. Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. "If that is what they are referring to than yes, there are some people who serve as consultants and don't necessarily understand their obligations to pay self employed taxes. My guess is that it is not an infrequent error."

As for the housekeeper issue, does anybody else have the feeling that all these housekeepers wouldn't be as big a deal if they weren't Latino? I'm smelling a bit of prejudice with these never-ending "oh my God, the cleaning lady did x, y and z." I simply don't care. And my shrinking 401k cares even less.

UPDATE: Some readers noted that I shouldn't have just assumed the cleaning lady was Latino. True enough. Though in Washington, DC, I don't know one who isn't Latino - that's all I've ever seen. In Chicago, interesting enough, every cleaning lady I've seen over the past several years has been Polish. Anyway, guess I was just assuming DC. And I suspect if the cleaning lady was Polish, we wouldn't be hearing nearly as much about these stories. Read the rest of this post...

Australia offers "best job in the world" to fight recession

I always loved the idea of sitting in a forest observation tower as Jack Kerouac wrote about in Dharma Bums, but for me this would be even better. The closest I ever came was living on Guanaja Island, Honduras for six weeks, where I swam, went diving & snorkeling, and fishing (for dinner) every day. The advantage with this gig is the Internet connectivity, which was spotty on Guanaja. Oh, that and it pays. The new (post-Howard) Australia sounds better and better by the minute.

An Australian state is offering internationally what it calls "the best job in the world" -- earning a top salary for lazing around a beautiful tropical island for six months.

The job pays 150,000 Australian dollars (105,000 US dollars) and includes free airfares from the winner's home country to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland's state government announced on Tuesday.

In return, the "island caretaker" will be expected to stroll the white sands, snorkel the reef, take care of "a few minor tasks" -- and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.

The successful applicant, who will stay rent-free in a three-bedroom beach home complete with plunge pool and golf buggy, must be a good swimmer, excellent communicator and be able to speak and write English.

"They'll also have to talk to media from time to time about what they're doing so they can't be too shy and they'll have to love the sea, the sun, the outdoors," said acting state Premier Paul Lucas.

"The fact that they will be paid to explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel and generally live the Queensland lifestyle makes this undoubtedly the best job in the world."

Read the rest of this post...

Gay man picked to head OPM

John Berry has been chosen to head the Office of Personnel Management. I'm pretty sure he's the most senior gay person ever appointed to a position in any administration (closeted cabinet appointees don't count). He is to be the head of a large agency, and that's a good thing. I'd still like to see us advance from here and in the future get an openly gay person heading an agency that handles substantive policy outside of the administration.

From the Human Rights Campaign:

"The selection of John Berry to head the Office of Personnel Management, making him the highest-ranking openly gay official ever, is a meaningful step forward for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."

"In his new role, John will make critical decisions regarding the implementation of fair workplace policies for millions of federal workers. We congratulate him on his remarkable achievements and look forward to his continued leadership for the LGBT community and the nation as a whole."

Read the rest of this post...

You can call him Senator Burris by the end of the week

After all the drama, Roland Burris is going to become a Senator this week:

The decision to seat Roland W. Burris in the Senate as early as Jan. 15 represents an about-face by the Democratic leadership, but it helps the party move on from a controversy that threatened to distract the chamber for months from the new administration’s priorities.

But, Burris is just about the only politico who won't ask Blago to quit:

Asked on NBC’s “Today Show” whether Blagojevich, who was arrested for allegedly trying to auction off President-elect Obama’s open Senate seat, should resign or be removed from office, Burris said it was not his place to weigh in.

“He has stated that he would not resign. So my calling on his resignation would not have any effect whatsoever,” Burris said. “My vision is that you’re innocent in this legal system until you’re proven guilty.”

He repeated the answer later on MSNBC.

His new colleagues did not hesitate to ask for Blagojevich to step down. In a Dec. 10 letter, all 50 Democrats serving in the Senate asked the governor to resign.

Read the rest of this post...

Wal-Mart's CEO is right

I enjoy shopping from time to time but in the US, people had become obsessed with shopping. Shopping became an activity and Americans had to have the freedom to shop 24x7 and buy every day or else their lives would end. One upside to the recession is that Americans might start to re-think what's important versus just shopping. I had my own personal recession a few years ago and as painful as that may have been, shedding the fixation on "stuff" and shopping was a positive change. Stuff is just stuff.

Outgoing Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said the recession may have caused a "fundamental change" in the incessant shopping habits of Americans - which will hurt retailers but will benefit society as a whole.

Scott, citing his recent meeting with young shoppers, said many had given up eating out, going to the movies and shopping.

"Everyone has given up something and said how good they felt about it," he said. "I think in some ways it is healthy [for society], even though for us retailers it's not good."

Read the rest of this post...

Health insurance costs are all the fault of frivolous lawsuits

When will those frivolous lawsuits stop because that's what keeps costs high, right? Andrew Cuomo better be careful because voters might get used to a politician that bothers to take action that benefits voters instead of big business. If he continues, then others might have to follow and then where would we be?

In a settlement with one of the nation’s biggest insurers, New York’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, has ordered an overhaul of the databases the industry uses to determine how much of a medical bill is paid when a patient uses an out-of-network doctor.

A statement from Mr. Cuomo’s office said the industry had engaged in “a scheme to defraud consumers” by systematically underpaying the nation’s patients by hundreds of millions of dollars over the last decade.

The move, to be announced Tuesday, is part of a settlement with the insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, which operates the industry databases. It results from a yearlong investigation by Mr. Cuomo’s office that concluded the data had understated the true market rates of medical care by up to 28 percent.

The settlement will have a nationwide impact because UnitedHealth, the biggest health insurer in New York, operates the databases used by the entire industry, through its Ingenix business unit. The deal calls for creation of a new independent database, to be run by a university that is still to be selected.

Read the rest of this post...

Moderate Republicans, RIP

Former GOP House Member Tom Davis writes an essay warning of the future direction of the GOP. Davis raises a point I've made before: The problem with the GOP isn't that they've strayed from their conservatives roots, the problem is that they've stayed too true. George Bush was a disaster, and a conservative's dream. Cutting taxes, going to war, conservative social policy on gays, stem cells, abortion, birth control and more. The problem with George Bush, and the problem with the Republican party, isn't that they're not conservative enough. It's that they're too conservative in a country that isn't. Republicans like to claim that America is a center-right country. I'm not convinced. But if America were center right, that would mean it's not far right. Center right is another way of saying "moderate Republican," a concept anathema to those leading today's GOP. I'm still not convinced that America is a center-right nation. But whatever we are, the views of moderate Republicans like Tom Davis are still far closer to most Americans than the current pack of Bible-thumping troglodytes running the current Republican party. Read the rest of this post...

Obama transition says tax cuts less effective than government spending in growing GDP

Nate looks at a document the Obama transition released yesterday. The document shows the Obama team's estimate of the impact on GDP of government spending and tax cuts. The result? Government spending gives you 50% more bang for the buck than tax cuts. Nate rightfully asks:

[I]f Obama thinks tax cuts are liable to be less effective than spending, why is he advocating for them in the first place?

....

the point is, right now, Obama's economists find the arguments for spending more persuasive than the arguments for tax cuts -- as do most (although hardly all) private and academic economists.

So to repeat: If Obama thinks tax cuts are liable to be less effective than spending, why is he advocating for them in the first place?

The rationale his economists give in the paper is that tax cuts are liable to go into effect more quickly than spending, since there are a limited number of "shovel-ready" projects available whereas tax cuts can begin having benefits almost immediately. This is a fine enough argument, but the efficiency gap that Obama posits between tax cuts and spending is large enough that it would seem to warrant at best a small fraction of the stimulus to be spent on tax reductions, rather than the 40 percent or so that Obama has proposed to spend now.

I'm not sure, however, that I agree with Nate's last point:

I think it's important for advocates for a larger stimulus to be focused on maximizing the $500b number as opposed to minimizing the $300b number; the scent of $300b is something that seems to have thrown both sides off the trail.

The problem, I think, is that the $300bn in tax cuts aren't in addition to the $500bn in government spending. I think, instead, we're talking about a zero-sum game. The increase in tax cuts was paid for by decreasing the amount in the bill alloted to government spending - the overall total of the bill, $750bn to $800bn remained the same, even as the tax cuts were increased. If that's the case, then the simulus bang for the buck has been weakened by the proposed tax cuts. Read the rest of this post...

Condi: We may look really bad now, but give us 30 years

Just in time for Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing, which is today, and in advance of her leader's farewell address to the nation, which is Thursday, Condi Rice spent some time with the Washington Post. She's desperately trying to spin the record of failure:

In a conversation that stretched to 75 minutes -- and which Rice seemed reluctant to end -- the secretary of state said she was counting the hours until Jan. 20. But she yielded little ground in defense of her record or the administration's performance over the past eight years. After being peppered with questions about regrets, she joked, "Aren't you going to say, 'Aren't you thrilled that . . .?' "

What is more important than current controversies, she argued, slapping the table for emphasis, is how the decisions will look 25 or 30 years from now. "If you get very focused on whether someone thinks your policies are popular, you won't do the right thing," she said.

Arguing that Iraq shows signs of becoming an inclusive state -- it even "declared Christmas a national holiday" -- Rice said that if the country eventually emerges as a democratic, multiethnic state that has friendly ties with the United States, "that will be more important than what anybody thought in 2002 or 2003."

Wow. Christmas is the sign of success. The Bush team is spending a lot of time trying to salvage its record of abject failure. Too bad they all didn't put as much time thinking through the policy as they're now putting in to spinning it.

We are in the last throes of the Bush administration. It's almost over. It really is. And, unlike Condi, I think the Bush record will look even worse in 25 or 30 years. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

One more week. Weather still looks good for Inauguration Day. Cold, but clear.

And, just so you know that we're not quite finished with Bush yet, he intends to give a farewell address on Thursday night. No, not necessary. Nothing he says can make it better. Just go away.

Start threading the news... Read the rest of this post...

China struggles with jobless protesters

Why anyone thought this would be any different never made sense. The Beijing government created an impressive jobs system that solved many problems such as employment and the chance to make money but like the US housing market or other bubbles it has been based on the numbers increasing. The jobs growth went a long way to shut down protests but now that it's declining, this is a problem that won't go away. (It's also why the government was so fast in rolling out an internal rescue plan that involved infrastructure development.)

China has the most impressive history in the world but it also has a long history of difficult and often violent transitions. Beijing has surprised the world on many occasions with clever politics so maybe they will do it again.

As a global recession takes hold and China's economy continues to slow, growing legions of unemployed workers are becoming increasingly bold in expressing their unhappiness -- expanding a debate over how to protect the Chinese economy into long-fought disputes over other issues such as freedom of expression and equality before the law.

During most of the past two decades, concerns about China's human rights record have been overshadowed by the speed of its economic development and growing political influence in the world.

But as the economic crisis has grown, so, too, have challenges -- both small and large -- to the state's power.

In late November, two men whose village was involved in a dispute over a land deal took ink-filled eggs and desecrated Communist Party and national flags in Chongqing, the largest of China's four provincial-level municipalities, in a protest that copied the infamous defacing of Mao Zedong's portrait in the capital in 1989.

In December, 300 academics and other intellectuals signed a declaration of human rights known as Charter '08 that circulated on the Internet, sending Chinese authorities on a nationwide manhunt for its author.

Labor rights activist Li Qiang said China's economic problems have put the spotlight on social issues that have long existed -- such as the growing gap between the urban rich and the rural poor and the fight for worker rights -- but were played down by the government during the recent boom.

Read the rest of this post...

Japan ushers in corporate earnings season - drops 4.8%

For the Wall Street apologists who would rather everyone just stops talking about the bad news on Wall Street, please generate some good news. Japanese markets reflected the general sense of doom and gloom for the new quarterly earnings season. Corporate earnings look like they're going to produce the poor results many feared and of course our old friends in banking are likely to be in trouble again.

Fears of steep losses at corporate bellwethers from Citigroup to Sony hit Asian shares on Tuesday, signaling the extent of the global economic slowdown and bolstering less risky assets such as government debt.

The euro extended its slide to near a one-month low against the dollar as the European Central Bank looks set to cut interest rates this week in response to slowing growth, while oil prices continued to fall after slumping nearly 8 percent on Monday on fears that recessions in some countries will slash energy demand.

Read the rest of this post...