Daily Kos

Reminder to Senate Dems: Carper's Triggered Co-Ops Aren't a Public Option

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:16:04 GMT

So Landrieu and Lincoln say they'll vote to allow debate to continue so that the Senate can eventually vote on whether they want to vote to reform the nation's healthcare system. Lest you get too excited by their radicalism, here's the cold water on our collective enthusiasm.

After announcing her intent to support a health care debate this afternoon, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) told reporters she thinks Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will soon have to choose between a triggered public option and no health care bill. She also says Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)--the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate one of its most fierce and vocal public option advocates--has been tasked as a point man on the issue.

"I believe it's going to be very clear at some point very soon that there are not 60 votes for the current provision in the bill, and that the leader and the leadership are going to have to make a decision and I trust that they will figure out how to do that," Landrieu told reporters.

Blanche Lincoln raised the stakes on this on the Senate floor today, saying "I've already alerted the Leader and I'm promising my colleagues that I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government run public option is included." She continues to argue falsely, just like Joe Lieberman, that the public option will cost the federal government too much, proving that not only Republicans can pick and choose what they like from CBO reports.

We're veering ever closer to the point where this bill is not going to do a whole lot more than force people to buy crappy insurance. The public option, as limited as it is, is the foot in the door to providing more and better options to more people. Without it, even as constricted as it has become, this bill isn't reform. It's telling the insurance companies they really shouldn't cherry-pick customers and leave people without care, and erecting a few more barriers for them to get around while they continue to do just that.

Triggered co-ops, the Carper plan that Schumer is apparently pushing, isn't a compromise. It's no kind of public option and should not be supported by anyone calling themselves a progressive. It's a capitulation. So Senators Brown, et al., it's your call. You said no more compromise. It's time to prove that you mean it.

Reid Gets His 60 Votes, For Now

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:30:04 GMT

At least for continuing debate. Nelson, Lincoln, Landrieu, they're all in.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has secured the vital 60th vote he needs to advance healthcare reform legislation with the announcement by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that she will vote with her party Saturday evening.

"I have concluded that it is more important to begin this debate rather than just simply drop the issue and walk away," Lincoln said on the Senate floor. "I'm not afraid of that debate."

Of course, Lieberman could pull a Lieberman, and change his mind on this one just for the hell of it (and because he hasn't been in the headlines very often lately), but for now there's no drama left in today's vote.

Now the real fight for a real public option. In agreeing today to continue debate on this bill, Lincoln vowed essentially to join a Republican filibuster.

I've already alerted the Leader and I'm promising my colleagues that I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government run public option is included.

Midday open thread

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:16:03 GMT

James Fallows, in a post entitled Manufactured Failure, hits the Washington press hard on how purely awful its coverage was of President Obama's trip to Asia, how uniformly negative it was compared with the actual reporting in China.

Matt Taibbi deconstructs Sarah Palin:

Palin — and there’s just no way to deny this — is a supremely gifted politician. She has staked out, as her own personal political turf, the entire landscape of incoherent white American resentment. In this area she leaves even Rush Limbaugh in the dust.

The reason for that is that poor Rush is an anachronism, in the sense that his whole schtick revolves around talking about real political issues. And real political issues are boring.

Listen to Rush any day of the week and you’ll hear him playing the old-fashioned pundit game: he goes about the dreary business of picking through the policies and positions and public statements of Democrats and poking holes in them, arguing with them, attacking them with numbers and facts and pseudo-facts and non-facts and whatever else he can get his hands on, honest or not, but at least he tries. ...

Sarah Palin’s battlefield, on the other hand, is whatever is happening five feet in front of her face. She is building a political career around the little interpersonal wars in the immediate airspace surrounding her sawdust-filled head. And in the process she connects with pissed-off, frightened, put-upon America on a plane that’s far more elemental than the mega-ditto schtick.

The Justice Department drops charges against one of the Blackwater guards accused of manslaughter for the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in a public square in 2007.

The small ~~Illinois~~ Michigan town that wants the Gitmo detainees tells Liz Cheney they're not liking her fear-mongering.

Levi Johnston's mother gets sentenced to three years in prison for drug dealing.

With friends like these....

Rainn Wilson:

People who don't believe in evolution really shouldn't be allowed to get flu shots.

Now it seems that some economists are giving the stimulus package a thumbs up.

The White House blog offers a head start on reading the Senate health care bill:

On page 78 you’ll learn that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ends discrimination based on pre-existing conditions. On page 17, it makes preventive care completely free, with no cost-sharing. (This might be of particular interest to those who have chosen to seize on concerns about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations on mammograms to spread baseless myths and advance their own political agenda.) Flipping back to page 16, you’ll find that insurance companies are prohibited from dropping your coverage or watering it down when you get sick and need it most. Also on page 16, you might notice that it puts an end to lifetime caps on coverage. Page 18 is where the bill extends family coverage eligibility for young Americans through the age of 26. On page 83 it requires insurance companies to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full – that means they can’t refuse to renew your coverage just because you get sick. Page 307 is home to tax credits for small businesses to help them afford insurance for their employees. And folks looking to scare our senior citizens about what reform means for them might be interested to check out page 923 and learn that it provides a 50% discount on drugs for seniors in the so-called donut hole.

David Broder Brings A Rare Moment of Reid Levity to the HCR Debate

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:30:04 GMT

Ah, Village math. David Broder says that bringing in more federal revenue by increasing tax would bust the budget.

While the CBO said that both the House-passed bill and the one Reid has drafted meet Obama's test by being budget-neutral, every expert I have talked to says [. . . t]hese bills, as they stand, are budget-busters. Here, for example, is what Robert Bixby, the executive director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan group of budget watchdogs, told me: "The Senate bill is better than the House version, but there's not much reform in this bill. As of now, it's basically a big entitlement expansion, plus tax increases."

And, as we know, in the Village the only entitlements they like are the ones that get them invitations to the best cocktail parties and their kids into the best colleges. Those big ol' CBO liars.

At any rate, this led to the most interesting exchange thus far in today's debate (although I'm still kind of fond of Thune's argument that the Chinese should be dictating our health policy).

"In tomorrow's Washington Post, David Broder, their distinguished senior columnist, certainly not a political conservative, expresses his reservation as a citizen about the steps that we could be about to take," McConnell said.

Reid couldn't have been less impressed. "To focus on a man who has been retired for many years and writes a column once in a while is not where we should be."

No more cocktail weenies for Harry.

Saturday hate mail-apalooza

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:32:03 GMT

You know where to find the goods.

Joe Lieberman, liar

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:40:03 GMT

Joe Lieberman is accusing President Obama of executing a bait and switch when it comes to the public option:

"It’s classic politics of our time that if you look at the campaign last year, presidential, you can’t find a mention of public option," Lieberman said. "It was added after the election as a part of what we normally consider health insurance reform — insurance market reforms, cover people, cover people who are not covered.

Nice line, Joe, except it's based on a flat-out lie. President Obama backed the public option during the campaign. For example, the Obama-Biden health care plan proposed a new public plan (emphasis added):

NEW AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE HEALTH INSURANCE OPTIONS. The Obama-Biden plan will create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase new affordable health care options if they are uninsured or want new health insurance. Through the Exchange, any American will have the opportunity to enroll in the new public plan or an approved private plan, and income-based sliding scale tax credits will be provided for people and families who need it. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy and charge fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status. The Exchange will require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency. ...

The Obama-Biden plan provides new affordable health insurance options by...requiring all large employers to contribute towards health coverage for their employees or towards the cost of the public plan.

In May, 2007, the New York Times reported that President Obama had proposed a public option (emphasis added):

Mr. Obama would create a public plan for individuals who cannot obtain group coverage through their employers or the existing government programs ... He would also create a National Health Insurance Exchange, a regulated marketplace of competing private health plans intended to give individuals other, more affordable options for coverage. The public plan would compete in that Insurance Exchange, advisers said.

And here's a Washington Post candidate profile, President Obama said:

My plan builds on and improves our current insurance system, which most Americans continue to rely upon, and creates a new public health plan for those currently without coverage.

So, Joe, you're wrong. President Obama has supported a public option from the very beginning. He ran for President on it, he won the election, and now he's doing what he promised. That's a hell of a lot more than anybody can say about you, Joe.

Despite your sanctimony, you've done nothing but lie since you squeaked out that victory in 2006: just lie after lie after lie. And you're lying again now.

Senate HCR Debate Chugs Along

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:52:58 GMT

Update: Reports are, including a tweet from the DemWarRoom (Senate Dem caucus staff) that Landrieu will vote to proceed. As a reminder, this vote is just the vote that says that the Senate will be able to continue to debate, which will then eventually lead to vote on whether they will vote on the final bill. Gotta love the Senate.

Wow, Republicans love Medicare now. Why just yesterday, it seems that they were all set to privatize it. Well, maybe not yesterday, but in April. Today, what we're learning from the Republicans in the debate is that the CBO lies when they score a Democratic plan well, and that Medicare is sacred when they want it to be.

Oh, and Thune agrees with Liz Cheney that the Chinese should be dictating American domestic policy on healthcare reform.

Help document the atrocities. We'll be at it all day, with the vote coming by about 9:00 tonight, EST. Update: Don't forget there's always going to be a liveblog available in the diaries throughout the day.

This Week in Science

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:30:03 GMT

The righties are abuzz with a recent hack stealing thousands of emails from climate and other scientists over the last 15 years. Needless to say the usual suspects have combed through the material looking for anything that can be misconstrued. This is an example of about the best they've come up with via Realclimate:

No doubt, instances of cherry-picked and poorly-worded "gotcha" phrases will be pulled out of context. One example is worth mentioning quickly. Phil Jones in discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions stated that "I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline." ... Scientists often use the term "trick" to refer to a "a good way to deal with a problem", rather than something that is "secret" ...

In short, no orders from shadowy X-files climate conspirators to perpetuate the 'hoax,' no liberal/commie schemes or scams infiltrating NASA's GISS database, nothing about how to fake photos showing glaciers in retreat, just a bunch of science, journalist, and academic types arguing, explaining, and agreeing with each other over one subtle point or another.

Who are the biggest techno-venture capitalists in the world? According to John Wasik, it's literally Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Chu.

Three cheers for the Brits: Evolution now mandatory in UK primary-public schools.

Presented for your approval, two very different sides of the same coin, a company caught in the age old human struggle between right and wrong: Genentech the good; Genentech the not so good. Quick, the suited figure by the sign post up ahead, it's the Lobbying Zone!

What killed of Ice Age megafauna? Could be a combination of things including overkill. But one of the results was a big change in the landscape after they disappeared.

Obama: What the world needs now is jobs, sweet jobs

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:00:03 GMT

This recession has taught us that we can’t return to a situation where America’s economic growth is fueled by consumers who take on more and more debt. In order to keep growing, we need to spend less, save more, and get our federal deficit under control. We also need to place a greater emphasis on exports that we can build, produce, and sell to other nations – exports that can help create new jobs at home and raise living standards throughout the world.

Using last week's swing through Asia as the backdrop to talk about numerous issues, President Obama in his weekly address this morning discussed nuclear arms, climate change, commerce, clean energy and democratic ideals, characterizing his diplomatic trip as intended to "open a new era of American engagement."

But the major focus of his address--and, by extension, his trip to Asia--was on turning around the economy.

For Americans, he says, even relatively small increases in number of exports will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, but relying on exports clearly is not enough to spur the economy back to health. What we need is ... the White House job forum planned for next month.

Increasing our exports is one way to create new jobs and new prosperity. But as we emerge from a recession that has left millions without work, we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step we can take to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country. That’s why I’ve announced that in the next few weeks, we’ll be holding a forum at the White House on jobs and economic growth. I want to hear from CEOs and small business owners, economists and financial experts, as well as representatives from labor unions and nonprofit groups, about what they think we can do to spur hiring and get this economy moving again.

It is important that we do not make any ill-considered decisions – even with the best of intentions – particularly at a time when our resources are so limited. But it is just as important that we are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we’ve already taken to put America back to work. That’s what I hope to achieve in this forum.

The full address can be found beneath the fold or on the White House website.

Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:37:12 GMT

Saturday punditry as we eagerly wait for Thanksgiving. If I have to fly, I just hope Capt. Sully is my pilot. What are you thankful about?

NY Times:

The [stimulus] legislation, a variety of economists say, is helping an economy in free fall a year ago to grow again and shed fewer jobs than it otherwise would. Mr. Obama’s promise to "save or create" about 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 is roughly on track, though far more jobs are being saved than created, especially among states and cities using their money to avoid cutting teachers, police officers and other workers.

"It was worth doing — it’s made a difference," said Nigel Gault, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, a financial forecasting and analysis group based in Lexington, Mass.

Mr. Gault added: "I don’t think it’s right to look at it by saying, ‘Well, the economy is still doing extremely badly, therefore the stimulus didn’t work.’ I’m afraid the answer is, yes, we did badly but we would have done even worse without the stimulus."

Mark Blumenthal updates about a good idea (column from 9/09): make Congress get their insurance on the exchange. Personally, I think Congress should go on Medicaid, with a 5K deductible thrown in to see what it's like for everyone else.

Ron Brownstein:

President Clinton waited until his party lost control of Congress to propose a "middle-class bill of rights." Some leading Democratic thinkers believe that if President Obama moves more quickly on the latter, he will reduce the risk of the former.

Christopher Hughes, MD writes about evidence-based medicine and the media response to the new breast screening guidelines. he reminds us the US is 19th of 19 in preventable deaths with our current standards and system. There's more work to be done.

Charlie Cook:

As House Democrats try to avert political disaster by limiting their 2010 losses to about 16 seats, the norm for post-World War II presidents' first midterm elections, dealing with their members' ethics problems may be one of their toughest tasks.

With health care reform off their plate for now, House Democrats are showing that they understand the tightrope they must walk -- address unemployment without exacerbating worries about the size of government and the federal deficit. Meanwhile, though, the ethical clouds over House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee; and several other members of that subcommittee bring back memories of the House Bank and Post Office scandal, which in 1994 helped end 40 years of Democratic rule in the House, and the scandals involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Republican Reps.

NY Times Opinionator:

"The bad news for the Democrats is that the number of Americans who hold the GOP exclusively responsible for the recession has been steadily falling by about two to three points per month," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "At that rate, only a handful of voters will blame the economy on the Republicans by the time next year’s midterm elections roll around."

Please do not let math-challenged reporters anywhere near numbers. "If this continues at the current rate..." is one of the biggest garbage lines in "journalism". Generally speaking, rates are always changing and are often unsustainable, whatever they are. BTW, Mike Bloomberg and I averaged 50 million dollars between us on our respective election campaigns. He spent 100 million, and I didn't run. Barack Obama dropped a point in his job approval. At that rate, a point a day, he'll be in negative numbers within two months, and owe the American public approval points. He'll have to vote for us instead of the other way around.

Gail Collins:

Nowhere is the need for the graceful exit more apparent than in our politics. This week Senator Robert Byrd turned 92. He has been in office for more than 50 years. That’s an all-time record for Congress. In fact, it is probably a record for every deliberative body since Athens in the Age of Pericles.

Charles Blow:

[John] Shadegg [R-AZ] sniped, "I saw the mayor of New York today said ‘We’re tough. We can do it.’ Well mayor, how are you going to feel when it’s your daughter that’s kidnapped, at school, by a terrorist?"

Say what you will about New Yorkers, but question our toughness, you will not.

Whether a civil or military trial would provide the best chances of securing a conviction while simultaneously signaling to the world a righting of America’s moral compass is a fair debate. But questioning whether New York City can handle the trial is an insult.

Hey, Shadegg. Meet me in Central Park at 3 am, tough guy. Come alone.

Bonus: Where do bloggers get their news? Where do political insiders?

"Only websites of mainstream media. I NEVER read blogs."

"I probably should give the Web a 5, but I just can't bring myself to do it."

Green Diary Rescue & Open Thread

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:05:01 GMT

Robert S. Eshelman writes in The Nation:

Where's the Clean Energy?:

It was in Germany that Ed Regan realized Gainesville, Florida, was going about things all wrong. The assistant manager at Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) was out looking for ways to boost his city's renewable energy capacity. "Germany was a game-changer," Regan says. Wind turbines and solar panels seemed to be everywhere. He soon learned the secret.

Before Regan's June 2008 trip, the GRU was trying to promote small-scale renewable energy generation by offering hefty cash rebates to customers who installed solar photovoltaic panels. And it had a "net metering program" that allowed customers who generate their own power to run their electricity meters backward, thereby cutting their electric bills potentially to zero.

But the programs weren't attracting a great deal of interest. The utility's rebate program had yielded only 300 kilowatts of solar power capacity--roughly the amount of electricity used by 160 hair dryers--and it cost a lot of money.

The difference between Gainesville and Germany was that Germany had a national feed-in tariff. Under this system, energy consumers can become renewable energy producers by installing solar panels on their roof or a wind turbine in their backyard and selling their energy to the local utility. These customers-turned-producers receive above-market prices for their energy, often for up to twenty years. With the feed-in tariff, Germany boosted its renewable energy production from 1 percent of its total output in 1995 to 12 percent in 2005. By 2007 renewables supplied 14 percent of Germany's electricity. Denmark and Spain also have successful feed-in tariff programs.

So this past March, Gainesville rolled out its own feed-in tariff. GRU now pays twice the retail cost for every kilowatt of solar power-generated electricity. The extra cost means a small increase in electrical bills for all utility consumers, less than a dollar per month per household.

But in order to keep consumer prices down, the feed-in tariff is limited to expand by only 4 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity per year, for six years. And the first year's quota was snapped up in just two weeks. The program now has a waiting list through 2016. Rather than a bunch of homeowners each installing a few panels, the Gainesville quotas were mostly taken by commercial investors.

• • • • • • •

Green Diary Rescues appear on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The diary rescue begins below and continues in the jump. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it.

• • • • • • •

Rei asked Who's killing the electric car again?: "How did a woman who the SEC says planned one of the largest accounting frauds in US history end up as Chief Financial Officer of Aptera Motors? It's just one of many questions swirling around what appears to be a meltdown in progress at the beleagured manufacturer of safe, hyper-efficient electric vehicles. When a business is running smoothly, there are strong incentives for everyone to be a team player and hide any signs of internal strife. As the rate of layoffs and "vacations" increases, however, so does the potential for leaks. And sometimes a simple name can take you places you never thought you'd go."

David Brin offered a lesson in capitalism with his diary Re-allocating energy research: "The Obama Administration, while pumping up funding and incentives to further develop hybrid vehicles, has slashed $100 million (60%) from the budget for George W. Bush’s preferred approach -- hydrogen fueled cars. Of course, this is one more sign that we are being led by people who want America to succeed, and no longer by technological morons, determined to make every possible wrong decision. Why am I so fierce in my appraisal of so-called ‘hydrogen-power’ -- despite my portraying it positively, in several stories and novels? Because it cannot possibly help us in the near (twenty year) future, as was cogently pointed out recently by Energy Secretary (and Nobel winner) Stephen Chu. "

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:16:38 GMT

On this TCCIF*, the rangers are srkp23, vcmvo2, dadanation, ybruti, blank frank, and jlms qkw waved the editor's wand. *Thank Ceiling Cat It's Friday

Please celebrate good writing with us and show these diarists some love - commenting, recommending, and subscribing are all appropriate!

Moonflowrr has a historical perspective on the Transgender Day Of Remembrance, And Remembering What It's About. (Blank Frank)

David A Love, an African-American who has studied and worked in Japan, asks: Will Obama Help Change Asia’s Racism? (ybruti)

DrDivo wonders about restoring our past versus investing in our future in I wonder. (vcmvo2)

devtob discusses the importance of print journalism in NY-23: A newspaper editor sees 'Huns at the gates'. (ybruti)

When hannah writes about The perversion of Miranda, it is your Miranda Rights that she is discussing. (dadanation)

Pangloss describes The GOP's Discredited Meta Theory of Democratic Motivations. (vcmvo2)

dantilson examines Florida's Biggest Tax Burden? Only Republicans will be surprised. (jlms qkw)

BorderJumpers, now traveling in Africa, describe their Meeting with Workers of the Tea and Flower Industries in Kenya. (ybruti)

Spencer Troxell muses on diet and parenting in Who Eats Who? (jlms qkw)

Christian Wright represented the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship at a White House security council briefing on Afghanistan and Pakistan and reports back in Me, Kal Penn, and Peace. (srkp23)

jotter brings us another excellent edition of High Impact Diaries: November 19, 2009.

emeraldmaiden has Top Comments 11/20/09 - A Letter from Diaper Dave.

Please share your own favorite diaries from the past 24 hours in this Open Thread.

Polling and Political Wrap-Up, 11/20/09

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:40:05 GMT

The weekend beckons....

CA-Sen: Boxer Maintains Solid Edge, Even in Ras Poll
Given that the Rasmussen poll in question had some data that hinted at a GOP skew (the 55% job approval for President Obama, for example), the news on the Senate race has to be considered very good news for Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. In the new Rasmussen poll, she leads both of her likely Republican challengers (Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore) by nearly identical margins. She leads Fiorina by nine (46-37) and leads Devore by a ten-point margin (49-39).

The Race for 2012: Obama Still Leads All Comers, According to PPP
Despite flagging approval numbers with the same pollster (PPP had him under 50% for the first time this week), a new set of numbers on the 2012 elections from PPP (PDF File) shows that President Barack Obama has leads of between 5-8 points over four leading GOP figures. As has been customary as of late, Mike Huckabee (49-44) and Mitt Romney (48-43) keep Obama the closest in terms of margin. Against Sarah Palin (51-43) and Ron Paul (46-38), Obama stretches out his advantage.

National: An Embarrassing Moment For Gallup
It was almost undoubtedly coincidental, but a sequence of events occurring over the past few days has put quite a bit of egg on the face of the most venerable pollster in the game: Gallup. Apparently, Rush Limbaugh decided recently to mix his polling analysis with a little racist speculation:

"Gallup has it [Obama's job approval] just teetering there on the
little teeter-totter at 50%, and they're doing everything they can,
they're upping the sample of black Americans, to keep him at 50% in
the Gallup poll."

This, of course, is an incredibly serious accusation, and it led to a sharp denial from Gallup polling head Frank Newport on Thursday. But what happened on Friday? Gallup's tracking poll broke the barrier and found Obama at 49%. No word on how many seconds into his broadcast it took for Limbaugh to claim the credit and proclaim his infallibility.

IN POLITICAL NEWS....

NY-23: If you wondering what was going to be the excuse du jour for Doug Hoffman and the teabagger crowd in explaining his defeat to Democrat Bill Owens, wonder no more: the computer virus stole the election this time. Put the virus next to ACORN, labor unions, Democrats, and beer bottles on the shelf of reasons why Doug Hoffman was defeated. Like most allegations from Team Hoffman, this one did not stand up well to scrutiny. Hoffman is still contemplating a challenge to the election this weekend, despite the fact that nearly a dozen 2008 contests wound up closer than his race with Bill Owens.

MD-01: It is an internal poll, so enjoy it seasoned with a grain (or several) of salt, but Republican Andy Harris is claiming he has a thirteen-point lead over incumbent Democrat Frank Kratovil in Maryland's 1st District.

THE MONEY CHASE: If the NRCC is going to lead the way to a GOP resurgence in the House, they probably need to get on the stick: the DCCC outraised their GOP counterparts again in October. The NRCC only has about $4 million on hand for the 2010 cycle, far less than the DCCC had in either 2006 or 2008.

OR-Gov: And then there were two (major candidates, at least) on the Democratic side to be the next Governor of Oregon. Steve Shields, a former executive with Hewlett Packard, packed in his bid to be Governor via a message at his website. This leaves former Governor John Kitzhaber and former Secretary of State (and 2002 Senate nominee) Bill Bradbury as the leading Democratic candidates. Worth noting, though, is that Congressman Peter DeFazio has not yet slammed the door shut on a bid of his own (although he has made little movement, either).

MN-01: After cruising in 2008 against an outgunned opponent, Democratic sophomore Rep. Tim Walz might have drawn a slightly higher caliber opponent for 2010. Allen Quist, a former state legislator who made a run at popular moderate GOP Governor Arne Carlson from the right in 1994, is seeking a political second act in a bid against Walz.

Flashback to Irony

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:00:05 GMT

Via Grist, the caption reads "EACH DAY HUMBLE SUPPLIES ENOUGH ENERGY TO MELT 7 MILLION TONS OF GLACIER!"

Reportedly from a 1962 edition of Life Magazine -- no way to tell for sure without an original copy of that edition. Humble Oil merged with Standard Oil which underwent various name and organizational changes, to eventually become Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest energy company and the most profitable single company in history. But one thing remains the same: they're still melting tons of glacier and they're probably just as proud of it now as they were way back then ...

Glenn Beck's boss, wingnut and coward

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:20:05 GMT

Keith Olbermann rips News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch for denying that he had accused President Obama of making racist comments:

Unfortunately for Murdoch, he did accuse Pres. Obama of making racist comments, and Keith plays the video.

It’s bad enough that Rupert Murdoch would have ever back Glenn Beck’s absurd allegation that Barack Obama is a racist; the fact that he doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to stick by that attack shows that Murdoch isn’t just a wingnut, he’s a coward.