Friday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 19 March 2010 11:59:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

After reading this, well, I just felt like replaying this clip, that's all (too big a file to try and embed the whole film, as much as I'd like to)...

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...and I think this is absolute genuis from Jon Stewart...

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

...and if your U.S. House rep is on the proverbial fence for the upcoming health care vote, click here to contact them and tell them to vote yes; kudos to Patrick Murphy for doing the right thing - let's reward good behavior (and here's a report on the playbook of GOP scare tactics on HCR dating back to when Medicare was passed, featuring the "fear and smear" template created by The Sainted Ronnie R)...

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...and the weekend is here at last, and not a minute too soon.

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Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2010/03/friday-stuff_19.html

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Retired US general blames Srebrenica massacre on
gay soldiers

post from AMERICAblog News on 19 March 2010 11:55:00 PM. © AMERICAblog News

The sooner we move away from the old guard military types like John Sheehan the better. The Dutch are furious, for good reason. What a creep.

"They declared a peace dividend and made a conscious effort to socialise their military ? that includes the unionisation of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality. That led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war," he said.

"The case in point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs. The battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them. That was the largest massacre in Europe since world war two."

He added that the Dutch chief of staff had told him that having gay soldiers at Srebrenica had sapped morale and contributed to the disaster.

"Total nonsense," said General Henk van den Breemen, the Dutch chief of staff at the time. The Dutch embassy in Washington dismissed the US officer's argument as worthless, Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch foreign minister said that it was not worth commenting on, and the Dutch defence ministry voiced incredulity.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/XbgpbvxVUxs/retired-us-general-blam
es-srebrenica.html

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Stupak is Back: Whats an Enrollment Corrections
Bill

post from Firedoglake on 19 March 2010 11:45:09 PM. © Firedoglake

Jane has gone over this, but what Bart Stupak hinted at today has apparently come true. Stupak's four-page "enrollment corrections" bill will get some sort of vote in the House as part of the overall health care bill.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/03/19/the-stupak-amendment-is-back-whats-an-enro
llment-corrections-bill/

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The Weekly Tracking Poll: A Rising Tide

post from Daily Kos on 19 March 2010 11:42:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 3/15/2010-3/18/2010. Registered Voters. MoE 2.8% (Last week's results in parentheses):

FAVORABLEUNFAVORABLENET CHANGEPRESIDENT OBAMA53 (54)41 (42)0PELOSI:37 (35)55 (56)+3REID:27 (26)66 (67)+2McCONNELL:21 (20)63 (63)+1BOEHNER:20 (19)62 (63)+2CONGRESSIONAL DEMS:39 (38)58 (60)+3CONGRESSIONAL GOPS:24 (23)67 (68)+2 DEMOCRATIC PARTY:39 (40)55 (56)0REPUBLICAN PARTY:30 (29)66 (67)+2

Full crosstabs here. This poll is updated every Friday morning, and you can see trendline graphs here.

Well, this qualifies as a "first". I am willing to be corrected, but to my memory this is the first time that the week-to-week trends in the Daily Kos State of the Nation tracking poll show absolutely no one losing ground. Everyone either holds steady or gains 1-3 points.

Perhaps counterintuitively to some folks in the chattering classes (who have been convinced for months that health care was a polling albatross for Democrats), the two biggest gainers are Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Congressional Democrats, who both pick up three points of net favorability.

Looking at the Congressional Dems, it is worth noting that this improvement over the past two weeks (the Dems on the Hill also saw a two point boost last week) is largely due to the base coming home, perhaps in anticipation of passage of a health care reform package:

Change in Net Favorability for Congressional Democrats, From 3/11/10 to 3/18/10, By Party/Ideology
Among Democrats: +10 (from 62/35 to 67/30)
Among Independents: +5 (from 33/65 to 35/62)
Among Republicans: +/-0 (from 12/87 to 11/86)

Another potential benefit of this health care endgame for Democrats is a substantial increase in voter intensity, although the Democrats still lag well behind the GOP in this regard.

Last week, the percentage of Democrats either certain or likely to vote languished at just 40%, with 32% saying they were either unlikely to vote or certain not to vote. In just one week, that spread is now 45/31, a net improvement of six points for Democrats in just seven days.

Thus far, the net effect of health care reform moving to the very front of the political conversation again has been a consolidation of both party's core supporters. Since the Dems were lagging so badly in this regard, that presumably is a net win for them. However, it is not showing up as of yet in the generic ballot calculations: the Democratic lead there remains steady for the third consecutive week, with the Dems leading 47-44 over the GOP, a three-point margin. This mirrors the most recent 2010 tracking poll by Gallup, who got the exact same numbers earlier this week.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/gfRzBdtL2AE/-The-Weekly-Tracking-P
oll:-A-Rising-Tide

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Langevin Votes Yes

post from Kmareka.com on 19 March 2010 11:40:00 PM. © Kmareka.com

I got an email from Congressman James Langevin today, but I had already heard on WRNI that he is supporting the health care reform bill.

It’s in the ProJo, here.

I remember seeing him face down a crowd of red-faced hecklers at the Warwick Town Hall. It’s been a long, nasty, discouraging process and not over yet. I hope we will come out of it with a start at reform.

Here’s a link to live reporting from the Town Hall Meeting last August.

Read The Full Article:
http://kmareka.com/2010/03/19/langevin-votes-yes/

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Stupak may yet bring down health insurance reform
(updated)

post from MyDD on 19 March 2010 11:35:08 PM. © MyDD

Several undecided House Democrats came out in support of the health insurance bill today, but it's still not clear whether leaders have the 216 votes they need. Between six and twelve Democrats are in Bart Stupak's bloc, which will vote for the bill only[...]

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-bill

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Stupak may yet bring down health insurance reform

post from MyDD on 19 March 2010 11:35:08 PM. © MyDD

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 19 March 2010 11:30:31 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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A lovely reimagining of the Beck/Palin interview. Open thread below...

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http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal/open-thread-370

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Department of Book Reports: Once a Spy

Once a Spy by Keith Thomson (Doubleday, $25.95) This delightful satirical thriller is written by Huffington Post columnist, Keith Thomson. I'm enjoying the characters and the action-packed pace. You can get a taste of the book by reading the early chapter excerpts at HuffPo.

What happens when a spy develops Alzheimer's? Pair him with his mid-thirties son who owes the Russian mafia for his pony debts, who still thinks Dad was just an appliance salesman...

?Utterly original, it is an adrenaline-fueled concoction of sidesplitting humor and genuine suspense. Think Carl Hiassen taking on John Le Carré and the winner is the reader. What a find! I can't imagine not loving this gem of a novel!?
?Christopher Reich :: New York Times Bestselling Author

Keith will be reading and discussing his work in Second Life at Lacamas Reading Hall on Monday, March 22nd at 6pm (PDT). Stick around for some great music from Klipe Wirefly afterwards. Second Life events are, as always, over at Cafe Wellstone's ning.

Our dear Second Life friend Lelani Carver introduced us to Keith, and helped twist his arm and get him to agree to be pixilated for this reading. She really did twist his arm, she's responsible for getting his avatar all fixed up. She's old friends with Keith, having followed him since 2004 from before the publication of his first book, ?Gus Openshaw?s Whale-Killing Journal?.

I'm tickled pink that Keith lists the reading in his website Events. Thanks, Keith! And be sure to follow Keith on twitter: @kqthomson

The book is available for purchase at our shopping cart, and I'll be adding a freebie in each package: a publisher's Advance Reading Copy.

Monday night will also be the debut of a new feature at our bookstore. We'll be opening a coffee cart serving Raven's Brew Coffee from Alaska. Not only can you enjoy a virtual cup of the finest espresso in Second Life, and get an exclusive tee shirt, you'll also be order coffee directly for delivery to your Real Life home.

Raven's Brew Coffee is a small, family-owned company dedicated to sourcing the world?s best coffee. Each batch of coffee is air roasted resulting in a distinct and superior flavor development, notably clean taste and an intense sweet, perfumey fragrance.

We started roasting coffee in Alaska in a garage over 17 years ago and now have roasteries in Alaska and Washington. Our green coffee buying strategy focuses mainly on heirloom varieties grown in shade-forest conditions and without the use of agrichemicals. We strive to offer only coffees that will be an enlightening experience for the customer, and fair and just for the small producers of our unique coffees. We roast certified organic as well as conventional specialty coffees.

Our label art is by world-famous Alaskan artist, Ray Troll. Ray?s designs adorn our coffee packaging as well as T-shirts, mugs, posters and postcards.

And, there is some good news from last week: Idella/Alicia has come out swinging. Go read all about it.

Thanks freinds, be excellent to one anotherz!

Fall Fundraiser: Please give if you can.
Paypal

Read The Full Article:
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2010/03/once-spy-by-keith-thomson-doubleday-25.htm
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Stupak takes us into the weeds under the weeds of
reconciliation

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.

You're not gonna believe how low down in the weeds we're gonna have to get for this one.

We just learned from mcjoan that Bart Stupak is after a deal that would somehow jam a foot in the health insurance reform door for his now-notorious Stupak amendment on abortion:

This morning, during an appearance on Good Morning America, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) reaffirmed that he might vote for the Senate health care bill if Democrats pass the Stupak abortion amendment as a separate measure. Stupak said that Democrats have shown a “renewed” interest in tying his amendment to the Senate bill:

STUPAK: George, that’s called an enrollment corrections bill. I presented that to leadership about ten days ago. There’s renewed interest in that piece of legislation that I and a number of us are ready to introduce. It’s prepared. Everybody’s looking at it right now. That’s one way, maybe. But we set the deal with the Senate. You give us a vote in the House. We had a vote in the House. It was overwhelmingly 240-194, to keep public law, no public funding for abortion.

It seems to me that if the Senate parliamentarian is indeed insisting that the reconciliation bill address "current law," then that means the Senate bill must be not only enrolled, but signed by the President before reconciliation can be considered, at least in the Senate. I assume the House parliamentarian has no such objection to the House beginning its work (which is curious in itself), since he's apparently allowing the House to consider and pass reconciliation before the Senate bill is enrolled.

Will the Senate parliamentarian insist that the bill be signed before permitting the Senate to begin its reconciliation work on the floor? He may have no say over what the House parliamentarian approves with respect to when the House passes reconciliation, but he can prevent the Senate from beginning until the Senate bill becomes "current law."

So, does Stupak have an opportunity, then, to get the House and Senate both to approve an "enrollment correction" bill inserting his preferred language in the Senate bill, and get the Senate bill to the president for signature before the Senate takes up reconciliation?

And if he does have that opportunity -- and the tool for taking advantage of it even has a name, that is, an "enrollment correction" bill -- does that finally lay to rest the question of whether pending legislation can be amended by other legislation before the original underlying bill actually becomes law?

UPDATE:

Here's something else fun!

I found a previous use of the enrollment corrections process. It was used in the 108th Congress under Republicans.

Do you remember that crazy provision that got slipped into an appropriations bill that nobody would claim credit for -- but which was eventually blamed on former Rep. Ernie Istook (R-OK) -- that would supposedly have given the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees the right to send people into the IRS to examine people's individual tax returns, etc.?

Well, that crazy piece of crap provision was removed with an enrollment correction bill when the Republicans got caught with it in the conference report and were too embarrassed to let it stand, but didn't want to have to vote on it because it would be to admit the "error," not to mention requiring recommitting the bill to conference.

But wait, there's more! The enrollment correction bill was designated H. Con. Res. 528, and do you know how the Republicans passed it?

They used "deeming" to pass it! Section 3 of H. Res. 866 (which was the rule for the appropriations bill) reads as follows: