Dr. Conrad Murray has been charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson. The press release from the LA District Attorney's office reads:

Dr. Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson ... in the commission of an unlawful act, not a felony; and in the commission of a lawful act which might have produced death, in an unlawful manner, and without due caution and circumspection."

It's a media circus in L.A. Michael Jackson's parents, and siblings Jermaine and La Toya are at the courthouse for he brief court appearance, set for 1:30 pm. PT. Dr. Murray will voluntarily surrender and be released immediately on bond. Hopefully no perp walk. [More...]

John Murtha has passed away:

Representative John P. Murtha, the longtime Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, has died at age 77. His aides released a statement saying that he died shortly after 1 p.m. today at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Mr. Murtha had been placed in intensive care last week after complications from gallbladder surgery, his staff said then.

Mr. Murtha, who had an extremely close relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on defense. [. . .] When he called for bringing the troops home from Iraq in 2005, after having voted for the war, his proposal stunned many in Congress and added a powerful voice to the growing forces demanding immediate drawdowns and or deadlines.

RIP.

James Joyner plays dumb for some reason over Sarah Palin's Hand-gate:

[T]his seems much ado about nothing. If Sarah Palin likes to write buzz words on her hand, so what?

The problem is Joyner knows why it became political fodder. Look at his comment in the same thread:

[. . .] Obama's teleprompter could fail, too, and goodness knows what he'd say.

More . . .

Ezra Klein recites the concessions to the GOP in the Senate health bill:

I don't think it's well understood how many of the GOP's central health-care policy ideas have already been included as compromises in the health-care bill. [. . .] [T]he GOP's [. . .] health-care plan [. . .] has four planks. All of them -- yes, you read that right -- are in the Senate health-care bill. [. . .] To the surprise and dismay of many liberals, the Senate health-care bill included a compromise with the conservative vision for insurance regulation. [. . .] [W]hen Republicans are feeling bolder [. . .] they generally take aim at one of the worst distortions in the health-care market: The tax break for employer-sponsored insurance. [. . .] Democrats usually reject, and attack, both approaches. Not this year, though. Senate Democrats [proposed] the excise tax, which does virtually the same thing.

And [. . .] we shouldn't forget the compromises that have been the most painful for Democrats, and the most substantive. This is a private-market plan. Not only is single-payer off the table, but at this point, so too is the public option. The thing that liberals want most in the world has been compromised away.

Indeed. And for what? No GOP votes. I wrote about this yesterday - if the Senate bill proponents want that bill passed, concessions to the House must be made, especially on the excise tax. That is the reality of politics. To refuse to support that is to be a "Kill the Bill"-er.

Speaking for me only

Glenn Greenwald writes about this NYTimes article detailing the whining from Wall Street. It is preemptive whining to be sure - the Obama Administration has not laid a glove on them. But it puts in mind the 1936 FDR Dem Convention Speech:

In 1932 the issue was the restoration of American democracy; and the American people were in a mood to win. They did win. In 1936 the issue is the preservation of their victory. Again they are in a mood to win. Again they will win.

More than four years ago in accepting the Democratic nomination in Chicago, I said: "Give me your help not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people."

[More . . .]

E.J. Dionne:

At least two amendments are essential to getting the bill through the House. They involve reducing the burden of the tax on "Cadillac" health-care plans, which is wildly unpopular with House members and voters; and getting rid of the special Medicaid subsidy deal for Nebraska, which just about everyone hates. Even Nebraska's Ben Nelson, the senator for whom that deal was put together, wants it out.

(Emphasis supplied.) All the caterwauling about "Passing the Damn Bill" will not change that reality. You want to get the "damn bill" passed? Then the Senate must be pressured to gut the excise tax. It's a simple as that. You can't pass the Senate bill in the House unless the excise tax is gutted. Will the excise tax purists in the White House, the Senate and the Village insist on killing the bill if they do not get their way on the excise tax?

Speaking for me only

Actor Charlie Sheen will appear in court in Aspen at 2:30 pm MT. The court docket states the matter is set for a bond appearance. Multiple media reports and a press release by Pitkin County indicate charges will be filed against him, most likely felony menacing and misdemeanor assault. His wife, Brooke Mueller, has also been ordered to appear so that the Judge can address the Sheens' request to modify the mandatory protective order preventing them from having contact.

TMZ reports a plea bargain may be in the works, but it won't happen tomorrow. My thoughts on what the plea bargain would entail are here.

In Los Angeles, Dr. Conrad Murray, the Houston physician present with Michael Jackson when he died, will appear in court at 1:30 pm PT. The DA's office is expected to file a charge of involuntary manslaughter against him. [More...]

Manning throws a late pick to seal Saints win. Final score Saints 31 - Colts 17.

More . . .

Ah, the "reality based community" is at it again.

They want the House to pass the Senate Stand Alone Health bill. My word, even the Villagers have given up on that one. They know it is impossible. Pelosi is 100 votes short for that.

But the delusional Pass The Stand Alone Senate Bill folks will be whining soon - about Howard Dean, about the Progressive Caucus, about Jane Hamsher - you name it. But they'll never complain about the political geniuses who stand in the way of passage of the Senate bill - the excise tax purists who would rather kill the bill than eliminate or modify the excise tax.

Here's the thing - it does not matter what they say, or I say, or what the Village says - if they want to pass the Senate bill, they'll need to gut the excise tax. It is the only chance for passage in the House. The alternative is incessant whining.

Speaking for me only

The Witless Wonder Rides Again:

[More...]

Kevin Drum writes:

Obama has always kept his distance from both the netroots and the broader lefty base, and the congressional leadership largely did the same during healthcare negotiations. And it's not just that they ended up with a policy choice that progressives were unenthusiastic about. It's that they never even pretended to take progressives seriously. This is a mistake that George Bush and Karl Rove never made. The conservative base frequently didn't get what it wanted from them, but they always felt like they had a friend in the White House whose heart was in the right place. Progressive groups, conversely, have mostly felt like they got the back of the hand from the White House on healthcare. So it's understandable that they've either given up or, in a few cases, actively turned against the whole process.

This seems both right and wrong to me. It's true that the White House and SENATE Dems ignored the concerns of progressives on health care. And Villagers berated progressives (and unions) for not accepting political reality (now they berate the House Dems in the same fashion.) What is wrong though is the notion that the concern was about the process, as opposed to the policy. Indeed, Kevin reflects the condescension that the White House, the Senate and the Village has demonstrated throughout this health care debate. I'll give you two examples -- the excise tax and the public option. These issues are more than symbols. They are honest to Gawd serious issues for progressives and unions. More . . .

The Super Bowl is tonight. The game itself is of interest and I will do an in depth analysis later today. But right now I want to discuss the key prop bet of the event:

Super Bowl XLIV - How many times will Pete Townshend do his legendary windmill move? Windmill move must be a full 360 degree revolution and be shown on TV to be counted for this wager. Pete Townshend windmill moves during halftime show.

Over 5½ (-270)o,(+210)u

I love the over, even at the price.

This is an Open Thread.

A survey of more than 100 retired NY police officials say they were pressured into fudging stats to make it appear crime was going down.

The totals for those seven so-called major index crimes are provided to the F.B.I., whose reports on crime trends have been used by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to favorably compare New York to other cities and to portray it as a profoundly safer place, an assessment that the summary does not contradict.

In Georgia, criminal defense attorney Mark Shelnutt, who was acquitted of 40 counts of money laundering, aiding a drug conspiracy, bribery and false statements, is suing the Government, using the Hyde Act, to recover his attorneys fees. What a nightmare the feds put this lawyer through, the article is just chilling.

The Third Circuit, which will be the first in the country to decide whether the Government must show probable cause before getting an order to obtain cell-site locator records, is finally going to hear oral arguments on Thursday. This is a really big deal, and not just for criminal defendants. Among those in the case: the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology and the American Civil Liberties Union.[More...]

The ACLU has released an issues brief arguing against the criminalizing of the undocumented. It's both unlawful and harmful to public policy.

The use by states and localities of criminal laws to go after undocumented immigrants simply for being undocumented is generally unlawful, because the federal government has sole power to regulate immigration.

[More...]

Matt Yglesias writes:

I was on the radio yesterday, for example, with a woman who said that the GOP’s Medicare privatization plan would save money by giving people vouchers to buy private insurance. [. . .] [W]hat Ryan’s plan actually does is first privatize/vouchers Medicare, and then “save money” by arbitrarily mandating that the cost of the vouchers have to grow slower than the cost of health care. In other words, with every passing year Ryancare vouchers get smaller and smaller relative to the cost of medicine. That’s just “saving” money by buying less.

(Emphasis supplied.) I am not sure why Yglesias objects to Ryan's plan while supporting the Gruber excise tax in the Senate health bill. Both work in the same way. Both are designed to encourage savings in health care by encouraging people to buy less expensive health insurance. Or, to put it in Yglesias' words - "saving money by buying less." If Ryan limited the vouchers to say insurance plans that cost $8,500 per individual and $23,000 per family, per year, with an inflation adjustment of CPI +1%, would Yglesias agree with the plan? Why not? Wouldn't the effect be the same as the excise tax in the Senate health bill?

Speaking for me only