and the Democratic President does not, that defines a failed opportunity. MoDo wrote today:

[T]he prince got distracted, seeing Lincoln in the mirror, and instead gave the kiss of life to a bunch of flat-lining Republican tax-cut fetishists. Somehow the most well-known person on the planet lost control of the economic message to someone named Eric Cantor. In his first weeks padding around a White House that still has nails on the walls waiting for new pictures, and phone and e-mail kinks, Barack Obama could not locate the bully pulpit and ended up being bullied.

With a strong mandate for meaningful and effective economic stimulus, President Barack Obama failed to define the political debate. President Obama has done many good things in the start of his Presidency. But he bungled the economic stimulus plan. What is politics at its essence? Defining the middle:

Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer for 20 years, is in Great Britain where tomorrow she will demand the release of Binyam Mohamed who as we wrote the other day, is dying in his Guantanamo cell.

Bradley...will reveal that Mohamed, 31, is dying in his Guantánamo cell and that conditions inside the Cuban prison camp have deteriorated badly since Barack Obama took office. Fifty of its 260 detainees are on hunger strike and, say witnesses, are being strapped to chairs and force-fed, with those who resist being beaten. At least 20 are described as being so unhealthy they are on a "critical list", according to Bradley.

In addition to her own observations, she shares what Binyam told her: [More...]

Bump and Update: The WSJ confirms: The U.S. will fight the war on drugs in Afghanistan and enlist Iran in our effort.

****

Coincidence? Vice-President Joe Biden, architect of innumerable oppressive U.S. crime bills, visits Afghanistan and the Nato Commander announces drug raids in Afghanistan are imminent.

NATO has been wanting to do this since last fall but didn't have the manpower. That problem seems solved. [More...]

Criminal defense lawyers often joke about the Evil Twin Brother defense: the defendant, having been identified by multiple witnesses as the perpetrator of a crime, makes the desperate plea "My evil twin brother did it." Sadly for defense lawyers, there is a shortage of evil twin brothers in the world, making the defense a pleasant fantasy.

Except in Kuala Lumpur, where the police caught a man driving a car loaded with 166 kilos of marijuana and 1.7 kilos of raw opium. Drug possession of that magnitude is punishable by death in Malaysia.

The driver was arrested in a house at his journey's end. Shortly thereafter, his twin brother arrived at the house, where he was also arrested. By the time of trial, officers couldn't say which brother drove the drugs and which brother arrived later. The judge, noting the absence of evidence that the brother arrested second knew of the drugs possessed by the brother arrested first, reasonably decided that she shouldn't be "sending the wrong person to the gallows" and acquitted them both.

The Congressional Research has also released its report on DOJ funding for 2008-2009 (pdf). Among the goodies handed out:

As part of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-252), Congress provided DEA with an additional $29.9 million to thwart narco-terrorism, as compared with the $8.5 million requested by the Administration.

[More...]

The Congressional Research Service has released a new report, Enemy Combatant Detainees: Habeas Corpus Challenges in Federal Court (pdf).

This report provides an overview of the CSRT procedures, summarizes court cases related to the detentions and the use of military commissions, and summarizes the Detainee Treatment Act, as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2006, analyzing its effects on detainee-related litigation in federal court.

The report summarizes pending legislation and provides an analysis of relevant constitutional issues that may have some bearing on Congress’s options with respect to the Guantanamo detainees.

[Hat tip to Scribe.] The report's conclusion: Congress may be asked to expand the AUMF so more people can be detained longer. [More...]

Via Lambert:

We deal in reality," said Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "You have to be pragmatic, realistic and, in the end, strategic."

Absurd. When the issue activist announces publically they are ready to sell out on the issue they are supposed to be agitating for, what can you expect from the pols they are agitating? Nothing, of course. Some activism.

Speaking for me only

Via Atrios, the phony "populist," and actual Beltway "bipartisan" BSer, Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO), tries to rewrite her own pernicious role regarding the severe weakening of the stimulus package by the Senate:

McCaskill began by stating how glad she was that they got a $100 billion cut out of the bill, that the "silly stuff" that Republicans didn't like is now out. She then switches to a passive aggressive mode in defending the cuts - it's basically the same bill and it wouldn't have made it through the Senate - but glosses her own role in making the cuts. From the way she talks about the bill, wouldn't she have been among those voting against the bill if the cuts hadn't been made and new non-stimulative tax cuts hadn't been added in?

This critique, while effective, ignores the most damning evidence against McCaskill, her comments on the stimulus on January 30, before the compromise legislation was even being discussed:

Proving how unserious and silly she and every Beltway "bipartisan" BSer is, Claire McCaskill twitted:

Proud we cut over 100 billion out of recov bill. Many Ds don’t like it, but needed to be done. The silly stuff Rs keep talking about is OUT.

What McCaskill is celebrating:

The House puts greater emphasis on helping states and localities avoid wide-scale cuts in services and layoffs of public employees. The Senate cut $40 billion of that aid from its bill . . . The Senate plan, reached in an agreement late Friday between Democrats and three moderate Republicans, focuses somewhat more heavily on tax cuts, provides far less generous health care subsidies for the unemployed and lowers a proposed increase in food stamps.

(Emphasis supplied.) There is not a serious economist in America that will tell you that the Senate plan provides a better stimulus or is truly cheaper than the House plan. Here is one simple change that will improve the stimulative effect in the Senate plan AND lower the overall cost of the Senate bill:

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution

Take a bow for the new revolution

Bolivia's new constitution that strengthens the rights and power of indigenous people, went into effect today. It was passed by the voters in January.

President Evo Morales and thousands of supporters celebrated Bolivia's new constitution as it took effect on Saturday, saying the new document will enshrine indigenous rights and end centuries of oppression.

The constitution, the first approved in Bolivia by popular vote, promises more power for the poor, Indan majority; recognizes communal justice; grants some regional autonomy; and declares coca a part of the nation's heritage.

President Morales told the DEA recently to take a hike. (link fixed)[More...]

Today President Obama said about the Senate stimulus plan that:

"We can't afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary. The scale and scope of this plan is right. And the time for action is now."

It is simply false, imo, that the "scale and scope of this plan is right." More . .

The Associated Press reports:

The $827 billion [stimulus] measure is likely to pass next week despite stiff opposition from the GOP and disappointment among Democrats, including the new president who labeled it imperfect. "We can't afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary," President Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, sounding a note of pragmatism that liberal followers rarely heard on the campaign trail.

(emphasis added) Rarely heard? The Obama campaign made clear the candidate's belief that the political process is one of compromise, and that "change" meant working to get things done in contrast to the GOP's polarizing "our way or no way" strategy of governance. Obama even used the "perfect is the enemy of the good" quotation during the campaign.

There are legitimate reasons to question the wisdom of some comprises to which Senate Democrats have agreed, but the president's willingness to indulge compromise in a pragmatic effort to pass a stimulus bill should surprise none of his "liberal followers."