Pretty much everyone has had some amount of basement flooding.  Glad my street doesn't look like this.  Or this - which is usually a very busy street.  I got very lucky.  I live in a neighborhood that was hit very hard, but just uphill of the more severe flooding.  And the train station nearest to my house became the new beginning of the line for a little while since the station just past it - going away from the city - was flooded.

The Democrats have done everything they can to keep the Republicons "relevant" so they didn't have to pass a good bill - or even a "compromise" bill, as Glennzilla pointed out last August: "The attempt to attract GOP support was the pretext which Democrats used to compromise continuously and water down the bill. But -- given the impossibility of achieving that goal -- isn't it fairly obvious that a desire for GOP support wasn't really the reason the Democrats were constantly watering down their own bill? Given the White House's central role in negotiating a secret deal with the pharmaceutical industry, its betrayal of Obama's clear promise to conduct negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN no less), Rahm's protection of Blue Dogs and accompanying attacks on progressives, and the complete lack of any pressure exerted on allegedly obstructionists "centrists," it seems rather clear that the bill has been watered down, and the "public option" jettisoned, because that's the bill they want -- this was the plan all along." That's still the state of play.

THIS IS CNN?.... If I didn't get independent confirmation of this, I honestly would have assumed the announcement was some elaborate practical joke. Alas, it's true.

   

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, appearing primarily on CNN's new show John King, USA, the network announced Tuesday.

    Erickson, a self described "obsessive news junkie" who grew up in Dubai and rural Louisiana, will also provide perspective and commentary on other programs across the network. [...]

    "Erick's a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach," said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. "With Erick's exceptional knowledge of politics, as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN's ideologically diverse group of political contributors."

This is easily the worst decision CNN has ever made. That the network probably reviewed Erickson's work before hiring him, and offered him a job anyway, suggests CNN's professional standards for what constitutes "an important voice" have all but disappeared.

The Hollies, Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, ABBA and Iggy Pop's Stooges accepted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday -- a ceremony almost as notable for who wasn't there as who was.

Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry's rendition of Cole Porter's What a Swell Party This Is is almost as swellegant as Frank & Der Bingle's version from High Society. (Big upgrade from when Iggy was Livin on Dog Food (So what! Dog food composes my wife!))

Here's The Hollies' Pay You Back with Interest - gotta love a tune with a campanilist! (I've swiped the high-hat at the end too many times to count.)

JIMMY!!!!! (The Harder They Come)

Major agencies cited that exemption to refuse records at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, compared with 47,395 times during President George W. Bush's final full budget year, according to annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies.

And wait!  There's more!

The AP review comes on the heels of another bit of government transparency news: that the Obama Administration has threatened to veto a congressional intelligence bill because it objects to efforts to increase intelligence oversight.

Among other things, the proposed legislation would subject intelligence agencies to General Accountability Office review. US intelligence agencies are currently immune from review by the Congressional auditing office.

   Since the beginning of the debate on health care reform, I have maintained a pledge that I would not support any health care reform bill that includes federal funding for abortion, and I stand by that pledge today. The original House bill language (Capps Amendment) did not meet this standard, and so I opposed that language. I voted for the Stupak Amendment--the only alternative offered at the time--because it ensured no federal funding of abortions, even though it also went beyond the current federal standard (Hyde Amendment) to prevent Americans from purchasing private insurance with their own dollars.

    "As health care experts and pro-life leaders agree, the abortion language in the Senate bill upholds the Hyde Amendment standard. The Senate health care bill prevents federal taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, as the Catholic Hospital Association and legal experts have recently stated and as my own research has confirmed.

    "Furthermore, several key yet unadvertised provisions of the bill are likely to reduce the number of abortions in this country in ways that move beyond politics toward a real impact on the culture of life in our country, such as those that provide $250 million for programs to support vulnerable pregnant women and increase the adoption tax credit, also making it refundable, so that lower income families can access it fully.

    "I have tended to avoid the labels pro-life and pro-choice--often drawing ire from both sides of this debate--because I believe those labels serve to end debate rather than start us on a path towards solutions. I understand why many pro-choice groups consider the Senate language a major setback, but I made this pledge to the people I represent. Mired as we are in the issue of taxpayer dollars in this debate, we have not been discussing how this bill can reduce abortions. My hope is that, after this debate in the health care bill, lawmakers will come together to support a culture of life in their policy-making, including improving pre- and post-natal care.

    "I have plenty of serious problems with the Senate bill and, until I see the final language, I cannot take a position on final passage. But the existing language on abortion in the current Senate bill meets the pledge I made to ensure no federal funding for abortion in this health care bill."

Nothing much new here, and, yes indeed, we found it difficult to follow and distinguish among the several young white characters who all seemed to look and sound alike.  Part of the reason might be perhaps that half this first episode was shot in the dark.

It would have been helpful if the filmmakers had put names on the helmets, or occasionally added some notes on the screen, like "This is Kramer.  The guy who ran into the lovely young neighbor coming out of church in the opener."

As Congress prepares for a crucial and possibly decisive vote on the fate of President Barack Obama's health care plan, the American public is evenly divided about whether the legislation should be passed or rejected, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.