Bob McDonnell's Republican response:  "Hey!  We're not in power, so it can't be our fault what a mess we're in.  We have amnesia as to the years of 2001-2009, so really it's only gay people and independent-minded women and brown people (who are probasbly here illegally anyway) who created this mess.  Oh yeah - it's also poor people's fault for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.  Gosh, I really hate poor people.  Anyway, God Bless America!"

Yesterday Oregon voters delivered a huge victory for progressives by approving Measures 66 and 67, raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 and large corporations to generate $733 million to close the state's budget deficit. The Oregon legislature had approved the taxes last summer, but a corporate/teabagger alliance organized to put it to voters in a referendum.

One wonders if the national media will cover this victory at all - much less at the levels of the Massachusetts Senate race.

Link

White House officials acknowledged the freeze wouldn't fix the country's red ink problem but would show the government is concerned about it.

Today's the day we've been waiting for: the day our Great Leader stands before our Great Nation to take stock of previous successes and announce an inspiring initiative that will rock our world.

That's right: Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Tablet this morning!

Needless to say, I am in the second camp.  The problem with the first camp, as I see it, is that if you accept the framing that the bill is poison, than it is irrelevant whether or not it passes.  Those Dems who voted for it are out in 2010 regardless.  Based on the fact that they already voted for it, and Republicans will run against that.

Personally, I think the only reason the bill is poison is because people don't know what is in it, they don't really understand it, and the political optics of the whole negotiation period were terrible.  If they manage to pass the bill, Dems will have something concrete that they can stand up and defend, rather than talking about something they spent the better part of a year trying to pass - and failed at.

I guess what I'm saying is, if the Dems will lose because of HCR, they've already lost.  Passing it doesn't necessarily mean winning in 2010, but it does mean we get some form of HCR before they are all gone.

It's absolutely not new information that he didn't have firsthand information about the waterboarding.  He said so at the time in his interview on ABC that caused all the fuss.

The fact that the media is making a big to-do about this "revelation" now means only that they either weren't really paying attention at the time or that their memories are pathologically short or that a fair number of them have an agenda they're trying to push.

Concern about bombs possibly concealed in shoes led to the new requirement of all airline passengers departing from an airport within the USA having to pass through security in socks or bare feet while their shoes were scanned for bombs.[21] However, scanners do not find PETN in shoes or strapped to a person. A chemical test is needed.[citation needed][22]  [Italics added.]

First, the Health Dept. sends out spies to nighclubs to see how well club owners are harassing their customers.  I wonder how much this whole operation cost...if we didn't pay for the suits we at least paid for the dry-cleaning, the drinks, the full salary of the mental giant with the fancy title who ok'd this, etc, etc, etc.

Another from the DA's office...two exotic dancers with the nerve to refuse to plead to prostitution charges "force" the DA to take it to trial, a rarity in prostitution cases.  The result?  You guessed it, no conviction.