Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Who's got something romantic planned?

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Vice President Joe Biden appears on Meet the Press this morning. Here's the transcript of his comments about Dick Cheney (no link yet, received from NBC by e-mail), in which he asserts Cheney is attempting to re-write history. As for his motive, Biden says Cheney is either misinformed or misinforming. Why not just call him what he is -- a disingenuous ex-politician.

DAVID GREGORY: Let me ask you about some of the criticism that's been leveled at this Administration by former Vice President Dick Cheney. He has argued that this Administration has failed to treat the fight against terrorists as war. He cites the decision related to Khalid Sheik Muhammad to offer him a civilian trail as one example. Giving the Christmas Day Bomber the privileges of the American criminal justice system is another example. The decision to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison. What do you say?

[More...]

Apolo Ohno is just about to skate. (Update: He wins silver in 1,500 for 6th Olympic medal)

I've been offline all day, was there any big news?

Dave Cullen, author of the bestselling, Edger-nominated Columbine, provides his take on the female professor accused in the Alabama shooting.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm running errands today and won't have time to follow the news. Here's an open thread for those of you online, all topics welcome.

9 News in Denver was doing an investigative report on marijuana growing in the suburbs. A marijuana patient named Chris Bartkowicz who lives in a $600,000 home volunteered to participate. He said he wanted to show how marijuana growing could be done legally. He gave the news team a tour of his basement which had 2,000 square feet of growing plants. He showed them licenses and the licenses of those to whom he provided marijuana (Under Colorado's Constitution, every patient can have six plants, and patients can designate a caregiver to provide the plants to them. So a caregiver with 100 patients can grow 600 plants.)

The station ran a "tease" of the report Wednesday night. Yesterday, the DEA paid Bartkowicz a visit and took away all his plants and equipment.

[More...]

The world premiere of the We Are the World: 25 for Haiti aired tonight on NBC as part of its olympic coverage. If you're not watching the Olympics (thread here), here's an open thread for other topics.

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died during a training run today. NBC's Olympic coverage began tonight with a video of his fatal crash.

It's only the second time an athlete has been killed during the Olympics. The luge course seems incredibly dangerous. And it's an inauspicious way to begin the Games. But the ceremonies opened on schedule.

Kumaritashvili will be honored during tonight's ceremonies. [More...]

Bump and Update: Reports are coming in on the oral arguments held this morning in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals over whether the Government can get cell phone companies to turn over data showing the location of a cell phone without first obtaining a court order establishing probable cause.

Judge Dolores Sloviter, one of a three-judge panel, told Eckenwiler the government's case raised questions about the government's rights to track individuals.

"There are governments in the world that would like to know where some of their people are or have been," she said, citing Iran as a government that monitors political meetings. "Wouldn't the government find it useful if it could get that information without showing probable cause? Don't we have to be concerned about that?"

[More...]

Politico:

�[Obama] wants a jobs bill, we get a jobs bill,� the [House] official said. �He wanted health care, we got health care. Then the answer is, �You just need to twist enough arms to pass the Senate bill.� You can twist arms if you�ve got a handful of them to twist. You can�t twist over 100 arms. There needs to be some reality check there.�

(Emphasis supplied.) Did you hear that Jon Chait?

Speaking for me only

I applaud Matt Yglesias for discussing this openly

I worked for the American Prospect full-time for about three years and have written a column for TAP Online ever since leaving. And in all that time, no one has ever told me what to write or what position to take. But nobody thinks The American Prospect is an �unbiased� news source. It�s very biased! [But] producing a coherent �line� [does not] require writers to sell out their integrity. [. . .] When I was at TAP, most of my opinions were either in line with my editors or else were on subjects where the bosses didn�t have strong feelings. But there were also issues where my editors did have very strong feelings and I didn�t agree with their take, and so to make my life easier I tended not to focus on those issues.

(Emphasis supplied.) Let's make it even simpler. You are not going to rip a friend's work the way you might a non-friend. I am such a misanthrope that I do not need to hold back very much. But even I do. Especially when it is issues or people that Jeralyn has strong feelings about. That's not wrong imo. As long as we are frank about it.

Speaking for me only

While Atrios and aimai focus on different aspects of this Rolling Stone article about the floundering "Obama Movement," I was struck by this:

The decision to shunt Organizing for America into the DNC had far-reaching consequences for the president's first year in office. For starters, it destroyed his hard-earned image as a new kind of politician, undercutting the post-partisan aura that Obama enjoyed after the election. "There were a lot of independents, and maybe even some Republicans, on his list of 13 million people," says Joe Trippi, who launched the digital age of politics as the campaign manager for Howard Dean in 2004. "They suddenly had to ask themselves, 'Do I really want to help build the Democratic Party?'"

(Emphasis supplied.) Trippi's question is fascinating to me. As we know, it is hard to figure out what Trippi is about these days (Harold Ford???), but the question Trippi asks is not a bad one. But it is not a question for a progressive to be asking. A progressive would say 'I want to build a PROGRESSIVE Democratic Party, now what is the best way to do that?'

Unquestioning devotion to Obama is surely not the way. That has always been my beef with the new Obama activist - it has been about Obama, not advancing progressive issues.

Speaking for me only

Roman Polanski's new film is coming out. The NYTimes discusses that and other events that have been notable about Polanski of late.

Texas to the Big 10? I see it from the Big Ten's perspective, but not really from Texas' perspective. The idea that being in the Big Ten will "globalize" the Texas brand is pretty unrealistic imo. More on this story later at Sports Left.

The Winter Olympics have their Opening Ceremony tonight. Anyone interested in blogging the Games let me know. Sports Left is available to be your vehicle. I only like the curling, the ski jumping, the downhill and the biathlon (the skiing and shooting thing.)

This is an Open Thread.

Ezra Klein continues his march towards DFH-dom:

The administration scored a big victory last night, or at least it thinks it did. After President Obama finally threatened to make recess appointments if Senate Republicans didn't let some of its nominees through the confirmation process, the Republicans allowed the Senate to confirm 29 of them last night. As if to thank them, the White House promptly shot itself in the foot.

[. . .] At this point in his presidency, George W. Bush had made 10 recess appointments. Over the course of his presidency, he would make almost 200. Bill Clinton made about 150. In describing recess appointments as "a rare but not unprecedented step," Obama made it harder to actually make any, because he's defined the procedure -- which, unlike the hold, is a defined constitutional power of the president rather than a courtesy observed in the Senate -- as an extraordinary last-resort. [. . .] At what point does the administration accept that its success is dependent on finding ways to avoid being filibustered? Reconciliation can't be considered a nuclear option and recess appointments can't be saved for special cases. George W. Bush understood this and used reconciliation and recess appointments routinely in his first year. [. . .]

(Emphasis supplied.) All kidding aside, good for Ezra for finally getting it and arguing the case. I'm rooting for him again.

Speaking for me only

218 (temporarily 217.) It's an important number in Washington, D.C. Apparently the Villagers do not understand it. Take Jon Chait, please:

The Senate doesn't need 60 votes again to pass health care reform. It just needs 50. The excuse that reconciliation is nasty and controversial is just incredibly lame. At the same time, the real decision-maker here is the House of Representatives. We could have comprehensive reform enacted next week if the House just passes the Senate bill. The House's reluctance to pass the bill first and then patch it through reconciliation is one of the major obstacles here. [. . . T]he House is where the action is at.

(Emphasis supplied.) Actually, the House is where there is not a snowball's chance in hell of passing the Senate Stand Alone bill. That number, 217, stands in the way. There needs to be a reconciliation fix in place for the House to pass the Senate Stand Alone bill. Holding your breath until you turn blue is not a strategy that will work for the Villagers. They need to get their Senate buddies in line. Or there will be no Senate health bill. They may be surprised to discover how few people will mourn its death.

Speaking for me only

Via Atrios, a fascinating story:

Billy Tauzin, one of Washington�s highest-paid lobbyists, is resigning as president of the drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America amid internal disputes over its pact with the White House to trade political support for favorable terms in the proposed health care overhaul. As the industry�s top lobbyist, Mr. Tauzin brokered the deal with the White House and Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate finance committee, last summer to limit the drug industry�s total costs under the proposed health care overhaul to $80 billion over 10 years.

[. . .] Like almost every other seasoned Washington player, Mr. Tauzin, who makes $2 million a year, bet on health care reform early � only to watch it come to a screeching halt. [. . . A]fter the health care overhaul stalled when Democrats lost the Massachusetts Senate seat, some industry leaders felt the trade group had gone too far giving concessions and could lose on some important legislative issues without gaining the protection it had sought. [. . .] A friend of Mr. Tauzin, speaking on condition of anonymity, defended his role, arguing that it was not his fault the overhaul went off track.

(Emphasis supplied.) The Tauzin and Rahmbo Show to deflect blame on the health care reform debacle will be amuusing to watch.

Speaking for me only