Keith Olbermann's dad died today

From Keith's sports blog.

My father died, in the city of his birth, New York, at 3:50 EST this afternoon.

Though the financial constraints of his youth made college infeasible, he accomplished the near-impossible, becoming an architect licensed in 40 states. Much of his work was commercial, for a series of shoe store chains and department stores. There was a time in the 1970's when nearly all of the Baskin-Robbins outlets in the country had been built to his design, and under his direction. Through much of my youth and my early adult life, it was almost impossible to be anywhere in this country and not be a short drive to one of "his" stores.

My Dad was predeceased last year by my mother, Marie, his wife of nearly 60 years. He died peacefully after a long fight against the complications that ensued after successful colon surgery last September at the New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. My sister Jenna and I were at his side, and I was reading him his favorite James Thurber short stories, as he left us.

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Winnie Mandela denies critical interview

Ahh, the good old "deny everything" approach. So ignore the photos of her meeting the interviewer Nadira Naipaul and her husband, Nobel laureate VS Naipaul during the interview. Sounds like a tough sell. Here's the original interview including the photograph.

The story took a new turn today when the 73-year-old rejected the inflammatory comments attributed to her.

"I did not give … an interview. It is therefore not necessary for me to respond in any detail to the contents of a fabricated interview," she said in a statement distributed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

"I will in the coming days deal with what I see as an inexplicable attempt to undermine the unity of my family, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the high regard with which the name Mandela is held here and across the globe."

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The latest inanity from David Brooks

Sophomoric logic should be a capital offense.

David Brooks gets paid, we assume, a lot of money. He should be beyond using college-essay logic of "well, if both sides are criticizing you, you must be doing something right." In today's Brooks essay in the NYT we learn that because conservatives think Obama is a socialist, and liberals think he doesn't fight nearly hard enough for his stated principles, then Obama must actually be a man of the middle.

Liberals are wrong to call him weak and indecisive. He’s just not always pursuing their aims. Conservatives are wrong to call him a big-government liberal. That’s just not a fair reading of his agenda.

Or the right is dominated by nuts who would have called Jesse Helms a socialist were he a Democrat (and still alive), and the left is legitimately upset with a president who promised many things and then fought for very few of them. A fair reading of Obama's agenda is his own words. That's what liberals hold Obama to, his own promises, no more and no less.

Brooks' second logical conundrum is is failing to understand the difference criticizing Obama for not being liberal enough, and criticizing Obama for not even pushing for his own campaign promises. A rather huge difference that far too many in the media (and the administration) fail to comprehend.

Then there's this on health care reform:

Obama has pushed this program with a tenacity unmatched in modern political history; with more tenacity than Bill Clinton pushed his health care plan or George W. Bush pushed Social Security reform.

In the past three weeks, perhaps. But where was Tenacious Advocate much of last year when he abdicated his role as health-care-reformer-in-chief and directed Max Baucus to negotiate with Republicans for months on end? The President gave a few speeches, to be sure, but tenacious advocate he was not. He wouldn't even enunciate a plan he was for. He never fought for any votes, other than trying to kill the votes that Harry Reid was trying to round up for the public option.

If Brooks wants to claim that Obama fought tenaciously for health care reform, then let him prove it. Because it is simply not true.

In a sensible country, people would see Obama as a president trying to define a modern brand of moderate progressivism. In a sensible country, Obama would be able to clearly define this project without fear of offending the people he needs to get legislation passed. But we don’t live in that country. We live in a country in which many people live in information cocoons in which they only talk to members of their own party and read blogs of their own sect. They come away with perceptions fundamentally at odds with reality, fundamentally misunderstanding the man in the Oval Office.

Fine, don't read the blogs. Read Obama's own words about what he wanted out of health care reform - where's the public option, the single most important element in creating competition, lowering costs, and increasing benefits, per Obama himself?

Where is the Fierce Advocate on gay rights, who promised to push for the repeal of DADT and DOMA, and the passage of ENDA - none of them are happening because the White House refuses to push for them (yes, the President mentioned DADT in the SOTU - that was nice, but it was, yet again, a speech - the White House needs to learn the difference between giving an occasional speech and fighting for something, they're not the same thing).

Then there was the stimulus. The White House refused to even push for the amount of money that Democratic economists said we needed - on the order of $1.5 to $2.0 trillion. Instead they pushed for 780 billion, not nearly enough, and then gave 35% away to the GOP for near-useless tax cuts, in exchange for 3 Republican votes.

I know it's fashionable to claim that liberals are so demanding and just won't be happy with anything. But we are not asking the President to do anything more than what he promised. We're asking him to fight for his agenda. He hasn't been fighting, and he hasn't been very committed to his own promises. Read the rest of this post...

Wall Street bonuses 'elegant form of theft'

Michael Lewis knows the game pretty well. This ought to be a good interview on 60 Minutes this week.

The big Wall Street banks "have access to a zero percent loan in virtually unlimited quantities from the Federal Reserve. You can take that money and reinvest it in Treasury bonds or government agency securities and you will get the spread and you could do it over and over," he said.

"You're essentially borrowing from the government ... and taking a cut," he said.

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Dog returns home after being snatched by bird

Unfortunately no video embed.

Dog lovers will understand why Elizabeth Todd cradles her chihuahua "Poppy" like a baby.

"Poppy's just my heart," said Elizabeth. "They become part of your family, part of your life."

Her 9-year-old son Tim was there. He remembers hearing something awful.

"It was a terrible yelp," said Tim. "Real loud and we heard wings flapping and we looked back and Poppy was flying right up there."

Some kind of large bird had picked up the three-pound chihuahua.

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Pope Benedict linked to paedophile priest in Germany

This is getting uglier by the day. Either the Pope was in charge of the diocese or he wasn't but claiming ignorance in such instances is at a minimum, cowardly. Whether in the church, business or government everyone keeps playing this card because they continue to get away with it. Until society says "enough" there's no reason to expect anything else. The Times:

The Pope was drawn directly into the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal last night as news emerged of his part in a decision to send a paedophile priest for therapy. The cleric went on to reoffend and was convicted of child abuse but continues to work as a priest in Upper Bavaria.

The priest was sent from Essen to Munich for therapy in 1980 when he was accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex. The archdiocese confirmed that the Pope, who was then a cardinal, had approved a decision to accommodate the priest in a rectory while the therapy took place.

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Rod Stewart - Maggie May

More sunny skies and the garden is showing more signs of life. The camellia plants are still another week or maybe even two away from starting their annual bloom. With a bit of luck they will be in good shape by the time a good friend from Toronto arrives in town. He also loves gardens and gardening so he's looking forward to seeing what's growing over here in late March. I passed a patch of daffodils that were almost up and probably a day or two from opening. Our forsythia is budding also but that too probably has a few weeks to go. Everything is late this year. Read the rest of this post...

Report: EU to provide loan guarantees for Greece

Sounds like Germany has finally come around and started to be helpful. The steady stream of insults offered little other than to show how arrogant Merkel's colleagues could be. The Guardian:

Senior sources in Brussels said that Berlin had bowed to the bailout agreement despite huge resistance in Germany and that the finance ministers of the "eurozone" – the 16 member states including Greece who use the euro – are to finalise the rescue package on Monday. The single currency's rulebook will also be rewritten to enforce greater fiscal discipline among members.

The member states have agreed on "co-ordinated bilateral contributions" in the form of loans or loan guarantees to Greece if Athens finds itself unable to refinance its soaring debt and requests help from the EU, a senior European commission official said.

Other sources said the aid could rise to €25bn (£22.6bn), although it is estimated in European capitals that Greece could need up to €55bn by the end of the year.

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