Today is our last day of warm weather before a storm hits tomorrow. It's been around 70 degrees in Denver the past few days. Last night, the TL kid and I barbecued dinner outside...first time I've ever done that in February.

I'm sure there are things going on in the world besides the stimulus package which BTD is doing an admirable job of reporting on, but I'm immersed in reading transcripts and a ton of discovery, so here's an open thread for you.

All topics welcome.

WaPo:

Obama endorsed the moderates' effort and brought its leaders -- Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) -- to the White House to discuss their proposed cuts. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel attended the final meetings in Reid's office last night to work out lingering differences. Before Emanuel arrived, Collins said, Democrats were advocating $63 billion in cuts. "Then Rahm got involved, and a much better proposal came forward," she said.

(Emphasis supplied.) F--- me. Obama betrayed Congressional Democrats fighting for the best bill for the economy and the country. Obama fought for spending cuts and GOP tax cuts! Obama the triangulator! It is indeed the era of Nelson, Collins and Obama! The Beltway "Bipartisan" BSers got their man - and his name appears to be Barack Obama.

The Age of Nelson, Collins and Obama! Yes, they did!

Speaking for me only

Fred Hiatt and the WaPo Ed Board Gasbags:

The gang of 20 or so moderate Democrats and Republicans, led by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), heeded the president's call for bipartisanship and hunkered down to produce the bill announced Friday night. Though the details of the package still need to be examined, the senators' effort was an admirable one -- one that aimed at providing the quick and large injection of funds into the economy experts say is necessary, while modifying or removing parts of the bill that were too long-range or complex for an emergency bill . . .

. . . In the end the White House showed pragmatism in striking Friday's deal. Mr. Obama now must go to work to ensure that the fragile consensus survives a conference committee and a vote in Ms. Pelosi's House -- where there has been, as yet, no sign of the new politics he seeks.

(Emphasis supplied.) More . . .

Mohammed Khan Tumani of Syria was 17 when captured and brought to Guantanamo 7 years ago. No charges have been filed against him. His lawyers today filed a motion for emergency relief in the case of Khan Tumani v. Obama.

The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the motion on his behalf. They are seeking an independent psychiatric and medical evaluation of Khan Tumani, access to his medical records, an end to his placement in solitary confinement and abusive interrogations, and access to his father who is also held at the camp.

Tumani recently tried to commit suicide. Read the details below:

What a poor move by Kellogg in deciding to drop Michael Phelps.

Here's the Facebook Group where you can join the petition to boycott Kellogg Cereal:

Kellogg's has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Michael Phelps because he was photographed allegedly smoking marijuana out of a bong. More than 100 million Americans have admitted to using marijuana, and they shouldn't be treated like criminals!

But Kellogg's wants to treat Phelps like a criminal, so we're not going to purchase their products anymore!

Here's a list of Kellogg products so you know what not to buy. The cereal list is here.

Earlier today, Andrew Sullivan wrote:

This is not the Age of Krugman . . . It is the Age of Collins, Nelson and Obama.

I'll forego the easy point that for the past 8 years, Paul Krugman was right about everything and Andrew Sullivan was wrong about everything and accept his premise, based on the result today on the stimulus bill (if the Nelson/Collins/Snowe/Lieberman Stimulus plan is indeed now the Obama plan.)

The Age of Obama will be a failure if we will follow the precepts of the neo-Hooverism of these so-called Centrists. Obama talked a lot about the urgency of the moment. But his acceptance of this inadequate policy is a terrible harbinger. [More...]

CNN is reporting a $780 BN deal on the stimulus. No details reported (e.g. how much was taken out in tax cuts and how much spending -- what type of spending, etc.)

NYTimes says "close to a deal" and pegs the number at $800 billion. Of course, in a legislative conference, the numbers could back up to 900 billion, tax cuts could be added, removed, spending added or removed. This whole game that Ben Nelson and his fellow Beltway "bipartisan" BSers played is pretty shameless. As the Times states:

Once the Senate votes on the package, differences between the Senate legislation and a considerably different version passed recently by the House would have to be reconciled. President Obama has said he hopes all that can be accomplished in time for him to sign the measure within 10 days.

Just another inning, as they say.

A bill to repeal the death penalty in Maryland has for years fallen one vote shy of being recommended to the full Senate. A Washington Post editorial explains why this is the year the full Senate should consider (and pass) the bill.

Even some supporters of the death penalty admit that the evidence presented by the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment was compelling. The commission, chaired by former U.S. attorney general Benjamin Civiletti, concluded that capital punishment has little deterrent effect on murder and that the extended legal proceedings may add to the anguish of the victim's family. The commission also found that capital punishment is applied inconsistently across the state and that prosecutors are more likely to pursue a death sentence if the victim is white.

It's time for an up-or-down vote in the full Senate. Members of the deadlocked committee should give the full Senate a chance to decide the question.

I know you might be getting tired of my obsession with the economic stimulus, but I can't help it. In any event, it seems to me that the Democrats are getting their act together. On CNN right now, David Axelrod, when asked by Wolf Blitzer "what was more important, bipartisanship or passing a bill," Axelrod said "this is not a process question," the issue is economic recovery.

Speaker Pelosi echoed that thought:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday dismissed calls for bipartisanship as “process” arguments extraneous to passing a stimulus bill — and warned Senate Democrats against slashing proposed increases to education spending.

And Leader Reid is also in the fray:

This is a shrewd move from Senate Majority Leader Reid:

Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME), one of the four Republicans considered genuinely open to cooperation with Democrats on a workable economic recovery bill, just released a statement saying she was approached by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to come up with a list of trims from the $275 billion-plus tax section of the stimulus[:]

I was approached this morning and asked to work directly with leadership to amend the tax section of the stimulus bill in order to develop compromise language that could pass the Senate. The total reductions sought by leadership will closely resemble the amount I recommended to the President during our meeting on Wednesday. This is a critical time for our nation.

[More...]

Raw Story calls attention to an interesting public appearance by Karl Rove:

Rove spoke Tuesday evening at Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit institution in Los Angeles, as part of the school's "First Amendment Week." "One man loudly denounced Rove as a 'traitor' before he was escorted out," the Loyola Daily Breeze noted. "A woman held up a pair of handcuffs and said she would like to see Rove wearing them."

The Raw Story report suggests the existence of a conflict between Rove's insistence on Tuesday that he would not honor the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena (citing executive privilege) and his lawyer's statement that Rove was cooperating with a Special Counsel's investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings and the Siegelman prosecution. There is no conflict. [more ...]

Commenting on Atrios' point on the false idea of "centrism," Krugman writes:

[C]entrism is a pose rather than a philosophy. And to support that pose, the centrists are demanding $100 billion in cuts in the economic stimulus plan — not because they have any coherent argument saying that the plan is $100 billion too big, not because they can identify $100 billion of stuff that should not be done, but in order to be able to say that they forced Obama to move to the center.

As a self admitted Centrist poseur, this is what shocks me - that anyone thinks of "centrism" as anything but a pose. But then "post-partisanship" is just a schtick. But it harms policy if the person doing the schtick does not realize it. Now Obama is saying ALL the right things, and I am happy for it, but is the damage already done? Krugman asks: