The wheels are coming off for Roland Burris:

A Chicago minister tells The Associated Press he and other black pastors who previously supported U.S. Sen. Roland Burris now plan to ask him to resign. The minister spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because a meeting with Burris hadn't yet been scheduled. He says the senator can no longer serve effectively.

Via Digby and County Fair, we get an example of Politico's "journalistic" mission:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton likes the Stones. . . . The Times, reporting on her Far East trip, passes along this gem . . . Appearing on a popular Indonesian television show, Mrs. Clinton was asked to name her favorite performing artists — she said the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — but politely declined to sing.

We decided to fact-check . . .

Given the rather bizarre debate between Yglesias and Ezra over Politico, this episode puts it all in perspective - Politico is basically a bad Page 6 for Beltway types - without, so far, the racist cartoons. It covers trivia and gossip - at best, a People Magazine for pols. It really does not merit a discussion of its journalistic qualities. It is not a journalistic enterprise.

Speaking for me only

Huffington Post has an exclusive interview with Yemen citizen Mohamed Farag Bashmilah:

From October 2003 until May 2005, I was illegally detained by the U.S. government and held in CIA-run "black sites" with no contact with the outside world. On May 5, 2005, without explanation, my American captors removed me from my cell and cuffed, hooded, and bundled me onto a plane that delivered me to Sana'a, Yemen. I was transferred into the custody of my own government, which held me -- apparently at the behest of the United States -- until March 27, 2006, when I was finally released, never once having faced any terrorism-related charges.

He's never gotten an explanation and all of his attempts to obtain documentation have been ignored or rejected. Why is he coming forward at Huffpo today? As part of an effort underway to get President Obama to establish a commission. [More...]

Good news out of Montana: The state senate passed a bill abolishing the death penalty.

With a 27 to 23 vote, Montana State senators on Tuesday approved a bill that would abolish capital punishment. Montana is one of 36 states that currently has the death penalty and bill sponsor, Democrat Dave Wanzenried of Missoula, hopes that will change. His bill would replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The reasoning: [More...]

President Obama is in Canada today on a visit with the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Matt Yglesias writes a good post on the importance of the US-Canada relationship.

This is an Open Thread.

Watching Andrea Mitchell positively gushing over Hillary Clinton today on her MSNBC show makes clear that, to date, President Obama's choice of Clinton for Secretary of State has been his most successful one. While many of us believed Clinton could make great contributions in the Senate (and no doubt she would have), it is becoming quite clear that President Obama better understood the great advantages that a Secretary of State Clinton brings to the table. In short, after President Obama himself, the United States has no more powerful messenger in the world than Hillary Clinton.

At daily kos, diarist Working Class Hero provides some very interesting coverage of Secretary Clinton's trip to Indonesia. More . . .

The fact that California passed a budget is good news. That a Republican state senator refused to vote for the budget and sent California into the abyss unless he got these changes is a disgrace to the GOP state senator:

[I]n the witching hours of Thursday morning, lawmakers caved to some of the demands of State Senator Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria, a Republican who wanted state constitutional amendments establishing an open primary system and banning legislative pay increases during deficit years, and the elimination of a 12-cent increase in gasoline taxes from the plan.

What a pathetic man.

Speaking for me only

Below, I wrote a post about a column by David Broder. I disagreed with it, but to my knowledge, Mr. Broder did not misstate any facts. The same was not true of a George will column published earlier this week. Despite this, the Washington Post has not issued a correction of these factual errors. Matt Corley at Think Progress explains:

On Sunday, the Washington Post printed a climate change denial column by George Will that contained several demonstrable falsehoods. Despite the loud chorus of critics pointing out Will’s factual flaws, Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt has refused to comment on the errors and the column has not received a correction. Will has another column in the Post today, but it too has no correction attached to it for his last column’s obvious factual mistakes.

More . . .

Seeing that High Broderism Nation is crumbling, Broder makes his last stand. Of course, the reality is Broder now has to redefine "bipartisanship" to claim it has a place in politics.

Picking off the support of 1 or 2 Republican Senators now constitutes "bipartisanship." If that is all it means now (when necessary), then I too am a High Broderist for "bipartisanship." Of course that is not at all what Broder meant by bipartisanship before. But this is a good thing. Politics is about defining the middle. "Bipartisanship" has now been defined much further to the Left than before. A win for Obama and progressives.

Speaking for me only

Yesterday, Glenn Reynolds linked to some Republicans and Republican journalists who lack a basic understanding of the Senate 3/5 rules for cloture (and for legislation raising the deficit). The gist of the Republican argument is that Democrats needed 60 votes to pass the stimulus and that is why Roland Burris was accepted in the Senate. This is how Reynolds puts it later:

Dems Abandon Burris. Hey, the stimulus passed, so now he’s just a liability.

Actually Burris was always "just a liability." As has been pointed out here, this claim of a 60 vote requirement (also made by Burris supporters when arguing for seating him) is false. What is needed is 3/5 of the number of Senators seated. Kagro at Congress Matters explains:

Via MikeB30020, in Jefferson City, Missouri, Josh Kezer has been ordered released from prison by Judge Richard Callahan. There won't be a new trial. Case over.

A man who spent half of his life in prison for a 1992 slaying was freed Wednesday after a judge ruled that he was wrongly convicted and had to be retried or released.

Joshua Kezer, 34, left the Jefferson City Correctional Center on Wednesday afternoon when Scott County prosecutor Paul Boyd said he would not seek a new trial.

TChris wrote this post about Kezer a few months ago. Kezer was prosecuted by Kenny Hulshof, who went on to become a Republican congressman from Missouri and last year made an unsuccessful bid for MO Governor.

The key witness changed his story and Hulshof didn't disclose it to the defense. [More...]

The reporter who threw his shoes at former President Bush appeared in court this week. He told the judge:

"I am charged now with attacking the Prime Minister's guest," he said stoically, making his first public remarks since the incident. "We Arabs are famous for being generous with guests. But Bush and his soldiers have been here for six years. Guests should knock on the door. Those who come sneaking in are not guests."

After his appearance he was whisked away by Iraqi officials. The judge took the matter under advisement. The issue: Whether's Bush's visit was an official visit:

Zeidi, 30, who is charged with assaulting a foreign head of state, posited that Bush's Dec. 14 trip to Baghdad was not an official visit by a foreign dignitary because he arrived to the country without prior notice and didn't leave the Green Zone, which at the time was still under American control.