Not Settled Yet

post from Talking Points Memo on 16 November 2010 10:01:22 AM. © Talking Points Memo

While House freshman have arrived for orientation, seven House races remain undecided two weeks after Election Day. Here's the latest on where they stand.[...]

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Inside The Sausage Making

post from Talking Points Memo on 16 November 2010 10:01:22 AM. © Talking Points Memo

Fierce (OK, not really) editorial dispute at TPM this morning over whether our readers give a hoot about Prince William's engagement to Kate Middleton. I say yes. Others convinced I'm wrong. Think we all agree it's not important but the issue is whether[...]

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Murkowski Dumps On Palin

post from Talking Points Memo on 16 November 2010 10:01:21 AM. © Talking Points Memo

The bitter Murkowski-Palin feud continues, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski telling Katie Couric: "I just do not think that she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies. ... "She would not be my[...]

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Chips Ahoy

post from Thomas Riggins' Blog on 16 November 2010 10:00:55 AM. © Thomas Riggins' Blog

Thomas Riggins

According to some recent news stories we all may be swallowing computer chips in the near future. Some big drug companies are planning to put micro-chips in the pills we take in order to make sure we take our meds (and of course use up those pills so we have to buy more).

Science fiction? Not in the least. Reuters reported on November 8, in a story by Ben Hirschler, that Novartis AG is hoping to get regulators to approve its new "smart pill" by 2012. Here is how it works. A microchip goes into the pill along with meds, it transmits its information to a skin patch which inturn can rely the info over the internet or to smartphone.

Sounds innocent enough. You really should take your meds and now your health care team can monitor you-- it's for your own good. The company also hope to "expand" the uses of their chip due to "the wealth of biometric" data that it can be programmed to report on. Hmmmm. There may be some reall risks here as who know what information about your personal health these chips may broadcasting to the outside world. Suppose you need to take more than one or two meds-- you can have all sorts of chips inside you at any one time broadcasting away.

Novartis wants to skip "full-scale clinical trials" since the chips are not themselves medicine, they are just being added to already approved medicines.
But what are these chips made of? What affect may they have on the body? The article also asks how will the patient's private medical data be protected from third party monitoring "as it is transmitted from inside their bodies by wireless and Bluetooth"?

The regulators will have to address this issue but they seem supportive of Novartis plans. After all these broadcast microchips will make sure we are all taking our meds and this "should deliver better outcomes and [more importantly-tr] justify a higher price."

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Activist Judge Alito Raising Money For Right-Wing
Magazine

post from Crooks and Liars on 16 November 2010 10:00:44 AM. © Crooks and Liars

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You will be relieved to know that SCOTUS did exempt itself from the federal judges' ethics code a few years ago, so that Justice Alito is not actually breaking any laws -- only the public trust in impartiality. (By the way, one of my friends was a secretary at the federal courthouse in Philly where Alito was a judge, and her boss referred to him even then as "that right wing a**shole."). (Via Think Progress.)

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. said his involvement with a conservative fundraiser was "not important" after being confronted by a Think Progress blogger Tuesday night.
At a fundraising event for the right-wing magazine American Spectator, Lee Fang of Think Progress asked Alito why he thought it was appropriate to attend such a highly political fundraiser.
"It's not important that I'm here," Alito reportedly told Fang.
"You also helped headline this same event two years ago, obviously helping to raise political money as the keynote," Fang shot back, only to receive the same response from Alito before he walked away. "It's not important."
The American Spectator fundraising event featured Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, Republican Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), US Chamber of Commerce board member William Walton, and major Republican donor Paul Singer.
According to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, a justice should not "solicit funds for, pay an assessment to, or make a contribution to a political organization or candidate, or attend or purchase a ticket for a dinner or other event sponsored by a political organization or candidate."
In 2009, Alito also headlined a fundraising dinner for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which funded the conservative journalist James O?Keefe and Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. Alito is reported to have helped the institute raise $70,000.
Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States by President George W. Bush in October 2005 to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He has served on the court since January of 2006.

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GOP Representative-Elect Wants Government-Run
Health Care Immediately Upon Entry to Congress

post from Firedoglake on 16 November 2010 10:00:42 AM. © Firedoglake

It's not that Maryland's incoming freshman representative Andy Harris doesn't like government-based health care, it's that he doesn't like the U.S. health care system. Neither do I. Maybe a Democrat is a Republican who had to wait a month for open[...]

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Time To Focus On Clean Energy

post from TPMCafe on 16 November 2010 10:00:12 AM. © TPMCafe

Today, Tuesday, November 16, 2010, the Coalition for Green Capital, working with the Center for American Progress, publishes a report on how to lower the cost of clean electricity generation and consumption. In addition, the CGC will launch a wiki-bill: a detailed proposal for energy legislation to be passed by the bipartisan 112th Congress, offered for open debate and discussion, and found at the CGC website - www.coalitionforgreencapital.com.

The theme of these two publications is the 3 R's of clean energy: let's get Real about the political situation, let's focus on economic Recovery, and let's get Rewards for private sector investment firmly established for at least the next decade.

To one side, we say: if there's no price on carbon coming out of the 111th Congress and probably not the 112th Congress, still we can lower the cost of clean electricity generation and consumption to make projects price-competitive and economically rewarding. To the other side, we say: even if not everyone believes that climate change is a crisis, we all surely must believe that the American energy sector (including generation and consumption) needs to be secure, competitive with China and other countries, and attractive for the private sector investment that must produce job-creating economic recovery. We surely all want National Independence in energy, National Competitiveness for our generation and efficient consumption businesses, and National Recovery driven in large part by the huge energy sector.

The new political and, some would argue, financial reality is that we are entering a period in which we must rule out: (1) unpaid-for federal appropriations, (2) expansion of federal government mandates or size, (3) excessive federal regulation, and (4) more federal debt. But if the apple of everyone's eye is much more profit-seeking private sector investment in clean energy generation and consumption, then ways we can peel that apple include:

--Selling government ownership in the Tennessee Valley Authority for tens of billions of dollars and using that money to pay for a decade of tax reduction for firms making money in clean energy generation and consumption,
--Creating a non-government, private sector-run, non-profit lending authority called the Energy Independence Trust that would borrow from the Treasury and do business for patriotic purposes (like the Red Cross), in order to provide long term and low cost financing to clean energy generation and consumption businesses.
--Deregulating the energy sector at the federal and state level so as to open the door to mergers, joint ventures, and new business activities that achieve efficiencies of scale and create profitable investment opportunities, including reducing regulatory and infrastructure barriers to the deployment of clean energy

In the winter of 1994-95 everyone told the head of the Federal Communications Commission that he was going to be beleaguered and besieged by the new anti-Clinton Congress that had just been elected. Instead, that same Congress passed by more than 400 votes in the House and almost 80 votes in the Senate the 1996 Telecommunications Act, pursuant to which the FCC deregulated and shaped new business opportunities. These new opportunities - pursued by those animated by belief in new technologies and confident that they could make new money in new ways - led to private sector investment of more than $850 billion from 1997 to 2007. That investment created directly more than two million new jobs, and indirectly led to creating an unforeseen budget surplus and a rise in average income for all quintiles of the American economic ladder. This is what the new bipartisan Congress can and should emulate.

----
Reed Hundt is the CEO of Coalition for Green Capital.

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TSA founder: 'Nobody likes having their 4th
Amendment violated going through a security line, but the truth of the matter is, we're gonna have to'

post from AMERICAblog News on 16 November 2010 10:00:12 AM. © AMERICAblog News

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Well done by the Redditers who grabbed the clip and tracked down the bio of Morris McGowan who is an assistant administrator for Security Operations at the TSA.

Fivethirtyeight is reviewing public support for the "porno-shot or grope" options and today, support remains high. Those who fly are less in favor of the new procedures. There may be some changes after the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season when more people have the pleasure of passing through the system. If the American public can support two unfunded wars and a massive bailout of the bankers with limited complaints, it might be a while until any of this changes.

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ThinkFast: November 16, 2010

On CBS’s “The Early Show” today, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) praised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for signing on to the earmark ban yesterday. He credited McConnell “with listening to fellow GOP lawmakers and also to voters who showed their anger over federal spending at the polls in this month’s elections.”

The British government has announced that it will be offering monetary compensation “to former detainees at Guantánamo Bay who have complained that the British intelligence agencies colluded in their torture.” The compensation is expected to “total several million dollars.”

The House ethics committee found evidence to support 13 counts of misconduct by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). The findings came after Rangel walked out of the proceedings, claiming he couldn’t continue to afford a lawyer; the committee will now begin considering whether to formally convict Rangel and recommend punishment.

A new USDA report released yesterday found that “about 15% of U.S. households ? 17.4 million families ? lacked enough money to feed themselves at some point last year.” The study “also found that 6.8 million of these households ? with as many as 1 million children ? had ongoing financial problems that forced them to miss meals regularly.”

President Obama met with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Reps. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) yesterday to discuss the chances of passing comprehensive immigration reform or the DREAM Act in the lame duck session. Menendez said the White House is “ready and willing” to talk about immigration reform.

Blue dog Democrat Rep. Health Shuler (NC) said yesterday that he will challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the Democrats’ top leadership position when the party moves into the minority in the next Congress. Although Shuler acknowledged that it will be an uphill battle, he noted he is following through with a campaign promise to challenge Pelosi.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today to discuss a two-year freeze of the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change agenda, which Rockefeller has been seeking all year. Rockefeller says Reid previously promised him a vote this year on the bill, which would block EPA’s climate change regulations for power plants, petroleum refiners and other major stationary sources.

In a unanimous decision Monday, the California Supreme Court ruled that undocumented immigrants who graduated from state high schools can continue to receive in-state tuition to California’s public universities and colleges. While California is one of 10 states that permit in-state tuition for undocumented students, the ruling is “the first of its kind in the nation.”

And finally: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) “has made no secret” of the fact that he is a “superfan” of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards ?- he even pardoned the rockstar for a 1975 misdemeanor in Arkansas. But in his new autobiography, Richards is less than grateful, and even criticizes Huckabee’s guitar chops, writing, “Governor Huckabee also thinks of himself as a guitar player. I think he even has a band.”

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Morning Joe Mocks GOP Freshman For Bitching About
Not Getting His Government-Run Health Care For A Month

Representative-elect Andy Harris (R-MD)

Last night, Politico’s Glenn Thrush reported on a curious incident in which Representative-elect Andy Harris (R-MD), a Republican freshman elected to Congress on his promise to repeal President Obama’s health care reform law and resist “government-run or government-mandated insurance”, “surprised fellow freshmen at a Monday orientation session by demanding to know why his government-subsidized health care plan takes a month to kick in.” ?He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,? Thrush reports. “‘Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,’ added the aide [who witnessed the encounter], who was struck by the similarity to Harris?s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.”

This morning, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough — himself a former GOP congressman — teased Harris for “bitching about not getting his government-run health care for a month”:

SCARBOROUGH: Seriously? If you had to talk about that, go whisper to the House administrator. And by the way, I think he’s a doctor? He says, ‘what do I do?’ COBRA, it’s called COBRA, for three weeks. You’ll get over it, dude. I mean, come’n man! Can you believe that?
‘No, the federal government should not be in charge of our health care? No, it’s socialism when the federal government is in charge of our health care! My hair is on fire! Oh, oh, oh, oh!’
Where is my government run health care? Seriously? So I guess he was against government-run health care before he was for it. Or maybe he’s just saying that Congressmen should have it, but working-class people shouldn’t? I’m so confused!

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On his campaign website, Harris explains, “[a]s a physician, I know that our health insurance system is in need of repair. However, the answer to the ever-rising cost of insurance is not the expansion of government-run or government-mandated insurance but, instead, common-sense market based solutions that ensure decisions are made by patients and their doctors.”

During an event at the Cecil County Patriots Candidate Forum in February 2010, Harris claimed “there is no constitutionality mandated role for the federal government in health care,” and criticized Medicare and Medicaid. Turning his attention to the health care reform legislation then moving through Congress, he described the public option as “a terrible idea,” adding, “you can’t have government-run health care, it’s just not right.” In July of 2009, Harris also appeared on Fox Business and warned viewers that if health reform passes, “we’ll look like Canada and England.” “Americans are not going to tolerate a bureaucrat making a decision for their families medicare care,” he said.

Ironically, in an interview with a local FOX affiliate just days before the election, Harris accused his opponent — incumbent Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD), who voted against the Affordable Care Act — of being “for it before he was against it, before he was for it, before he was against it.”

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