• Lieberman's acolytes in the Connecticut legislature seeks to regulate political blogging. The proposed legislation is so unconstitutional it's laughable, but can you expect anything less from the professional thugs and liars in the Lieberman crowd?

  Connecticut bloggers should target these officials in primaries. Every last one.

• The Philly Daily News polls 2008 general election matchips with Giuliani, Obama, Clinton, and McCain going up against each other. The verdict? Republicans win (PDF) all four matchups.
• The Politico let itself be used by Dan Gerstein to settle old political scores.
• Who knew that Keith Olbermann was killing Democracy?
• The Internet kills.
• James Cameron says he found the Jesus family grave.
• What was the first thing bought on eBay?
• NJ-Sen: With Lautenberg's numbers not looking great (as with the numbers for every single politician in New Jersey), let's encourage Republicans to sink a new round of millions into a state that they simply will not win.

• Gary Trauner, the Democrat who came within 1,000 votes of winning the House race in Wyoming in 2006, muses on partisanship over at the New West Network.

  I knocked on nearly 20,000 doors across Wyoming last year. The question I was asked most often was simple yet searing in its message: "How do I know you’re not going to become one of them?" This question came from people across the economic and political spectrums. "Them" did not have a label attached to it – it did not mean Democrat or Republican or Libertarian or whatever. It meant DC. It meant professional politicians who had lost touch. It meant putting blind partisanship ahead of doing the right thing.

  Despite our overt partisanship, I think this "outsiders" versus "establishment" dynamic fuels the netroots above all else.

• The RNC's former eCampaign director compares the 2008 field's online organizing tools. His verdict? Obama laps the field by a country mile.

  The Bush campaign learned from the Dean folks in 2004. We saw the power of lateral organizing and empowering our supporters. We didn't, in my opinion, go far enough, but we moved the ball as much as the GOP system would allow.

  We focused our attention on finding and recruiting supporters, and giving them tools to reach voters, whether by phone, e-mail or door knock. We allowed them to host events, but more importantly, we allowed them to open the doors to other volunteers. Their invite lists wasn't pulled from their personal address book. It included other Bush Volunteers who lived nearby. It connected neighbors who had never met, and allowed them to work together for the benefit of the campaign.

  The current crop of Republican sites indicates that nothing was learned from the success we had. Nobody is building on what was done before. Nobody is taking the last generation and making it better. Nobody saw, in that model, the power you can have by opening the system and giving control to the user.

  On the Democrat side, the only one I see who has actually learned from 2004 is Obama. He has taken the best of the Dean model, and the best of the Bush model, and come up with a very good package.

• Check out these winners -- sorority Delta Zeta at DePauw University kicked out all members that were overweight, asian, or black. They were trying to improve their image. Only the hot ones "popular with fraternity men" were kept around.
• The Top 11 subway systems in the world. Number 1 is London's Tube.
• Sharpton's connection to Strom Thurmond:

  But last week Sharpton learned the two did have a connection after genealogists found he was a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of Thurmond in South Carolina.

• Woah -- Wimbledon didn't pay its male and female winners the same? For a sport in which the women's side has been more interesting for years, that was bizarre. That disparity is no more.
• The market is tanking today -- at one point, the DJIA was down over 500 points, and as of 3:30 EST, it's back down over 400.  (Trapper)

• David Broder scratches his head, wondering why people don't just agree to agree with each other.

  I contacted Bailey recently to ask what had happened to this bold gamble, and he was the source of that 35,000 figure for the number of people who have lent support to the scheme. They obviously have a long way to go before they can claim to be a viable political force, but they are making slow, steady progress.

  When I called Bailey, it had been just a week since the group announced that anyone who was interested could sign up at http://www.unity08.com as a voting delegate to a national convention planned for June 2008. Most of the sign-ups came before that formal start, Bailey said, in response to last year's publicity about the formation of Unity08.

• C-SPAN continues to claim copyright over congressional hearings, even demanding Nancy Pelosi take down a YouTube clip of a committee hearing. Any entity that claims it owns the proceedings of our democracy is on dangerously thin ice.

  It's time for Pelosi to end that undemocratic monopoly.

• Cheney admits the truth -- Democrats are forcing the Bush Administration to do its job on terrorism.

  Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced trip to Pakistan on Monday to deliver what officials in Washington described as an unusually tough message to Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, warning him that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to his country unless his forces become far more aggressive in hunting down operatives with Al Qaeda.

• Lindsay Beyersten (a.k.a. "Majikthise") writes why she passed up the opportunity to blog for Edwards. Great call.

  The Edwards campaign wants decentralized people-powered politics. Ironically, by hiring well-known bloggers to manage a destination Web site, it was actually centralizing and micromanaging. Every campaign needs a blog, but the most important part of a candidate's netroots operation is the disciplined political operatives who can quietly build relationships with bloggers outside the campaign. And the bomb-throwing surrogates need to be outside, where they can make full use of their gifts without saddling a campaign with their personal political baggage.

• As an aside, I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say (in DC and outside it) "I wish Elizabeth Edwards was running instead of her husband." I don't take that as a knock on John, but testament to how much of a star Elizabeth could be.

• Political Wire: Iraq War Deaths: Perceptions and Reality
• Shakespeare's Sister shows what taking the high ground looks like in eviscerating coverage of Mitt Romney's polygamist ancestors.
• The New York Times has a neat feature on the General Social Survey.  Be sure to look at the graphs and tables in the multimedia section for information on changing opinions over time.
• Also from the NYT, a look at the performance evaluations for fired U.S. attorneys.

  Internal Justice Department performance reports for six of the eight United States attorneys who have been dismissed in recent months rated them "well regarded," "capable" or "very competent," a review of the evaluations shows.

• The Washington Post surveys the developing market for hybrid cars.
• Ha ha.  Glenn Greenwald shows the pitifulness that is "the right's MoveOn."
• In the week leading up to the anniversary of the Constitution, Jay Elias is beginning a campaign to Restore Our Constitution by supporting Senate bills to restore habeas corpus.

• The Carpetbagger Report and The Right's Field take on the addition to Duncan Hunter's presidential campaign of a man who intentionally went on the record saying "Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims."

  Right's Field:

  In a media environment where Republican staff hires were given 1/100th the scrutiny of Democratic staff hires, this story would lead to bad press for Hunter and boisterous cries by Muslim and Buddhist Democratic activists for Hunter for fire Jordan. Those calls would be broadcast in print and TV outlets and eventually Jordan would be fired or resign in disgrace. Both Roger Ailes and Duncan Black agree that there’s no chance in hell that will happen and I concur.

  Carpetbagger Report:

  In 1997, shortly after I finished grad school, I started working at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. My very first project, literally in my first week, dealt with a Republican member of South Carolina’s Board of Education, who wanted to impose Christianity on public school students. When one of his colleagues on the board alluded to concerns about religious minorities in the state, this board member said, on tape, "Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims. And put that in the minutes."

  The guy’s name was Henry Jordan. I got to work trying to force his resignation, but to no avail. I helped drum up some media interest, but the GOP establishment in South Carolina stood by Jordan, the response from local voters was tepid, and he kept his job looking out for the educational needs of children.

• James L. is on a roll over at Swing State Project, today looking at a possible Congressional run by perhaps-legendary New York Rangers goalie Mike Richter.
• The New York Times Caucus blog explains "sock puppets", which the McCain campaign seems to be specializing in.
• A truck bomb killed at least 35 people at a mosque in Iraq.
• Read Rajiv Chandrasekaran's important Washington Post article on the lack of qualified civilians for reconstruction of Iraq.
• For the aspiring journalists among us:

  SUMMER INTERNSHIPS AT THE PROSPECT. The Prospect is accepting applications for summer internships in our D.C. office. Any Tapped readers out there who are interested in (or who know someone who might be interested in) spending the summer working at the office, helping out with the magazine and the site, should definitely apply. The deadline for applications is March 15, so act fast.

• The Albany Project and Calitics both look at campaign finance issues.
• nyceve announces a YKos 07 initiative to collect experiences dealing with the US health care system. Help her weave a narrative to be presented at the YK 07 convention. Be a part of the Journal of Netroot Ideas. Drop a comment here, and register for Yearly Kos 07 here – DemFromCT

• The AFL-CIO blog reports US Economy Setting Wrong Kinds of Highs.
• At Swing State Project, James L. argues that history suggests that the 2008 Senate picture may change due to unexpected retirements.
• Media Matters on McCain's "maverick" title:

  During a discussion about Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) positions on global warming and Iraq on the February 22 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, on-screen graphics repeatedly asked: "McCain: A Maverick Again?" suggesting both that McCain may currently be a "maverick" and that the media had stopped calling him a "maverick" at some point. Similarly, National Journal's The Hotline asked, "The Maverick's Back?" and asserted that "McCain's dustup with [Vice President Dick] Cheney and his beating up of [President] Bush on global warming show he's the same McCain" -- presumably a "maverick." However, CNN and other media outlets have never stopped calling McCain a "maverick."

• W.W.G.W.B.D?
• The New York Times has a very handy chart of the Iraq positions - in 2002, on the escalation, and on withdrawal - of eight Democratic and nine Republican presidential candidates.
• YearlyKos is having a New York City fundraiser.  

  YEARLYKOS CONVENTION FUNDRAISER
  Saturday, March 10th - 6-9pm
  The Tank @ C:U - 279 Church Street
  Register here!

  Join activists, organizers and on-lookers, as we drink, laugh and carouse liberally to celebrate the DailyKos community and prepare for the 2007 YearlyKos Convention.

  With special guests Marcy Wheeler ("Emptywheel"), author of "Anatomy of Deceit" and Libby Trial blogger, the comedians of Laughing Liberally, the sweet eats of Eating Liberally, fellow Kossacks, bloggers & rabble-rousers.

  Hosted by Living Liberally with Vaster Books, Young People For The American Way & the Kossack community of New York City.

• Jim Wallis says that as I thought, we don't disagree after all.
• As usual, the RNC outraised the DNC last month, $10.5 million to $5.7 million. Dean's DNC has invested significant resources in building a small-donor list, which the RNC has enjoyed for a long time. Meanwhile, Dems have been far more competitive at the House level, while Schumer's DSCC crushed the NRSC last cycle. Those numbers will give hints as to whether those trends will continue into the 2008 cycle.
• The conservative blogosphere is victorious again! Glenn Greenwald has the details.
• Underneath the dKos blogroll we now have a rotating blogroll which picks 10 random sites daily from the top 200 most popular user blogroll links.
• Egyptian blogger is sentenced to four years in jail for "insulting" president.
• Huh -- David Geffen isn't Obama's "fianance chair". Geffen doesn't even have a position in the Obama campaign. So the Clinton campaign apparently just made that shit up.
• Prince Henry is headed to Iraq.
• FoxAttacks.com.
• On health care, Americans trust Democrats more than Republicans.
• Add one more to the Coalition of Get Us the Hell Out of Here: Denmark will withdraw its 460 troops by August. (mcjoan)
• I'm speaking at an honest-to-God blogger ethics panel next month.  Help me figure out what to say. (Adam B)

So I'm back from what should be my last trip before our new baby is born, scheduled by our midwife for April 7 though nature will have the final say on that matter. After the baby is born, I will make myself scarce on the site so I can help out with the two kids. After our first son was born I was gone for months doing research for Crashing the Gate. I won't make that mistake twice.

• The LieberDems (via Third Way) take aim at the politics that helped Democrats sweep to victory in 2006. Beats me why jokers who would rather Democrats be Republican remain Democrats. There's already a party that caters to their agenda.
• Joe Klein, who hates democracy and would rather his DC friends get life tenures in Congress, is so stupid he doesn't even know the difference between me and BarbinMD. I won't link because the once-proud Klein has been pathetically reduced to trolling for traffic. But here's a hint for Klein: "names" are used to differentiate between different people.

  Again, I'm convinced wonkette Ana Marie Cox launched that blog in a subversive effort to expose how stupid Klein (and others at Time) are.

• Though as self-important as Klein might be, Lou Dobbs has a bigger ego.
• Greenwald takes his trusty sledgehammer to Newsweek's Richard Wolffe. It's always a joy to see one of the DC Blowhards eviscerated by a pro like Glenn.
• NH-01: Rep. Carol Shea-Porter on one of chickenhawk critics:

  "If [NH Republican state chair] Fergus Cullen has the courage of his convictions, he should go enlist, because they're having trouble meeting their quota. He's young, he's single and he's healthy. If he needs to know where the recruiters are, call me."

• The more desperate the conservative machine gets, the more ridiculous their lies.
• Terror attacks are up sevenfold since the Iraq invasion. Maybe the war is -- gasp! -- fueling terrorism?!! No one could've foreseen that!
• VoteVets and Wes Clark have launched Stop Iran War.
• (mcjoan) At TalkLeft, Jeralyn has the response of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to yesterday's D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision denying habeas rights to Guantanamo detainees:

  The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is extremely disappointed in the decision in which a divided panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that none of the prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base have any right to challenge their indefinite imprisonment in federal court. The court ruled, in effect, that the United States can imprison people virtually forever without judicial review....

  NACDL also urges Congress quickly to rectify the problem it created last year in the Military Commission Act, which, by denying the Guantanamo detainees and others access to the courts, has regrettably returned us to the dark era predating not only the Geneva Conventions, but the Magna Carta.

• Anonymous Liberal notes the unintended consequences of Instapundit's proclamation that America is -- and has been since 1979 -- at war with Iran. Namely: the arms sales wrapped up in the Iran-Contra scandal now officially constitute high treason. Oopsies!
• Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari pled not guilty in a Manhattan federal court last Friday, denying charges that he's a terrorist financier. But that's a matter in some dispute, and not just by the prosecutors. According to The Blotter at ABC News.com, the indictment charges that he arranged for $152,000 worth of bank transfers to fund a terror training camp. But if that doesn't convince you he's a funding terrorists, maybe this will: Alishtari also gave 10% of that total to the National Republican Congressional Committee. The NRCC won't say what it intends to do with those funds. My guess? Continue to fight America on the escalation, and try to kill more troops before they get their armor.
• Matt Taibbi positively explodes (and who wouldn't?):

  On the same day that Britney was shaving her head, a guy I know who works in the office of Senator Bernie Sanders sent me an email. He was trying very hard to get news organizations interested in some research his office had done about George Bush's proposed 2008 budget, which was unveiled two weeks ago and received relatively little press...

  Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

  The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.

• New entrants in the Worst Predictions Ever sweepstakes, from Not Larry Sabato:

  From the day "macaca" broke:

  #1) WaPo:  "Virginia Commonwealth University politics professor Robert Holsworth called Allen's comments a gaffe that probably wouldn't change the Senate race but could hurt his presidential ambitions.

  "This doesn't turn the race around at all," Holsworth said. "But for a guy running for president, this is likely to be regularly aired this year and maybe beyond.""

  #2-  Virginia Virtucon:  "My only question is, why is the Webb campaign wasting money sending a staffer around to videotape George Allen on the stump when they don’t have and never will have enough money to buy any real advertising to show any of it on. What are they going to do? Put it up on Webb’s "Born Yesterday" (or whatever it is being called now that he has dropped "Born Fighting") website?"

• New Jersey begins allowing civil unions.  Pam's House Blend and Blue Jersey cover that happy event.
• Jesus' General has a graphic for McCain: The Man With All the Answers.
• The Union Leader, New Hampshire's largest, and very Republican, newspaper is going after Carol Shea-Porter for talking to constituents about their disagreements with her.  The nerve.  Also on Shea-Porter, CQ Politics covers the decision by her and by Nancy Boyda to not enroll in the DCCC's Frontline program.
• The AP headline says enough: Bush compares Revolutionary, terror wars.  And when I say the headline says enough, I mean "enough to cause me to pull an eyerolling muscle."
• Reuters is also on a headline-writing roll: Rice summit ends with vague promise:

  Israeli-Palestinian talks hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended on Monday with little sign of progress on reviving long-stalled peace negotiations beyond a vague promise to meet again.

• Digby, as usual, nails it.  The two groups responsible for the "panicked and overwrought" quality of the GWOT:

  I see this as being two different phenomena. The first is the unreconstructed cold warriors who are both rewriting history and adhering to their long standing hysterical position that the sky is always falling and the only thing to do is fight, invade, bomb or some other form of violence....
  ....

  Then 9/11 happens when they are in charge and they have a chance to do it the way they always wanted to --- by roaring and flailing about like a wounded Giant under the ridiculous assumption that this will scare the enemy so much he will just give up. They are facing this complicated threat with all the sophistication of early man trying to scare off a big predator.

  And

  The doughy pantload generation of wingnuts, on the other hand, thinks it's some sort of game and they are the star players. They yearned to be "part" of something momentous --- but from a distance, like you are when you are watching movies about war and heroism and identify with the main characters. No need to give up your Milk Duds just to enjoy a good bloodbath. They are writing an exciting plotline that has Islamic terrorism somehow so uniquely dangerous that it has surpassed WWII and the cold war and is more like something out of science fiction: "Star Wars" or "War of the Worlds." To these people, naitonal security is cheap pulp fiction.

  Do read the whole thing.

• In yesterday's open thread, mcjoan included this from Atrios:

  I know it will never happen, because it would cause David Broder to faint, but any politician or public figure should be asked if they, in fact, saved themselves for marriage, and whether they were abstinent between their multiple marriages.

  Later yesterday, Atrios got an answer from a biography of McCain.  (The answer was no.)

• Blue Mass Group looks at RedState and finds evidence that Mitt Romney is in trouble - in the form of a great new name: Multiple Choice Mitt.
• Death tolls are still being updated on car bombings in Baghdad that have killed at least 63.
• A new thing to blog about: personal debt.  According to the New York Times, some people are blogging about their efforts to reduce their debt as a way to instill discipline.  And it turns out that even people who have started blogging to force themselves to be accountable for their decisions get upset when people criticize their decisions:

  For the engaged couple who say they are behind a blog called "Make Love, Not Debt" (makelovenotdebt.com; net worth: negative $70,787.94), the feedback from readers has not always been gentle. "People have very strong feelings about debt," said the blog’s female half, who calls herself Her. "People were appalled by my spending, like buying a $500 pair of shoes."

  "Just having the amount of debt we have is offensive to a lot of people," said Him, the blog’s other half. "People will levy personal attacks for mistakes we acknowledge. We don’t think that’s quite necessary."

• Harry Reid's son has joined Hillary Clinton's campaign as Nevada chairman.

• Joe Lieberman seems to have a problem with the Constitution's separation of powers. He certainly is doing is part to subert the role of Congress. Speaking of whom, he just showed up on the floor, breaking the Sabbath to vote for more war.
• Yglesias finds an interesting story out of Iran, regarding the recent spate of bombings in that country:

  The Iranians, possibly in an effort to be cute, are claiming the bombs were made in the USA, proving, at a minimum, that two can play at this game. What it reallly ought to do, however, is serve as a reminder that the US and Iran ought to be working together against common foes rather than stumbling into a new destructive war.

• I love science:

  MEXICO CITY - A miner in the state of Chiapas found a tiny tree frog that has been preserved in amber for 25 million years, a researcher said. If authenticated, the preserved frog would be the first of its kind found in Mexico, according to David Grimaldi, a biologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the find.

• Good question, Atrios:

  I know it will never happen, because it would cause David Broder to faint, but any politician or public figure should be asked if they, in fact, saved themselves for marriage, and whether they were abstinent between their multiple marriages.

  That'd be an excellent question for one of those South Carolina teenagers to ask St. McCain Sunday night.

• Wonderful. From AMERICAblog:  "GM potatoes linked to cancer, study suppressed for 8 years."
• Hey! Only two more days to bid on some really cool Yearly Kos auction stuff. That "Sali is Scary" button is mine.
• As a follow-up to the H5N1 turkey case in the UK, blogged here and here, poultry producer Bernard Matthews has some problems:

  The poultry firm Bernard Matthews could be prosecuted under food safety laws after government inspectors reported a series of biosecurity failings at a plant in Suffolk that saw the UK's first major outbreak of H5N1 bird flu.

  Among problems reported today by the Department for the Environment, Food
  and Rural Affairs were the presence of gulls allowed to pick up waste turkey trimmings from bins outside processing plants in the compound and holes in turkey sheds through which rats, mice or small birds could enter.

  Yum. A clear opportunity to review UK panflu prep presents itself; meanwhile Bernard Matthews is now the most unpopular brand in the UK due to a combo of dissembling and hygeine practices. Didn't anyone tell them honesty is the best policy?- DemFromCT

• Pressure is growing on Bush from all sides to get us out of Iraq. Today the NYT reports on the move among state legislatures to oppose escalation and get out. For more information on state efforts, check out the Progressive States Network.
• Senators Dorgan, Kerry, and Leahy have introduced legislation to rein in contracting fraud and abuse in Iraq.
• This is critical information for Members of Congress considering their escalation vote:

  A new poll finds that an astonishing 54% of Americans would vote to cut off funding for escalation if they were in Congress. What's more, the new poll was done by Fox News. The survey asked: "If you were a member of Congress, how would you vote specifically on increasing U.S. troop levels in Iraq — would you vote for or against funding the increase in troops?" Only 37% said they would vote for funding. Among Independents, the numbers were even more striking: 62% were against funding, and only 30% for funding.

• Buffalo Girl finds a good one: McCain is choosing to campaign in Iowa tomorrow, rather than stay in DC to vote on the escalation resolution.
• Via e-mail, the Cook Political report is reporting that former Dem Senator John Breaux is considering a run for govenor of Louisiana. Furthermore, they are reporting rumors that Gov. Blanco has expressed a willingness to step aside if a serious Democratic contender comes forward. It's all rumor, but it's rumor from Charlie Cook, which gives it a little more weight.
• Bill Richardson's fundraising effort is cooking, with $2 million raised.
• During yesterday's House debate on Iraq escalation, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) repeated a supposed quote from Abraham Lincoln that was used in a Washington Times op-ed piece by Frank Gaffney:

  "Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged."

  How's that for collegiality? Despite the fact that the quote was never delivered by Lincoln, and Gaffney has admitted so, Young is refusing to retract his statement, using the excuse that the paper hasn't printed a correction.

• So Daily Kos isn't known for it's Friday cat blogging, but this is too freaky not to share. If nothing else, skip ahead to minute 1:40 for the "duet."

• How are the newly elected Democrats faring in the Iraq resolution debate? Find out at The Gavel, Speaker Pelosi's new blog, which her crack staff keeps chock full 'o video goodies from the floor, just like you always wanted. [Kagro X]

• For those of you in DC, you have an opportunity to join the DC Drinking Liberally crowd for a book signing with Marcy Wheeler (Emptywheel). Talk about her book, talk about Libby, about how the press acted as Bush's lapdog, etc. And drink.

  The event will be tonight, February 15, 6:30-9 p.m., at Tumberlake's, 1726 Connecticut Ave NW (Dupont Circle Metro). Happy hour starts at 6:30 p.m. with $1 off all drinks. There will be free appetizers and drink discounts until 9 p.m. Marcy will start her discussion at 7:30 p.m.

• Speaking of Marcy, her respect for traditional reporters isn't growing.

  Some bloggers at the trial have seen their skepticism about mainstream reporting confirmed.

  “It’s shown me the degree to which journalists work together to define the story,” said Marcy Wheeler, author of a book on the case, “Anatomy of Deceit,” and the woman usually in the Firedoglake live-blogger seat.

  Ms. Wheeler, a business consultant from Michigan who writes under the nom-de-blog “emptywheel,” believes that some trial revelations have been underplayed in the conventional media because “once the narrative is set on a story, there’s no deviating from it.”

• Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus can be infuriating at times. But here's why he'll never be the next Joe Lieberman:

  Sen. Max Baucus announced that he is blocking action on the nomination of Andrew Biggs to be deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration [...]

  Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that “It’s a bad idea to give the No. 2 position at the Social Security Administration to someone who still supports that failed proposal.”

  "That failed proposal" being social security privatization.

• PA-04: Republicans are already working to get rid of freshman Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire. Those of you in the Pittsburgh area will have to help us hold on to this seat. That'll be a tough race.
• The primary calendar is a mess.
• Isn't it wonderful when Democrats decide to become scumball lobbyists?
• Pastordan over at Street Prophets agrees with Atrios on this whole religion debate.

• Who wants to talk about the 2010 Senate picture?
• Neocons make up quotes supposedly from Abraham Lincoln to justify their bloodthirsty, un-American tendencies. And yes, calling for the murder of members of Congress is un-American.
• This looks like my new cause. I'll be checking out this program, Whole Child International, carefully. It seeks to improve the terrible conditions in many third-world orphanages. The program is looking to expand into my native El Salvador, and if all checks out, I'll be jumping in hard.
• The corporatist lobby is gearing up to fight union-friendly legislation.
• While on the book tour in Asheville, NC (one of the most beautiful corners of this country), I had the pleasure of hanging out with Errington Thompson and doing his radio show. It was meeting people like him that made the grueling three-month tour enjoyable.
• Digby talks about the smoking wreckage that is the notion that  Republicans have "principles". Schaller talks about the how the GOP's brand is now garbage.
• The fourth item in the linky points to attempts to block the Employee Free Choice Act.  PaulVA has a diary with more on the EFCA and contact information for Members of Congress who should be contacted with support for the bill. (MissLaura)

Sorry this is a little late today...

• Representative Charlie Norwood (R-GA) has lost his battle with lung cancer.
• We know the leading Republican presidential candidates have had what you might call interesting marital histories.  The invaluable Right's Field lays it out all in one place for future reference.
• Digby on why the Clinton Rules are really the Democrat Rules:

  But neither should we ever forget that Clinton Rules apply to all Democrats if they become a threat and, therefore, they should be fought wherever we find it. Nobody can say that the Clinton Rules weren't in effect against Gore and Kerry too. (Hint: it's the trivial tabloid smearing and breathless psycho-sexual armchair analysis that's the tip-off.)

  The Rules are named for the Clintons because they were the first successful, high profile baby boomer Democratic leaders to hold high office and so were the first to be subject to it. But if it hadn't been them it would have been someone else because they developed less because of the politicians than because of changes in the media landscape.

• The Department of Homeland Security has some rather inscrutable, but definitely fear-mongering, new "in case of emergency" graphics.  SafeNow interprets what they might mean.
• For the lawyers and those interested in copyright issues, Creative Commons is hiring a new general counsel.
• The Armed Forces have found the answer to the troop shortage.
• ct brings us a Daily Kos Milestone: The 10,000,000th comment since the site moved to Scoop.

• Former CIA exec. dir. Dusty Foggo and defense contractor Brent Wilkes were indicted today on charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in connection with the Duke Cunningham scandal. [Kagro X]

• John Kerry and Jerome are looking for a netroots team to work with the progressive movement and Kerry's SetADeadline.com effort to end our involvement in Iraq. Details at MyDD.
• Tim Wu has a new paper on Net Neutrality at SSRN:

  This report finds a mixed picture. The wireless industry, over the last decade, has succeeded in bringing wireless telephony at competitive prices to the American public. Yet at the same time we also find the wireless carriers aggressively controlling product design and innovation in the equipment and application markets, to the detriment of consumers. Their policies, in the wired world, would be considered outrageous, in some cases illegal, and in some cases simply misguided.

  This is critical stuff to the ongoing discussion of free and unfettered access to the Internet.

• Libby defense witness and WaPo reporter Walter Pincus has identified Ari Fleischer as the first person to tell him about Valerie Plame. Meantime, the NYT is reporting that Bob Woodward's tapes point to Armitage, who has already acknowledged that he talked to both Woodward and Novak about Plame, but it was "accidental." As always, you can find Libby liveblogging at Firedoglake and see TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt blog it at Huffington Post.
• Not only does the Bush administration not believe in global warming, now they're saying that carpooling won't work, so what we really need is more roads to handle more cars, but at least they say drivers should have to pay to use those new roads.
• How is Bush going to balance the budget by 2012? No surprise, at the cost of veterans' health care:

  The proposed cuts are unrealistic in light of recent VA budget trends — its medical care budget has risen every year for two decades and 83 percent in the six years since Bush took office — sowing suspicion that the White House is simply making them up to make its long-term deficit figures look better.

• The Carpetbagger reports that Bill Donohue and conservative Catholic organizations are still trying to push the Edward's blogger issue by trying to get Obama and Clinton to denounce the bloggers.
• Vermont's secession movement has been treated as a quaint oddity by the New England media, but local blogs have found neo-confederate, white supremacist, and even neo-nazi connections. The group responded with attacks on the Southern Poverty Law Center as well as the bloggers reporting the story. For an interesting twist, check out this defense of the suspect members, pecked in by none other than the VT Green Party's candidate for Governor [Kagro X]

• Former NSA director and retired Lieutenant General William Odom writes in the Washington Post that Victory is Not an Option.

  Too many lawmakers have fallen for the myths that are invoked to try to sell the president's new war aims. Let us consider the most pernicious of them.

  1. We must continue the war to prevent the terrible aftermath that will occur if our forces are withdrawn soon. Reflect on the double-think of this formulation. We are now fighting to prevent what our invasion made inevitable! Undoubtedly we will leave a mess -- the mess we created, which has become worse each year we have remained. Lawmakers gravely proclaim their opposition to the war, but in the next breath express fear that quitting it will leave a blood bath, a civil war, a terrorist haven, a "failed state," or some other horror. But this "aftermath" is already upon us; a prolonged U.S. occupation cannot prevent what already exists.

• Some South Dakota Republicans have introduced a new bill banning abortion after the last one was voted out in November.
• The Nation has another entry in the "Worst President Ever" debate.  Funny how frequently that question has been debated over the past few years.
• At Calitics, dday looks at how Republicans are dealing with an emerging scandal around Rep. Gary Miller's land deals.

• Now Obama is really truly, definitely running for president.  His official announcement was today.
• Political Insider has the results of National Journal's insider poll:

  Which long-shot 2008 presidential candidate has the most potential to emerge as a serious contender for your party's nod?

  Richardson leads among Democrats, Gingrich among Republicans.

• At Crooked Timber, Ingrid Robeyns wonders about the wisdom of playgroups for children at which fathers are not allowed.
• Digby has more on Dick Cheney's Quiet Coup.

  When I asked if Cheney had "found" a fourth branch of government in position that until a decade or so ago was considered a seat warmer for a presidential run and the designated state funeral stand-in for the president, I didn't realize they were actually setting this forth as a legal argument. Dear God.

  This means that he considers himself even more "unitary" than he considers the president, beyond all reach of either branch, answerable to no one.

• What did adulthood hold in store for the little girls of 1966?  A board game called What Shall I Be? had answers: teacher, actress, nurse, model, ballet dancer, or airline hostess.

• Emptywheel responds to a dubious honor over at The Next Hurrah.

  See, here's what this sounds like to me. An attempt to make sure you brand the blogger content coming out of this trial, rather than Jane at FireDogLake. Or worse--an attempt to dilute the power of the (IMO) best source of reporting on this trial, the FireDogLake blog, by giving away what FDL's readers have invested in, to give it away for free, to the AP.

• In something of a change from Lawrence Summers, Harvard is expected to name its first female president.
• Wal-Mart responds to a letter from Congress about those Nazi t-shirts.
• According to the New York Times, Fox News will bring the war on fairness and balance to coverage of business issues:

  In a separate interview, Mr. Ailes elaborated. "Many times I’ve seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be."

  He added: "We don’t get up every morning thinking business is bad."

  You know, unlike those commies over at CNBC.

• Tally has a diary on an important special election in Florida.
• Oh, look.  The Carpetbagger Report shows how Bill Donohue of the Catholic League is a total f'ing hypocrite when it comes to what should cause campaign staffers to lose their jobs.  I'm shocked.
• Just to give you a taste of what you'd be getting from the traditional media today, Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband is saying that he may be the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby.  Aren't you sorry you're missing all that by coming here?

• 3,114.

  Four U.S. Marines were killed in fighting in Anbar province, the military said Thursday. The Marines, who were assigned to Multi-National Force — West, died Wednesday from wounds sustained due to enemy action in two separate incidents in the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, according to a statement. The deaths raised to at least 3,114 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

• The Pelosi smear that just won't die--look, my friends in the traditional media--California is much further from Washington than Illinois. It takes a larger plane, with more fuel capacity, to get there. And how much clearer can the Speaker make it?

  Pelosi’s office has stated repeatedly, from the beginning, that "it is up to the Air Force to decide what type and size of plane will be required," and that she "will not use the plane for political travel...." Pelosi said today she will fly commercial rather than use the aircraft offered by the Pentagon, which cannot reach her home district in California without stopping to refuel.

  Oh, and btw, Hastert used military aircraft to fly former page board chair Rep. Shimkus back to DC when the scandal broke. Was that a political purpose? Sheesh.

• Kevin Drum and Big Tent Dem write on Columbia law professor Bruce Ackerman's discussion in Foreign Policy on potential strikes against Iran. Bottom line:

  The president has to get another authorization for a war against Iran. It isn’t up to Nancy Pelosi or the House to prevent him; he doesn’t have the constitutional authority to just expand the war.

  He does not have the authority to unilaterally invade Iran.

  Authorization that the Democratic Congress willl not give him.

• We'll see if the House can do a better job managing an Iraq resolution than the Senate. The vote will be sometime next week.
• Huh. Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (CA-wingnut) is talking impeachment? Of course, it's over immigration--nothing is more important than keeping the brown people out. Crooks and Liars has the details.
• Lieberman is even too much for some Republicans to take:

  But Mr. Lieberman also went further, accusing Democrats of giving strength to the enemy and abandoning the troops, and arguing that an alternative resolution that he and many Republicans backed was "a statement of support to our troops."

  That was too much even for one Republican member, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, a sponsor of the bipartisan resolution against the president’s policy.

  "I forcefully argue that ours is in support of the troops," Mr. Warner said tersely. "And there is no suggestion that one is less patriotic than the other."

  Joe Lieberman, the skunk at everyone's picnic.

• The House Foreign Affairs Committee talked to Condi yesterday, and Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) asked about whether the State Department would hire some of the linguists fired by the Army because of their sexual orientation. The Carpetbagger highlights this exchange:

  "It seems that the Defense Department has a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ when it comes to homosexuals. You don’t have such a prohibition in your agency, do you?" Ackerman asked Rice. "No, we do not," Rice replied.

  "Well, it seems that the military has gone around and fired a whole bunch of people who speak foreign languages — Farsi and Arabic, etc.," Ackerman told her. He added, "For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists, but they’re very brave with the terrorists," Ackerman said. "If the terrorists ever got a hold of this information, they’d get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad."

• A Siegel blew the trumpets last night for the grand re-opening of Energize America, now with 100% more congressional interest and links to other pro-energy/environmental organizations (DT).
 

• From Salon's War room, their quote of the day:

  On the Senate floor a few moments ago, Jon Tester said that he's traveled all around his home state of Montana, and "not a single person told me we should debate about whether or not to have a debate on Iraq."

• What Aravosis says:

  The hell I'm going to pay more taxes to finance this joke of a war. You've gotta be kidding. Lieberman, who is hell-bent on destroying the (false) impression that a lot of middle America had that he was a moderate guy in the middle, is not only fully embracing and defending George Bush's utter disaster in Iraq, but now Lieberman wants a new war tax enacted so that all Americans share the pain of this war.

• Another helicopter went down today, north of Baghdad in "an insurgent stronghold." Seven people were killed in this crash, and an al-Qaida-linked Sunni group is claiming responsibility. This is the fifth copter brought down in two weeks.
• The Bush administration is basing the escalation plan on the idea of "clear, hold, and build." The "build" part being the key to Iraq turning into any kind of pluralistic nation state. The problem is, no one wants to be there to do the building.
• Joe's list of friends is shrinking:

  Lieberman has, in past years, described Dodd as his 'best friend' in the Senate. When I asked him if this was still true, his eyes narrowed, and he said, 'I have so many good friends in the Senate. John McCain is a very good friend.'"

  Face it, Joe, you're never going to be Vice President. He's just not that in to you.

• My, oh, my. David Ignatius catches up on Iraq, concluding that "we all need to face the likelihood that this story isn't going to have a happy ending." What more is there to say?
• Still time to sign up for this weekend's DFA Training Academy in Vegas this weekend. In fact, walk-ins will be welcome as space permits. If you're not in Vegas, check out upcoming events in your area, here. [Kagro X]

• Among the top-tier presidential contenders, Republicans lead Democrats in divorces 4-0. Kucinich's two divorces and Dodd's single divorce make it a 4-3 score overall. McCain has one divorce, Gingrich has two, while Giuliani has an annulment to go with his divorce.
• IN-09: former Rep. Mike Sodrel (R) is considering another rematch with Rep. Baron Hill. It would be the fourth straight election that the two have faced off. Each has knocked off the other once (Hill beat Sodrel in 2002, Sodrell beat Hill in 2004, Hill beat Sodrel in 2006).
• Uh oh. Giuliani praised Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg. That'd be like John Edwards praising Justice Scalia. Man, it's got to suck to be a winger with the field they've got.
• Waxman is on patrol.
• Obama quits smoking. What's interesting to me about this isn't that Obama quit smoking (who cares?), it's that I was surprised he'd be smoking in the first place. I wonder how many other senators smoke...
• Big special election for a state senate seat in NY today.

  Right now the Republicans have a three seat majority in the Senate, and if Craig Johnson wins today, that will narrow to two.  More to the point, if Johnson wins, it will become obvious that the Senate is going to flip in the next two years, and Republicans will head for the exits.  There will be retirements, or even party switchers who don't want to be part of a Republican minority.  Enticing offers will be made to every Republican to let the Senate drift to where its natural home should be, in the Democratic camp.  At the same time, if the Republicans win this special election, the stakeholders who backed Spitzer and the Democrats will be frustrated by an extremely vindictive Joe Bruno.  This isn't a standard DC-like fight, Bruno and the Republicans in New York have been extremely good to unions, and many of them (including SEIU's legendary 1199) are going full-bore for the Republican in the race.

• Murdoch admits that Fox News tries to shape the agenda. I think I'm going to be faint! Whatever happened to "fair and balanced"????

• What's Wal-Mart doing selling t-shirts with Nazi insignia? 11 weeks after first coming to light, Wal-Mart is still selling them.
• Very cool analysis of how efficiently candidates in Minnesota spent their money. The most efficient? Amy Klobuchar followed by Tim Walz. The least? Patty Wetterling in her losing MN-06 race. This would be a great analysis for people to do for their neck of the woods.
• MyDD's Singer talks to Chuck Schumer.
• I was outbid on eBay for a genuine Mooninite sign. Sigh...
• In the place where people know Hillary and Rudy best, Hillary kicks the former mayor's ass -- 53-32.
• The Daily Show is quaking in its boots.
• Giuliani will run for president. Boy, will he make things fun! Guess who else is thinking about running for president? Ralph Nader! Apparently, he feels Republicans haven't screwed things up bad enough the past eight years.
• Tips on how to keep your frequent flyer miles as airlines get more restrictive on how long you can keep them.

• Hotline has run-downs on presidential candidate addresses at the DNC Winter Meeting: Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, Wesley Clark, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton,  and Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, and Tom Vilsack.  Categories include "bragging," "playing to the crowd," and "Howard Dean suck up."
• Bush makes a funny on the "Democrat Party" thing:

  "At the State of the Union, I saw kind of a strange expression when I referred to something as the Democrat Party," Mr. Bush said. "Now look, my diction isn’t all that good. I have been accused of occasionally mangling the English language, so I appreciate you inviting the head of the Republic party."

  So we won't be hearing that anymore?

• Political Wire finds Donna Brazile hinting that Al Gore might run.
• The Right's Field knocks down the "Chuck Hagel is a maverick" thing:

  Chuck Hagel’s voting record is clear. He votes with Bush and he votes the way conservatives want him to vote. Hagel votes against abortion rights, against civil rights, and against environmental protections. Hagel’s beliefs are squarely in line with the Republican Party platform. Period.

  ...

  It is important that we ask who Chuck Hagel is because praise of a Republican presidential candidate does not do our movement any good. Praising Hagel on Iraq gives him cover to be a right-wing ideologue on all other issues. The last thing that America needs is another Republican masquerading as a moderate while holding the line at the policy bastions of the conservative movement.

UPDATE (Trapper John): Another from The Right's Field on the same topic.  People need to begin understanding that A) Hagel is not that much different than any other Senate Republican on issues of substance, and B) that he has but the slenderest chance of winning his party's nomination.  Kudos to the excellent Right's Field for hammering the first point home.

As to the second issue: if the GOP primary electorate was made up of inside-the-beltway journos like Jonathan Alter, Hagel would run away with the thing -- but given that he actually has to appeal to, you know, real Republicans in the hinterland, his likelihood of emerging triumphant in Minneapolis ranks somewhere between that of Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter.  He's the GOP Lieberman -- a man without a home -- one who generally votes in line with his party, but then pisses it off with his Sunday talk show appearances.  It doesn't help that he has no money as of yet, and hasn't taken serious steps toward putting together a campaign.

• This New York Times story on racially motivated killings in the Civil Rights-era South, and the FBI's rather late decision to try to systematically gather evidence on them, is, as a Southern Poverty Law Center researcher is quoted as saying of the subject matter, "frustrating and sad."
• We'll look for DemFromCT to put it into context for us at some point, but there's an outbreak of bird flu in British turkeys.

UPDATE (DemFromCT): The BBC has Prof. John Oxford speculating that perhaps a small bird came through a ventilation shaft. The extent of virus in the smaller bird population beyond ducks and geese is unknown. But the idea that poultry in developed countries can be infected remains relevant. BTW, cooking birds kills the virus, and the likelihood of a resultant human case is small. These birds were too young to get into the food supply in any case. Still, it's a problem that has not gone away (and because it's the UK there will be a flurry of news - it took them by surprise).

• What'll $245 billion get you?

  $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and . . . $145 billion for 2008....

  "Diplomatic operations?" Yeah, right. Congress, just say no.

• Nice to know the White House is paying attention to the NIE and is forward looking in responding to the ongoing challenges in Iraq:

  "One of the things you should conclude from this NIE," Hadley said, "is the best plan is to have this plan succeed."

• If you can't buy your way into making the world believe climate change isn't happening, you can just keep blocking all efforts to do anything about it. It's good to be Unitary Executive.
• Despite it all, progress happens. Via The Carpetbagger:

  A new poll from Harris Interactive found that 55% of Americans think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military. By comparison, 19% of the 2,337 Americans polled said gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve "only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret," and 18% said they should "not be allowed to serve in the military at all."

• More good news from Iran:

  Nazanin Fatehi, who was sentenced to hang for killing man who was trying to rape her and her niece, was released this week after two years in prison.

• Glenn Greenwald is moving. It's a tremendous gain for Salon, and I hope a good move for Greenwald, increasing his readership and allowing some design and technical improvements. It means we have to sit through those ads to read his stuff, but I'm sure it will continue to be worth it. Congrats, Glenn.

• Obama's national finance chair Penny Pritzker endorsed Kerry in 2004 -- then maxed out to to Bush/Cheney campaign.
• As Kerry's oppo research guru in 2003, Howard Dean felt the effects of Michael Gerhke. Now, Dean has hired Gerhke to head the DNC's anti-GOP research efforts.
• So what happens once Bush loses Peoria? Quak, quak.
• Bush is a liar. No biggie, of course. It'd be more newsworthy if he actually told the truth for once. Also McCain.
• Should Rep. Alan Mollohan be in charge of a key sub-committee when a corruption cloud hangs over him? One of the arguments of the CBC was that William Jefferson was stripped of his committees even though he hadn't been convicted of anything -- a seeming double-standard since white Reps -- like Mollohan -- don't appear to be similarly affected. As long as the FBI is investigating a congressperson over corruption charges, an aggressive anti-corruption stance demands we play it safe until the investigation plays out.
• Reid will wheel Sen. Johnson into the Senate chambers to vote for the non-binding anti-surge resolution if necessary. If nothing else, this is a further sign that Johnson is recuperating nicely and is available for key votes.
• I think it's funny that the New Hampshire Republican Party has to pay the NH Democratic Party $25K a year for the next five years as part of its settlement of its illegal phone jamming practices in 2002. What's that mean? If you write a check for the NH GOP, you're actually writing a check for the state's Democratic Party. That's got to be a great fundraising pitch!
• House rematches are rarely successful. That may be the historical precedent. I think in the future, it will be important for challengers taking on an incumbent to view their race as a four-year race. The incumbent has a well-established network of donors and volunteers that can't be matched by a first-time candidate. But running a four-year race can maximize the possibilities of future Boydas, Hodes, and McNerneys.
• San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, once a rising Democratic star, has lost his luster. He has a serious zipper problem.
• With schedules like this one, I don't know how anyone has the energy to run for president. After my 10-week book out I was broken. Keeping this up for years is unfathomable to me.