Copenhagen Wrap Up: Climate crisis left unabated,
diplomatic chasms created

post from Open Left - Front Page on 21 December 2009 01:17:26 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

As the climate conference in Copenhagen hobbled towards a close Friday night, the United States, in[...]

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Open Seas

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 21 December 2009 01:11:01 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

[...]

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Dem Committees Have 75% More in Bank than GOP

post from MyDD on 21 December 2009 01:09:17 PM. © MyDD

If the Republicans think they have a shot at retaking either the House or the Senate in 2010, their current bank accounts strongly disagree. According to Hotline on Call, the Republican National Committee under Michael Steele has been hemorrhaging[...]

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Axelrod needs some help with history

post from Daily Kos on 21 December 2009 01:08:04 PM. © Daily Kos

David Axelrod was all over the teevee on the Sunday morning circuit, walking back his "insane" comments about Howard Dean and his criticism of the health care bill, talking up the legislation and trying to tamp down progressive base frustration with the watered-down measure.

Little noticed in the flurry of appearances was his misleading commentary about the hallowed sanctity of the filibuster. James Fallows caught it though, and was disturbed:

Good for David Gregory. Just now, on Meet the Press, he asked David Axelrod whether the Senate's " 'majority' equals 60 votes" current operating rules made sense.

Not so good for David Axelrod. He immediately says, "These are time-honored rules."

Unt-uh. They are "time-honored" only in the sense of having been adopted awaaaaayyy-back at the dawn of time in 1975; and they have been of practical importance only really since the time of Bill Clinton -- and with a sharp increase in the last three or four years.

Can the chief political advisor at the White House really not know this about the filibuster? And if he knows the real story, why would he stick with this "time-honored" line? Either explanation is unsettling.

Either explanation is unsettling. Indeed.

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A day without DSL is like a day without the
interwebs

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 21 December 2009 01:01:10 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

I only have access intermittently, and trying to get anything done and follow the breaking news is just frustrating.

I am going to go bake more cookies. Some of you - and you know who you are - are doomed to some extra exercise in January. Tough. Deal with it. The cookies are that fucking good.

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-without-dsl-is-like-a-day-without-the-interwebs

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Senate Passes Key Test for Health Care Bill With
60 Votes

post from Crooks and Liars on 21 December 2009 01:00:50 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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From The New York Times--Health Bill Passes Key Test in the Senate With 60 Votes:

After a long day of acid, partisan debate, Senate Democrats held ranks early Monday in a dead-of-night procedural vote that proved they had locked in the decisive margin needed to pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation?s health care system.
The roll was called shortly after 1 a.m., with Washington still snowbound after a weekend blizzard, and the Senate voted on party lines to cut off a Republican filibuster of a package of changes to the health care bill by the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada.
The vote was 60 to 40 ? a tally that is expected to be repeated four times as further procedural hurdles are cleared in the days ahead, and then once more in a dramatic, if predictable, finale tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading...

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Senate Passes Health Care Bill With 60 Votes

post from Crooks and Liars on 21 December 2009 01:00:50 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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From The New York Times--Health Bill Passes Key Test in the Senate With 60 Votes:

After a long day of acid, partisan debate, Senate Democrats held ranks early Monday in a dead-of-night procedural vote that proved they had locked in the decisive margin needed to pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation?s health care system.
The roll was called shortly after 1 a.m., with Washington still snowbound after a weekend blizzard, and the Senate voted on party lines to cut off a Republican filibuster of a package of changes to the health care bill by the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada.
The vote was 60 to 40 ? a tally that is expected to be repeated four times as further procedural hurdles are cleared in the days ahead, and then once more in a dramatic, if predictable, finale tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading...

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http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/senate-passes-health-care-bill-60-vot
es

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Resolutions, Not Hopes

post from Antemedius - Liberally Critical Thinking on 21 December 2009 01:00:22 PM. © Antemedius - Liberally Critical Thinking

By David Swanson

I resolve to do everything in my ability, while preserving my power to continue in future years, to reverse the destruction of the environment, the proliferation of weapons and wars, and the concentration of wealth.

I resolve neither to panic nor to behave as if we have a moment to lose.

I resolve neither to be gratuitously rude nor to value politeness above life-saving actions.

I resolve not to discriminate for or against elected officials or candidates on the basis of political party.

I resolve not to support or participate in any activist organization that is not internally democratic or which takes its agenda from public servants rather than from the public.

I resolve not to support corporate media outlets in any way, including through organizations or election campaigns, but to invest my time and money in independent media.

I resolve to work at the local, state, national, and international levels to create better communications systems, equality of access to media, the elimination of war propaganda, free media for elections, public media, independent community media, and variety of viewpoints rather than complicity in the pretense that the corporate viewpoint is no viewpoint at all.

I resolve to work at the local, state, national, and international levels to create public funding of elections and to prohibit bribery in any form, to limit protected speech to speech not spending, to limit first amendment and other personal rights to persons not corporations, and to significantly defund political parties.

I resolve to end bipartisan gerrymandering, bipartisan ballot access restrictions, bipartisan candidate debates, and all credibility for claims that bipartisanship is beneficial.

I resolve not to fantasize about secret good intentions, friendship, or super-human powers in elected officials.

I resolve to press elected officials who might do something useful harder than those for whom there is little hope.

I resolve to focus my national lobbying efforts on my representative in the House of Representatives, without wasting energy on presidents or senators, until we compel the House to defund the wars, block the corporate bailouts, and hold high officials accountable.

I resolve to recognize the concentration of power in the hands of presidents as a ticking bomb that must be rapidly defused through public pressure that forces Congress to take back powers it does not want.

I resolve that in 2010 one or more members or former members of the executive branch will be subpoenaed and that a congressional committee will enforce its subpoenas.

I resolve that in 2010 one or more members or former members of the executive branch will be impeached.

I resolve to work at the local, state, national, and international levels to establish the right to vote in verifiable elections on paper ballots publicly counted at each polling place, with voter registration automatic at age 18 and never removed from anyone, even in Washington, D.C.

I resolve never to expect elections alone to change anything, and to understand that my activist work begins the day after an election.

I resolve never to let up until each and every person, including the highest of officials, are held to the same rule of law, war criminals are prosecuted, illegal wars are ended, illegal prisons are closed everywhere, and illegal spying is ceased.

I resolve to speak without self-censorship or preemptive compromise.

I resolve never to kid myself that harmful rhetoric is a means to a helpful end.

I resolve to replace xenophobia with internationalism, corporatism with democracy, and capitalism with socialism.

I resolve to resist cruelty and greed at all levels, in all conversations.

I resolve not to categorize people, including elected officials, as good or bad, but to vehemently agree and disagree with each of them.

I resolve to oppose all tendencies toward violence as strongly as all tendencies toward defeatism, apathy, or misguided strategy.

I resolve to go to jail for justice.

I resolve to do everything I can to inform and educate and learn from others on a personal level and through mass communications.

I resolve not to waste a second on frustration, bitterness, or wise pessimism.

I resolve to value the solidarity of struggle.

Join me, won't you?

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http://www.antemedius.com/content/resolutions-not-hopes

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Steele: Democrats Were Trying To ‘Flip The
Bird To The American People’ By Voting On Health Reform Last Night

This morning on a press call with reporters, RNC Chairman Michael Steele suggested that the Democrats’ effort to pass the health care bill in the Senate was the equivalent to flipping the bird to the American people:

STEELE: I mean, it just annoys and irritates me on something so fundamentally important. That this Congress, this leadership, is so tone deaf and so hell bent on propping up a policy that the American people doesn’t want, that they’re willing to basically flip the bird to the American people on this issue and slip it in in the dead of night.

Listen:

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Of course, the only reason why Congress held the cloture vote at 1am this morning, was because Republicans filibustered the bill. Last night, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) offered a unanimous consent agreement to move the 1 a.m. vote to 9 a.m. this morning if Republicans agreed to forgo the optional 30 hours of debate between each cloture vote and still pass the final legislation before Christmas. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), who had also sternly criticized the early morning vote, objected to the measure.

While the public is weary of health care reform, public disapproval of health care reform intensified as progressives were forced to sacrifice liberal provisions to find common ground withe more moderate lawmakers. As the bill became more conservative, public option began to wane. A recent CBS News/New York Times Poll found that while 50% of Americans disapprove of the way “Barack Obama is handling health care,” 59% favored “offering some people who are uninsured the choice of a government-administered health insurance plan.”

Cross-posted on the Wonk Room.

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http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/21/steele-flip-bird/

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New FBI Report: Crime Dropped (Again) in First
Half of 2009

For the third year in a row, violent crime rates dropped across the U.S., according to a new FBI report released today. Property crimes also dropped. The only increase was burglaries in the South which rose slightly. The figures are for the first half of 2009. Some stats: