McCain says Obama has to drop public option

This is called a feeding frenzy. The Republicans are having a field day, now demanding that dropping the public option is their number one priority, because Obama telegraphed weakness. The GOP knows that Obama is willing to cave, and they know that Democrats are livid as a result. So by demanding that Obama drop the public option they either force Obama to do it, and destroy his relationship, and credibility, with a large swath of the Democratic party, or Obama holds firm (unlikely) and Republicans have an excuse for not supporting the bill (as if they would anyway), and then can claim that Obama refused to be bipartisan, knowing that this is Obama's raison d'etre. Either way they have him, all because the White House refused to show some backbone (again). Read the rest of this post...

Grassley backing off of death panels, kind of. Blames Obama.

ThinkProgress has it. Read the rest of this post...

Qwest Communications cutting executive perks

Can you imagine what kind of perks Wall Street is still providing? Bailing them out without strings attached was foolish and a slap in the face to the rest of America. In the case of Qwest, how did they hold on to such extravagance for so long?

Qwest Communications will no longer give five top executives tens of thousands of dollars a year to pay for expenses.

Qwest spokeswoman Diane Reberger said Saturday the allowances were being eliminated to help simplify its compensation structure.

Qwest said it was eliminating the allowances in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Qwest CEO Ed Mueller received the largest allowance, $75,000. Reberger said executives didn't have to disclose how the money was spent. The Denver Post said the allowance covered expenses such as financial counseling, physical exams and club memberships.

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Reich and Krugman on THIS WEEK re Health Care Reform

Via FDL.

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Obama should take Plouffe's warning to heart

Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe issued a few warnings today about health care reform. The warnings were ostensibly for the grassroots, but ironically they'd be better heeded by Obama himself.

David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, a year ago dismissed Democratic nervousness about Obama's candidacy and pointed criticism of the campaign's strategy as "hand-wringing and bed-wetting." Now he says the current uproar reminds him of those trying moments when Obama's allies were running for cover.

Yes it does remind one of a year ago, unfortunately. Obama was refusing to fight back against McCain's onslaught of attacks, and the attacks were starting to stick. The blogs finally had to publicly berate Obama, demanding he stand up and fight, prompting the campaign's big funders to hold a private meeting with top Obama staff, forcing Obama to finally show back bone. It was only then, with the help of the economic crisis, that you won the race. So yes, today's situation does remind us all of a year ago.

Plouffe said he thinks Democrats have a historic opportunity to make improvements in the economy, health care and energy that will benefit the country and pay dividends to their party for years to come -- if they don't lose their nerve.

Plouffe might want to share that bit of wisdom with his former boss. Read the rest of this post...

Krugman: It's a recovery, and it's NOT good news

Apparently, we're officially out of the recession, but it's not good news. Krugman links to his old column about the stimulus package not being enough (you'll recall that we gave 40% away to the Republicans in the form of useless tax cuts, in order to buy 3 unnecessary votes) - though he really needs to explain further why it's bad news. Is he suggesting that unemployment won't eventually get better, or what?

[T]he current situation is no better — actually, worse — that I thought it would be when arguing that the Obama economic plan was inadequate. Read this, and bear in mind that the unemployment rate is now 9.4%.

The stimulus has helped, and the conventional recession is over. But the economy is not recovering in the most crucial area, job creation, and the stimulus won’t be enough to restore prosperity.

Ever? Read the rest of this post...

The Greek fires are back (local blogger coverage)

I've asked a few of my Greek blogger friends to give us an update of the wildfires that are again threatening Greece, and in particular, Athens this summer. The photo above is from blogger Panayotis Vryonis, who you may recall attended the Democratic convention last summer with me and Chris in Denver. The video and photo below are from Greek blogger John Karakatsanis (of xblog.gr) who I met in Athens last year when I was speaking at the Pasok political conference. Panayoti also directed us to this Twitter feed about the fires.





Panayoti also sent me a very cool a Google maps link tracking the fires - you'll see Athens (Athina) in the bottom left corner of the map. He also sent this photo of the fires right outside Athens last night.



Panayoti informs me that the town of Stamata, outside of Athens, is now on fire. A local blogger, Dimitris Savvakos, took this video, and gave Panayoti permission to have us publish it.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Health insurance reform and Afghanistan dominate today. There's no news slowdown this August.

"Face the Nation" hosts the Senator who is is controlling the health care debate: Republican Chuck Grassley. (Yes, there are 60 Democrats in the Senate, but Grassley is calling the shots.) He's joined by Democrat Kent Conrad who is also torpedoing real reform.

On Afghanistan, we get Admiral Mullen and the U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry. I think we're trying to figure out what's going on over there and what the strategy is.

The full slate of guests is after the break.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; former national Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — Mullen; Eikenberry; Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Jim Towey, president of Saint Vincent College and former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Tammy Duckworth, an assistant Veterans Affairs secretary.

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San Remo market day

We drove over to San Remo, Italy for the Saturday market yesterday and we now understand why people as far away as Toulon, France make the drive. The covered market has excellent quality and on Tuesday and Saturday there are vendors outside as well. The outside vendors sell everything from flowers to shirts, sweaters, silk, capes, and of course, lots of leather products. Joelle finally found a new purse and matching gloves, both of which were a fraction of the cost found in Paris. Thankfully the vendors have (mostly) moved away from selling the revolting fake brand name junk. I can't believe that we never made the one hour trip over before.

The inside of the covered market. Wonderful fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, pasta, meats, cheese and all for much less than over in France. We picked up some wild blueberries and could not believe how good they were. They were also half the price than what we see in Paris. The selection of plums is something that I always look forward to over here because many more varieties are sold.


A neighbor in Paris used to have family bring up massive pieces of Parmesan cheese - the 24 month aged stuff - and at parties people would chip away tasty chunks. This seems to be what people do as everyone was lined up to purchase their big blocks of cheese.


One of a few bread shops inside. We stopped by another and picked up a slice of Sardenàira (sort of a pizza but with no cheese) along with something similar that had no sauce or cheese but instead, lightly cooked onions. Neither made it outside. Our nibble was a bit more than a nibble. The onion "pizza" is something like the Nice style Pissaladière but less onion, no anchovy and the onions are not as deeply cooked. The Sardenàira is behind the glass window on the middle shelf.


As with almost every market in the area, the Virgin Mary is watching over.


We both had a pretty good laugh when we noticed the bags and tins of "Friskies" cat food behind the butcher. Somehow I never managed to locate a butcher that also sells cat food but why not? Nice looking lamb and rabbit and of course, local sausages.


The particular seller insisted that anyone who picked up products should wear one of these gloves. We also noticed the same outside with the leather glove sellers though I don't know if this was related to the swine flu or just normal practice. Since we will eat the tomatoes raw it makes sense either way. I later bought some buffalo mozzarella which I hope is non-toxic to go with these tomatoes.


Beautiful sweet peppers that are about to be roasted for our picnic on the beach later today. At the farmers market end of the covered market, we grabbed a bunch of garden produce including local figs, melon and tomatoes. She then generously offered to throw in a bunch of fresh basil and a handful of these yummy-looking peppers.
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Tourism down across Europe this summer

Not that we have visited many of the tourist "hot spots" this summer, but from what we've seen the numbers look around the same. We ventured into Nice one day - the hottest day of the year, naturally - and it was as crowded as ever. Our stop at Lou Pihla Leva had us waiting in line for socca and pissaladière, just like every other year. Traffic on the autoroutes has been heavy, as usual. That said, we have not heard nearly as many Americans or Brits out there compared to previous years though the American traffic started to slow down dramatically a few years ago as the dollar started to unravel. AFP:

Empty terrace tables at Parisian cafes. Fewer sunbathers scattered along Italian and Spanish beaches: The global economic crisis has cast a dark cloud over Europe's top tourist destinations.

France, the world's tourism champion with 79.3 million visitors last year, has been hit hard by the drop in foreign travellers.

The number of international visitors in France has fallen by nearly one-third in the heat of summer -- July and August -- after sinking by 15.5 percent in the first five months of the year, government figures show.

Spain, which fell to third place among the world's favourite tourist destinations last year, has suffered a 10 percent drop in visits this summer following an 11.4 percent fall in the first half of the year.

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Report: Gordon Brown discussed Lockerbie bomber release with Gaddafi

Absolutely disgraceful. The story about oil drilling rights sounds more and more likely by the day regardless of what the never- believable Tony Blair has to say. The entire process makes the legal system look like a joke, but after Iraq, many are already used to that situation.

Downing Street released the text of a cordial letter sent to the Libyan leader on the day that Abdulbaset al-Megrahi was released, asking that the event be kept low key because a "high-profile" ceremony would distress his victims and their families.

But critically the letter also refers to a meeting between the two leaders six weeks earlier at the G8 summit in Italy, adding that "when we met [there] I stressed that, should the Scottish executive decide that Megrahi can return to Libya, this should be a purely private family occasion" rather than a public celebration.

Previously officials have said that the two men's conversation in Italy at the beginning of July was brief and that, while the Lockerbie case was raised, Brown merely stressed the matter was one for the Scottish government to decide.

However, the new letter, addressed to "Dear Muammar" and signed off by wishing him a happy Ramadan, suggests that the decision was well enough advanced and Brown well enough briefed to set terms for a homecoming – albeit unsuccessfully. A jubilant Libyan crowd, some waving Scottish flags, greeted Megrahi at the airport.

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