Despite Bernie Sanders' commonsense arguments, Bernanke squeaked through. Well, good luck with that, I guess. I find what comfort I can in Paul Krugman's prediction that if Bernanke wasn't approved, they'd end up giving in to the Republicans and picking someone who's even worse:

WASHINGTON — The Senate gave Ben S. Bernanke a second four-year term as the head of the Federal Reserve on Thursday after critics excoriated the central bank’s conduct in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

The 70-to-30 vote was the weakest endorsement ever extended to a chairman in the Fed’s 96-year history.

The confirmation was a victory for President Obama, who had called Mr. Bernanke an architect of the recovery, but also signaled the extent to which the Fed, once little known to the public, has become the object of outrage over high unemployment and bank bailouts.

Driftglass: SOTU review.

TBogg: Another Project War for the New American Century.

The Hunting of the Snark: Dishonesty in action is just another day's work for Megan McArdle.

Bic's Place: Cautious optimism for gays in the military.

Rawrahs: A good time to revisit Gilliard's fighting liberal.

RIP Howard Zinn and J. D. Salinger.

Guest post by Batocchio. Temporarily e-mail tips to batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com.

DOWNLOADS: (136)

PLAYS: (599)

Embed

From The Thom Hartmann show--Thom interviews a corporation now running for Congress.

Think Progress has more--Corporation Runs For Maryland Congressional Seat To Protest SCOTUS Campaign Finance Decision

The progressive PR firm Murray Hill Inc. has announced that it plans to satirically run for Congress in the Republican primary in Maryland’s 8th congressional district to protest the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision. A press release on its website says that the company wants to “eliminate the middle man” and run for Congress directly, rather than influencing it with corporate dollars.

[...]

Radio host Thom Hartmann interviewed Murray Hill Inc's spokesman Eric Hansel yesterday on his radio show. Hansel explained to Hartmann that his company chose to run in the Republican primary because the GOP is more sympathetic to corporations.

Continue reading...

DOWNLOADS: 382

PLAYS: 28

Embed

(Claudia of Gamine - Techno Chanteuserie . . whether that's an actual word or not)

Jumping into a bit of Techno tonight, by way of UK band Gamine, fronted by singer Claudia who puts a nice atmospheric presence on things. They have one album out so far and are going the indie route. And as is the case with all the MySpace discoveries of recent months, they need support and listeners. Check them out here and you can pick their album up through the site as well. This track, Oh What A Kiss off their album Sabotage gives a good idea of what they're about.

Good, tasty moody stuff - and you can never go wrong with moody.

Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 28, 2009 with winners being a whole host of right wingers for their response to the State of the Union address. Media Matters has the breakdown--The right-wing response to Obama's SOTU address: "jerk," "arrogant," cocky". Runners up Karl Rove for his appearance on Fox & Friends--Does Rove Think Reagan And Bush Were ‘Weak’ For Discussing The ‘Situation’ They Inherited? and Rudy Giuliani on the same show--Giuliani falsely claims Obama never said "war" in State of the Union.

RIP Howard Zinn, 1922 - 2010

I can't think of a more perfect tribute to this giant of the progressive community than this interview with Wajahat Ali at HuffPo:

I have no regrets about my political activity, only that I sometimes got carried away with it and didn't find the right balance between obligations to my family and my need to be involved in social movements. As for a work of mine that embodies my "legacy," probably it is not one book, but rather the combination of being a writer and an activist, being a public intellectual, by using my scholarship for social change.

A two-fer from the amazing King Crimson. Over nine and a half minutes of Prog heaven from 1981, these versions of Elephant Talk and Thela Hun Ginjeet show Crimson at peak performance. What a lineup!

While legal analysts like Glenn Greenwald and Jonathan Turley lamented Justice Samuel Alito's "serious and substantive breach of protocol" during last night's State of the Union address, conservatives are predictably apoplectic about President Obama's temerity in questioning the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision in that setting. As it turns out, the right-wing hypocrisy in defense of Alito is double. After all, President Bush didn't just routinely use the State of the Union to castigate "activist judges." For years, Bush's amen corner in the conservative movement threatened judges to bring them in line.

Bush's Supreme politicking during his State of the Union speeches was a regular fixture of his presidency. For three straight years (2004, 2005 and 2006), President Bush denounced "activist judges" and insisted "for the good of families, children and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage." On the very day Samuel Alito joined the Roberts Court, Bush used his 2006 SOTU for a victory lap:

"The Supreme Court now has two superb new members -- new members on its bench: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito. I thank the Senate for confirming both of them. I will continue to nominate men and women who understand that judges must be servants of the law and not legislate from the bench."

Nevertheless, Republican leaders feigned outrage over President Obama's criticism Wednesday of the Court's Citizens United decision last week. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch called it "rude," adding "It's one thing to say that he differed with the court but another thing to demagogue the issue while the court is sitting there out of respect for his position." Texan John Cornyn took it a step further, calling Obama's strong disagreement with the Court "hysterical" and insisting:

"I don't think the president should have done what he did in trying to call out the Supreme Court for doing its job. They are the final word on the meaning of the United States Constitution, even when we don't like the outcome."

Of course, back in 2005, John Cornyn was one of the GOP standard bearers in the conservative fight against so-called "judicial activism" in the wake of the Republicans' disastrous intervention in the Terri Schiavo affair. On April 4th, Cornyn took to the Senate floor to issue a not-too-thinly veiled threat to judges opposing his reactionary agenda. Just days after the murders of one judge in Atlanta and the family members of another in Chicago, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Cornyn offered his endorsement of judicial intimidation:

"I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country...And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence."

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (790)

PLAYS: (1332)

Embed

Jebus... someone get me a barf bag. Looks like CNN is trying to keep up with the Joneses on Fox by hiring another flame thrower as part of their "Best Political Team on Television". Erickson was just terribly concerned that the President's speech was "at odds with the free market" and that the stimulus created all of these evil gubmit jobs and take overs of private industry.

Roland Martin hit back with how a lot of the jobs the President was touting were from private industry. Erickson lists off the jobs that were mentioned during the President's speech such as first responders, policeman, teachers and green ecomomy jobs and says they're a sector of the economy that wouldn't exist if it weren't for government intervention. Martin reminds him that most of the jobs on Wall Street wouldn't exist were it not for government intervention.

Of course the panel didn't get into this, but I'd like to know what type of society Erickson thinks we'd be living in without basic services like the police and fire departments functioning and if he thinks we should have no public education system in this country since the President touting those jobs was "at odds" with the "free market". I didn't realize Erickson was a Paulite who actually believes this bullshit.

I'd like to know how much Erickson thinks he should have to pay the fire department or the police to show up at his house if we privatize them? What about the people who can't afford to pay? I guess it's okay with him if their house just burns down or the police just go back to the station after a 911 call if they can't buck up to pay for the call when they show up.

What does Erickson think all of the kids should do that can't afford a private education if he thinks we shouldn't be making sure the public schools can afford to pay their teachers? Maybe the next time he's on CNN as part of their "Best Political Team on Television" someone can bother to ask him those questions and if that's what he really meant to say during his argument with Martin. I'm not holding my breath. Our media has turned into a wasteland and they just made it worse by hiring this Republican tool.

If CNN truly wanted to be fair and balanced, how about bringing Thom Hartmann, Sam Seder, our own John Amato or David Neiwert, Digby, or a long list of others I could think of to debate Erickson the next time they let him on the air to spew his nonsense? I know, hell will freeze over first.

Remember all the pearl-clutching over Obama going to visit his childhood home in Hawaii last year, calling it "elitist"? Or when visiting his dying grandmother in her Oahu home, Cokie Roberts complained that it made Obama appear "foreign" and "exotic" to choose to go to Hawaii, instead of say, Myrtle Beach.

Well, you silly liberals expecting consistency, that was then. This is now. And NOW, Hawaii is the perfect location for the Republican National Committee to hold their winter meeting:

Republicans delight in depicting President Obama as hopelessly out of touch with average Americans, but the decision by the Republican National Committee to hold its winter meeting at a tropical resort is turning the accusation on its head.

As the president gave his first State of the Union address Wednesday against the backdrop of the nation’s wheezing economy, the opposition party marked the event by convening a conference here – on an “island paradise.”

“Imagine lush tropical gardens, waterfalls, exotic wildlife and priceless artwork,” boasts the website of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa. “This one-of-a-kind Honolulu Hawaii hotel resort is the only true resort property in Waikiki.”

Which is to say that it’s a long way from Baltimore, where the House GOP will have its retreat later this month in a pointed effort to demonstrate their sensitivity to the tough economic times.

Yet at a moment when millions are out of work and millions more struggling to get by, the party’s governing board will plot its comeback on the island of Oahu, sipping drinks poolside, catching rays on the beach that abuts the villa and raising questions about whether they’re as politically tone-deaf as they accuse the president of being.

Oh, but it's not all sunshine and pina coladas by the pool. No, no, no. RNC Chairman Michael Steele, resplendent in his Hawaiian shirt and lei, assures us this is no vacation.

"Relax," Steele said while sporting a Hawaiian shirt and a flower lei. "We're working hard here, trust me. This is not a vacation."

Steele said the the meetings will "expose Hawaii to the rest of America." He told KHON, a local TV station, that it was important for the RNC, "as a party," to be in Hawaii, the home state of President Obama.

You know, I hear a lot of people claim Obama is playing three-dimensional chess to the RNC's checkers, but in this particular case, I'm not even sure that the RNC isn't stuck playing Chutes & Ladders instead.