A Little Night Music

In memory of composer John Barry, who won a ton of Oscars for film scores. Most remember him for Born Free, Goldfinger, Out of Africa, and Dances with Wolves, but this was my favorite.


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Support The Troops

I don't think this is going to go over well at the VFW halls in Minnesota. Or Iowa, for that matter.

Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.

Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.

“It is really astonishing to see this,” he said.

Astonishing, yes. Surprising, no.

HT to Oliver Willis.
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Another Isolated Incident

The Detroit News is reporting that a man was arrested outside of a mosque in suburban Detroit armed with explosives.

Roger Stockham, 63, is charged with one count of a false report or threat of terrorism and one count of explosives-possession of bombs with unlawful intent after Dearborn police arrested him Monday outside the Islamic Center of America, one the largest mosques in North America.

Stockham, a resident of Imperial Beach, Calif., is being held on a $500,000 cash bond. He will be in court on Friday for hearing on the charges before 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers.

FBI special agent Sandra Berchtold confirmed today the FBI is investigating an incident referred to the federal agency by Dearborn police.

Police said Stockham was in possession of class C fireworks, a 15-year felony, when he was arrested Monday outside the center. The terrorism charge is a 20-year felony.

On his MySpace page, Stockham said, "Proud of my kids. Happy with how much I've lived. Ready for it to be over, but have a policy I contend with often: So long as I am alive, I can't play dead."

But don't worry, folks; this is just another isolated incident. There's no evidence that all the anti-Islamic rhetoric we've been hearing over the last few years has anything at all to do with it. How do we know this? Because the suspect is a white guy from California named Roger. Therefore he's not a terrorist.

Now if his name was Mustaffa and he was outside a Catholic church, that would be evidence of a world-wide conspiracy against Christians, which we all know is on-going but not at all reported by the pro-Islamic American media.

But he isn't, and he wasn't, so it's no big deal.

Footnote: Steve M. notes that Mr. Stockham apparently has quite a colorful record going back a number of years.
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Separating Church and Taste

The New York Times had a story yesterday about the clash between gay rights advocates and the staunchly Christian conservative fast-food chain Chick-fil-A.

Nicknamed “Jesus chicken” by jaded secular fans and embraced by Evangelical Christians, Chick-fil-A is among only a handful of large American companies with conservative religion built into its corporate ethos. But recently its ethos has run smack into the gay rights movement. A Pennsylvania outlet’s sponsorship of a February marriage seminar by one of that state’s most outspoken groups against homosexuality lit up gay blogs around the country. Students at some universities have also begun trying to get the chain removed from campuses.

“If you’re eating Chick-fil-A, you’re eating anti-gay,” one headline read. The issue spread into Christian media circles, too.

The outcry moved the company’s president, Dan T. Cathy, to post a video on the company’s Facebook fan page to “communicate from the heart that we serve and value all people and treat everyone with honor, dignity and respect,” said a company spokesman, Don Perry.

Providing sandwiches and brownies for a local seminar is not an endorsement or a political stance, Mr. Cathy says in the video. But he adds that marriage has long been a focus of the chain, which S. Truett Cathy, his deeply religious father, began in 1967.

The company also has strict hiring practices, looking into the marital status and church attendance of applicants for franchises, and it settled a lawsuit filed in 2002 by a Muslim restaurant owner because he refused to pray to Jesus during a training seminar.

I think I have been to a Chick-fil-A exactly once, and that was in Boulder, Colorado. I haven't been back to Boulder since 1990, so it's been a while since I tried their food. If the meal I had then was any indication, I probably won't go back; it was unremarkable. And while I may not agree with their style of merging evangelical Christianity into corporate practices, it's no different than companies that invest their time and effort to support causes I believe in.
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Egypt - Cont'd

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, is beginning to emerge as the unifying voice of the opposition in Egypt.

Though lacking deep support on his own, Dr. ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and diplomat, could serve as a consensus figure for a movement that has struggled to articulate a program for a potential transition. It suggested, too, that the opposition was aware of the uprising’s image abroad, putting forth a candidate who might be more acceptable to the West than beloved in Egypt.

In scenes as tumultuous as any since the uprising began, Dr. ElBaradei defied a government curfew and joined thousands of protesters in Liberation Square, a downtown landmark that has become the epicenter of the uprising and a platform, writ small, for the frustrations, ambitions and resurgent pride of a generation claiming the country’s mantle.

“Today we are proud of Egyptians,” Dr. ElBaradei told throngs who surged toward him in a square festooned with banners calling for Mr. Mubarak’s fall. “We have restored our rights, restored our freedom, and what we have begun cannot be reversed.”

Dr. ElBaradei declared it a “new era,” and as night fell there were few in Egypt who seemed to disagree.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is doing a delicate tightrope walk between calling for the downfall of a leader of an important ally in the Middle East and being the last Western leader to support a regime that has ruled with an iron fist for almost thirty years. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an "orderly transition," which a polite way of telling President Mubarak to head for the exit without looting the treasury or killing a lot of people. As it is, the White House is already preparing for dealing with an Egypt without Mr. Mubarak.

One former senior administration advisor said he had spoken to his old colleagues inside the Obama administration in recent days about the unrest in Egypt. As early as last Wednesday, the Obama administration recognized that they would not be able to prop up the Mubarak regime and keep it in power at all costs, the former official said.

"They don't want to push Mubarak over the cliff, but they understand that the Mubarak era is over and that the only way Mubarak could be saved now is by a ruthless suppression of the population, which would probably set the stage for a much more radical revolution down the road."

As they say in diplomatic circle, the situation is "fluid."

One thing that is pretty clear is that here in the U.S., the situation in Egypt is already creating political fallout. The supporters of the Bush administration's approach to democracy in the Middle East -- invade and let the people see what wonderful things Twitter and Taco Bell are -- are taking credit for the uprising. Well, I'm no expert on the intricacies of the Middle East, but I kind of doubt that the people of Cairo were all gathered around reading Mr. Bush's book and decided then and there to take to the streets. And there's a great deal of difference between a popular uprising in Cairo and a preemptive invasion by the 82nd Airborne. And it's really risky when we don't yet know the outcome. What if Egypt becomes the next Iran? Well, I'm sure there's a way for the Bushies to blame that on President Obama, and take credit if it doesn't.
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Short Takes

Australia, already reeling from flooding, braces for a cyclone.

Protesters gathered in Palm Springs to demonstrate against the Koch brothers' right-wing gathering.

The unrest in Egypt could raise oil prices.

It will be a tough year ahead financially for public schools in Florida.

Taco Bell fights back against the no-beef claims.

R.I.P. Charlie Callas, 83, comic with an amazing voice and face; David Frye, 77, who parlayed Nixon parodies to fame in the 1970's.
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Science Lesson

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) tells the panel on Real Time with Bill Maher that he does not believe in evolution.


I suppose we could get into a whole discussion about the proof that evolution is as incontrovertible as a multiplication table, and that when the fundamentalists dismiss it as "just a theory," they're not aware of the meaning of the term "theory." Gravity is also just a theory.

But the larger point is that it is possible for the human mind to separate fact from fiction. The problem occurs when elected officials with the power to determine the future of this country are incapable of separating their superstition from reality. Mr. Kingston can believe in whatever fantasies he wishes about how the earth came to be, but when he votes against education funding because he thinks that children should be taught mythology along with biology, we have a problem that goes far beyond answering where all the fossils are.

Via Daily Kos.
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Sunday Reading

The Lessons of Tunisia -- Steve Coll writes in The New Yorker about what's at stake when people take to the streets in countries where democracy is a revolutionary idea.

The objections to pushing democratic reform in the Arab world are by now familiar: it may create instability; it may empower Islamist parties; it may open more space for Iranian mischief by empowering Shiite minorities; it can undermine a legitimate opposition group by making its members appear beholden to Western ideas; and it may deprive the United States and Europe of reliable partners in counterterrorism. Yet the corrosive effects of political and economic exclusion in the region cannot be sustained—among them the legions of pent-up, angry young men, Islamist and otherwise.

President Obama has been cautious about democracy promotion. The Bush Administration proceeded similarly during its chastened second term. A 2008 cable from the WikiLeaks Tunisia file unctuously describes a “warm and open” meeting between the assistant secretary of state, David Welch, and President Ben Ali, during which the dictator deployed a tried-and-true strategy, cultivating Washington’s allegiance by pledging “total” coöperation on counterterrorism, “without inhibitions.” Ben Ali also offered some free analysis: “He opined that the situation in Egypt is ‘explosive,’ ” a note-taker recorded, “adding that sooner or later the Muslim Brotherhood would take over” in Cairo. “He added that Yemen and Saudi Arabia are also facing real problems. Overall, the region is ‘explosive.’ ” Psychologists might call this projection, but Ben Ali had the trend lines right.

The Obama Administration’s policies are likely to have only indirect influence in Tunis. Nonetheless, the White House has a choice: to support Tunisia’s transition toward inclusive democracy or to keep a distance, so as to avoid alienating the Egyptian and Saudi regimes, and to thwart Islamists who might now seek to enter Tunisian politics. The practical rewards for promoting democracy in Arab societies may be uncertain and slow, if they come at all. There are significant risks, particularly if Egypt’s government were to fall to leaders who would abandon any alliance with Washington. But it is the right strategy—in principle and in pursuit of America’s national interests. Tunisians showed that the status quo in Arab politics is not stable. Sometimes, common sense is ample guidance in foreign policy: the United States must invest in populations, not in dictators. At hinge moments in domestic politics, President Obama has shown why words matter. Now is the time to add his measured voice to the fury of El Général’s.

More below the fold.

Role Reversal -- Frank Rich notes how now it's President Obama and the Democrats who have become the party of Reagan and the GOP is the one with the malaise.

Obama’s rhetorical Morning in America is exquisitely timed to coincide with the Gipper’s centennial — and, of course, the unacknowledged start of his own 2012 re-election campaign. It’s remarkable how completely the G.O.P. has ceded the optimism of its patron saint to the president just as the country prepares for a deluge of Reaganiana. Obama’s post-New Year’s surge past a 50 percent approval rating — well ahead of both Reagan’s and Bill Clinton’s comeback trajectories after their respective midterm shellackings — may have only just begun.

There was no drama to Obama’s address — just a unifying theme, at long last, as he reasserted the role of government in rebooting and rebuilding the country for a new century and putting Americans back to work. The president wisely left any theatrics to his adversaries, and, as always, they were happy to oblige.

This time we were spared a “You lie!” But once Obama segued into a rambling laundry list and the “prom night” bipartisan photo ops lost their comic novelty, the night’s storyline inevitably shifted to the reliable diva antics of Michele Bachmann, the founder of the House’s Tea Party Caucus. For all the Republican male establishment’s harrumphing, it couldn’t derail her plan to hijack the party’s designated State of the Union response with one of her own. More Katherine Harris than Sarah Palin, Bachmann is far more riveting television bait than Paul Ryan, the bland congressman officially assigned the Bobby Jindal memorial slot after the New Jersey governor Chris Christie was savvy enough to take a pass.

The G.O.P. grandees’ consternation was palpable. Earlier in the day Bachmann had dispatched an e-mail announcing that her speech would be carried live by Fox News. But when the time came, Fox relegated the live feed to its Web site, forcing viewers to scurry to CNN, of all places, and delaying its own television recap until after prime time in the East. Rupert Murdoch’s other major organ, The Wall Street Journal, toed the same line, burying Bachmann’s speech in a half-sentence in its print edition the next morning. By then, John Boehner, seconding the disdain of Eric Cantor, was telling reporters that he hadn’t watched Bachmann because of “other obligations.”

What were they all afraid of? The answer cuts to the crux of the right’s plight less than three months after its supposed restoration. Having sold itself in 2010 as the uncompromising champion of Tea Party-fueled fiscal austerity, the enhanced G.O.P. caucus arrived in Washington in 2011 to discover that most Americans prefer compromise to confrontation and favor balanced budgets in name only.

Whistling Dixie -- James H. Burnett III of the Miami Herald on the reasons we fought a war 150 years ago.

Keeping in mind that 82-year-old Georgia Ayers has six children, 10 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren, and has taught and mentored several thousand more, the most uncomfortable question she’s ever been asked by a youngster has nothing to do with sex or reproduction.

“Whew!” Ayers, an elder stateswoman and unofficial historian in Miami’s African American community said recently. “Gotta catch my breath on that one. I have to tell you the toughest one has always been why did we fight the Civil War? Why would states that belonged to the same club, so to speak, turn on each other? Small children especially, just don’t get it.”

But as the 150th anniversary of the start of America’s deadliest conflict approaches, it appears it’s not only kids who “just don’t get it,” “it” being the cause of the war.

More than 630,000 Americans on both sides were killed in the Civil War between April 1861 and April 1865, and 412,000 were wounded.

As Florida joins dozens of other states preparing to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, also known as the War Between the States, some are asking if the lack of agreement on the cause of the war is behind the feeling that it’s still being fought.

There’s little dispute that the Union North’s motivation was not as magnanimous as has been portrayed in some historical texts, which suggest that the North initiated war simply to keep the union together, and which portray Abraham Lincoln as a prophet-like leader who crushed slavery, though the Emancipation Proclamation only freed some.

Still, the greatest public disputes over the Civil War have always been about the motivations and objectives of the Southern Confederacy, whose history-minded supporters insist that slavery was a side dish to the main course of free trade.

Hundreds of white war celebrants gathered in Charleston, South Carolina, in November to take part in a ball dubbed the “Secession Gala,” where attendees wore period clothing, cheered the pre-Civil War South, sang Dixie and other Confederate songs, and generally partied in a manner that might have made the producers of Gone with the Wind jealous.

Randy Burbage, vice president of the Confederate Heritage Trust, told The New York Times the ball was intended to honor men who were willing to die to protect states’ rights.

In Alabama there are plans for a swearing-in ceremony, featuring an actor playing Jefferson Davis, first president of the Confederate States of America following secession.

And what about Confederate flags? In 1861, they represented a defiant new nation. Today, serious Civil War history buffs insist the flag still represents the same. But they’re also common fodder for racial extremists, irreverent bumper stickers and car antenna banners. Are those vehicles driven by history buffs, free spirits who consider themselves “rebels in spirit,” those who pine for the days when that flag was in use, or none of the above?

“That’s the thing about disputed history,” said South Florida historian Marvin Dunn, an author and former professor at Florida International University. “When you start asking why, the answers become increasingly complex and increasingly ugly. People on both sides get offended by labels and symbols. People defending some aspect of the war get defensive.

“But we’re a tough nation. So maybe this is finally the time that we can put the Civil War to rest, not in terms of remembering it, but in terms of being honest about what it was about...what it was ALL about.”

Doonesbury -- American Idol.
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Heil Mary

Just what the world needs; a benevolent Christian dictatorship.


We Need a Christian Dictator
Uploaded by OnKneesforJesus. - News videos hot off the press.
To quote the immortal Molly Ivins, it sounded better in the original German.

As for a Christian dictatorship, we tried it. How'd that work out?

(By the way, "OnKneesforJesus" sounds like a Gay.com chatroom nickname in Miami. Dr. Freud, call your service.)

HT to Balloon Juice.
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Egypt

The protests and rioting has continued in Cairo and other cities. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak went on TV last night (early morning over there) to announce that he was firing his cabinet and promised reforms, but did not call off the army from breaking up demonstrations and breaking heads.

President Obama issued a brief statement calling for peace and reforms, but like the rest of us, there's not much we can do from the sidelines. (I'm wondering when Michele Bachmann will demand that the U.S. shows its solidarity with the Pharaoh.)

Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language cable news channel, has been doing a lot of live coverage from Egypt despite the government's shutting down of the internet and cell phone service there. They are also live-streaming coverage on their website if you care to tune in. Apparently, the revolution will be televised after all.
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On This Date

January 28, 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during launch from Cape Canaveral.

I was working in an office in the student union at the University of Colorado. I had the radio on, listening to classical music, when the announcer came on and said that there had been an "incident" with the shuttle launch. Then, through the wall which I shared with a pizza parlor, I heard the big screen TV come on with the news coverage from NBC. Everything stopped.
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No One Could Have Predicted

The report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is out on what caused the 2008 economic crash and the current Great Recession. Although the commission is not unanimous -- and Republicans on it have issued a dissenting opinion -- the report says that the crash was foreseeable and preventable.

The report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission draws on more than 700 interviews, millions of e-mail exchanges and other records that have not previously been disclosed.

While the official 633-page document comes after the Dodd-Frank law tightened up financial regulation, its findings are certain to be pored over for years — and not just by historians.

On Wall Street, analysts were already scouring 1,200 supporting documents the panel released on its Web site; an additional 700 documents and some 300 transcripts of audio interviews are to be posted before the panel’s mandate expires Feb. 13.

The report examined the risky mortgage loans that helped build the housing bubble; the packaging of those loans into exotic securities that were sold to investors; and the heedless placement of giant bets on those investments.

Enabling those developments, the panel found, were a bias toward deregulation by government officials, and mismanagement by financiers who failed to perceive the risks.

The Fed, under Mr. Bernanke’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, failed to develop mortgage lending standards that could have stemmed the flow of bad mortgages into the financial pipeline, the panel found. “The Federal Reserve was clearly the steward of lending standards in this country,” said one commissioner, John W. Thompson, a technology executive. “They chose not to act.”

The GOP response seems to be based on the premise that the report doesn't say what they want it to say, so it's wrong.
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Jon Stewart Replaces Keith Olbermann

...at least in terms of taking on Bill O'Reilly.

Last week, Jon Stewart called out Fox News's Megyn Kelly for denying that people on her network use Nazi comparisons. Mr. O'Reilly took exception to that, and now Mr. Stewart has responded. Enjoy.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Bill O'Reilly Defends His Nazi Analogies
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

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I Love You, You're Perfect.... Now Change

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) are proposing a constitutional amendment to get rid of birthright citizenship.

This act would repeal a part of the 14th Amendment, which is the one that was enacted after the Civil War to guarantee citizenship to the children of slaves born here. In this case they're going after the children of undocumented immigrants.

It's a nice red-meat way to deal with the immigration issue, and that's about all it really will be. It takes super-majorities in both Houses of Congress and the legislatures of the states to pass an amendment, which means it's really hard to do it, so it's not going to go anywhere. It also leaves open the question as to what happens to a child who is born here without being a citizen of any country. They never seem to think these things through, but it will get them time on Fox News, so there you have it.

Did you ever notice that it's the people who swear that they love the Constitution and believe it is sacred text are always the ones who want to change it fundamentally by repealing basic rights or clutter it up with crap with things like flag burning, balanced budgets, and matrimonial conditions. What is up with that?
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Mike Pence: Not This Time

A lot of conservatives were waiting breathlessly for Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) to announce that he was running for president. I got an e-mail from Richard Viguerie touting him as the only conservative who was worthy of his support. Well, according to the Indianapolis Star, it looks like they're going to be disappointed.

"In the choice between seeking national office and serving Indiana in some capacity, we choose Indiana," Pence, R-Columbus, said of himself and wife Karen in a letter being sent to supporters. "We will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012."

He said he would make a decision "later this year" about what his next political step is, but by not running for president it is considered a virtual certainty that he will run for the GOP nomination for governor.

I don't think I could make a living as a political prognosticator, but something tells me that if Mike Pence is passing up the 2012 race, the serious base of the GOP is basically conceding the election to Barack Obama. They're going to let the flashes in the pan like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Sharron Angle go out there and contend with Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, and Newt Gingrich, beat themselves to a pulp until Mitt Romney can step in and become the 21st century version of Tom Dewey, and lose respectfully to the incumbent. Then, having proved that the Tea Party and the womenfolk have had their chance and lost, the insiders like Mr. Viguerie and Karl Rove will bide their time until 2016 when they can come roaring back with someone like Mike Pence or Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as the "mainstream" Republican alternative.

Granted, neither of them are more moderate than the wingnuts, but they are not going around the country talking about target practice, and at least they will have stayed in office rather than quit to rake in the cash from book tours.

HT to TPM.
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Friday Blogaround

Okay, who had a Sputnik moment this week?

A Blog Around The Clock: Coturnix and the copperheads.
archy writes his own SOTU and invites you to do so.
Bark Bark Woof Woof reviews the SOTU.
Bloggg does too.
Dohiyi Mir remembers the fallen who reached for the stars.
Echidne Of The Snakes on the murder of a gay man in Uganda.
Florida Progressive Coalition Blog on the redistricting plans in Florida.
The Invisible Library: If Keith were president...
Left Is Right with bits of the week.
Pen-Elayne on the Web and the state of the web.
Rook's Rant and the Founders' intent.
rubber hose on the most revealing thing about the NRA.
Scrutiny Hooligans: go for the equality.
Stupid Enough Unexplanation: render unto Caesar.
The Yellow Something Something: if we put terrorists on trial in America, they'll get off. Oh, wait.
WTF Is It Now?? 400 rabbis versus Glenn Beck.

What the hell is wrong with Utah?
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Short Takes

First it was Tunisia, then Egypt, and now Yemen.

Nelson Mandela has been hospitalized.

The Illinois Supreme Court rules in favor of Rahm Emanuel staying on the ballot in the Chicago mayor's race.

Jay Carney is the new White House press secretary.

The Senate nibbled around the edges of changing the filibuster rules.

The weather from Boston to Washington is just lousy.

Stocks closed flat after unemployment figures stayed the same.
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Friday Catblogging Classic

This perfectly represents my week.
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Один маленький шаг...

According to Sarah Palin, the Russians won the space race.

GRETA: Governor, last night there was a lot of discussion about the Sputnik Moment the President wants us to have. Do you agree with him? Is this our moment?

PALIN: That was another one of those WTF moments, when he has so often repeated, the Sputnik Moment, that he would aspire Americans to celebrate, he needs to remember that what happened back then with the former communist USSR and their victory and that race to space, yeah, they won, but they also incured [sic] so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union so I listen to that Sputnik Moment talk over and over again and I think, no we don’t need one of those.

Aside from the fact that she sounds like a middle school brat (WTF indeed), you would think that someone who thinks the sun rises and sets on the memory of Ronald Reagan would remember that it was the arms race -- i.e. nuclear weapons and SDI -- that drove the Soviet Union to the poor house. They were building so many weapons to keep up with us that they couldn't make soap, and they gave up on the space race by 1966. That was Reagan's legacy, according the GOP. So either Ms. Palin doesn't know her own party's orthodoxy or she doesn't know history. Take a wild guess.
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A Little Night Music

In memory of Gladys Horton.


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Must Have Been Quite a Party

The mystery of the baby grand piano on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay has been solved.

Like many grand ideas, this one started out when many were drunk.

And that's how a burned baby grand piano found its way onto a mud flat in Biscayne Bay and, ultimately, worldwide fame.

The solution to the mystery involves a guy with a bagpipe, a rollicking New Year's Eve party and a teenager looking to make a splash on his college admissions. Oh, and flammable liquid applied to a movie prop that was stored in Grandma's garage for four years.

''We were peer-pressured into burning it,'' said 16-year-old Nicholas Harrington, a MAST Academy junior hoping to study art or engineering at Manhattan's Cooper Union college.

Oh, so if all the other kids were putting musical instruments in the middle of the ocean and setting them ablaze, that makes it all right? Kids these days....
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The Unkindest Cuts

The Republicans rode their way to the election win last November by demanding budget cuts; the mantra of the Tea Party is cut spending on everything. They now proudly proclaim it is "the will of the people." That's a nice slogan and it moves a lot of air, but when you ask people, as the Gallup poll did, about what they'd like to actually see cut, it gets a little murky.

Prior to the State of the Union address, a majority of Americans said they favor cutting U.S. foreign aid, but more than 6 in 10 opposed cuts to education, Social Security, and Medicare. Smaller majorities objected to cutting programs for the poor, national defense, homeland security, aid to farmers, and funding for the arts and sciences.

Tops on the list for things that the public said should be cut is foreign aid; after all, why should we send money to other countries when we should be spending it here, right? And besides, all the ungrateful bastards do is take it and train terrorists, right? Well, even if it was a good idea -- which it is not -- it would mean cutting a whopping one (1) percent from the budget.

That gives you an idea about how hard it's going to be to do "the will of the people," because when you get right down to actually doing it, they're going to hate it.
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In A Galaxy Far, Far Away

I'm not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination, but I've always loved a good story about the mysteries of our universe, and this is just plain cool.

Hubble's still got it.

The aging beauty of a space telescope has glimpsed a presumed galaxy that astronomers say might just be the oldest thing ever seen, a small, hot affair that blazed to life during the childhood of the cosmos.

Age of Hubble: Almost 21.

Age of the possible galaxy: 13 billion years, give or take.

Although NASA's Hubble has offered a generation's worth of spectacular images - sparkling galaxies, billowing nebulae, stunning star clusters - its latest quarry lacks charisma. The presumed oldest galaxy is but a faint smudge on Hubble's Ultra Deep Field image, the astronomical equivalent of a days-long staring contest.

[...]

Writing in the journal Nature, Bouwens and his team say they are 80 percent certain the object is, in fact, an ancient galaxy. They won't know for sure until new telescopes come online over the next few years, particularly the over-budget James Webb Space Telescope, slated to replace Hubble in 2015.

Light from the presumed galaxy lies outside the range of human vision, smeared deep into the infrared by the extreme velocity at which the object is racing away from us - some 98 percent the speed of the light, the universe's ultimate speed limit.

It kind of puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?
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Stand Down From Yellow Alert

Say goodbye to the color chart:

The nation's color-coded terror warning system will be phased out beginning this week, according to government officials familiar with the plan. The officials requested anonymity to speak ahead of an announcement scheduled Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The Homeland Security Department and other government agencies have been reviewing the Homeland Security Advisory System's usefulness for more than a year. One of the most notable changes to come: The public will no longer hear automated recordings at U.S. airports stating that the threat level is orange.

The only time those charts were ever put to use was just before an election anyway.
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Literary License

Via Instaputz, we learn that Ayn Rand, the author who opposed the welfare state and inspired the literati of the Tea Party -- all three of them -- collected Social Security and Medicare.

Critics of Social Security and Medicare frequently invoke the words and ideals of author and philosopher Ayn Rand, one of the fiercest critics of federal insurance programs. But a little-known fact is that Ayn Rand herself collected Social Security. She may also have received Medicare benefits.

An interview recently surfaced that was conducted in 1998 by the Ayn Rand Institute with a social worker who says she helped Rand and her husband, Frank O’Connor, sign up for Social Security and Medicare in 1974.

Federal records obtained through a Freedom of Information act request confirm the Social Security benefits. A similar FOI request was unable to either prove or disprove the Medicare claim.

Between December 1974 and her death in March 1982, Rand collected a total of $11,002 in monthly Social Security payments.

After Atlas shrugged, he cashed the check.
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Short Takes

Both Tunisia and Egypt are finding out what the people really think.

President Obama hit the road to sell the state of the union.

Jared Loughner had done his homework on assassinations.

It's yet another snow day in the Northeast.

Today's number: $1.5 trillion -- That's the CBO's prediction for the U.S. budget deficit.

Meanwhile, the Dow broke through 12,000 briefly before settling back.
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A Little Night Music

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It's Her Party

Jon Stewart looks at Fox News' Megyn Kelly and her denial that the channel doesn't compare other people to... well, you know who.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Thanks, CLW.
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Straight Up the Middle

President Obama's State of the Union speech fit right in with the seating arrangements of the House chamber last night: liberals sitting with conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, trying to show signs of getting along and going together. There was something in the speech for everyone; deficit hawks got their spending freeze declaration while those wanting new programs and government initiatives to fix everything got their promises to fund high-speed rail. Education got a lot of attention, which, based on some of the things his opponents have been saying in the last few days, would be money well spent. He honored the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and promised to bring them home while at the same time declaring that the war to defeat al-Qaeda and terrorism would go on. Healthcare would be revised if needed, but not repealed, earmarks would be vetoed, and government red tape and bureaucracy would vanish so that we wouldn't have three different agencies overseeing one salmon.

The overall tone of the speech was cautiously optimistic; we can achieve a lot of things if we all stop worrying about who gets the credit. This is part of his "win the future" philosophy -- or campaign slogan -- and while Mr. Obama didn't reach for the oratorical rafters as he did recently in Tucson, he avoided the wonky nuts and bolts of a speech packed with details. Rather he was going for the long run, setting goals for years, not Congressional terms.

I didn't stay up to watch the GOP responses; either the one from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) or Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Looking at them now, Mr. Ryan was certainly a buzz-kill after the president; oh god, oh god we're all gonna die from the debt; and Ms. Bachmann's only real purpose was to provide comic relief. Trust me, this will be SNL's opening this week. ("Camera? I'm supposed to look in the camera?")

I have a feeling that the reaction from the masses will be overly positive. There will be the picking-over about word choices and what was left out, not to mention the right-wingers jumping on any tiny bit of something that seems out of place ("OMG, his tie was the color of the Socialist Party of Freedonia!"), and I'm sure there will be some oil company lobbyists -- and therefore some Congressfolk -- who will get their tails all puffed up about the president referring to oil as "yesterday's energy." But it's hard not to like speeches and ideas that call for a brighter future and put out goals that are based on finding common ground and appealing to the broadest possible market. That works in policy ideas and, not surprisingly, a lot of election campaigns.
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Popping the Balloon

I know watching talking heads yelling at each other doesn't really do much to add light to the discourse, but every so often you have to enjoy it for the pure entertainment value. Here's Chris Matthews taking on Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express and his selection of Michele Bachmann to represent them to the nation after the State of the Union speech. Joan Walsh from Salon.com is along for the ride.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Big Guns

After four police officers have been killed in Florida in the last two weeks, there's a movement afoot in Tallahassee by the National Rifle Association to make guns more available to everybody.

On a related note, the New York Times reports that the NRA is doing all it can to stymie scientific research into firearms.

When it comes to lobbying and controlling the people who make the laws, the NRA makes Big Tobacco and the oil companies look like wusses.
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Short Takes

President Obama delivered his State of the Union speech last night.

The signs were there -- A Congressional inquiry says the 2008 financial crisis was avoidable.

The Mexican drug cartels love our loose gun laws.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' condition has been upgraded to good.

A mixed bag -- Unemployment is up in some states, down in others.

The Northeast braces for yet another snowstorm.

Rahm Emanuel is -- for the moment -- still on the ballot for Chicago mayor while the Illinois Supreme Court hears the case.

The Oscar nominations were announced; The King's Speech leads the pack with twelve.
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State of the Union

I'm going to watch it. I'll let you know what I thought about it later; probably in the morning. Oh, come on, you can wait, can't you?
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A Little Night Music

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Quote of the Day

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on working with President Obama:

If the president is willing to do what I and my members would do anyway, we’re not going to say no....

He's such a pushover.
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He Learns Fast

Politico picks up on the David Rivera story and how it's going to make things interesting for the new leadership.

Just three weeks into his congressional career, Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) has earned the dubious distinction of being the first member of the historic class of House GOP freshmen to find himself at the center of an ethics scandal.

The Rivera case also could prove an early and politically sensitive problem for Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and other top Republicans who criticized former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handling of scandals involving Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Boehner has yet to comment on the allegations involving Rivera, yet behind the scenes, GOP insiders already are drawing contingency plans for a replacement should the freshman lawmaker resign or be forced to step aside, according to multiple Republican sources.

Cantor, meanwhile, has promised a “zero-tolerance policy” for GOP lawmakers caught up in the scandals. But so far, the Virginia Republican has refused to comment on the Rivera case, drawing criticisms of hypocrisy from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

It's good to see that Mr. Rivera is such a quick study on how things go in Washington. It took Charlie Rangel thirty years, but he did it in three weeks. Of course, he did have a good background; that's how they roll in the Florida legislature.
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Previews of Coming Attractions

Tim Pawlenty goes cineplex to sell his new book and kick off his short-lived presidential campaign.


All that's missing is Coming soon in 3D.
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That Didn't Take Long

If you were wondering how long it would take before the GOP started taking credit for the economic recovery, here's your answer.

It took less than three weeks for the new Republican Congressional leadership to claim credit for an apparent economic upturn.

An aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Brian Patrick, emailed reporters this morning:

THERE ARE THE JOBS: Republicans Prevent Massive Tax Increase, Economy Begins to Improve....

This goes right along with them not having anything whatsoever to do with the economic collapse in 2008 because they didn't even notice it until January 21, 2009.

HT to Steve Benen.
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Don't Know Much About History

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was speaking in Iowa this past weekend about how America was founded on diversity. One key passage:

Speaking at an Iowans For Tax Relief event, Bachmann (R-MN) also noted how slavery was a "scourge" on American history, but added that "we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."

"And," she continued, "I think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forbearers who worked tirelessly -- men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country."

Oh, and all this time I thought it was Abraham Lincoln who was president during the Civil War. And apparently President Adams had amazing recuperative powers to sign the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, seeing as how he had died in 1848.

I can't wait to hear her response to President Ford's State of the Union speech tonight.
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Hatching An Investigation

The Washington Post reports that the Bush White House violated the Hatch Act quite a few times.

At least seven Cabinet secretaries to President George W. Bush took politically motivated trips at taxpayer expense while aides falsely claimed they were traveling on official business, the independent Office of Special Counsel said Monday night in concluding a three-year probe.

In a report on allegations that first surfaced before Bush left office, the agency condemned what it depicted as widespread violations of a law restricting political activities by federal workers and illegal use of federal funds to engage in electioneering.

The abuses mostly occurred in 2005 and 2006, when Bush's advisers were anxious about the looming midterm electoral losses that would hand control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats.

According to the report, the White House improperly orchestrated the use of assets throughout the government to help key congressional allies as the voting drew near, including arranging more than a hundred ostensibly official appearances by top appointees in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Connecticut.

This federally funded travel was organized, approved and closely tracked by Bush's political office, the Office of Special Counsel found, describing the activity as leading to the illegal diversion of federal funds and workers' time.

Gee, I wonder if Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his House Committee is going to look into this. He did promise to investigate White House corruption, didn't he?
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Short Takes

The death toll stands at 35 in the bombing at the Moscow airport.

Two police officers were killed in a shoot-out in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Thousands turned out to mourn the two police officers killed last week in Miami.

Rahm Emanuel gets knocked off the ballot for mayor of Chicago.

It's the economy -- President Obama is expected to focus on pretty much one thing tonight at the SOTU speech.

Jared Loughner pleads not guilty to the charges he faces in Arizona.
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A Little Night Music

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Visitors Welcome

There was some good news on the healthcare front last week: any hospital that accepts Medicare or Medicaid has to allow the patient to put anyone they choose on their visitor's list. That means that no hospital can refuse to let anyone who is not part of what the hospital defines as "family" be at their bedside.

It's a radical step toward embracing an approach to "family" that breaks us out of the Dad, Mom, Bud and Sis configuration that still looms so large in the American imagination and in its laws despite the fact that fewer and fewer of us live in those family units. Now you can be by your best friend's side whether you're Carmelite nuns or used to play soccer together, or work together or look alike or not. It doesn't matter whether your aunt approves of you and your "shiksa whore" girlfriend or your transgender spouse, so long as your cousin wants you there.

Of course policy is only as good as we are when it comes to enforcement: people should know about the new visitation rules and ask for them when they're not offered—and they won't always be, for a lot of reasons, ranging from administrators' lack of knowledge to prejudice.

But what a joy to know that the option now exists: that we no longer need to be afraid of letting down the people we love when they need us most.

That means that situations like the story of Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond won't happen again. And I'm sure that as soon as the Family Research Council hears about this they will raise holy hell. Because, according to their name, they're the only ones who can define what a family is.

HT to Balloon Juice.
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Reforming Reform

Ross Douthat engages in some fantasies about what the GOP could do if they were able to repeal and replace the healthcare bill, all the while conceding that the chances of that happening are slim.

What Republicans need is a different kind of incremental approach, one that uses the strongest conservative critiques of the health care bill as a framework for a reform of the reform. If Obama is defeated in 2012, this framework could easily be adapted into a full scale repeal-and-replace effort. But in the event that he’s re-elected, it would offer a Republican Congress a blueprint for improving the law without doing away with it entirely.

It'll never work. Not because the bill will be repealed, but because the Republicans will never agree to reforming the reform in the first place. To do so would be to admit that they have to live with the law, and they'll never do that. Compromise and adaptation is for the other guys.
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Even Baby Doc Needs A Lawyer

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier's return to his homeland last week got some attention, as did his legal representation: Former Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia.

You might remember Bob Barr as the relentless right-wing pursuer of Bill Clinton in the 1990's. His job for Baby Doc is to help him get his frozen funds out of a Swiss bank that have been there since 1986.

Duvalier “is very interested in trying to get those funds freed up, not for himself, but so they can be used to help the situation in Haiti,” Barr said by phone from Port-au-Prince today. Barr, 62, was a Republican representative from Georgia in 1995-2003 and ran for president in 2008 on the Libertarian Party ticket.

Barr accompanied Duvalier yesterday as the former dictator made his first public comments since his Jan. 16 return to his homeland from a 25-year exile. Also accompanying Duvalier were two other American lawyers, Ed Marger of Jasper, Georgia, and Mike Puglise of Snellville, Georgia, according to a statement issued by Barr’s office.

Haven't the people of Haiti suffered enough?

HT to The Reid Report.
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Of Tea Leaves and Tea Partiers

All the Very Serious People are chock-full of advice for what President Obama should say tomorrow night in the State of the Union speech, ranging from what spending should be cut to who should be sitting with Michelle Obama in the gallery. And of course the Villagers in the Beltway will be all gathered around to tell us what the president will say, then what he said, and what it all means.

George F. Will got all schoolmarmy yesterday on ABC, tut-tutting about it being a pep rally and therefore it was unworthy of the attendance of the Supreme Court and military leaders. His objection is noted; however, it's also new-founded. I'm pretty sure he wasn't upset when the Supremes showed up for Presidents Bush and Reagan. If he's worried about the Court being seen as pawns in a political rally, perhaps he should let them know that it's only at a State of the Union speech where they have to pretend to be oh so above it all; when it's conservative events, why, heck, no problem. I guess the difference is that the State of the Union is supposed to be non-partisan but invariably is, whereas with fund-raisers, there's no pretense.

There will be a Republican response, read by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who has been hailed over the last year as the guy with the roadmap to fiscal sanity by proposing massive budget cuts on everything. He's seen as their mainstream response. Then there's Rep. Michele Bachmann, (R-MN), fresh back from her first trip to Iowa in pursuit of her dream of running for president, who will deliver the Tea Party's response. Her challenge will be to do it in such a way that she doesn't bear a startling resemblance to one of the members of Fred Phelps' clan.

So it should be fun to watch, at least for the theatre, because that's what it is. I'm hard-pressed to think of any time in my life where the State of the Union speech actually changed the course of governing or initiated a piece of legislation that hadn't already been negotiated and refigured within an inch of its life. What it really is is the formal kickoff of the 2012 presidential campaign. Have at it.
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Short Takes

The Palestinians have been offering concessions to Israel; so far, no takers.

A missing boat with five Americans has landed in the Philippines.

No surprise here -- the GOP is opposed to President Obama's spending plans.

Hundreds of police officers from around the country will honor the two cops killed last week in Miami.

It's still very cold in the Northeast.

Gas prices are up almost three cents in two weeks.

It's the Packers vs. the Steelers in the Super Bowl in two weeks.

R.I.P. Jack LaLanne, 94, the original Mr. Muscles.
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Winter Memory

My friend Bob K. from Petoskey dropped me a note to remind me of what I was missing in northern Michigan and sent along a reminder.

That's his house from a couple of years ago, but he says it looks pretty much the same today.
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Sunday Reading

It's a New World -- Take a look at the new home of Miami Beach's New World Center.

The story of how the world's most celebrated living architect came to design an ingenious new music-academy campus and concert hall in Miami Beach goes back almost 60 years, to a rather prosaic circumstance: Frank Gehry, then a young, unknown Los Angeles architect, baby-sat a precocious 8-year-old named Michael Thomas.

A few years later, the piano prodigy would shoot to fame as an orchestral conductor under his full name, Michael Tilson Thomas. As so often happens with architects, it took Gehry longer, into his sixth decade, before he, too, gained world renown.

Umpteen Grammys and architectural accolades later, their long friendship has been cemented in a new, high-tech musical home for the New World Symphony -- the Beach-based orchestra for young musicians that Tilson Thomas founded and leads -- quite unlike any other concert hall anywhere.

As much Tilson Thomas' handiwork as Gehry's, the $160 million New World Center, which opens this week with a series of galas and concerts, bears their shared trademarks of edgy experimentation, intellectual rigor and artistic ambition tempered by unabashedly populist impulses.

A combination performance laboratory and finishing academy for music-school graduates, the gleaming music box aims no less than to nurture new audiences and modes of performance by remolding fusty conceptions of the classical concert hall.

Loaded with the latest digital technology -- the fastest broadband capability, the sharpest HD cameras, the most powerful video projectors -- the New World Center was conceived for maximum adaptability and appeal. Video art and live concerts will be projected in high definition onto a massive exterior wall to crowds gathered under palms and yellow Poincianas in a new city park, designed by Dutch firm West 8. Inside, the auditorium can morph from symphony hall to nightclub.

The idea -- mostly Tilson Thomas' -- is to foster real-time collaborations between musicians in Miami Beach and somewhere else, or between musicians and video artists, or between classical instrumentalists and D.J.s, or any number of other, as-yet-unimagined musical mash-ups.

More below the fold.

Baby Back Ribs -- Carl Hiaasen has a few things to say to Baby Doc Duvalier as he returns to Haiti.

The return of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier to Haiti can mean only one thing: He blew through all the money he stole during his presidency, and he was hoping for another big score.

After nearly 25 years in luxurious exile — bankrolled by the people he betrayed — the deadbeat son of one of the hemisphere’s most brutal dictators shocked his homeland and the international community last week when he stepped off an Air France jet in Port-au-Prince.

“I came to put myself at the service of my country,” said Baby Doc, apparently auditioning to be a standup comedian.

Haiti needs more of Duvalier like it needs another earthquake.

As this column is being written, Jean-Claude is staying at a swank hotel in Petionville. He was released from police custody after being charged with corruption and embezzlement dating back to his time in power.

There’s no telling whether he’ll be prosecuted, deported or repatriated. One thing is true: If he’s still alive when this is published, he’s fortunate.

For almost three decades his family barbarously ruled Haiti, plundering the national treasury while further pauperizing a population that was already one of the world’s poorest.

The bleak and bloody era began with Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose fondness for torturing and murdering his political opponents became legendary. Upon his death in 1971, his son took over and was decreed president-for-life.

Jean-Claude was 19 years old, clueless and spoiled rotten.

He kept intact the vicious Tonton Macoutes, a force of armed “volunteers” that his father had deployed to terrorize Haitian civilians and stomp out all dissent. He also preserved the tradition of corruption, many millions of dollars in foreign aid vanishing while the country’s feeble infrastructure continued to disintegrate.

As conditions worsened, thousands of Haitian began leaving on rickety boats for Florida, a migration that continues to this day in spurts.

While raw sewage ran in the streets, Duvalier and his glamorous, free-spending wife, Michele, lived and traveled like royalty. The kindest thing to be said about Baby Doc was that he wasn’t quite as horrible as his old man, although he still endorsed the imprisonment, mutilation and even murder of his critics.

Protests under Baby Doc were put down violently, but eventually the unrest became so widespread that it couldn’t be suppressed. In January 1986, Duvalier declared a state of siege and shut down the schools and universities, but by then it was too late.

Early on the morning of Feb. 7, Baby Doc fled — in style.

He drove Michele to the airport in a BMW sedan stuffed with soft-sided luggage from Gucci and Louis Vuitton. At 3:46 a.m., they gathered family members and boarded a C-141 Starlifter provided by the U.S. government.

And off they flew to France, the ignominy of their forced exit made bearable by the fortune they’d emptied from government banks before their departure.

What Should He Say? -- The New York Times asked an array of op-ed columnists what President Obama should say in his State of the Union address this week. Here's what Dan Savage suggested.

I’m not an idiot: Now that the Republicans hold the House, only wishful thinkers and the deeply delusional expect to see any movement on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legislative agenda this year or next. Nevertheless, President Obama should address gay rights in his State of the Union speech this week, and he should tackle the biggest, most meaningful right of them all: the right to marry.

When he was a candidate for the Illinois State Senate in 1996, Mr. Obama told a gay publication that he supported “legalizing same-sex marriages.” Twelve years later, right about the time he decided to run for president, he came out against marriage equality. But, as the president likes to say, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Where a Gallup poll in 1996 found that just 27 percent of the nation supported equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, a CNN poll last summer found that a majority now supports marriage equality.

The president — perhaps after introducing Daniel Hernandez Jr., the openly gay intern credited with saving Representative Gabrielle Giffords’s life — should declare that the trend is clear: this country increasingly believes that Mr. Hernandez and other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans should have all the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens.

Gay Americans are eventually going to win on marriage just like we won on military service, the president should tell Congress, so why not save everyone on both sides of the debate a lot of time, trouble and money by approving the entire gay rights agenda? Send the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, the Uniting American Families Act and the repeal of the odious Defense of Marriage Act to his desk for his signature.

He can assure the lawmakers that, yes, there’s something in it for Americans who disapprove of homosexuality too.

Social conservatives long to raise their children in a country where they don’t have to hear about homosexuality every time they turn on the news. I’d like raise my son in a country like that too. And guess what? In countries like Canada — where the fight over gay rights is essentially over, where there is gay marriage, open military service and employment protections — homosexuality hardly ever makes the front pages of newspapers. There’s nothing much to report.

Conservatives can’t get rid of us, but they can hear less from and about us. They just have to bend toward justice.

Doonesbury -- How much?
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Olbermann's Exit

I don't have a lot to add to the news that Keith Olbermann and MSNBC have parted ways. There are a lot of theories floating around, but whatever the reason, life will still go on and I'm sure that Mr. Olbermann will find something to do. Or maybe he'll just take it easy for while. $30 million takes the sting out of being unemployed.

As for the petitions and calls to reinstate him or boycott MSNBC, I'm pretty sure that even Mr. Olbermann would suggest that there are far more important things to get worked up about than what's on TV at night.
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Short Takes

There's been a shake-up in the government in Ireland.

The talks with Iran about their nuclear program ended with no progress.

More car bombs have gone off in Baghdad.

Mitt Romney won the GOP straw poll in New Hampshire.

Sargent Shriver was remembered by friends and family.

South Florida gets another cold snap.
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The Keys

Today looks like a good day to go to the Keys.

See you later.
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A Little Night Music

Sounds like a good idea.
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Question of the Day

I've asked this one before, but it's been a while...

What's the worst book you've read to the point that you couldn't finish it?

I started reading the next book in the Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) series. To quote the immortal Dorothy Parker, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

HT to Melissa.
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"Our Worst Nightmare"

The law enforcement community in Miami is in shock this morning after two Miami-Dade police officers were killed in the line of duty.

Hunting a violent career criminal wanted for murder, Miami-Dade police detectives knocked on the door of a Liberty City duplex Thursday morning. The man's mother let them in.

But Johnny Simms, a tattooed thug fresh off his most recent prison stint, refused to face justice, jumping out from another room with his pistol blazing at point-blank range.

Police bullets felled the fugitive -- but not before he shot and killed veteran detectives Roger Castillo, 41, and Amanda Haworth, 44.

The career criminal's bloody last stand rocked South Florida's law enforcement community, which has counted six other officers killed in the line of duty in the past five years.

''I know I'm supposed to say we're all children of God and that things happen,'' said an angry and tearful Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus. ''But that guy is evil. He murdered two of my people today.''

The shooting was the first double police murder in South Florida since Miami-Dade detectives Richard Boles and David Strzalkowski were gunned down at a trailer park in 1988, and the first time a female officer was shot to death on the job in Miami-Dade.

It's been a very difficult time for police in Miami; there have been a number of officer-involved shootings that have put the community, especially in the inner city, on edge. And this tragedy only makes it worse. As James Burnett asks in a column in the Miami Herald, there was plenty of outrage when the police shot suspects, but where is the outrage when the cops are killed?

So if shootings perceived to be unfair are what gets clergy and activists riled up in Miami these days, where were the clergy, the activists, and the all-purpose fist-shakers Thursday when two cops were gunned down? That's about as unfair as shootings get.

I found one. Not two, not three, not a gaggle, not a handful. One preacher-activist among a dozen called and visited between the crime scene and the hospital, who was willing to say on the record that the shooting of Castillo and Haworth was heinous and preventable.

''The problem with some of my peers,'' said the Rev. Jerome Starling, a pastor at Jordan Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Liberty City, ''is that they are not willing to call a spade a spade.

''Law enforcement is tasked with protecting us. They do that with the occasional exception,'' Starling said. ''And yet we demonstrate no respect for them. We berate them. And we express sympathy and concern when some people are killed. But we can't be bothered to to be bothered when police officers are killed. And that's a shame.''

Amen. And I hold the officers, their families, and the rest of our community in the Light.
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Playing In Traffic

Here's another story that's not from The Onion but sounds like it should be: First Lady's Anti-Obesity Campaign Could Be Causing More Pedestrian Deaths.

Tucker Carlson's unintentionally funny site actually ran a story claiming that because more people were walking to work at the urging of Michelle Obama and her get-fit campaign, more people where being run over.

Pedestrian deaths increased sharply during the first half of 2010, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). On Wednesday, the Executive Director of the GHSA accused the first lady's obesity program of causing the deaths by encouraging people to exercise.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner, GHSA Executive Director Barbara Harsha said that while there are not yet definitive answers as to why there were more pedestrian deaths in 2010 than 2009, Obama's "get moving" movement could be at least partially to blame.

"There's an emphasis these days to getting fit, and I think people doing that are more exposed to risk [of getting hit by a vehicle]," Harsha told the Examiner. "Obviously, further study is needed."

They have now updated the story several times (including adding a question mark to the headline) after Ms. Harsha stated that she had been misquoted.

“We in no way oppose Ms. Obama’s program.” She said she was trying to make a broader point about pedestrian awareness and safety. If Obama’s program is getting more people to walk, “they need to be aware of their surroundings and do so in a safe manner.”

As for the "sharp"rise in pedestrian deaths, they went up by seven, from 1,884 to 1,891.

Do these people truly have nothing better to do than come up with absurdities like this?

HT to Steve Benen.
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And Your Point Was...?

Now that the Republicans have had their little kinderspiel with voting in the House to repeal the healthcare bill knowing all the while that it will not go anywhere, you'd think they would actually try to get serious about doing what they said they were going to do about jobs and fixing the economy.

Except their first proposal to fix the economy would be to cut thousands of federal jobs and reduce government services, which would have the net effect of increasing unemployment, and not just in the public sector. Like any industry, there would be a ripple effect to the private business that contract with the government, making things tough for them. They'd have to lay off people, which would depress the economy again, and ... well, you get the idea. And these cuts would inevitably hit the states, requiring them to pick up the slack for what the federal government can no longer do, as if they don't have enough trouble with their own budgets as it is.

I suppose the question for the Republicans would be, "do you people actually think about what you're doing?", but I'm pretty sure we already know the answer to that one.
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David Brooks vs. History

David Brooks has some very nice things to say about Joe Lieberman, but he kind of blows the whole argument by failing to do his homework.

Lieberman votes with the Democrats 90 percent of the time, but he has always been a Scoop Jackson Democrat who early on broke with his party on defense issues. In the 1990s, he challenged party orthodoxy on school choice, entitlement reform and the place of religion in public life.

But precisely because of these independent or hawkish credentials, he’s been able to leap in at critical moments and deliver for the party in a way no other senator could. Long before there was an Obamacare debate or the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal, Lieberman played an important role in saving Bill Clinton from impeachment. As momentum for impeachment was growing, Lieberman gave a crucial speech on the Senate floor that scolded Clinton for his behavior but resolutely opposed removing him from office. [Emphasis added]

Except Bill Clinton was impeached. It was in all the papers. As you might remember from your high school civics class, the House impeaches the president, the Senate then holds a trial to remove him from office. In Clinton's case, the removal failed, but Sen. Lieberman had nothing to do with preventing the House from impeaching Mr. Clinton.

My suggestion to Mr. Brooks: If you're going to remind us why we're all going to be very glad to see Joe Lieberman retire, at least get your facts straight. There are plenty of other examples of his career to annoy us without getting them wrong.
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Friday Blogaround

A short week for some, but still full of LC blogging.

A Blog Around The Clock links to a post about the low-carbon diet.
archy asks what was that all about?
Bark Bark Woof Woof remembers the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.
Dohiyi Mir: take a walk.
Echidne Of The Snakes has thoughts on the NBC/Comcast merger.
Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: destroying education in Florida.
The Invisible Library on the millennial myth.
Left Is Right: bits of the week.
Pen-Elayne on the Web on sitting politely, and more.
Rook's Rant: mourning vs. morning.
rubber hose: can it.
Scrutiny Hooligans: if you're in Asheville, fringe out.
Stupid Enough Unexplanation looks at crazy vs. political motivation.
The Yellow Something Something: oh Michele.

This looks like a good weekend to get away.
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Short Takes

The U.S. is pressuring China to keep a rein in on North Korea.

There have been more bombings in Iraq.

The FBI arrested over 100 people connected with the Mafia on charges ranging from extortion to murder.

Rep. Giffords continues to recover; she will be moved to rehab in Houston today.

Why did Jean-Claude Duvalier return to Haiti?

Special forces captured a Somali pirate ship.

The GOP will try to force a vote in the Senate on repealing the healthcare bill.

The economic recovery is apparently on track.
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Friday Catblogging Classic

Everyone needs to recharge after a car show.

"I'm positive about being negative."
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On This Date

January 20, 1961 -- Fifty years ago today, I was in Grade 3. It was cold, but it was northwest Ohio, so that's what was expected. On that Friday morning, our teacher, Mrs. Edelen, and the other teachers in the Lower School of Maumee Valley Country Day School in Toledo gathered us in the gym where we sat on the polished wooden floor and watched on a big black-and-white TV with a rabbit-ears antenna as John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States.

I'm not sure all of the kids in the class were paying a lot of attention -- after all, we were eight years old and not really tuned into politics (although my Cub Scout troop had been drafted into canvassing for Richard Nixon in the 1960 campaign) -- but we did have the sense that something special was happening; it wasn't every day that we got to watch TV at school. So we watched as the Chief Justice administered the oath of office, and when he was done, Mrs. Edelen said, "And now we have a new president!" (I remember one boy sitting next to me who whispered, "What happens to the old one?")

Then we listened to his speech. The gym got as quiet as it could filled with almost a hundred elementary school kids, and the volume on the TV had to be turned up to overcome the clatter from the lunch room next door getting ready to serve. Some of us fidgeted, picking at the loose varnish that covered the dark-stained floor, but all of the teachers, ranging in age from the young ones just out of college to Mrs. Edelen, who was old enough to remember the 19th century, listened in rapt attention, only occasionally turning to shush someone for talking.

(Transcript below the fold.)

At the time I didn't remember much of it, and when it was over and the band started playing, we went into the lunch room and then back to class. It was not at that moment that I suddenly became aware of politics and what was going on in the world. I was far too young to grasp some of the things that President Kennedy said in his address, but as time went on and my education became more about what was happening in the world and how things said and done by presidents and governors and such did touch my life, I began to get involved in them. A lot of new words entered my vocabulary: Cuba, Vietnam, nuclear testing, the Cold War, Krushchev, civil rights, Selma, freedom riders, integration. I knew I would never be one of the people who would shape the policies, but I did know that they did bear watching and learning because what they were doing would, someday, change things for me.

And when the flash came from Dallas on another Friday afternoon in November 1963, and we gathered once again in that cold gym in the Lower School where I and the rest of my Grade 6 class listened as the headmaster told us the news and sent us home, I knew that the world had changed again. I didn't know how much. When you're young, you don't think about what the world will be like in fifty years.

Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens:

We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end as well as a beginning--signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge--and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge--to convert our good words into good deeds--in a new alliance for progress--to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah--to "undo the heavy burdens . . . (and) let the oppressed go free."

And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

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