What are your plans for the evening? What are you most excited to say goodbye to?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Over the past three years, Illinois taxpayers have shelled out close to $10 million in workers comp claims to prison guards at one prison in Illinois. The payments are mostly for claims of repetitive carpal tunnel syndrome due to opening and closing manually operated cell doors. 389 guards (more than half of those employed by the prison)have put in claims and collected.

Even the warden put in a claim and got $75,000. How many times a day do you think he personally opens or closes a cell door?

State lawmakers are calling for a fraud investigation.

If you are headed out tonight to celebrate, plan ahead. The cops will be everywhere.

In Denver, if money's an issue, the Frank Sawaya law firm will pick up the tab for your taxi. Just send your receipt with a photocopy of your driver's license to: Holiday Free Cab Ride Home Program, The Sawaya Law Firm, 1600 Ogden St., Denver, CO 80218.

Sawaya says his offer, now in its 4th year, is offered on New Years Eve, July 4th, St. Patricks Day and Halloween. It costs the firm about $20,000. a year.

As 2010 draws to a close, for my final long post of the year, I want to talk about how 2010 was the most boring, ho-hum year of the decade.

In 2008, politics was exciting. In 2009, we were excited as we waited for the hope and change. In 2010, we realized it wasn't coming. The reality is President Obama is not that exciting a personality. He's far too normal. He doesn't fall down and make us laugh like Gerald Ford. He doesn't reek Hollywood like Ronald Reagan, and Mrs. Obama doesn't rely on astrologers and silly slogans like "Just Say No" as did Nancy Reagan to keep us snickering in amusement.

Bush I was boring too. It was like having a caricature of the white Protestant Male from the yacht club for President. But, it was still the 80's, so he doesn't count in this competition. [More...]

While the mountains have been inundated with snow, Denver has been dry as a bone. Today, that's changing. The snow began to fall in the metro area about 10:00 a.m. If you want to watch it fall, click the play button above or go to Fox 31 News Live Snow Stick Camera.

Since the snow will continue until tomorrow, along with frigid temperatures, I'm taking a snow day and working from home. For those of you not working, or planning a New Year's Eve at home, here's some suggestions of things to do:[More...]

The New York Times, which editorialized in favor of The Deal NOW provides this advice to President Obama and the Dems, in light of the Norquist Rules just adopted by the House GOP:

The new Republican rules will gut pay-as-you-go because they require offsets only for entitlement increases, not for tax cuts. [. . .] The new rules mandate that entitlement-spending increases be offset by spending cuts only � and actually bar the House from raising taxes to pay for such spending. Even worse, they direct the leader of the House Budget Committee to ignore several costs when computing the budget [. . .] For example, the cost to make the Bush-era tax cuts permanent would be ignored [. . .] At the same time, the new rules bar the renewal of aid for low-income working families � extended temporarily in the recent tax-cut deal � unless it is fully paid for.

This "shocking" development, after The Deal, leads the New York Times, supporter of The Deal, to counsel:

Karl Rove has an op-ed in the Wall St. Journal taking issue with President Obama's view that one of the reasons Guantanamo should be closed is that it serves as a training ground for terrorists. Rove argues that al Qaeda doesn't view Guantanamo as a significant issue, and that trying detainees in federal court will play into al Qaeda's hands by making them martyrs.

It's the second point, the "martyr" issue, where Rove's argument falls far short of the mark and also weakens his first point.

New York juries in the past have beaten al Qaeda at the martyr game, by rejecting the death penalty and returning verdicts of life in prison. Once the terror defendants are whisked away to Supermax for life, we rarely hear from them again. No martyrdom, just decades of isolation. What have you heard from Zacarias Moussaoui or Richard Reid since they began serving their life sentences? Zip. They have been silenced, except for their occasional pro se court pleadings, which get little if any coverage. Any chance for martyrdom has been effectively eliminated. [More...]

Discussing E.J. Dionne's column today, Booman makes some good points:

Considering that [the column] is supposed to be about [Dems] regaining the initiative, it's pretty weak to lecture the White House about its tendency to defend itself and "the left" about never being satisfied. Those things aren't going to change. We can be critical of that reality, but we ought not offer it up as something to fix so that we can get our mojo back.

In fact it is not something to fix. The White House should tout its accomplishments. They are in the politics business after all. And people dissatisfied with what the White House is doing should say so and work to make them do what they want. That's how it works. But both Booman and Dionne miss the connection between the political problems Dems have and the economic policies of the Obama Administration. More . . .

President Obama named six recess appointments yesterday, including James Cole as Deputy Attorney General.

A few windbag Republicans like Peter King of NY are outraged...."shocked" they say. Why? Cole had the common sense (audacity in their view) to suggest terrorism is a crime that should be tried in our federal courts.

I'm outraged and shocked that someone like Peter King is an elected representative in our government. And good on Obama for giving King and his ilk a little pin prick. One of Cole's duties will be to sign off on the secret FISA wiretaps.

Via Twitter, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is seeking input for the first sentence of his book.

Here's what I came up with.

As the cell door closed behind me and I faced the cold, dank space, I began to contemplate the brunt of the awesome power of government, once it has descended to unleash its wrath.

Guess I better not give up my day job. What are your ideas?

Glenn Greenwald:

Over the years, Wired has repeatedly -- and always approvingly -- cited to, quoted from, and otherwise used my work. [. . .] But now that I've written critically about Wired, I'm suddenly converted into a dishonest, ethics-free, unreliable hack. That's par for the course. That's why so few people in this profession are willing to criticize other media outlets. Journalists react as poorly as anyone to public criticism; it doesn't make you popular to do it; it can terminate career opportunities and relationships; it's certain your credibility will be publicly impugned. But journalists need scrutiny and accountability as much as anyone -- especially when, as here, they are shaping public perceptions about a vital story while withholding important information -- and I'd vastly prefer to be the one to provide it even if it means that the targets of the criticism don't like it and lash out.

Via Atrios, HAMP'd:

U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks' efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday. [. . .] HAMP loan modifications fell by almost 46 percent in the third quarter, according to the report.

There is an untold story in this - homeowners have come to realize that HAMP modifications are a scam that only work for the banks. You will see uncontested foreclosures increase as a result, as homeowners realize that walking away is the better deal.

Heck of a job, Timmie!

Speaking for me only

Joan McCarter and David Dayen both highlight this Elizabeth Warren Op-ed on foreclosure fraud and her notion that the new Consumer Financial Protection Board. Warren writes:

[T]his mess might well have been avoided if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had been in place just a few years ago.

Excuse me, but this is simply not true. The main reason why this is not true is because Tim Geithner is the Treasury Secretary. To this day, Geithner has been against any and every measure that would assist homeowners and trouble banks in any way. It is hopelessly naive to believe that this Administration will do anything to help homeowners that would involve any pain for the banks so long as Tim Geithner has anything to sday about it..

Geithner is a corrupt incompetent who should be immediately fired.

Speaking for me only

Denver is finally about to get snow and a blast of arctic weather:

Snow is expected to fall in Denver by mid-morning Thursday, and temperatures will plunge to levels not seen so far this winter.

Temperatures will drop from the 50's to zero. Which means I have to get to a lot of places today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Danish police have arrested five men with alleged Islamic terrorist ties they say were planning an imminent shooting spree inside the newspaper offices of Jyllands Posten, the paper that published the 2005 cartoons that derided Muhammad.

Four of the five men reside in Sweden.

Danish media described the suspects arrested in Denmark as: a 44-year-old Tunisian national; a 29-year-old Lebanese-born Swedish national; a 30-year-old Swedish citizen of unknown ancestry; and a 26-year-old Iraqi seeking asylum in Denmark. A 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin was also arrested in Stockholm.

[More...]