Gregarius

Feeds

9982 items (9928 unread) in 3 feeds

Feeds (9928 unread)

• Daily KosSearch Daily Kos (7166 unread)
• Dork Tower (315 unread)
• CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage (2447 unread)

Unread items (100)

• March 11, 2010
• 15:50

  New CBO numbers: HCR cuts deficit by $118 billion

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  CBO has updated its assessment of the Senate-passed health care bill that will form the basis of the final health care package once the reconciliation package of 'fixes' is complete:

  Obama health bill gets boost from budget office

  WASHINGTON (AFP) – In a boost to President Barack Obama's flagship reform drive, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday a Senate health care bill would cut the deficit by 118 billion dollars.

  The release of the report thickened the intrigue in a tense period of vote hunting for Obama's Democratic allies in the House of Representatives, with the White House pushing for a crucial vote on the measure within a week.

  The non-partisan CBO said in its updated assessment that the Senate bill would cost 875 billion dollars over 10 years and reduce projected budget deficits by 118 billion dollars.

  In a bid to thwart Republican obstruction tactics, Obama wants the House to pass the Senate bill along with a package of "fixes" in a delicate political maneuver that represents the last hope for his key domestic priority.

  As it currently stands, the legislation would cover 31 million Americans and offer consumer protections to all Americans, eliminating the ability of insurance companies to deny people for pre-existing conditions or to rescind coverage to people who get sick. Its ten-year $875 billion price tag would be funded by Medicare cost-savings (without jeopardizing benefits) and a mixture of new taxes. It would reduce the deficit by $118 billion in the first ten years.

  Remember, these budget numbers represent a baseline, and will likely change (presumably for the better) once the reconciliation package is complete. But it's an important reminder that the net financial impact of reform will be a reduction in the budget deficit.

  If Republicans want to argue that government should not provide a safety net insuring that all Americans have health insurance, that's their right -- but for them to argue that this bill is a fiscal calamity just isn't grounded in reality.

  Join the discussion in Bensonola's recommended diary, CBO: Senate HCR Bill Reduces the Deficit by 118 Billion!.

  
  

  
• 15:08

  Midday open thread

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  

  • Is there anything cooler than Al Franken at Netroots Nation?

    He may be the best speaker at the conference ever.

    So admit it, you want to be there. Register!

  • No ambiguity -- MoveOn members want to pass the bill. We spent the last several months fighting to make it better, and we did. It's not great, but it's better. And as Howard Dean wrote yesterday, the fight for better health care reform isn't over.

    Dennis Kucinich may rather make common cause with the GOP and Rush Limbaugh, but sane progressives have to realize that this is a step forward. And once the foot is in the door, tweaks can always be made. But our foot must be in the door, and that's why the GOP and insurance companies are fighting this with all their might.

  • Agreeed:

    I dislike the intrusive advertising on Salon, so I don’t read Salon. I dislike Michael Arrington, so I never read anything on TechCrunch (even when they write about me or my products) and have taken technical measures to ensure that I never even land there accidentally and give them whatever tiny profit that one pageview is worth. I don’t like the timebombed, Unicode-breaking Clickability print-friendly view for New York Magazine, since I like reading NYMag-length pieces in Instapaper and Clickability doesn’t work well in it, so I just don’t read NYMag’s articles. I don’t like Ars Technica’s paginated articles, but since I don’t want to pay for a subscription, I just read every page separately, give them all of their separate-page ad views, and save each page to Instapaper if I want to read them that way.

    One reaction I’ve never had is to think that I deserve anything from these publishers.

    Valid point: [Publisher] should consider doing it some other way because this will alienate some readers.

    Invalid point: [Publisher] should do it my way because all content deserves to be free/ad-free/full-RSS/single-page.

  • Glenn Beck, religious scholar.

    "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church web site," Beck urged his audience. "If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

    Today, Beck returned to the subject, insisting that the notion of social justice is "a perversion of the Gospel," and "not what Jesus would say." He wasn't kidding.

    He went on to say that Americans should be skeptical of religious leaders who are "basing their religion on social justice," and explained his fear that concern for social justice is a problem "infecting all" faith traditions.

    Beck's condemnations aren't going over well in some faith communities. The Rev. Jim Wallis, a prominent evangelical figure and president of the Sojourners network, argued yesterday, "I don't know if Beck is just strange, just trying to be controversial, or just trying to make money. But in any case, what he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show."

  • Yup. The Day Bipartisanship Died was the day the illegitimate Kenyan entered the White House.
  • And the fruitless search for bipartisanship has cost Democrats.

    Speaking at a progressive media summit, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called it a "tragic mistake" that the White House fruitlessly chased Republican votes on health care rather than take advantage of the ripe environment to pass legislation.

    "What is very sad is we had hopes that [the] election was transformational in the sense of bringing people into the political process who have never been in it before," Sanders said. "I tried very hard in Vermont to bring young people into the political process. It is very hard to do. Obama did it. But you know where those young people are now? They are not in the political process. They really aren't. We have lost them. We have antagonized trade unionists. We have not done well with seniors. I don't think we have done well with women. And I think that was a tragic mistake."

    This isn't just hot air, either. The polling is clear on voter intensity. For a party that depends heavily on young voters, this is one of our biggest dangers heading into November.

    And it was all avoidable. Republicans made it very clear, very quickly, that they had no interest in anything but the destruction of the Obama presidency. I'll never understand why Obama and congressional leaders didn't catch on quicker.

  • Dodd certainly hasn't learned his lesson. He lets Republicans water legislation down, yet when they back out, he doesn't strip out their bullshit from the legislation. I'll never understand why they keep doing this.

  
  

  
• 14:30

  How Republicans eat crow

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Joe "You Lie!" Wilson (R-SC-02) on the floor earlier today, discussing the health insurance reform proposal:

  On the good side, The Hill today reports, front page, the Senate bill provides for citizenship verification to buy insurance.

  Wilson, you'll recall, screamed out "You Lie!" when President Obama told Congress in an address to a Joint Session that the health insurance reform bill would not offer coverage to illegal immigrants.

  And guess what? Today he says it won't. Well, I'll be!

  So what does a Republican do when forced to eat crow? Pour a little Freedom Ketchup on it! Before even drawing a breath, Wilson concluded his speech with this:

  In conclusion, God bless our troops, and we will never forget September 11th and the global war on terrorism.

  Uh, yeah.

  
  

  
• 14:00

  CA-Sen, Gov: Lean D, but competitive

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 3/8-10. Likely voters. MoE 4% (8/2-12/09 results)

  Let's start with the governor's race:

  Republican primary

  Meg Whitman (R)   52 (24)
  Steve Poizner (R) 19 (9)

  (Tom Campbell, then in the governor's race, got 19 percent in August 2009 poll)

  
  General election

  Meg Whitman (R)   41 (36)
  Jerry Brown (D)   45 (42)

  Steve Poizner (R) 33 (34)
  Jerry Brown (D)   48 (43)

  
  Favorable/Unfavorable

  Brown (D)   52/40 (48/37)
  Whitman (R) 51/35 (41/30)
  Poizner (R) 37/40 (35/27)

  Poizner is the ultra-conservative teabagger candidate in the race, and going nowhere, so we're likely to get a Whitman/Brown matchup. Both those candidates are evenly matched in favorabilities, though the state's Democratic tilt gives Brown a bit of a head start. The results are still a bit surprising, however. Brown has run the most invisible, stealth campaign, in state history. Seriously, the dude is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Whitman has spent tents of millions of dollars in her campaign, and is running on near saturation television ads:

  The campaign’s Gross Rating Point report, measuring total delivery of the current week’s broadcast ad schedule in 11 markets in California, shows that eMeg’s buy is comparable to what a fully-loaded campaign might ordinarily deliver in the closing weeks of a heated race – not three months before a primary that she’s prohibitively leading.

  “These are some big fuckin’ numbers,” said Bill Carrick, the veteran Democratic media consultant after reviewing the report. “She’s buying the whole shebang.”

  While she may be the prohibitive favorite in the primary, it's done little to bolster her general election standing. She's gained just two points on Jerry Brown since last August. And remember, that's against Brown's invisible campaign.

  Brown dominates in the Bay Area 61-22, while Whitman does best down South, around San Diego, 56-34. Independents split 41-40, with Brown with the small but statistically insignificant edge. 19 percent of independents remain undecided.

  The biggest undecided block are African Americans, who break 66-6 for Brown, but with 28 percent undecided. Getting them out to vote will be key for Brown. Same with Latinos, who give Brown a 60-27 edge, with 13 percent undecided.

  Brown may be 255 years old (give or take a decade), but voters over 60 go for Whitman 45-38. The Millennials  remain the strongest Democratic age group -- 49-37 for Brown. They are also the least likely to vote. Thus Brown's early edge is one built on a shaky foundation -- strong support from the demographics least likely to turn out and vote. Whitman has been running a gaffe prone campaign thus far. If she gets her act together, this could be a real dogfight.

  In the Senate race:

  Republican primary

  Tom Campbell (R)  33
  Carly Fiorina (R) 24
  Chuck DeVore (R)   7

  
  General election

  Barbara Boxer (D)  47
  Tom Campbell (R)   43

  Barbara Boxer (D)  49 (52)
  Carly Fiorina (R)  40 (31)

  Barbara Boxer (D)  49 (53)
  Chuck DeVore (R)   39 (29)

  
  Favorable/Unfavorable

  Boxer (D)    50/45 (49/43)
  Campbell (R) 46/37 (38/29)
  Fiorina (R)  35/43 (22/29)
  DeVore (R)   34/42 (21/27)

  Boxer has the early edge, but she's under the magical 50 percent safe mark. Fiorina and DeVore have terrible favorability numbers, leaving Campbell as Boxer's most serious competition.

  Of course, this is familiar territory for her. In 2004 -- another strong GOP year -- the scary accurate Field Poll had Boxer head just 48-38 in February of that year. Boxer didn't break the 50 percent mark in that key California poll until May, and she never looked back. We'll see if she can repeat history in this, yet another challenging year for Democrats.

  Against Campbell, who runs strongest against her, Boxer dominates the bay Area (63-24) and leads 2-1 in LA County (58-28). The Central Valley and San Diego area, on the other hand, are problems. Also, like Brown, her strongest demographics are also those least likely to vote -- young voters, African Americans and Latinos.

  Still, Boxer starts off with the edge. And Campbell is nowhere near locking down his primary like Whitman. That contest appears to be anyone's game, especially with 36 percent still undecided.

  Update: Oops, sorry for the dead crosstabs. That page is now working properly.

  
  

  
• 13:31

  Party of Vitter, Ensign, and Sanford wants Massa investigation

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Never mind that within Republican ranks sit the following incumbents:

  1. David "Diapers" Vitter

  1. John "I screwed my top aide's wife (and she was also a staffer!)" Ensign

  1. Mark "Hiking the Appalachian Argentine Trail" Sanford

  Never mind that just 48 hours ago Republican House Leader John Boehner's leadership office was embracing Eric Massa's conspiracy theory and telling people to watch Glenn Beck to find out all about it.

  Forget all that, because Republicans are now positioning themselves as the voices of truth and righteous indignation on all matters sexual -- as long as they have to do with former members of Congress...from the Democratic Party:

  GOP wants Massa ethics probe reopened

  WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader John Boehner wants the House ethics panel probe of former Rep. Eric Massa to be reopened.

  The Ohio Republican said Thursday there are many unanswered questions surrounding the sexual harassment allegations that were made against the New York Democrat. Boehner (BAY'nur) said he plans to file a House resolution on the matter later Thursday.

  Next thing you know, Boehner will claim that Massa's resignation was part of a conspiracy to cover up the truth, and he'll hold up Republicans as the paragon of transparency because their sex-scandal plagued incumbents decided to stay in office.

  Well, if Republicans want to have a "sex-scandal" debate between the parties, by all means, bring it on...with the widest stance possible. They can scream about Eric Massa's resignation...as long as they explain their incumbents, Vitter, Ensign, and Sanford.

  
  

  
• 13:00

  House Dems to ban earmarks to for-profit companies

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  The news: House Dems are moving to eliminate earmarks that appropriate funds for the direct benefit of for-profit companies.

  The method: The adoption of a rule banning such earmarks by the House Appropriations Committee.

  The reason: The PMA lobbying scandal, recently investigated by the House Ethics Committee. The committee's report concluded that no direct relationship could be established between campaign contributions and earmarks, but clearly everyone's still concerned that there's a relationship, anyway. Hence the new rule.

  Will it work? Well, sort of. Here's what the watchdogs had to say:

  The good government advocates believe that the Senate will likely take up the slack from the House. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said Wednesday he does not plan to impose any such ban. His position was seconded by Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who argued members' right to earmark funds is protected by the Constitution.

  "The Senate hasn't been as haunted by the ethics problems, so they don't feel like it is their scandal to have to worry about," [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington executive director Melanie] Sloan said.

  Yeah. Well, that and the fact that there are other ways to direct spending:

  The ban won’t apply to universities and non-profit institutions. It also won’t apply to items in bills that aren’t technically appropriations earmarks, but function in much of the same way. For example, the narrowly-targeted items that were included in the Wall St. bailout bill, like the repeal of a tax on wooden arrows, or the porky items from the stimulus bill, wouldn’t be banned. And unlike the earmarks in appropriations bills, which are subject to strict disclosure rules, it’s almost impossible to figure out who sponsored or is benefiting from the earmark-like items in non-appropriations bills.

  Then again, Congress is supposed to have control of the federal pursestrings. The modern argument against earmarks, however, is that they've gotten out of control. But directing federal spending is one of the basic functions of Congress, and it's only in modern practice that more and more of that authority has been ceded to the executive branch, through its various departments and agencies. And as any of the remaining Congressional fans of earmarks (or "directed spending" as they prefer to call it, to keep it grounded in its original purpose) will tell you, its arguably better to have elected officials making direct spending decisions than leaving them up to unelected bureaucrats. Maybe, maybe not. But that's the argument.

  At any rate, the ban certainly seems like a step in the right direction no matter how you look at it. Slicing off chunks of taxpayer funding and sending them to for-profit companies seems like the wrong thing to be doing, especially in an age where we're constantly being told that the free market can magically solve all problems, and that we need to rely on it more than ever on account of... our federal budget deficts.

  
  

  
• 12:16

  Durbin Tells Progressive Senators They Can't Have the Public Option Vote

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  With now more than 40 Senators saying they would support the public option in a reconciliation vote, Dick Durbin is trying to put the brakes on the process, saying that liberals may be asked to oppose the amendment [sub req] now that they've said they would support it. Roll Call reports:

  Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) acknowledged Wednesday that liberals may be asked to oppose any amendment, including one creating a public option, to ensure a smooth ride for the bill. “We have to tell people, ‘You just have to swallow hard’ and say that putting an amendment on this is either going to stop it or slow it down, and we just can’t let it happen,” Durbin, who supports a public option, told reporters. “We have to move this forward. We know the Republicans are likely to offer a lot of amendments, and some of them may be appealing to Democrats, but we have to urge them to stick with the bill.”

  Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a leading centrist, suggested Democrats should be able to avoid blowing up a reconciliation package if there is ample negotiation on it before it hits the floor. But Carper appeared to warn his Democratic colleagues that any move to amend the reconciliation bill, however noble the policy aims, would only lead to chaos.

  That's the same Tom Carper whose contribution to the hcr debate was the deservedly short-lived opt-in, triggered co-op. But regardless of how worthless his contribution to the debate has been, he still gets a vote. As should Senate liberals, who as of yet aren't backing down.

  But prominent Senate liberals said they are determined to put the public option question to the test when reconciliation comes to the floor.

  “I think we have got to do everything that we can to get a public option so that is absolutely something ... somebody can and should do,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats.

  Sanders said liberals have not decided who would offer such an amendment. However, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) led a petition drive to get Senators to sign a letter pledging their support for it. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has been tracking the letter signatories and Member statements, projects 41 firm votes in favor of the public option.

  Sanders said he believes supporters will have the votes when the amendment comes up. “I can’t swear it to you, but I do think we can,” Sanders said. “I think that some people for whatever reason choose not to sign a letter but will vote. Yeah, I think we’ve got it.”

  This largely seems to be an effort to discourage any amendments from being offered, though there is no indication as of yet that anyone other than public option supporters are being told to stand down. The Roll Call story says that other Senators, including Wyden and Boxer, "declined to rule out trying to change the reconciliation measure on the floor" pending knowing what will actually be in the reconciliation fix.

  
  

  
• 11:30

  Senate Progressive Dems on HCR

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  At yesterday's Progressive Media Summit with members of the Senate Democratic caucus, Chuck Schumer, Debbie Stabenow, Sherrod Brown, and Bernie Sanders fielded some tough questions and mutual frustration from said progressive media members over the reform process.

  First, in answer to a somewhat convoluted question from Ed Schultz about why the House wasn't just going to have to pass the bill, Schumer deflected back to the reality that the bill as it stands now--with the Nebraska deal et al.--won't cut it, and gave a really decent asnwer on precisely why the House has good reason to be distrustful of the Senate. He talked about some of the very difficult votes that the House has had to take over the last year, only to watch in frustration as some really hard votes go to the Senate to die. His answer made it clear that leadership in the House, Senate, and White House are all on board with finding a mechanism that will lock 50 Senators in to supporting a reconciliation fix that will get 218 votes in the House.

  More on the background of the process, Sanders gave a "lessons learned" sort of retrospective look at where we are, and who we got here, saying the "process of moving hcr has not been has efficient or effective as it might have been," and then detailing the deficiencies. First, by not having single payer on the table, which sent a message to progressives that they weren't going to be heard. He talked most forcefully about what he called the "major error" that existed, the "assumption that we had 59 or 60 votes.... We spent month after month after month negotiating with people who weren't going to support the bill." Sam Stein, who attended the event, has more.

  Brown reiterated his support for the public option, and echoed one of the primary themes for the hcr discussion, that reconciliation is not an extraordinary process, and did some cheerleading to try to push progressive media through the rest of the process, saying that "all of us want more out of this healthcare bill," and continuing "I know that a lot of you are discouraged about what has happened in the last year. Discouraged that the conservative, moderate wing of the Democratic Party too often seems to holds sway over both caucuses."

  I asked Stabenow whether the Senate progressives were involved in the strategy for dealing with Stupak, and she said that they were, and that there was no way that the Stupak language could pass in the Senate--hence the Nelson language. Given that Stupak says that he refuses to accept the Nelson language, the impasse continues.

  
  

  
• 10:46

  New Data Gives Conflicting Testimony About 2010 Turnout

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Well, depending on which pollster you are buying stock in (and it is a genuine debate, since neither of them are Rasmussen), Democrats should either be deeply concerned about flagging voter intensity, or heartened by surprisingly high voter intensity among African Americans.

  So say a pair of new surveys released this week on the 2010 elections, one by Gallup, and the other by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

  The data from Gallup is part of what the pollster promises will be a weekly look at the 2010 elections. On the generic ballot test, the Democrats enjoy a slight advantage (47-44).

  On the issue of voter intensity, though, the Democrats languish far behind their Republican counterparts:

  Gallup Poll, March 1-7, 2010, Voters by Party Expressing That They Are "Very Enthusiastic" About Voting in November Elections

  Republicans 42
  Democrats 24
  

  An eighteen-point enthusiasm gap would be cause for concern, to be sure, if not outright alarm. It also tracks reasonably close to a slightly different variation of our own DK Tracking Poll, where 49% of Republicans say that are "definitely voting" or "voting", compared to just 39% of Democrats.

  Meanwhile, the new poll from the Joint Center on Political and Economic Studies goes the other direction. That poll, conducted in four potentially competitive Senate states (Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, and South Carolina), shows that between 74-80% of African American voters in those states consider themselves "very likely" to vote.

  If true, that would be a huge boon for Democrats, since African-American voters are incredibly reliable Democratic voters. Indeed, in the 2006 midterm elections, African Americans went 89-10 in favor of Democratic candidates.

  It is worth pointing out, however, that this survey is not corroborated by our tracking poll. Indeed last week's tracking poll identified that 34% of African American voters are already identifying themselves as either "not likely to vote" or "not voting".

  Granted, this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. The Joint Center poll is of just four potential battleground states, while the DK/R2K poll is a national poll.

  Unfortunately for the Dems, most other national polling seems to lean more in the Gallup direction than that of the Joint Center of Political and Economic Studies.

  This explains why finding a way to excite the base enough to head to the polls remains something that should be a high priority for Democrats eager to protect their majorities in the House and Senate.

  
  

  
• 10:00

  More Mixed Economic Signals, But Job Growth Almost Certain

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  For the past six months, both positive and negative reports have dotted the economic news, much of it downright contradictory. Most recently, for instance, there was evidence that consumer demand went up, even as consumer confidence went down. Retail sales rose but small business confidence fell. Wholesale inventories declined (a good thing) but freight shipments by rail (already at very low levels compared with 2006) also declined (not a good thing).

  And so it goes, month after month, with the general trend upward, but in fits and starts, and not - almost all experts agree - with anything close to the needed robustness that will generate a sustainable recovery as the stimulus from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act continues to fade away over the next nine months. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to jobs, which for most Americans is  the leading indicator of economic health.

  For 11 months, the number of layoffs as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics have been dropping. For February, the job loss was still 36,000, and revisions for January and December put the average monthly job loss for the past three months at 57,000. So the bleeding hasn't stopped, but it's a far cry from the 728,000 average monthly job losses for the same three-month period a year ago. If that had continued, the official "U3" unemployment rate would now be 12.7% and instead of 15 million out of work, nearly 20 million would be. Nonetheless, 15 million is still a post-World War II high, and when discouraged workers and the underemployed are counted, the number soars to at least 29 million.

  Many indicators point to growth in jobs being just around the corner and probably happening right now. For instance, the Department of Labor reported Monday that job openings rose sharply in January, up 7.6% over, which could be a sign that employers are preparing to hire. In December there were 6 people for every job opening, and now there are only 5.5.

  These and other data suggest that the Labor report coming up on April 2 will almost certainly show the first significant gain in jobs since a spike in November, which may have been a fluke related to holiday hiring. The question: Will the April numbers mark the beginning of a long-term surge generating the hundreds of thousands of new jobs needed each month? Who can predict? It could be mid-summer before we have a firm grasp on that. One reason, as pointed out by Calculated Risk earlier this week is Census hiring.

  The Census will be taking on some 100,000 temporary workers this month (perhaps as many as 750,000 by the end of May. Most of those jobs will only last for five to 10 weeks. We'll also find out whether there was a "snow effect" in February. Some analysts put that figure as high as 100,000 jobs that would have been generated if not for severe weather. Taking the optimistic approach, add that 100,000 to a potential 100,000 new jobs in March plus 100,000 in Census hiring and the April report could show 300,000 jobs in the positive column. That would compare quite favorably with the Clinton years when the nation averaged 225,000 new jobs a month for eight years. But to sustain itself, a job recovery will depend on more than short-term Census jobs, no matter how welcome they are. And many of those other jobs that may be generated result from government spending that will taper off as the year grows older.

  If Keynesian policies adopted by the Obama administration in face of stiff congressional opposition could restore or find substitutes for the 8.4 million lost jobs of the past 26 months and the 125,000 a month needed to keep up with new workers entering the labor force, it would be hallelujah time. But what evidence is there that such a recovery is in the making, even two years down the road? This morning, for instance, the Department of Labor reported that initial claims for jobs benefits remained at a stubbornly high 462,000. The less volatile four-week running average rose to 475,500.

  Many of us - left-of-center, left of left-of-center and "far" left - continue to see the fiscal-monetary mix that the administration (and previous administrations) have been promoting for the past three decades as sending the nation toward even bigger economic problems in the future. To counter this will require something stronger than Keynesian medicine - industrial policy, revamped trade policy, a new paradigm around the worship of growth for its own sake, and limits on the oligarchs who have enriched themselves at the expense of the rest of us.

  It would be easy to be blinded to these much-needed long-term changes by a month or three of good news on the job front. And no doubt some people will be.

  
  

  
• 9:30

  Today in Congress

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

  FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010

  House Meets At... 10:00 a.m.: Legislative Business
  First Vote Predicted... 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
  Last Vote Predicted... 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

  ***Members are advised that votes could occur as early as 10:00 a.m.

  "One Minutes" (10 per side)

  H.Res. 1031 - Impeaching G. Thomas Porteous, Jr., judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, for high crimes and misdemeanors (Rep. Conyers – Judiciary) (Privileged Resolution)

  Dispose of H.Res. __ - Raising a question of privileges of the House (Rep. Flake – Privileged Resolution)

  Postponed Suspension Votes (3 Bills):
  

  1. H.Res. 1107 - Recognizing the 189th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating Greek and American democracy. (Rep. Ros-Lehtinen - Foreign Affairs)
  2. H.Res. 1047 - Commending The Ohio State University Buckeyes football team for its victory in the 2010 Rose Bowl (Rep. Kilroy - Education and Labor)
  3. H.R. 4506 - Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2010 (Rep. Cohen - Judiciary)

  • Conference Reports may be brought up at any time.
  • Motions to go to Conference should they become available.
  • Possible Motions to Instruct Conferees.

  In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

  Convenes: 9:30am

  Morning Business for 1 hour with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The Majority will control the first half and the Republicans will control the final half.

  Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R.1586, the legislative vehicle for FAA Reauthorization.

  Roll call votes are expected throughout the day.

  Both houses look to wrap up business for the week today, it appears. The House has three suspensions held over for votes from yesterday, plus two privileged resolutions -- one impeaching a federal judge ($ not sex), and one the latest incarnation of the Jeff Flake (R-AZ-06) crusade regarding the PMA lobbying scandal. Flake used to regularly bring resolutions posing a question of the privileges of the House to pursue the issue, but the main target of his efforts, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA-12) has since died, and the ethics committee has issued its report on the matter, which is what Flake used to be pushing for.

  Flake's latest resolution calls for the release of the documents and interviews conducted by the committee in the conduct of its investigation. The report concluded that there was no evidence of a direct relationship between campaign contributions and earmarks that went to those contributors, but I doubt whether that comports with everyone's general sense about these things. Which leads us to the upcoming announcement of the new policy purportedly banning earmarks to for-profit corporations.

  On the Senate side, the UI/COBRA extension challenge behind them, Senators turn to... FAA Reauthorization. Hey, it has to get done some time, right?

  Health insurance reform? Maybe next week. But rest assured the work continues behind the scenes.

  Today's full committee schedule appears below. Another day going gangbusters in Appropriations, you'll notice. Most of which takes place out of view from the webcams, which I think is largely a function of there being so many subcommittee meetings at once, meaning they're held all over the place, in scattered side rooms not all of which are wired for coverage (but maybe should be).

  
  

  
• 9:21

  Cheers and Jeers: Thursday

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

  Vacation Channel Surfing During Worst Key West Cold Snap in Years*

  "During the highly-anticipated healthcare summit, the president reached out to the..." [Click] "...giant inflatable beavers that are now entering the Olympic stadium in a uniquely Canadian display of..." [Click] "...gay marriage in Mexico City. The wedding ceremonies began after..." [Click] "...a five-day filibuster threat by Senator Jim Bunning was called off after he agreed to be..." [Click] "...held down and tickled by Congressman Eric Massa at his 50th birthday party, charges which led to his resignation and..." [Click] "...an 8.8 earthquake in Chile and over 200 aftershocks that..." [Click] "...leave you feeling clean and refreshed with the power of aloe and pomegranate! And no soapy residue that can clog pores and..." [Click] "...stop Saturday mail delivery. The announcement comes as the Postal Service reels from budget shortfalls and..." [Click] "...a 26-foot wave that smashed through the windows of a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The rogue wave was apparently caused by..." [Click] "...Sarah Palin, who appeared on the Tonight Show to do a brief stand-up routine and fondly reminisce about..." [Click] "...a prostitution ring happening right under the Vatican's nose. The allegations come at a time when the Catholic hierarchy is..." [Click] "...blowing like crazy! This is Jim Cantore for the Weather Channel and there are warnings up across the region as..." [Click] "...Governor Paterson's legacy implodes and New Yorkers are left crying... [Click] "Foul! Two and one the count here in the ninth inning as the Red Sox hope to eke out a pre-season win over..." [Click] "...Captain Chesley Sullenberger. The 'Miracle on the Hudson' pilot helmed his last commercial flight before retiring after 30 years of..." [Click] "...trading in gold bracelets, charms, watches and jewelry for CASH! Yes, friends, now is your perfect chance to..." [Click] "...sneak in a cigarette from time to time. Obama, who underwent his first annual physical as president, was in otherwise excellent health and doctors say the only other area of concern was his..."  [Click] "...purple-stained fingers. The successful Iraqi elections mean that, by August, over fifty-thousand American troops stationed there will come home and be replaced by..." [Click] "...Scooby Doo and Cruella de Vil. The leaked RNC PowerPoint presentation encourages raising money from the GOP grassroots with fear tactics, while squeezing millions out of the Republican elite with the promise of..." [Click] "...Ben Stiller dressed as a Na'vi warrior. The Oscars were dominated this year by..." [Click] "...military tribunals instead of civilian trials, in exchange for an agreement that..." [Click] "...Rush Limbaugh will move to Costa Rica if healthcare reform is passed, and..." [Click] "...Bill Halter defeats Senator Blanche Lincoln in the May senatorial primary in Arkansas. But one thing everyone can agree on: the biggest loser of all is..." [Click] "...Liz Cheney."

  *Memo to climate change deniers who want to use my headline as propaganda: Snorkel this, baby.

  Good to be back. Is it too late to join the Bozo Wars? Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

  
  

  
• 5:30

  Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Your one stop pundit shop.

  Marleine Bastien, noting the commemoration of International Women's Day on Monday, says of Haiti:

  Women are the backbone of Haiti's economy, yet, they are not represented in the nation's decision-making process.

  By historically keeping women out of the political leadership, Haiti squandered its chances of developing a viable, sustainable and thriving nation. Haitian women make up over half the population. Their representation in the Cabinet and chambers should be proportional to their true numbers for their voices to be heard.

  Women must take a leadership role in the rebuilding process to prevent another 200 years' legacy of ``the more things change, the more they remain the same.''

  Haiti has to root out corruption at all levels of government and in its institutions. The judicial system must be reformed so that those who plunder government coffers are held accountable. The pillaging and an obstructionist and selfish mentality need to change. Haiti's leaders have a duty and a responsibility to put their personal ambitions aside, develop a ``plan de societe'' with the contributions of all the nation's voices, in collaboration with those in the diaspora.

  There are many untapped talents and leaders in Haiti. They only need an opportunity to rise and serve.

  E.J. Dionne says that:

  Because we never face up to how much we need government to do, there is a pathetic quality to our discussion of big deficits.

  ... and outlines what he thinks a rational approach to the budget should look like.

  David Broder wants the federal government to follow the example of the states when it comes to dealing with chronic budget problems:

  Discipline is visible in the states. It is still a stranger to Washington.

  Sabin Willet, an attorney who has represented Chinese Uighur detainees at Guantanamo, has a few words for the fear-mongers amongst us:

  ... as the years went by, the right did learn one thing useful about Guantanamo detainees. The public can’t distinguish one from another. If imprisoned endlessly, the detainees will furnish an endless source of scaremongering — that rich mulch in which votes will grow.

  And so Cheney and Grassley beaver away to Keep America Scared. Some Americans will see the rule of law as a threat, and lawyers as the enemy. Small men with loud voices will exploit their fears on cable television. Petty politicians will mine them for votes. It’s been this way since Shakespeare’s famous policymaker Dick the Butcher said, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’’

  But most Americans aren’t with Dick the Butcher. They know that their freedom is secured when lawyers — including the president’s lawyers — live out a professional code, with honor, as General Royall did, and as Department of Justice lawyers have done in my case.

  Nicholas Kristof has an idea:

  A generation ago, the most thrilling program for young people was the Peace Corps. Today, it’s Teach for America, which this year has attracted 46,000 applicants who are competing for about 4,500 slots.

  Peace Corps and Teach for America represent the best ethic of public service. But at a time when those programs can’t meet the demand from young people seeking to give back, we need a new initiative: Teach for the World.

  In my mind, Teach for the World would be a one-year program placing young Americans in schools in developing countries.  [...]

  This would be a government-financed effort to supplement an American public diplomacy outreach that has been eviscerated over the last few decades. A similar program, WorldTeach, was founded by a group of Harvard students in 1986 and does a terrific job. But without significant support from the American government, it often must charge participants thousands of dollars for a year’s volunteer work.

  Michael Bloomberg and Sheldon Silver, saying that a piece of our national pride depends on it, want the World Trade Center to be rebuilt:

  After years of false starts and broken promises, we have reached a defining moment in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. By Friday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the site’s developer, Larry Silverstein, must make a choice: Will they broker a compromise that allows them to move forward with rebuilding the historic heart of our city? Or will they allow their dispute to return to arbitration, condemning the World Trade Center site to years more of delays?

  For the two of us, the choice is clear.

  
  

  
• 0:05

  Open Thread for Night Owls: Paving the Way?

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  At Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, co-editor of Dissent Michael Walzer writes Missing the Movement:

  

  This is an incrementalist time, and the crucial thing is to get the increments right. The economic crisis and the two wars that Obama inherited make this difficult for our embattled president–and the fierceness of the opposition, which I don’t think he expected, makes things even harder. Obama certainly believed everything he said about reconciliation; he thought that he could at least take the edge off the bitter partisanship of Washington politics. Obviously he hasn’t been able to do that, and now every step forward, including the small steps, will require a bloody fight. Meanwhile, the costs of the stimulus and of the wars leave the President very little money for social experiments. He has to move forward with health care and the environment and education even if he can only move slowly, much more slowly than he hoped. This is one form of incrementalism, and what is important is that each move open the way for further moves–no dead ends!

  But there is another kind of incrementalism that we need to think about, on the margins, alongside the big issues. I mean things like putting some aggressive liberal/leftists on the National Labor Relations Board, or pushing through small changes in the labor laws that would make union organizing easier, or using federal funds in small amounts to strengthen the kinds of community organizations that the president once worked for, or creating a liberal/left version of Bush’s "faith-based welfare"–enabling local communities, unions, and different sorts of NGOs, as well as churches, to organize family services and mutual aid. This sort of thing is base-building for the future. It can be very quiet and still be effective; its point is simply to loosen the "limits of progressive governance," so that a Democratic president years from now can do more than Obama can do today.

  Liberalism is the American version of social democracy, but it lacks a strong working-class base, party discipline, and ideological self-consciousness. None of these are in the offing, but we need to be aware of what we are missing, and we need to begin at least the intellectual work of making up for it.

  • • • • •

  At Daily Kos on this date in 2003:

  This is old news, but ignored the first time. It's attempting a comeback:
     

  THE first President Bush has told his son that hopes of peace in the Middle East would be ruined if a war with Iraq were not backed by international unity.

     Drawing on his own experiences before and after the 1991 Gulf War, Mr Bush Sr said that the brief flowering of hope for Arab-Israeli relations a decade ago would never have happened if America had ignored the will of the United Nations.

     He also urged the President to resist his tendency to bear grudges, advising his son to bridge the rift between the United States, France and Germany.

  It's clear Bush doesn't give a damn about the world or the American public, but is his own father now irrelevant?

  
  

  
• March 10, 2010
• 23:20

  Open Thread and Diary Rescue

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  The diaries come first. We love to do this for you. Reading today: vcmvo2, Louisiana 1976, Alfonso Nevarez, dopper0189, Got a Grip, jennyjem, with jlms qkw editing.

  Tonight we are honored to bring you this group of diaries covering an exceptionally eclectic group of topics:

  • epjmcginley writes lovingly and evocatively about pruning trees properly, and how that process also applies to the two very human traits in Forgiveness and Redemption. (vcmvo2)
  • Bev Bell continues celebrating International Woman's Day (March 8th) by highlighting feminist activist in Haiti: A History of Haitian Women's Involvement (International Women's Day Part II). (dopper0189)
  • Avenging Angel notes that even by wingnut standards a monumental shark-jumping is confirmed when Liz Cheney Fails David Rivkin's Crazy Test. (Got a Grip)
  • rperks sees popular culture influencing all the right people in Lunch with EPA's Lisa Jackson: Mountaintop Removal on the Menu. (jennyjem)
  • Daveparts shines a "magical" light on some of the troubling words uttered by a "Democrat" recently appointed to the Federal Budget Deficit Commission in Long Ago and Far Away. (dopper0189)
  • In this edition of the daily series, Casual Wednesday offers some interesting analysis of recent developments in Capitol Hill News: Dems pass on many earmarks. (jennyjem)
  • How will the Tea Party movement affect the Republican Party? gwojtowy has some analysis in Tea Party Biohazard/Nitro: The Civil War that Could Destroy the GOP. (Louisiana 1976)
  • yomamaforobama visits "the world's greatest deliberative body", and unlike good legislation manages to survive the trip in Yo Mama and Lilleyhope Do The Senate. (Alfonso Nevarez)
  • Frameshift eulogizes Reform Hero "Granny D", 1910 - 2010. (jennyjem)
  • Steven D writes about the horrors of a culture obsessed with guns, In Memory of the Fallen. (Alfonso Nevarez)
  • Liberalindependent28 explains how when it comes to LGBT Rights: New Decade, Same Struggle. (Got a Grip)
  • In another wonderful dkgreenroots addition boatsie writes a paen to "dirt" in dkgreenroots: "the land has a woman's name"*. (vcmvo2)

  A hat tip to this lovely couture tribute:
  Julie Gulden reminds us that history can be appreciated visually in Inaugural gowns. (vcmvo2)

  jotter faithfully posted High Impact Diaries: March 9, 2010.

  sardonyx has a calendar-ish Top Comments: Double-Ten Edition.

  Please join us in this open thread by suggesting your own favorite diaries from today, sharing the latest news, and playing nicely together.

  
  

  
• 22:46

  Polling and Political Wrap-Up, 3/10/10

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Rasmussen, presumably on accident, releases a poll that shows exceptionally good news for Democrats, but then returns to form in the Granite State. The DCCC unveils a target list of sorts in the form of their first round of "Red to Blue" nominees. The electoral picture in Western PA gets a lot clearer today, while the electoral picture in the Lone Star State gets a little less so.

  Those are just a few of the headlines on this, the Wednesday night edition of the Wrap.....

  THE U.S. SENATE

  FL-Sen: Poll Confirms Extremely Dire PPP Senate Poll For Crist
  In case the campaign of Florida Governor (and Senate aspirant) Charlie Crist was eager to dismiss yesterday's brutal PPP poll as an isolated outlier, they might have some trouble. Tonight, a new poll by Insider Advantage/Florida Times-Union backs PPP up, showing Marco Rubio with a 60-26 lead over Charlie Crist in the Republican Senate Primary.

  IL-Sen: Rasmussen Gives Giannoulias Lead (....no, really!)
  This one defies easy explanation. Just a day after Rasmussen became the first pollster to give downstate Republican legislator Bill Brady a lead over incumbent Governor Pat Quinn (and a ten-pointer, at that!), they turn around and say that Democratic Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias has gained nine points on GOP nominee Mark Kirk. Whereas Ras once had Kirk staked to a six-point edge, it is now a three-point lead for Giannoulias (44-41).

  NV-Sen: GOP Cries Foul Over Tea Party Candidate
  This was somewhat predictable: one of the GOP candidates vying for the right to battle Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is claiming that the newly qualified "Tea Party" candidate is a fraud. Jon Ashjian has taken a few shots from GOPers who are convinced that (as polls somewhat confirm) his entrance into the race will split the protest vote and allow Harry Reid a greater chance of victory. Danny Tarkanian, who is one of the leading GOPers in the Senate field, argues that "Nobody in the Tea Party knows who he is. He didn't know any of the principles of the Tea Party."

  NH-Sen: GOP Dilemma--Is The Darling of Their Base Unelectable?
  Rasmussen, while showing pretty soft numbers for Democrat Paul Hodes in their latest poll in the Granite State, nevertheless release some numbers that are not quite what the conservative pollster might hope for. It is not a secret that the right flank would love to see former gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne as the GOP nominee to take on Hodes in this open-seat Senate contest. But Lamontagne, according to Ras, is the only Republican that Hodes currently leads (42-38). Meanwhile, both Kelly Ayotte and businessman Bill Binnie have sizeable leads over Hodes, according to the GOP-friendly pollster.

  TX-Sen: What Becomes of The Electorally Brokenhearted?
  Fresh off of a disappointing thumping at the hands of Rick Perry (which included his topping 50% of the vote and avoiding a potentially expensive runoff), Kay Bailey Hutchison is apparently contemplating her next move. Remember that KBH had originally promised to resign her Senate seat in advance of her gubernatorial primary bid. Then, in the latter half of 2009, she relented, saying pressing Senate business would keep her in the chamber until after the primary. Even then, she implied her resignation would still take place. That now appears less certain, which leaves several potential Senate candidates (Republican Michael Williams and Democrat John Sharp come to mind) very much in limbo.

  WA-Sen: Murray Has Leads Over All Announced GOP Challengers
  Rasmussen heads back into Washington this week, to check on the status of Senator Patty Murray and to continue their recruitment of two-time GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. Ras, as they did a few weeks back, shows the Democratic incumbent easily defeating the current crop of Republicans who have announced Senate bids, with margins ranging from 11-19 points. But Ras takes great pains to point out that if Rossi would enter the fray, he would start the race with a three-point edge (49-46) over Murray.

  THE U.S. HOUSE

  GA-07: Reed To Stay On Sidelines For 2010 Elections
  Ralph Reed, who when he headed the Christian Coalition in the 1990s was arguably one of the most influential conservatives in America, is not going to make a political comeback in the battle to replace outgoing GOP Rep. John Linder. Insider politics are apparently a stronger suit for Reed than electoral politics--his one foray into that realm was a double digit defeat at the hands of Casey Cagle in 2006 in a statewide bid for Lt. Governor.

  PA-12: Democrats Avoid Divisive Battle In Murtha Seat
  A few days after some comments by one of her staffers made it seem inevitable that she was intending to fight until the bitter end, former Democratic state treasurer Barbara Hafer pulled the plug on her bid for Congress in the seat occupied until last month by Congressman John Murtha. This almost certainly ensures that former Murtha staffer Mark Critz will be the Democratic nominee both in the May 18th special election and the November general election.

  VA-11: GOP Candidate Claims Poll That Shows Him Winning Rematch
  When Republican businessman Keith Fimian challenged Democrat Gerry Connolly for the open seat in NoVa's 11th district in 2008, he wound up being on the losing end of a double-digit verdict (55-43). This time around, according to an internal poll by McLaughlin Associates for the GOP candidate, he claims he is in the lead. The poll (which comes with the customary caveats about internal polling) shows Fimian up on Connolly by five points (40-35).

  RACE FOR THE HOUSE: DCCC Unveils The Target List
  In a sign that the Democrats will be playing at least some offense in this election cycle, they named a baker's dozen of candidates to their inaugural edition of this cycle's Red to Blue list. Eleven of the races are in GOP-held seats, and a pair of Democrats running in challenging open seats were also added to the list. The districts being challenged are: CA-03 (Ami Bera), CA-45 (Steve Pougnet), DE-AL (John Carney), FL-12 (Lori Edwards), IL-10 (Dan Seals), KS-04 (Raj Goyle), NE-02 (Tom White), OH-12 (Paula Brooks), PA-07 (Bryan Lentz), PA-15 (John Callahan), SC-02 (Rob Miller), TN-08 (Roy Herron), and WA-08 (Suzan DelBene).

  THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES

  MA-Gov: Ras Polls Bay State, Finds Patrick Still Leading
  Chalk this one up as Rasmussen being Rasmussen. While they peg the general dynamic of the race as confirmed by other pollsters, they are considerably more optimistic for the GOP. They have GOP businessman Charlie Baker within three points of incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick (35-32), while Dem-turned-Indie Tim Cahill languishes at 19%. Ras confirms one trend, though: Christy Mihos is a far less electable choice for the GOP. With him in the race, Cahill moves into second (35-30), with Mihos back in the teens.

  MI-Gov: Non-Ras Poll Looks At Wide-Open Gubernatorial Primaries
  Amazingly, it appears there are pollsters working in America OTHER than the crew at Rasmussen. Local pollsters Denno-Noor went into the field in Michigan to look at the crowded primaries for Governor. On the GOP side, they find conservative Congressman Peter Hoekstra out in front with 28% of the vote. A surprise second was businessman Rick Snyder, who parlayed a rather endearing TV ad campaign into 18% of the vote and sole possession of 2nd place. The disappointment for the GOP has to be Attorney General Mike Cox. The one time presumed nominee trails badly, running a distant third with only 12% of the vote. On the Democratic side, it is wide open: a whopping 56% of the field is undecided. State House Speaker Andy Dillon (13%) and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero (11%) are the only Dems in double digits. Interestingly, the pollsters also look at a potential 2012 Clash of the Titans between Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow and former GOP Governor John Engler. They have it as a tossup, with Engler up by a single point (42-41).

  SC-Gov: Ras Hits Primary Circuit and Sees Wide Open Races
  Rasmussen departs from their normal GOP-friendly general election polling and puts together a poll on the multi-candidate primaries on either side of the coin in the battle to replace the disgraced Mark Sanford as Governor of South Carolina. On the Democratic side, it is a total mishmash, with four candidates ranging from 12-16% of the vote. The co-leaders (if you can call them that) are state Education head Jim Rex and state Senator Vincent Sheheen at 16%. Meanwhile, the GOP side is only slightly less congested, with state Attorney General Henry McMaster at 21%, followed closely by Lt. Gov Andre Bauer at 17% and Congressman Gresham Barrett at 14%.

  WI-Gov: Walker's New Ad Missing Key Element
  It's early in the campaign cycle, but this is my favorite "whoopsie!" moment of the campaign thus far. Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County Executive and likely frontrunner for the GOP nomination for Governor, is on the air with a new biographical/introductory ad where he talks about his own sense of fiscal discipline, right down to making his own lunches. Charming to be sure, but his ad omits one key factoid: the small detail that he is running for Governor. Walker's ad-man might want to mix that in somewhere during the next ad blitz.

  
  

  
• 22:10

  Markos to Rush: Want libertarian health care? Try Somalia.

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Last night on Countdown, Markos joined Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss the current state of play on health care reform, including Rush Limbaugh's hilarious claim that if reform passes, he'll move to Costa Rica.

  As Markos pointed out, if Rush really wants a libertarian health care system, he oughta give that libertarian paradise of Somalia a shot. Costa Rica, after all, has a 'socialized' system...and for Rush, that just won't do.

  Markos also took on Dennis Kucinich for opposing health care reform, comparing Kucinich's brand of politics to that of Ralph Nader, summing it up in just one damning word: ineffective.

  Watch:

  
  

  
• 21:36

  The American race

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Get ready for the next big pile of stupid from the teabagger Right:

  Instead, we should answer Question 9 by checking the last option — “Some other race” — and writing in “American.” It’s a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. It’s a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. In fact, “American” was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties.

  Guess what region those four states come from? But that question refers to "ancestry", which is kind of funny because all those southerners lied about being Native Americans. Claiming "American" as a race is a whole new level of dumb.

  But it shouldn't be a problem for the Census. Anyone writing in "American" as race is obviously white.

  And stupid.

  
  

  
• 20:50

  No Curbs for 'Radical Experiment'?

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Shielding Americans from banksters and likeminded rip-off artists is only one small piece of needed financial reform. Out-of-control executive compensation, overly large financial institutions, insane derivatives trading, a Federal Reserve System apparently incapable of basic regulatory enforcement, and levying of a securities transaction tax all require attention. Political obstacles make all these difficult changes to make, but an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency seemed likely, once upon a time, to be a provision of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act that all but the most bank-beholden Congresspersons could get behind. As it turns out, the eagerness to gut the CFPA has enough Senate knife-wielders to make the agency, in the word of Barney Frank, a joke.

  No surprise. By November, more than 1500 lobbyists had registered on Capitol Hill to have their say on this legislation, from credit-card companies to car dealers, from hedge-fund operators to payday lenders, everybody who might have a consumer-scamming shell-and-pea game at risk got into the act.

  That didn't stop the House from including a watered-down but still independent consumer protection agency in its legislation. But Sen. Richard Shelby soon made it clear that a standalone agency like the House bill's was out of the question. So lame-duck Sen. Christopher Dodd, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, has sought to find a compromise by putting some version of the CFPA under the Fed, the very entity that failed so miserably in its regulatory, disclosure and consumer-education efforts in the run-up to the financial crisis that gave birth to the Great Recession.

  Quite a number of Senators, Sherrod Brown, Chuck Schumer, Jeff Merkley and Jack Reed, among others, rightly think a Fed-based consumer agency is ludicrous. Which leaves the nation where it is on a number of other important pieces of legislation, up the creek without enough paddles. That is, unless it gets some focused grassroots attention. Up until now, however, most of the attention has been directed at health insurance reform

  On MSNBC Tuesday night, Chris Hayes of The Nation took a look at the issue through the eyes of Heather McGhee, Washington director of the public research and advocacy organization Demos.
  

  An excerpt:

  McGhee: We have to realize that Republicans and all people in Congress have more than one set of constituents. They have the voters who are paying attention sometimes, and the donors and the lobbyists who are paying attention all the time. And they've been swarming Congress for the past year, ever since the financial crisis trying to weaken and ultimately kill the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

  Hayes: So those banks that have been trying to kill this thing, and they've been going at it with hatchets from the very begiininng, what is it they're so afraid of? Why are they fighting so hard against it?

  McGhee: What we've seen is over the past 30 years there's really been a really radical experiment in financial deregulation across the board. But at the consumer level there's just a new Wild West situation out there where the banks, the payday lenders, the rent-to-own stores, the used auto dealers have just basically had very little oversight. And they've profited from that regime.  

  Hayes: Right ...

  McGhee: The financial crisis has absolutely shown that that was not only bad for consumers, it was bad for Wall Street, it was bad for the entire country. And they know that the jig is up unless they can beat down a consumer protection agency. ...

  And so we've got backroom deals right now. We've really got ... Senator Dodd really wants to make a deal and he's going to give away, I think, a real opportunity to make a very clear contrast and say "Hey! This is what the Democratic Party stands for, and it's you and your family, your retirement savings and your home."  Republicans are trying to gut investor protections, consumer protections. they're trying to stand up for the subprime lenders and the payday lenders. I mean, this should be a very easy political fight. So, I think if we can make that political fight more visible to the American people, and it's really just starting to heat up, then I think we're going to have a stronger hand to get this consumer agency passed.

  Three years ago, Elizabeth Warren wrote:

  To be sure, creating safer marketplaces is not about protecting consumers from all possible bad decisions. Instead, it is about making certain that the products themselves don’t become the source of the trouble. This means that terms hidden in the fine print or obscured with incomprehensible language, unexpected terms, reservation of all power to the seller with nothing left for the buyer, and similar tricks and traps have no place in a well-functioning market.

  How did financial products get so dangerous? Part of the problem is that disclosure has become a way to obfuscate rather than to inform. ...

  In a recent memo aimed at bank executives, the vice president of the business consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton observed that most bank products are "too complex for the average consumer to understand."

  Rahm Emanuel famously said that crises shouldn't be wasted. Indeed, they are and should be the cradle for making big and long-needed changes in the way our political and economic system operates because nothing gets reformed in less anxious times. However, wasting the financial crisis seems to be exactly the outcome of efforts to give hoi polloi a smidgen of leverage against hoi oligoi in the next decade or so of the 21st Century.

  None of what's been proposed is radical or anything like the supposed "socialism" that Republicans and their media mannequins keep caterwauling about. Too bad it's not. But just getting our leaders to enact even an ultra-modest reform ending the most egregious financial deceptions and rip-offs would appear to be a tough enough task.

  Are your Senators on board? You might give them a call to find out.

  
  

  
• 20:10

  Beck on his narrative malfunction: It's all Massa's fault

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  So Glenn Beck is trying to paper over his dimwitted, overly-credulous embrace of Eric Massa's conspiracy claims by...blaming Massa.

  On his radio show today, Glenn Beck lit into former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) for his disastrous, rambling appearance on the Tuesday episode of Beck’s Fox News Show.

  “America, have you ever heard of a 50-year old man having a tickle-fight — five men tickling each other so hard that they can’t breathe?” said Beck. “I think we found out who he is — someone who can’t be trusted to tell the truth about his life.”

  The thing is, Glenn Beck never should have believed Massa in the first place. From the very start, Massa's story didn't add up -- but it fit neatly into Beck's narrative about the Obama Administration and Democrats in DC, so Beck fell for it.

  But even now, even after Eric Massa's admission that he engaged in tickle fights with staff members, Glenn Beck is refusing to fully concede that Massa's wild allegations were bunk. Amazingly, Beck is still leaving the door open to the possibility that Eric Massa is a victim of a grand conspiracy:

  Beck indulged the “possibility” that somebody “got to” Massa and turned him — at the very least, said Beck, the former congressman “lied” in a pre-interview.

  Sigh. I know this will be hard for Glenn Beck to believe, but sometimes a sleazy congressman is just a sleazy congressman. Outside of Glenn Beck's imagination, there is no conspiracy. There's just a gullible radio host with a television show on Fox.

  Beck may be on top of the world right now, but if keeps on being this sloppy he's going to experience the same career arc as did Morton Downey, Jr.: a fast rise...followed by an even faster fall.

  
  

  
• 19:26

  House Republicans Repudiate Michael Steele

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  The Party of No finally found something to say yes to:

  The House passed legislation Wednesday that would ban misleading mailings designed to appear they're from the Census Bureau, following criticism that Republican groups were sending fundraising letters using the census name.  [...]

  The legislation passed 416-0 ...

  It looks like 170 House Republicans were willing to shelve their obstructionism for one day to stick it to Michael Steele, given that the bill came about because of:

  ... a fundraising mailing from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele ... The fundraising letter comes in the form of a "survey," a frequently used device for partisan fundraising, but this one has a twist: calling itself the "Congressional District Census," the letter comes in an envelope starkly printed with the words, "DO NOT DESTROY OFFICIAL DOCUMENT" and describes itself, on the outside of the envelope, as a "census document."

  House Republicans would willingly say no to mother's milk for newborns if they could, but they say yes to putting the kibosh on what was described as "among the RNC’s most lucrative fundraising initiatives"?

  They must really hate Michael Steele.

  
  

  
• 18:42

  Late Afternoon/Early Evening Open Thread

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Gaywatch, Virginia edition:

  
  

  
• 17:56

  Forty-One Pro-Choice Republican Senators

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Boy, Republicans will go to any length to maintain their status as the Party of No:

  All 41 Republican Senators vowed in a letter today to do everything in their power to kill Democrats' health care legislation and vote en bloc against procedural motions Democrats want to use to fix the health reform bill passed Christmas Eve by the Senate.

  This would include a scenario where the Republican Senators oppose language championed by anti-abortion rights Democrats in the House and side instead with abortion rights defenders.  [...]

  “So you’d be voting with Barbara Boxer on an abortion measure?” a reporter asked Sen. Tom Coburn, the OB-GYN and Oklahoma Republican who vehemently opposes abortion rights, at a press conference this afternoon. Boxer, a California Democrat, is a vehement supporter of abortion rights.

  “Yes I would. I certainly would,” Coburn said, clarifying that he would oppose a procedural motion in the Senate to allow the stricter ban on federal funding for abortion from being added to the Senate health reform bill.

  A couple of things here ... first, it looks like Bart Stupak was just tossed under a bus driven by his erstwhile pals across the aisle. And second, add this to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) earlier concern trolling and you can see just how desperate Republicans are to stop a health care bill from reaching the President's desk.

  Wavering and outright obstructionist Democrats need to ask themselves why, if passing health care reform is such an electoral loser like the GOP claims, why are they doing everything in their power to keep it from happening. And more importantly, why are those Democrats helping them?

  
  

  
• 17:20

  AR-01: Huge GOP recruitment fail

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Whoa:

  Arkansas' filing deadline passed Monday afternoon and while Republicans made a lot of noise about their chances in the 1st district in the days after Rep. Marion Berry (D) announced his retirement, all the sound and fury may have actually signified nothing....
  In the end, the only Republican to join the contest after Berry announced his retirement was Princella Smith, a former congressional aide to freshman Louisiana Republican Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao.

  Smith will face off against the equally unknown and untested Rick Crawford, an Army veteran, farm broadcaster and businessman who entered the race in May 2009.

  This is a solid Republican R+8 district, and the GOP hailed the open seat as key for its path toward control of the House. Instead, it appears to be a dud. Crisitunity adds:

  Republicans had sought to get one of several state legislators into the race -- state Sens. Davy Carter or Johnny Key. However, both said no, leaving the GOP without a backup plan. Meanwhile, top-tier Democrats piled into the race in this historically-Democratic district, including state Sen. Steve Bryles, former state Sen. Tim Wooldridge, state Rep. David Cook, and Berry's former CoS, Chad Causey. Like PA-12, here's a district where the Democratic tradition and the disparity between the two parties' benches may just save our bacon despite an ominous trend at the presidential level.

  For all the talk about massive gains in November, the specific data points still don't come anywhere near suggesting a change in control. 10-20 GOP pickups seems more likely than the 40 pickups Republicans would need to win the House.

  
  

  
• 16:40

  Reid Says Filibuster Reform Will Happen

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Speaking at a Progressive Media Summit held by the Senate Democratic caucus today, Harry Reid said that the Senate is "likely going to have to make changes to the filibuster" in the next Congress. Analogizing the filibuster to the spit ball and the four-corner offense in basketball--which were both outlawed by their sports, Reid said it was a tactic that has been now so abused that it'll have to be changed. But next year, when it can be done through the organizing process of the new Senate when new rules can be drafted. Changing the rules now would require a two-thirds majority vote.

  Senators Stabenow and Schumer both reinforced the message, with Schumer telling HuffPo after his presentation that he was going to start having hearings in his Rules Committee to investigate how it can be done in two or three weeks.

  In other Senate organizing news, Sherrod Brown said that chairmanships will be up for review at the beginning of the next Congress, and while it wouldn't name names, said that that reorganizing "would send a message."

  
  

  
• 16:03

  CA-Gov: Meg Whitman's Press Strategy for 2010

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  During the Winter Olympiad out here in California, it became obvious that a big part of Meg Whitman's strategy for getting elected Governor of California was going to be flooding the zone with ads, drowning out her opponents with her burgeoning bankbook.

  Yesterday, Californians got another insight into Whitman's recipe for victory in 2010: avoid unscripted situations with the press, even at the risk of looking completely ridiculous:

  Reporters from Bay Area media outlets -- TV, print and radio -- turned up for Whitman's advertised campaign stop in Oakland, where the former eBay CEO had announced a campaign stop and press event.

  But once at the Union Pacific Railroad site, the assembled reporters were not allowed to view her tour -- and herded into a holding room instead.

  Then came the news that Whitman also wouldn't take questions; reporters had been called in to "see" her make statements on "how she could be helpful as governor" on jobs and the economy, Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said.

  Veteran reporters, who included KTVU's Randy Shandobil and KPIX's Hank Plante, were among the crowd that wasn't amused. Question: is Whitman a candidate for governor, or a museum piece to be "watched" by reporters?

  In case there was any doubt that the press did not take well to being reduced to the role of stenographers for the Meg 2010 campaign, check out this absolutely withering treatment of the event by the aforementioned Hank Plante of KPIX. The commentary by the anchors at the close of the video is particularly devastating:

  (Notice that while the YouTube clip is merely a re-airing of the KPIX evening news segment on the Whitman event, it is being shopped around on Youtube cheerfully by the campaign of GOP rival Steve Poizner. They clearly know an opportunity when they see it.)

  KPIX, not content with merely kicking dirt on Whitman for her campaign's poor behavior during the press availability, portrayed it as part of a pattern, courtesy of a quip from Democratic consultant Dan Newman:

  NEWMAN: She refuses to release her tax returns...refuses to release documentation about her flights on the corporate jet for personal purposes. She refuses to tell us what happened on the board of Goldman Sachs at that critical time.

  The rationale given for Whitman's refusal to take questions was an unyielding schedule. But the Chronicle's Carla Marinucci was not so sure about the validity of that excuse:

  Reason, we were told: Whitman was running late. But Whitman lingered for some time with railroad officials in the same room -- just feet away from the press, who refused to leave. Finally, they were herded out, at which point Whitman's campaign drew the blinds and put up a movie screen to block them from seeing the candidate.

  Whitman did sit down to talk for 30 minutes with the Chronicle's Republican op-ed columnist, Debra J. Saunders -- but the rest were shut out.

  California is on the DK/R2K polling calendar, with results coming soon. Given her multi-million dollar advertising blitz during the Olympics, it would be shocking to see Whitman leading Democrat Jerry Brown (who seems to be intent to become the first Governor elected without anyone actually knowing he is running for the job).

  The question is: can Whitman maintain enough of a reservoir of goodwill with voters if she continues to refuse to speak to them beyond anything other than rehearsed press availabilities and 30-second/60-second advertisements?

  
  

  
• 15:12

  Midday open thread

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos
  • Progressive groups and labor gear up for last pro-health care reform ad blitz, to counter corporate opponents.

    Details are still being worked out, and it’s always possible that plans could change. But officials involved in the discussions expect to match or come close to matching the push coming from conservative groups, which is expected to top $10 million or more.

    “We expect to match the business groups,” one official says. “The air cover is coming.”

  • Kill the filibuster:

    I particularly object to the use of the "minority rights" locution, which ties the filibuster to a genuinely important democratic value: the protection of underrepresented minorities against domination. The filibuster's effect on this kind of minority rights, however, has been and will almost certainly continue to be a net negative. Rather, the filibuster protects the interests of minorities that are already substantially overrepresented by the American political system.

    The filibuster was the segregationists best friend.

    Also, follow that "net negative" link in the blockquote above. Lots more good arguments against the filibuster there, like:

    At the federal level, progressives generally want the government to do more, not less; the filibuster veto point, then, provides asymmetrical opportunities for entrenched privilege against those that would change the status quo. Moreover, once established, major liberal programs are very difficult to get rid off; we didn't need the filibuster to protect Social Security in 2004. And in terms of protecting civil liberties, spotty as its record is judicial review can point to many examples of value, while as far as I can tell the filibuster can't point to any.

  • The beginning of the end of Arizona Sheriff Arpaio? Please let it be so!
  • Kucinich's self-defeating grandstanding right now against the health care bill just reinforces the reasons I have always hated him. He's a purity troll, who doesn't want to sully that purity by actually accomplishing anything.

    Moulitsas argues that the congressman hasn't accomplished anything at all, and -- though I know I'm going to get slammed for saying this -- I have to agree. Sure, it's good to see a politician standing up for his beliefs and fighting for a point of view that might not otherwise be represented. But there are ways to do that and simultaneously be an effective legislator. Kucinich simply isn't, and he's never really tried hard to be [...]

    In fact, according to the Web site GovTrack, of the 97 bills Kucinich has sponsored since taking office in 1997, only three have become law. Ninety-three didn't even make it out of committee.

    The three that were enacted are, in chronological order from first to last: A bill "to make available to the Ukranian Museum and Archives the USIA television program 'Window on America,'" a bill "to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 14500 Lorain Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio as the 'John P. Gallagher Post Office Building" and a bill "proclaiming Casimir Pulaski to be an honorary citizen of the United States posthumously."

    You can be a true progressive and be effective. Rep. Alan Grayson is a freshman, yet already has this legislation under his belt:

    The U.S. House agreed 247-171 to a measure today that aims to curb “excessive” bonuses at companies that received federal bailout money by giving more oversight power to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and financial regulators.

    And if you're talking "Overton Window", Bernie Sanders has probably done more to push that thing left, without sacrificing his effectiveness.

    There's no excuse for Kucinich's ineffectiveness, except that too many people are enamored by it, and encourage his obstructionist. And right now, his obstructionism makes him no different than the GOP he's currently mimicking.

  • Woo hoo! Biking directions have been added to Google maps.
  • Jobs report will look artificially better in the next couple of months.

    The U.S. Census Bureau expects to add up to 750,000 workers to its payroll by May, a hiring binge that could knock the unemployment rate down by as much as a half-point.

    The once-a-decade census is coming at the best possible time for President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, who have taken political lumps for more than a year over a jobless rate that stands at 9.7 percent.

    Some think the administration will get good news as soon as the next monthly labor report, which will be released the first Friday in April.

    Unfortunately, those are 6-week jobs.

  • Dave Weigel reviews Karl Rove's new book:

    In the memoir’s final chapter, humbly titled “Rove: the Myth,” the architect of a two-term Republican presidency reports how angry he was when he read a passage in then-Sen. Barack Obama’s second book lumping him in with Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, and Ralph Reed as “conservative operatives” with “fiery rhetoric” like “No new taxes” or “We are a Christian nation.”

    “I certainly don’t believe and have never said, ‘We are a Christian nation,’” writes Rove. “I put the offending page in my pocket and went about my business.” Later that day, he encountered Obama and fell victim to “feistiness,” challenging the senator for using “my name and the word ’said’ and quote marks.” Obama, Rove reports, blanched when the torn-out page was shown to him and tried to wriggle out of the conversation: “It seemed to me he didn’t much care that he had attributed to me something I had never said and found offensive.”

    Four years later, Rove offers up the encounter as proof that Obama’s image as “the truest, purest proponent of a fresh new style of politics” is a ruse, and snarls that “the last time I checked, I hadn’t bombed any government building (like, say, Obama’s great friend William Ayers); or asked that God ‘damn’ America (like, say, Obama’s former pastor and close friend Jeremiah Wright); or declared that I was proud of my country for the first time in my life only when I was in my forties (like, say, Obama’s wife, Michelle).”

    It’s a revealing passage — it takes up three whole pages — that demonstrates just how Rove thinks. Accused of being a steamrolling, divisive political operative, he locates a loophole in the argument, and closes by insulting the wife of the person who criticized him.

  • This should've been the entire health care reform debate.

  
  

  
• 14:16

  Rasmussen flooding the zone

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Look at these governor numbers:

  COLORADO:

           Hickenlooper (D)  McInnis (R)
  Rasmussen:      42           48
  PPP:            50           39

  
  OHIO:

            Strickland (D)    Kasich (R)
  Rasmussen:      38           49
  Quinnipiac:     44           39

  
  ILLINOIS:

              Quinn (D)     Brady (R)
  Rasmussen:      37           47
  Reaserch 2000:  47           32

  Those are radically different numbers, in three governors races that haven't been extensively polled. It'll be interesting to see, as more pollsters jump in the fray, whether Rasmussen will be validated or not, but it's clear that they're a new and important component in the right wing's ability to set the narratives on these races. We've already seen how dramatic Rasmussen's generic congressional ballot and Obama approval numbers differ from the rest of the polling crowd. Their horserace polling doesn't appear to be much different.

  Rasmussen is particularly effective at it because is has flooded the zone with their heavily pro-GOP polling.

  

  Rasmussen Reports has fielded far more polls so far this cycle, both in absolute terms (45 vs. 13) and as a percentage of the total (28% vs 18%). One likely explanation is the "major growth capital investment" from a private equity firm they announced this past August:

  "This investment will enable Rasmussen Reports to expand and enhance all aspects of our business," said Scott Rasmussen, founder and president of Rasmussen Reports. "That includes expanding our Premium Membership service and subscription base, developing new index products and sponsorship opportunities, and exploring new research techniques."

  The loss of SUSA as a frequent polling contributor is particularly painful, given their solid track record. Mason-Dixon is likely the best of the live-caller polling outfits, so it'd be nice to see more of them. PPP is the closest outfit to Rasmussen, in terms of prolificness, and their accuracy has been stellar.

  But there's still nothing like Rasmussen, able to create the impression of vulnerability for Democrats in every corner of the country by pumping out sheer waves of numbers, with oftentimes no alternate polling to counter their results.

  
  

  
• 13:40

  Where's That Never-Ending Drumbeat?

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  From Bloomberg:

  One year after U.S stocks hit their post-financial-crisis low on March 9, 2009, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen more than 68 percent, and it’s up more than 41 percent since Obama took office. Credit spreads have narrowed. Commodity prices have surged. Housing prices have stabilized.

  “We’ve had a phenomenal run in asset classes across the board,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. “If he was a Republican, we would hear a never-ending drumbeat of news stories about markets voting in favor of the president.”  [...]

  [M]onthly job losses have abated, from 779,000 during the month Obama took office to 36,000 last month. Corporate profits have grown; among 491 companies in the S&P 500 that reported fourth-quarter earnings, profits rose 180 percent from a year ago, according to Bloomberg data. Durable goods orders in January were up 9.3 percent from a year earlier. Inflation is tame, and long-term interest rates remain low.  [...]

  Zandi said the economic rebound is largely a result of the policies of the White House and Federal Reserve. He cited the bank bailout, the Fed’s low-interest-rate policy and support for credit markets, and the Obama administration’s stimulus plan, bank stress tests and backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

  “When you take it all together, the response was massive and unprecedented and ultimately successful,” Zandi said.

  If Democrats are waiting for the traditional media to shower them with huzzahs, it's time for a reality check. The media is too busy reporting that "Republicans say" the stimulus has failed, we're going to hell in a handbasket, and socialism is just around the corner (while conveniently omitting the fact that those same Republicans are touting stimulus money in their home districts).

  In other words, Democrats need to start blowing their own horn on what has been accomplished economically over the course of the Obama administration.

  (h/t to Americablog)

  
  

  
• 13:08

  Labor: Health care reform opponents should expect trouble next election

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  I'm loving the new and aggressive labor approach to primaries.

  As health care reform enters its do-or-die stage in Congress, union leaders on Tuesday began threatening that they will work to 'take out' Democratic lawmakers who vote against the bill [...]

  In a series of conversations with the Huffington Post, many of labor's leading voices pledged to launch a massive, arm-twisting effort to help persuade skeptical lawmakers to pass health care legislation into law. And in addition to their traditional ammunition -- from email campaigns to town hall events -- talk also centered on exacting electoral revenge against those who end up voting against reform.

  "I hope this sends a message to Congress," Gerald McEntee, president of 1.6-million-member AFSCME, told the Huffington Post. "I think we have to demonstrate that we are not going to stand aside, that we are going to take them out if they don't help us at all."

  We spent the last several months fighting for improvements to existing legislation. We were successful in some instances, not so successful in others. However, the clock has run out on the base legislation. It's either we take this important first step toward a truly equitable health care system, or the GOP and the insurance industry wins, and we see nothing for the next generation or two.

  I'm not particularly happy with the Senate bill or its modest reconciliation fixes. But it is a foot in the door, and it will help millions of Americans get the health care they are currently denied.

  I'm convinced that the insurance companies are too greedy and corrupt to play nice. And every time they violate the spirit of the new regulations, it'll provide added impetus for the kind of true systemic change that will fix our broken system. Remember, Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts had all but killed the impetus for health care reform, until Wellpoint-Anthem announced their ill-timed (for them) double-digit premium increases.

  I still want to see a separate Senate vote on the public option -- we currently have 40 signatures on letter demanding the vote. One way to hold our party accountable and identify the roadblocks is by forcing these elected officials to go on the record with their votes. Those who vote against the public option will have a big, fat target painted on their backs in 2012. Absent a vote, I'm happy to consider the public option letter evidence enough.

  And that target will be whale-sized for any Democrat who votes with the GOP and insurance industries against final passage of this legislation. It's not just me making idle threats. Otherwise Democratic health care reform opponents could justifiably laugh it off. It's the heavy hitters of the progressive movement, finally tired of the Democratic Party's inability to govern thanks to insidious internal obstructionists. Blanche Lincoln is getting a taste of it right now, and plenty more should expect that treatment in 2012.

  Vote, fix, and keep fixing. But there will be nothing to fix, only the status quo, if we come out of this battle with nothing on the books.

  
  

  
• 12:36

  CBO scoring "fix" bill despite Conrad's insistence it couldn't?

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  I'm going to take a small snippet of a WaPo article and put it under the Congress Matters microscope:

  Democratic leaders huddled Tuesday night in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office for the first of what will probably be many strategy sessions, as Congress tries to complete the year-long health-care reform debate before the Easter recess begins March 26.

  Participants said that once the Congressional Budget Office delivers a final cost estimate on the fixes bill, possibly this week, Democratic leaders would begin lining up House and Senate votes.

  Wait, wait, wait!

  The CBO could be delivering a final cost estimate on the fixes bill as soon as this week?

  But, but, but... Kent Conrad said the House had to pass the Senate bill before the CBO could even consider the fixes bill!

  Conrad also explained in new detail why he believes that the House must pass the Senate bill first, a view that has been denounced by some critics who want the Senate to pass its fix before the House acts.

  Conrad said that under Congressional rules, for a reconciliation fix to be "scored," it’s not necessary that it become law, but it is necessary for it to have passed both houses of Congress before getting fixed. "For the scoring to change it has to have passed Congress, and that means both houses," he said.

  "The only thing that works here is the House has to pass the Senate bill," Conrad continued. "Then the House can initiate a reconciliation measure that would deal with a limited number of issues that score for budget purposes." After that, the Senate would pass the same reconciliation fix, Conrad explained, because even on the fix itself the House must go first because the lower chamber must initiate "revenue bills."

  And yet here we are, with the Senate bill still unpassed by the House, and with no plans to pass it this week, but still the CBO score for the fixes is due any day now.

  How did that work, Senator Conrad?  Why would you tell the media in such rigid terms that the order you described was "the only thing that works," when just days later everyone would be able to see for themselves that it... wasn't the only thing that worked?

  With that in mind, I have to ask, are you the source for the assertion in the WaPo article immediately preceding the cite I began with?

  But reconciliation rules seem to indicate that the House will have to pass the Senate bill first. Depending on how the Senate parliamentarian rules, Obama may even have to sign the legislation into law before the Senate can consider the House fixes.

  Because I don't think that's right, either, and neither does former Senate parliamentarian Bob Dove.

  So if you're the source for that, should we take it with a grain of salt, given what you said about CBO scoring that also turned out to be a wee bit more spin and wishful thinking than rules-based reality?

  This process is confusing enough without being misled by the people we're trusting to get this done. If it's open to question, then say it's open to question. The current Senate parliamentarian may well rule just like Conrad thinks he will, but since he's shielded from the media (as I suppose he should be), you'll never really know whether his positions are being fairly represented by the Senators who take it upon themselves to assure you that "the only thing that works" is the way they tell you.

  The Republican approach to the parliamentary maneuvering is to represent its complexity as reason in itself not to use it. Democrats shouldn't contribute to this by making ironclad pronouncements about how things really work if they're not yet sure that's how they do really work.

  
  

  
• 12:00

  Expressionless, Mr. Chief Justice?

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  A bit more on U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' whining about being taken to task by the President for undermining a century of established law (a.k.a. activist judges) ... here's Roberts' complaint:

  The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.

  Expressionless? Really, Mr. Chief Justice?

  
  

  
• 11:20

  More evidence Dems bouncing back

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Republicans won't get their massive November victories with numbers like these:

  Democrats lead Republicans by a slight 47% to 44% margin when registered voters are asked which party's congressional candidate they would support in their district "if the elections for Congress were being held today."

  That's up from 44-44 in Gallup's last poll. The composite has a virtual tie, with Rasmussen propping up GOP support::

  

  The differences are even more stark without Rasmussen or the crappy (pro-Democratic) internet YouGov poll included:

  

  Now here's the catch -- voter preferences suggest a wash in November, but voter intensity is a whole different beast. Gallup catches the intensity gap we've been talking about for some time:

  

  This is a new question for Gallup, so there are no trends. On our own polling, we've changed the voter screen from "all adults" to "registered voters" now that the elections are near, so we are also unable to compare voter intensity trends.

  Expect Democratic intensity numbers to increase as health care reform passes, the election nears, GOP gets ever crazier (thanks Bunning!), and the consequences of letting GOP make significant gains becomes ever clearer.

  Will we match GOP intensity? Hard to see it. They think they're fighting to prevent the communist takeover of America. That sort of craziness breeds intensity we'd be hard pressed to match. But if Democrats expand their generic ballot lead and close the intensity gap, we have the potential of shutting down those big gains Republicans already assume are theirs.

  
  

  
• 10:40

  Gibbs to Roberts: The troubling thing is your Citizens United decision

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Robert Gibbs wasted no time firing back at John Roberts who on Tuesday told a law school audience in Alabama that President Obama's criticism of the court's ruling in Citizens United was "troubling."

  Sam Stein reports:

  In a statement sent to reporters, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the only troubling thing was the 5-4 ruling by the court, which said that corporations could spend unlimited amounts of money advocating on behalf of candidates in elections. Roberts leads the court.

  "What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections - drowning out the voices of average Americans," Gibbs said. "The President has long been committed to reducing the undue influence of special interests and their lobbyists over government. That is why he spoke out to condemn the decision and is working with Congress on a legislative response."

  Let's hope Roberts troubles himself with a response to keep this story alive.

  
  

  
• 10:00

  Mitch McConnell, Concern Troll

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Of course McConnell has the Democrats best interests at heart:

  As Republicans work to prevent a health-care bill from reaching President Obama, they are scrambling to exploit divisions between Democrats in the House and the Senate.

  Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned House Democrats that they would be taking a colossal risk if they approved the Senate's version of health-care legislation before the Senate had acted to remove some of the bill's most contentious provisions ...

  "House Democrats will have to decide whether they want to trust the Senate to fix their political problems," McConnell said.

  Note to House Democrats: working to prevent a health-care bill from reaching President Obama is the actual basis for McConnell's concern. FYI.

  
  

  
• 9:30

  Today in Congress

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

  FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010

  House Meets At... 10:00 a.m.: Legislative Business
  First Vote Predicted... 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
  Last Vote Predicted... 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

  "One Minutes" (15 per side)

  Suspensions (9 Bills):
  

  1. H.R. 4786 - To provide authority to compensate Federal employees for the 2-day period in which authority to make expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund lapsed (Rep. Connolly - Transportation and Infrastructure)
  2. H.Con.Res. 249 - Commemorating the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the role that it played in ensuring the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Rep. Lewis (GA) - Judiciary)
  3. H.Res. 1081 - Supporting the goals and ideals of National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month (Rep. Lewis (GA) - Judiciary)
  4. H.Res. 1087 - Honoring the life of John H. "Jack" Ruffin, Jr. (Rep. Barrow - Judiciary)
  5. H.Res. 1115 - Expressing appreciation for the profound dedication and public service of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena on the 25th anniversary of his death (Rep. Hunter - Judiciary)
  6. H.Res. 1061 - Honoring the heroic actions of Court Security Officer Stanley Cooper, Deputy United States Marshal Richard J. "Joe" Gardner, the law enforcement officers of the United States Marshals Service and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and the Court Security Officers in responding to the armed assault at the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse on January 4, 2010 (Rep. Titus - Judiciary)
  7. H.R. 4506 - Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2010 (Rep. Cohen - Judiciary)
  8. H.R. 4783 - To accelerate the income tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for the relief of the victims of the earthquake in Chile, and to extend the period from which such contributions for the relief of the victims of the earthquake in Haiti may be accelerated (Rep. Levin - Ways and Means)
  9. H.R. 4573 - Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act of 2010 (Rep. Waters - Financial Services)

  H.Con.Res. 248 - Afghanistan War Powers Resolution (Rep. Kucinich – Foreign Affairs) (Privileged Resolution) (Subject to a Rule)

  Postponed Suspension Votes (5 Bills):
  

  1. H.Res. 1088 - Recognizing the plight of people with albinism in East Africa and condemning their murder and mutilation (Rep. Connolly - Foreign Affairs)
  2. H.Res. 1107 - Recognizing the 189th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating Greek and American democracy. (Rep. Ros-Lehtinen - Foreign Affairs)
  3. H.Res. 1144 - Expressing Condolences for the victims of the February 27th 2010 earthquake in Chile, as well as solidarity with and support for the Chilean people as they plan for the recovery and reconstruction for their Country (Rep. Hinojosa - Foreign Affairs)
  4. H.R. 4621 - Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act (Rep. Maloney - Oversight and Government Reform)
  5. H.Res. 1047 - Commending The Ohio State University Buckeyes football team for its victory in the 2010 Rose Bowl (Rep. Kilroy - Education and Labor)

  • Conference Reports may be brought up at any time.
  • Motions to go to Conference should they become available.
  • Possible Motions to Instruct Conferees.

  In the Senate, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader:

  Convenes: 9:30am

  Morning Business until 2:00pm with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The Majority will control the first 30 minutes and the Republicans will control the next 30 minutes.

  At 2:00pm, the Senate will resume consideration of HR4213, Tax Extenders. when the Senate resumes consideration of the bill, all post-cloture debate time will have expired and the question will be on the Baucus substitute amendment. Once the Baucus substitute is agreed to, the Senate will immediately proceed to a cloture vote on the bill, HR4213. If cloture is invoked, all post-cloture debate time will be yielded back and the Senate will proceed to vote on passage of the bill.

  Fourteen suspensions on the calendar today (though they'll likely hold a few over for voting tomorrow) plus one Kucinich troop withdrawal resolution that isn't expected to pass.

  On the Senate side, work is expected to wrap up on the tax extenders/UI/COBRA bill, with a cloture vote on a Baucus substitute amendment and then on the bill itself. By prior agreement, all the time-wasting usually associated with back-to-back cloture motions will be dispensed with. Huzzah.

  Negotiations continue on the health insurance industry reform bill, including discussions of the preferred parliamentary procedure. Politico reported yesterday that the House may consider using a self-executing rule to deal with the passage of the main Senate bill. But you already knew that, because I reported it (with a hat tip to Jeff Davis of Transportation Weekly) on January 20th. For more discussion of what a self-executing rule is all about, see today's Open Congress. New to the story, though: House leaders were reportedly considering a provision in the rule for the bill stating that it could only be signed by the President if the Senate also passed the "fix" bill. Don't know how feasible that is, but, well, there it is.

  Today's committee schedule appears below. Once again, lots of Appropriations Committee action as the budget season pace heats up.

  
  

  
• 8:09

  Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

   » ‎ Daily KosSearch Daily Kos

  Wednesday opinion and nutty as a a fruitcake edition. Can we talk?

  Tom Friedman:

  Former President George W. Bush’s gut instinct that this region craved and needed democracy was always right. It should have and could have been pursued with much better planning and execution. This war has been extraordinarily painful and costly. But democracy was never going to have a virgin birth in a place like Iraq, which has never known any such thing.

  Some argue that nothing that happens in Iraq will ever justify the costs. Historians will sort that out. Personally, at this stage, I only care about one thing: that the outcome in Iraq be positive enough and forward-looking enough that those who have actually paid the price — in lost loved ones or injured bodies, in broken homes or broken lives, be they Iraqis or Americans or Brits — see Iraq evolve into something that will enable them to say that whatever the cost, it has given freedom and decent government to people who had none.

  And I care about one other thing: that I don't get blamed for being a cheerleader and forever being associated with "the next six months will tell the tale".

  Stanley Fish: You see? You see? I told you Bush would be back! Miss him yet?

  TIME:

  Beck, who is used to controlling the gravitational force of victimhood around him, kept interrupting to point out that he was a bigger target of even greater forces than Massa. "I have two unauthorized biographies coming out against me in the spring," Beck said at one point. Minutes later, Beck went even further. "Do you realize my family is at stake?" he said. "You've got a little scandal with your children in college. I've got one for all time now, because I am not going to resign. I'm not going to back down. I have come to a place where I believe at some point the system will destroy me."

  "Damn, that Massa guy is nuttier than I am! He's horning in on my game!"

  HuffPo:

  Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas warned on Tuesday night that if Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) plays a role in killing health care reform, a Democratic primary challenger would almost certainly await him in the next election.

  In an appearance on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Moulitsas conveyed pointed frustration with the Ohio Democrat's pledge to oppose reform on grounds that it doesn't go far enough. He said Kucinich was practicing a "very Ralph Nader-esque approach" to politics.

  The egos in Congress could light and power a small city for a hundred years.

  Gawker slams HuffPo for banning some conspiracy theories but allowing others. The ones they allow harm more people than the ones they ban.

  Because today, the very same Huffington Post published this wonderful post from dangerous nutcase Jenny McCarthy about how autism is caused by vaccines and can be cured with experimental treatments that the established medical community doesn't want you to know about. We can only assume that as soon as the editors discover this conspiratorial nonsense, they will promptly remove it.

  Back to reality, the one where Glenn Beck and Jenny McCarthy don't have a platform to prove HL Mencken true ("A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier."):

  NY Times:

  An unusual study done in 49 remote Hutterite farming colonies in western Canada has provided the surest proof yet that giving flu shots to schoolchildren protects a whole community from the disease.

  Here's the spring break letter from CDC and the American College Health Association.

  With the 2010 "Spring Break" coming up and large numbers of students expected to travel both domestically and internationally, getting vaccinated against 2009 H1N1 influenza is especially important.

  Michael Gerson: Because of health reform, Obama's Presidency is doomed. If he succeeds, he's a radical liberal. If he fails, he's a weak loser. Since he's not a conservative, there are no other choices. Wait... let me check the WaPo conspiracy theory guidelines before I hit publish. No... we're good.

  
  

  

• 7:00

  DORK TOWER, Wednesday, March 10, 2010

   » ‎ Dork Tower

  

• 1:00

  El Nuevo Rodeo facing possible last hurrah on Lake Street

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  It's Friday night, and the crowd at El Nuevo Rodeo is roaring. The strains of cumbia and bachata have quieted, and the revelers are cheering dancers who are moving to a different rhythm. In the center of the floor, a Latino man wearing his hair like John Travolta did in Grea...

• 1:00

  Joe Basel: From U of M-Morris to Louisiana Watergate

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  On a quiet morning in late January, a thin stranger with neatly parted brown hair stood in room 1005 of the Hale Boggs Federal Building in New Orleans, the office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. The man had no business being there. But when one of Landrieu's staffers inquired, the man replied simply ...

• 1:00

  Minneapolis skyway can be yours for just $50,000 cash

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  Well, you don't see this every day: a slice of Minneapolis skyway for sale on Craigslist. A cozy 1,380 square feet of glass, steel, and concrete, it's being offered for $49,500 as is, cash only. Oh, and the buyer is responsible for all moving logistics and costs. But then what? What would you do ...

• 1:00

  Readers respond to "The One-Man Housing Crisis"

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  This is so sad. I grew up in the area. There were some of the best-built homes in the city. They were reasonably priced and built with pride.

  I really don't think renters are the problem. There are plenty of well-maintained rental properties all over the Twin Cities. They are just owned b...

• 1:00

  The Lawrence Cowell Show

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  The south Minneapolis family sits down together each week to catch American Idol on TV. It has been a seasonal ritual for close to a decade.

  "It's our Lawrence Welk Show," the dad says. "When I was a kid, Saturday was bath night at our house. All the kids had to take bat...

• 1:00

  Chicago's Owen bringing solo project to Varsity for "Quiet Please"

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  Throughout his decade-plus career, Chicagoan Mike Kinsella has often seemed like a man apart. With roots in the noise-damaged spectrum of the indie-rock community via time spent drumming with the likes of Joan of Arc, Kinsella's own music, recorded under the moniker Owen, mines far different musi...

• 1:00

  London's the Clientele talk of their unique chemistry and uncertain future

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  Something about the Clientele's music has always felt a bit out of step with the rest of the world. It may be the way they mix the jangly pop of Love with the lethargic drone of Galaxie 500. It may also be the impressionistic imagery of Alasdair MacLean's lyrics and the exactness with which his w...

• 1:00

  The Wapsipinicon: San Geronimo

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  A rough-hewn folk-rock record bursting at the seams with impassioned performances, San Geronimo marks the official arrival of the Wapispinicon on the local scene. While a relatively new band, the Wapsipinicon's core is made up entirely of established local-scene veterans, whose résu...

• 1:00

  The Songs We Can't Escape

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  Jason Derulo
  "In My Head"

  Oh. My. God. Please tell me you are not going home with this song. This groping, panting, over-stimulated rogue of a song. ...

• 1:00

  Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Afrika Bambaataa, and more

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  THURSDAY 3.11 Patches & Gretchen (CD-release show)

  Varsity Theater

  Part train wreck, part artistic genius, Patches & Gretchen is a performative force that must be seen to be believed. Whether she's haphazardly digging through a suitcase of outrageous hats, swagg...

• 1:00

  Piccolo's small plates enable chef to flex creative muscles

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  To quickly differentiate the residents who are invested in a neighborhood from those who aren't, just wait till it snows. For the former, it's typically a point of pride (or guilt, perhaps) to keep their sidewalks scraped down to raw concrete. The latter take less responsibility for their share o...

• 1:00

  Matt Damon in Green Zone is nonstop havoc

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  Better late than never—a bang-bang pulse-pounder predicated on the Bush administration's deliberate fabrication of WMDs in Iraq. Paul Greengrass's expertly assembled Green Zone has evidently been parked for some time on Universal's shelf. Had the movie been released during the 2008...

• 1:00

  Women with Vision: Film Highlight

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  The Walker presents its 17th-annual festival honoring women filmmakers around the world. The series opens Friday with the premiere of French filmmaker Claire Denis's sublime 35 Shots of Rum (7:30 p.m.), a soothingly quiet film that conveys the easy and frequently nonverbal intim...

• 1:00

  Black Pearl Sings!: Theater spotlight

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage

  It is a scorching summer in 1935 at a Texas prison farm when Susannah (Stacia Rice), a government-employed music researcher, arrives in search of original African-American tunes to record for the Library of Congress. She hits pay dirt in the form of Pearl (Crystal Fox), first overheard belting ou...

• 1:00

  Patrice O'Neal

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Many comedians are inspired by watching great comics. For Patrice O'Neal it was the opposite. "Michelangelo wouldn't inspire me to draw because he's so good," O'Neal explains. "He would deter me from that." Similarly, O'Neal works hard not to embarrass the legacy of his two favorite comedians, Richa...
• 1:00

  Adam Turman

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Even if Minnesotans are unfamiliar with the name Adam Turman—at this point many certainly are aware of it—they are at least familiar with his artwork. For over a decade, the silkscreen-print artist has captured the Twin Cities social scene by creating gig posters for rock shows, paid hom...
• 1:00

  Hit Like a Girl

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  The title of this exhibit might sound like a thinly veiled insult, but we assure you it is not. Rather, it turns the phrase on its head by asking artists to draw inspiration from the women and growing girls who make an impact in the world. For this group show, 20 artists will present their takes on ...
• 1:00

  Gastro Non Grata: Eggs for Africa

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  At this party hosted by Gastro Non Grata, six local chefs will be given 100 eggs each. That's 600 eggs total. What will they do with their allotment? We don't know. What we do know is that at this theme night ingredients will be used for consumption, not as weapons in a chef egg fight. We also know ...
• 1:00

  Dwight Slade

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Comedian Dwight Slade has appeared in two shorts and a feature film since his performance at Acme last winter. The movie work, as well as his time spent developing and shooting a pilot for ABC that never took off, has convinced him that acting "is the hardest performing art there is." Standup comedy...
• 1:00

  Comedy Standing Up

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Filmmaker Matt Olson and host Bill Young, co-producers of the inventive (now late, lamented) Pee Your Pants Monthly, are teaming up with four Twin Cities comics for their latest venture, Comedy Standing Up. Each member of the comedic quartet has written and produced a short film shot by Olson, a not...
• 1:00

  My Grandmother's Tsotchkes: Tales of a Gambling Grandma

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Oy vey, that grandma knew her way around a deck of cards. Now she's departed this world, leaving a few tsotchkes (a shoe, some chess pieces) for her granddaughter May to remember her by. Stuart Pimsler's tale of a Russian girl who escapes Cossacks, immigrates to New York, and gambles to support her ...
• 1:00

  Taste of Chocolate

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Bloomington Center for the Arts As far as chocolate lovers are concerned, you can never have too much of a good thing. This Sunday, guests can O.D. on chocolate-themed confections at this community benefit. Each year Taste of Chocolate's focus is on competition, and 2010's party will again highlight...
• 1:00

  Joe Henry

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Quietly but inexorably, Joe Henry has built a sterling reputation as a sensitive and resourceful producer, particularly working with those with rootsy inclinations. New projects are in the works with Mose Allison and Harry Belafonte, and he was responsible for a couple of landmark, Grammy-nominated ...
• 1:00

  Art Squared

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  It might seem like summer is still far away, but now is the time to plan for the warmer future. At this neighborhood benefit, artists, musicians, and other fine folk will come together to raise funds for the Cinema & Civics movie screenings held in Stevens Square Park, the Red Hot Art festival, and ...
• 1:00

  GZA

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  That the members of the Wu-Tang Clan are still releasing excellent solo albums shouldn't come as that big of a surprise; even during the Wu's long post-Iron Flag hiatus it seems like we've been getting one of those every year. And while most of the attention's been thrown to Raekwon (Only ...
• 1:00

  Sasha Maria (CD-Release)

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  It's been a long time coming for local artist Sasha Maria. The classically trained songstress's jazzy, piano-driven ballads and sultry voice echo Fiona Apple and Norah Jones, but for the past nine years she's mostly been a go-to opener for an array of popular Clear Channel performers. Such gigs have...
• 1:00

  Afrika Bambaataa

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  >"Looking for the Perfect Beat," "Planet Rock," "Renegades of Funk," James Brown team-up "Unity"—there's a lot of stuff you could point to if you ever wanted to pick out the definitive Afrika Bambaataa record. But 1983's Death Mix Live, a lo-fi, unauthorized recording of a Bambaataa/J...
• 1:00

  Café Scientifique: Food Safety and Food Defense

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Remember back in 2006 when E. coli rampaged through spinach supplies, leaving us leafy green-less and Popeye a little weaker? Or last year when a salmonella outbreak emptied the store shelves of peanut butter? Even dog food has not escaped the ravages of the tiny critters that can contaminate our ed...
• 1:00

  Patches & Gretchen (CD-Release)

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Part train wreck, part artistic genius, Patches & Gretchen is a performative force that must be seen to be believed. Whether she's haphazardly digging through a suitcase of outrageous hats, swaggering her way through a line of forgotten lyrics, or singing deeply and passionately with a throaty moan,...
• 1:00

  Welcome to Dystopia

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  The gang from Four Humors Theater has brought us a distinctive brand of youthful barbed-wire brainy humor over the past several years; personal favorites include the satanic Deviled Eggs, the snake-oil tale Mortem Capiendum, and the darkly Elizabethan Bards. This time out,...
• 1:00

  Jana Laiz

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Jana Laiz's Weeping Under This Same Moon (Crow Flies Press), a fictionalized account of a true story, follows two teenage girls whose lives seem as different as they are distant. Ethnic Chinese Mei must sacrifice the comforts and familiarity of home to lead two of her younger siblings away ...
• 1:00

  Dave King

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Drummer, thy name is Ubiquitous. It sounds a bit like Greek tragedy. The drummer's name is actually Dave King, although it may as well be the other thing because he's all over the damn place, both here in his hometown and in far-flung places where his bands—most notably the Bad Plus—grab...
• 1:00

  Larry Coryell & Bombay Jazz

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Guitarist Larry Coryell was among the premier pioneers of jazz-rock fusion back in the 1970s, renowned for searing electric licks that ignited scorching expeditions into virgin territory. Besides his landmark group Eleventh House, Coryell has played with the likes of Hendrix, Clapton, and Metheny ov...
• 1:00

  The Appleseed Cast

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  So it's Tuesday afternoon. There's no end in sight to the workweek, and you've got a nasty case the cubicle sweats. Fear not, office drones. Today the world is letting you have a good time and be in bed early enough that you won't need to prop your eyelids open through the morning commute. During th...
• 1:00

  Two Chairs Telling

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Dean Johnson has been funny for a long time. In his teens, he wrote monologues while working at a department store, and he's still at it (even though, as his PR photo caption says, he's "old now, and almost dead"). Though his material is humorous, Johnson has serious acting credentials—a maste...
• 1:00

  Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  In many ways, Ted Leo is a throwback to a bygone era. Since his early days fronting D.C. trio Chisel, Leo's progressive songwriting always had an unabashedly populist bent, while his energetic hooks have remained true to their punk and hardcore roots. Since he forged a solo career with the Pharmacis...
• 1:00

  Regina Carter's Reverse Thread

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Although primarily known as a jazz violinist, Regina Carter is a true eclectic whose highly distinctive style is strongly influenced by her classical training and the array of music she heard growing up in Detroit. Thus, she's played with a vast range of artists, from symphony orchestras to Wynton M...
• 1:00

  Pen Pals Lecture Series: Sarah Vowell

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  Sarah Vowell is an author who somehow manages to combine the best parts of every genre in nonfiction writing with every facet of pop culture. She's part hardcore nerd, part sulky grunge kid, and part U.S. history professor. Vowell's books span an array of topics and adventures pertinent to modern Am...
• 1:00

  The Suzanne Farrell Ballet

   » ‎ CITYPAGES.com - Dan Savage
  George Balanchine was the most influential, and arguably the greatest, ballet choreographer of the 20th century. For nearly three decades, Suzanne Farrell was his muse. He not only created many roles for her, but a whole style of dancing that took classical ballet in the direction of risk, speed, co...