Josh Marshall is of course right that it is doubtful that Eric Cantor (R-VA), the House GOP Whip, has ever read a book on Churchill, but I think the question is whether Washington Post reporters Michael Shear and Paul Kane know much of anything about Churchill. After all it was Shear and Kane who wrote this:

Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House minority whip who led the fight to deny Obama every GOP vote for the plan, is studying Winston Churchill's role leading the Tories in the late 1930s, a principled minority that was eventually catapulted into power over the Labor Party.

(Emphasis supplied.) I do not know what Cantor actually knows or is doing, but I do know Shear and Kane put their names to a story that stated this falsehood (as Josh explains, and as anyone even vaguely familiar with Churchill's life story would know, Churchill did not lead a Tory opposition in the 30s, the Neville Chamberlain government was Tory and Churchill was on the outs with his own party.) This is the Washington Post. Supposedly one of our great newspapers. What a wonderful world it would be if we had a better press corps.

Speaking for me only

Scott Horton in Harper's writes about former Guantanamo prison guard Brandon Neely's "tell-all" about his experience. Neely was a guard during the first year of Gitmo. Bottom line: Neely says "“The stuff I did and the stuff I saw was just wrong.”

You can read Neely's 15,000 word version (put together by law students at the University of California) here.

Horton says three things stood out to him: [More...]

Raw Story has an exclusive interview with Robert Luskin, lawyer for Karl Rove, about Rove's cooperation in the House Judiciary Committee's probe into the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

Rove will not rely on (1) a White House claim of immunity for senior advisors to the president, (2) executive privilege or (3) his personal privilege against self-incrimination. He will cooperate with the investigation.

Did Rove get immunity in exchange for his cooperation? Luskin won't answer that one.

Asked if he had a comment on Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) proposed “truth commission,” in which Bush officials would be offered immunity in exchange for testimony, Luskin said, “No.”

Today is Presidents Day. The Presidents honored are Washington and Lincoln, surely two of our greatest. FDR was born on January 30, close enough I think to add to this day's celebration. Anyway, I think so.

Also, today is the 105th anniversary of the birth of George Kennan.

The people of Venezuela have chosen Chavez:

54.4 percent of voters supported the proposal [to lift Presidential term limits], with 45.6 percent voting against it, electoral officials said late Sunday, based on preliminary results with nearly complete returns. While Mr. Chávez’s support ebbed from the 63 percent he secured in a presidential election in 2006, he remains by far Venezuela’s dominant political personality.

In theory, the Venezuelan people will be able to vote Chavez out in elections in 2013. We'll see if Chavez permits that possibility. I must admit my doubts about that. But as of today, the Venezuelan people have spoken, and they want Chavez.

Speaking for me only

EJ Dionne posits that President Obama is recognizing the moment:

More striking was his sense that fate has handed him opportunities few presidents ever get and that his test will be whether he makes good use of his chance to bend history at one of its "inflection points." "Leadership at those moments can help determine which direction that wave of change goes," he said. "I think it's very hard . . . for any single individual or politician to unleash historical momentum on its own. But I think when that historical wave is there, I think you can help guide it."

Asked if this were one of those moments, he replied, flatly, "yes." That may make the situation "scary sometimes," but it should also "make people determined and excited." Maybe that explains his good mood.

This is good, and if Dionne is right, it gets better:

Time for an open thread. What's going on in your world?

All topics welcome

Via Sentencing Law and Policy, a legislator in New Hampshire has introduced a bill to restore executions by firing squad.

Burridge’s bill recommends a firing squad of five men, one whose gun carries blanks, to keep it unclear which shooter is responsible for death. During the execution, the prisoner would be hooded and wear a target over his heart. Each shooter would aim for that target.

Burridge said he chose the method primarily for its public-relations value. He said he thought a death by shooting might be more likely to stick in the minds of would-be criminals and deter them from committing crimes using guns. “I call it the enhanced death penalty,” he said. “You’ve got to love the marketing.”

[More...]

Las Vegas and Miami are feeling the economic downturn. That's really too bad as both cities are a lot of fun to visit. Maybe instead of grants for law enforcement, the next stimulus bill could include some incentives for the rest of us to vacation so workers in the tourism industry won't lose their jobs.

The Miami article begins with a nod to a new book by author Steven Gaines, “Fool’s Paradise: Players, Poseurs, and the Culture of Excess in South Beach.”

The gossip-larded social history of Miami Beach spans the decades-long transformation of what the author calls “the little sand bar across the bay” into a fast-and-louche Eden, where corruption, street crime and profligate spending were as integral to the landscape as sand and swaying palms.

WaPo reports:

In a long interview Thursday on Telesur, a state-owned station that rarely challenges him, Chávez laid out the mortal dangers facing Venezuela and his importance to what he calls a revolution. He said the opposition was "injecting poison" into the veins of the young, spreading lies about his governing and plotting against him. Rocket launchers and explosives had been seized, he said, though he assured viewers that the threat had been neutralized and Venezuelans should remain calm.

Chávez then described how, in talks with Cuba's Fidel Castro, his mentor and friend, he had come to the realization of just how vital he is to the revolution's success. "Fidel put it very simply: 'I know how this revolution can be reversed,' " Chávez recounted. "I said, 'How?' 'Well, if something happens to you.' We discussed it on various occasions." Chávez said that if he was eliminated, his leftist movement would be irreparably divided.

A dangerous, authoritarian, thuggish demagogue? Of course. But it is up to the Venezuelan people now.

Speaking for me only

Gas is being passed in DC. I assume it is being televised on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and the like. If you have something to say about it, here is the place.

This is an Open Thread.

If he was tainted before, he is covered in Blago stain now:

Roland W. Burris acknowledged Saturday that the brother of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich solicited a campaign contribution from him several times in the weeks and months before Mr. Blagojevich appointed Mr. Burris to succeed President Obama as Illinois’s junior senator. . . . Mr. Burris said he provided the new affidavit to “supplement” earlier sworn testimony he gave before state lawmakers seeking to impeach Mr. Blagojevich. . . . [D]uring his testimony in January before the impeachment committee — just before he was seated in the Senate — Mr. Burris was asked directly whether he had talked to any person on a list of Blagojevich confidants . . . , but mentioned nothing of Rob Blagojevich’s more recent efforts seeking campaign contributions.

. . . “If it turns out this was some sort of attempt to avoid this coming out as part of the appointment process, then he doesn’t deserve to be senator,” Christine Radogno, the Republican leader of the State Senate, told The Sun-Times. “I think the whole thing stinks to high heaven.”

The Burris appointment always stunk to high heaven. This revelation makes it stink on the other side of the universe. And yeah, 'I told you so.' SusanG has the Illinois GOP demanding a perjury investigation. Guess what? There are grounds for it.

Speaking for me only