GOP actually trying to cut off funds to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

That's just suicidal. Read the rest of this post...

Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Dem base is "angry, infuriated, heartbroken - this is not the 'change' we voted for."

Crooks and Liars has the transcript. Read the rest of this post...

Franken basically tells Lieberman to STFU

You have to understand a bit of US Senate procedure to fully appreciate this. No one, ever, objects to someone taking just one more minute to finish their speech. I've never seen it in 20 years in this town. It's funny as hell, and clearly Franken has had enough of Lieberman. These are the small ways that Senators can make Lieberman's life hell. It's a small thing, but you know Lieberman walked out as there pissed. (UPDATE: Reid's office says Franken was simply trying to keep the Senate on schedule. Uh huh. That's why Franken didn't say anything of the sort.) Read the rest of this post...

Lanny Davis loses a few testicles debating HCR with Jane Hamsher

Read the rest of this post...

Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod discusses whether Sen. Ben Nelson is insane

LOL Read the rest of this post...

Keeping it real with Michael Steele

A friend created a Web site homage to Michael Steele, so now you too can have your picture taken with the Republican party chairman. Click the "keep it real" button on the right of the page to create and upload your own picture with Michael Steele. Read the rest of this post...

Senator Dorgan points finger at White House for using FDA to fight drug import bill

Over at Open Left, David Sirota points us to this Wall Street Journal interview with Senator Byron Dorgan about the White House role in killing the drug importation bill:

Last week, [Dorgan] said he heard rumors that the FDA was going to send a letter objecting to drug importation on safety grounds, which he has said is a bogus reason. He said he called FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who said she knew nothing about such a letter.

He said his timeline shows that a letter, signed by Hamburg questioning the safety of drug imports, was sent 24 hours later to a few senators who opposed importation. That piece of paper became a rallying cry for other senators who voted down Dorgan's amendment.

"I think the letter was prompted, probably drafted somewhere else," like "the White House" Dorgan said.

The context for this is that the White House cut a secret deal with the drug industry to get its support for the health care bill.

Sirota explains the importance of this development about the FDA:

So Hamburg, who is supposed to be concerned only with science, first says she has no idea what Dorgan is talking about. Then, suddenly, 24 hours later, she's signed onto a headline-grabbing letter saying Dorgan's bill would threaten American consumers. Something smells here - something smells really bad.

Hamburg is an Obama appointee, so the FDA isn't fully removed from politics. However, its declarations about safety are supposed to be science-based - not political. And by this Wall Street Journal account, Dorgan is asserting that, in fact, its declaration that imports are unsafe - a dishonest declaration that provides zero empirical scientific evidence - may have been written by political staffers in the White House.

If this is true, it's a genuine scandal. It's one thing for the White House to oppose a measure, make arguments against a measure on any grounds it wants. But if the White House political staff played ventriloquist for a science/safety declaration from the FDA, that's a huge problem.

A huge problem.

Dorgan's amendment was defeated on Tuesday. As we noted when that happenened, in 2007, Senator Obama was a sponsor of the bill to allow the importation of drugs.

NOTE FROM JOHN: And a quick note about the "safety" of foreign drugs. As I've written before, my asthma drugs cost around $90 a month in Europe. They're nearly $300 here in the states. They're made and sold by the same drug company in the US and in Europe. Less safe? Hardly. This is all about protecting secret deals with corporate interests in direct violation of the President's own campaign promises, again. Read the rest of this post...

Research shows that dogs make our lives better

Here's a break from the steady flow of negative news.

We know from the pet photos that there a lot of pet lovers here in the AMERICAblog community. For all those dog lovers out there, this story won't come as a complete surprise, but the results are quite astonishing:

New research from the University of Missouri has found that people who walk dogs are more consistent about regular exercise and show more improvement in fitness than people who walk with a human companion. In a 12-week study of 54 older adults at an assisted living home, 35 people were assigned to a walking program for five days a week, while the remaining 19 served as a control group. Among the walkers, 23 selected a friend or spouse to serve as a regular walking partner along a trail laid out near the home. Another 12 participants took a bus daily to a local animal shelter where they were assigned a dog to walk.

To the surprise of the researchers, the dog walkers showed a big improvement in fitness, while the human walkers began making excuses to skip the workout. Walking speed among the dog walkers increased by 28 percent, compared with just a 4 percent increase among the human walkers.

“What happened was nothing short of remarkable,” said Rebecca A. Johnson, a nursing professor and director of the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

That's because dogs are remarkable. Read that whole post. It's quite inspiring.

I know a certain AMERICAblog writer who was more than a bit overweight back in early 2000, before he got Boomer, the predecessor to Petey. But, walking Boomer three or four times a day helped start the weight loss. Now, that same writer runs marathons. Read the rest of this post...

Glenn Greenwald: White House as helpless victim on healthcare

Glenn Greenwald at Salon.

Obama as the impotent progressive victim here of recalcitrant, corrupt centrists is really too much to bear.

Yet numerous Obama defenders -- such as Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein and Steve Benen -- have been insisting that there is just nothing the White House could have done and all of this shows that our political system is tragically "ungovernable." After all, Congress is a separate branch of government, Obama doesn't have a vote, and 60 votes are needed to do anything. How is it his fault if centrist Senators won't support what he wants to do? Apparently, this is the type of conversation we're to believe takes place in the Oval Office:

The President: I really want a public option and Medicare buy-in. What can we do to get it?

Rahm Emanuel: Unfortunately, nothing. We can just sit by and hope, but you're not in Congress any more and you don't have a vote. They're a separate branch of government and we have to respect that.

The President: So we have no role to play in what the Democratic Congress does?

Emanuel: No. Members of Congress make up their own minds and there's just nothing we can do to influence or pressure them.

The President: Gosh, that's too bad. Let's just keep our fingers crossed and see what happens then.

Read the rest of this post...

What would Teddy do if he were alive today?

I didn't ask the question first. But, the last time Kennedy had to deal with a Democratic president who was weak, he challenged him in a primary. Read the rest of this post...

Dem. Sen. Nelson says he'll filibuster HCR bill unless it's more anti-abortion

As we reported last night, Nelson is checking with the National Right to Life Committee to see if they're okay with it. Now he's saying he will support a filibuster. It's bad enough having Joe Lieberman in charge of this legislation, but the National Right to Life Committee? Pro-choice women, and men, had better speak up now or the White House is going to throw them overboard without a moment's thought. And more generally, this is what happens when you let the Republicans and conservative Dems walk all over you for 11 months on issue after issue (starting with the 40% tax cut giveaway in the stimulus package). You empower the bad people to come back for more and more and more. Read the rest of this post...

Top Obama campaign strategist Plouffe: Senate bill will "end insurance company abuses"

You heard it here first. The Obama administration is claiming that the Senate health care bill will end all insurance company abuses nationwide. (And spare me the "Plouffe doesn't represent the administration," argument. He was the campaign manager. I doubt he'd touch this subject with a ten foot pole without checking with the White House first.)

"We're going to provide the ability for everyone in this country to get coverage and we're going to end insurance company abuses."

Actually, you're forcing everyone to buy coverage under penalty of law while not providing adequate mechanisms to control costs. Slightly different. As for "going to end insurance company abuses," such blanket promises are very dangerous. No one thinks this legislation is going to "end" insurance company abuses. Hell, the legislation reportedly permits insurance companies to still cap our annual benefits, and still charge us 50% more in premiums if we have pre-existing conditions like high cholesterol or high blood pressure. How does that "end" abuses?

"I have very little tolerance for this, because we're trying to solve something that is a systemic problem that's afflicted us for decades. It's very hard. You've got the insurance companies, an entire opposition party arrayed against you."

And a growing number of Americans have very little tolerance for a President who rarely fights for anything he promised. I think that makes us more than even. Read the rest of this post...

Bernanke passes Senate Banking Panel, full vote ahead

As disappointing as this may be, it's hardly a surprise. Considering how little Congress has done to address the economic crisis, it's obvious there is very limited interest in addressing the problems that led to the crisis. Even re-nominating Bernanke for a second term was a clear indication of how risk averse the administration really is. If this is the "change we can believe in" it's no wonder so many of us are uninspired.

If you look at the new WaPo/ABC poll on the economy, 61% see the US in a long term economic decline. What part of these results are being accepted in Washington? The public is not happy with this direction - the same direction as we were going under Bush - yet Congress and the White House are dishing out more of the same. Defending these decisions to the public who are already fuming over the handling of the crisis is not going to be easy. CNBC:

The Senate Banking Committee Thursday is scheduled to vote on his renomination in a 9:30 a.m. hearing, a vote that is expected to pass before his confirmation goes to the full Senate in several weeks time.

Bernanke is expected to be confirmed, but he has his critics, including Sen. Jim Bunning, (R-Ky.), who blasted Time's selection as a reward for failure. Some in Congress have complained about the Fed's approach to the financial bail outs and have called for curbs on the Fed's powers.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he is leaning against voting for the Fed chairman, and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. both say they are definitely voting against him.

Read the rest of this post...

Poll: Optimism plummeting

Via Cillizza at the Post:

The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll suggests the country is slipping back into the pessimism it felt before last year's presidential election with just one in three American saying the country is headed in the right direction while 55 percent said it was off on the wrong track. Less than three in ten (27 percent) said life would be better for their children than it is for them and six in ten agreed with the statement that the country was in a "state of decline." Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who helps conduct the NBC/WSJ poll, called the results evidence that "optimism has crashed through the floor board." Remember that much of Obama's appeal is centered on the ideas of hope and change; if voters see his administration as overseeing more of the same, there could be considerable backlash from voters against Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.

Read the rest of this post...

Pelosi to Obama: You want money for Afghanistan, you lobby for it

The Speaker isn't going to lobby her caucus for the funds to finance the surge in Afghanistan. The President is going to have to use his powers of persuasion to get the votes. Or, he'll have Rahm Emanuel use his, such as they are. But, from every indication, Obama and Rahm don't have a lot of political capital with House liberals:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that it's up to President Barack Obama to persuade reluctant Democrats to fund his Afghanistan troop buildup — his most important foreign policy initiative — because she has no plans to do so herself.

Pelosi's reluctance to lobby for an Afghan surge appropriation reflects the deep divisions within the Democratic Party over Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

That, coupled with lukewarm public support — in the latest Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey, only 51 percent of the respondents said they support the surge — suggests that support for the administration's Afghan policy is brittle, at best.

In that same Pew poll, we see that support for the Afghanistan surge is lower among Democrats, not quite a majority among independents and higher for Republicans. But, while a bare majority of Dems. think Obama has a plan to end the war, most independents and few Republicans believe that:

The survey also finds unusual political cross-currents about Obama’s handling of Afghanistan in the wake of his decision to increase the number of U.S. forces in the country. Fully 65% of Republicans support Obama’s decision, compared with just 49% of independents and 45% of Democrats.

Nonetheless, Democrats express greater confidence in his handling of the situation in Afghanistan and are more likely to say he has a clear plan for successfully ending the war. About half of Democrats (51%) say he has a clear plan for bringing the situation in Afghanistan to a successful conclusion, compared with 35% of independents and only 18% of Republicans.

Democrats on the Hill who don't support the Afghanistan surge are probably representing the wishes of their constituents. Obama can probably rely on Republican votes, but he's actually going to have to work for Dem. votes. Read the rest of this post...

The Massachusetts health care miracle has a few warts

This matters since defenders of the Senate health care plan are arguing that it's just like Massachusetts' plan, so we'll all be fine. From a Kaiser Family Foundation report that Marcy Wheeler found and tweeted about:

Massachusetts have a usual source of care and most reported seeing a doctor in the previous year. However, the affordability of health care remains a barrier to receiving care for some residents. Of the total population, 21 percent went without needed care in the previous year because of cost. People with disabilities and those in fair and poor health experienced the greatest barriers to accessing care.

As Markos tweeted, "so they've got insurance, not health care." Read the rest of this post...

Keith Olbermann eviscerates Obama, Reid & US Senate over health care reform fiasco

The text below is only an excerpt of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night about the fiasco known as health care reform. You can read Keith's entire comment here.

The last year has been hard for a lot of us. Joe and I, like many of you, busted our butts to get a Democratic Congress in 2006. Via this blog, we raised over $100,000 to help the Democrats in that year alone. We were there as well in 2008 for the presidentials. At the risk of alienating a good chunk of our readership, we came out swinging for President Obama early in the primaries. With the help of many of you, we raised $43,000 for candidate Obama, and were proud to do so. For that reason, it didn't give us any pleasure having to take the White House, our White House, on through much of this year. On issue after issue we cared about, our President was on the wrong side of his own campaign promises. When the moment called for courage, for backbone, and for action, our White House was AWOL time and time again. And our leadership in Congress, especially in the Senate, wasn't far behind.

The only silver lining I can give our readers, after what has been an incredibly dispiriting year, is that for those of you, who like us, helped put this President and this Congress into office, and who have been wondering if your growing concerns about our party have been warranted, Keith Olbermann's Special Comment is about a clear a sign as you could ask for that you were not wrong, that you are not alone.

Here's an excerpt:

Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on the latest version of H-R 35-90, the Senate Health Care Reform bill. To again quote Churchill after Munich, as I did six nights ago on this program: "I will begin by saying the most unpopular and most unwelcome thing: that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, without a war."...

[S]adly, the President has not provided the leadership his office demands.

He has badly misjudged the country's mood at all ends of the spectrum. There is no middle to coalesce here, Sir. There are only the uninformed, the bought-off, and the vast suffering majority for whom the urgency of now is a call from a collection agency or a threat of rescission of policy or a warning of expiration of services.

Sir, your hands-off approach, while nobly intended and perhaps yet some day applicable to the reality of an improved version of our nation, enabled the national humiliation that was the Town Halls and the insufferable Neanderthalian stupidity of Congressman Wilson and the street-walking of Mr. Lieberman.

Instead of continuing this snipe-hunt for the endangered and possibly extinct creature "bipartisanship," you need to push the Republicans around or cut them out or both. You need to threaten Democrats like Baucus and the others with the ends of their careers in the party. Instead, those Democrats have threatened you, and the Republicans have pushed you and cut you out....

Mr. President, they are calling you a socialist, a communist, a Marxist. You could be further to the right than Reagan - and this health care bill, as Howard Dean put it here last night, this bailout for the insurance industry, sure invites the comparison. And they will still call you names.

Sir, if they are going to call you a socialist no matter what you do, you have been given full unfettered freedom to do what you know is just. The bill may be the ultimate political manifesto, or it may be the most delicate of compromises. The firestorm will be the same. So why not give the haters, as the cliché goes, something to cry about.

Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Be sure to check out Howard Dean's op ed in the Washington Post this morning. He explains in detail whey he thinks the terribly flawed Senate bill should be killed, and Congress should start over.

We should get the long-awaited CBO score on the Senate health care bill today. That will set the process moving for a cloture vote. No one seems sure that the 60 votes are there. The anti-choice National Right to Life Committee is apparently now in charge of whether the health care bill survives in the Senate. And Democratic Senator Sanders of VT said that at this point, he's not voting for the bill (for all the right reasons). And, lest we forget, the GOP Senators are doing everything to prevent votes.

But, what we are learning isn't exactly encouraging. On Keith Olbermann last night, former insurance company exec Wendell Potter of CIGNA explained how the insurance company will get around restrictions:

[T]hey would be enabled to charge people who have certain "health factors," as it's called in this bill, up to 50% more, if you've got high blood pressure, or high cholesterol really. So that is just one way to get around doing that.

That's just one way. Insurers will come up with more ways to screw people. Why not? The insurance industry owns the GOP, but has been coddled and protected by U.S. Senators and the Obama administration. I knew it was bad when Ben Smith posted the "We WIN" email last week. They do think they've won.

And, the President leaves for Copenhagen tonight.

Let's get threading... Read the rest of this post...

Copenhagen talks stalling on non-issues

There is not very much time left for the climate change summit, but perhaps those negotiating will get serious. The Independent:

The talks themselves, being held in the city's Bella Centre four miles away, looked dangerously stuck last night – and this morning there are only 24 hours left to secure an agreement before the 120 heads of state, who have come to Copenhagen to shake hands on it, have to fly home.

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, who is leading negotiations for Britain at the Bella Centre, said last night that the talks position was "very dangerous at the moment". Referring to hold-ups lasting hours, caused by a series of points of order on the conference floor, he said: "If this agreement were to fail because of issues of substance it would be a tragedy, but if it were to fail because of issues of process it would be a farce."

He added: "If we fail, people all over the world will be furious and they will be right to be furious."

Read the rest of this post...

Job-seekers in finance will take less pay

Gee, no kidding? As I mentioned recently, I witnessed the same from a friend in the business who took a job for much less than he was making because it paid. Despite what the Citi people inside the administration are telling Obama and crying about in the press, they will gladly take what is there. Someone needs to shut down the PR spin and call their bluff. If they don't like the pay they're more than welcome to leave and create their own company with their own money. Nobody is blocking that door so get going and let's back up the big talk. Today, preferably.

The survey by OneWire.com found 57 percent of people pursuing finance jobs would consider accepting a position that pays less than their most recent position, while 79 percent report a longer-than-anticipated job search.

About four in 10 said they are willing to settle for anything related to their field, double the number of people with minds set on a specific position or title, according to the online poll conducted last month and in early December.

Some job-seekers are souring on the finance profession as a result of the recession. Forty-one percent said they do not believe finance is as desirable a career path as they thought two years ago.

Read the rest of this post...

Talk about finding old stuff in the back of the freezer

This beats any of the discoveries that I've ever made in my fridge. It probably didn't have the same fuzz or color though. AFP:

Two blocks of butter have been found intact after nearly a century in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition, a report said.

Television New Zealand reported that conservators found the two blocks of New Zealand butter in bags in stables attached to the expedition Hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica.

Read the rest of this post...

Australia to create internet wall

Hmmm. Maybe Australia is getting a bit too close to China and their bad habits are rubbing off. Either that or there's a gas leak in Canberra and people aren't thinking clearly. Possibly there are good intentions here but it's going to be a waste of time and money. Besides, it's not what democracies do.

Australia plans to introduce an Internet filtering system to block obscene and crime-linked Web sites despite concerns it will curtail freedoms and won't completely work.

Adopting a mandatory screening system would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among the world's democracies. Authoritarian regimes commonly impose controls. China drew international criticism earlier this year with plans to install filtering software on all PCs sold in the country.

Read the rest of this post...

Best Jingle Bells ever

It's impossible not to love this new take on a classic. Read the rest of this post...