In news no one but Teresa and I care about at this blog, Nu Keese Richardson, from my hometown of Pahokee, Florida, bagged his verbal commitment to play for the Gators and instead decided that Rocky Top is his new favorite song. Traitor.

This is an Open Thread.

Digby d-day writes:

The upshot is that this [stimulus] bill, with the entire goal of stopping a careening disaster in the economy and putting people to work, is seriously off the rails. And I've got to say, a lot of it is because the Obama Administration isn't answering the critics with any kind of force or action plan.

I disagree with Digby d-day. The entire plan went off the rails from the word go, because Obama put the post-partisan unity schtick as a higher priority than the actual efficacy of the plan from the beginning - meaning his own timid and inadequate initial proposal.

So the question is this - how's that 11 dimensional political chess working out for you now? It's not so easy when Clinton Derangement Syndrome is not in the mix.

Speaking for me only

Religious conservatives never tire of declaring themselves the victims of war. Having found little sympathy for the perceived War Against Christmas (a war in which "Happy Holidays" is the weapon of choice), they now complain that the stimulus bill has launched a War Against Prayer.

According to the bill, which the Democratic-controlled House passed despite unanimous Republican opposition, funds are prohibited from being used for the "modernization, renovation, or repair" of facilities that allow "sectarian instruction, religious worship or a school or department of divinity."

The limitation applies to $6 billion of infrastructure spending designated for public institutions of higher education. [more ...]

• Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has finished serving his sentence for obstructing justice. He's on his way to Texas for a job interview with an unidentified employer. Perhaps he's applying for a brush-clearing job at George Bush's ranch. Now that Bush doesn't have to look like "regular people," he's likely to abandon that camera-friendly project.

• Norm Coleman caught a break yesterday when a three judge panel ruled that Coleman can argue that 4,800 absentee ballots should be counted in his Senate race against Al Franken. The ruling did not give Coleman the opportunity to have 11,000 rejected ballots reconsidered, as he requested, but it was significantly more favorable than the 650 ballots that Franken's team wanted to remain in play.

[more ...]

A couple of state attorneys general are "appalled" that 90,000 registered sex offenders had MySpace pages before MySpace booted them off the site. Never mind that a task force created by the state attorneys general recently concluded that the online sexual solicitation of children isn't a significant problem (sensationalized television shows like "To Catch a Predator" notwithstanding).

The task force, led by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, looked at scientific data on online sexual predators and found that children and teenagers were unlikely to be propositioned by adults online.

Among those who disagreed with this reality because it contradicted his practice of fear-mongering was Connecticut's AG Richard Blumenthal, who complained that the report "downplayed the predator threat." Blumenthal failed to appreciate the difference between "downplaying" a threat and recognizing that the threat isn't significant. [more ...]

Dick Cheney is back and Politico has him.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.

In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.

Cheney tells Politico that President Obama will do one of two things: Backtrack on his positions or put the country at risk. Politico describes Cheney's mood as "self-vindicating."

Maybe Cheney watched Monday's "24" episode? [More...]

Despite assurances it repeatedly gave to Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not used its increased funding to capture the "most threatening" immigrants who have outstanding deportation orders -- immigrants ICE characterized as criminals or terrorists. ICE instead pursued easier targets.

A vast majority of those arrested had no criminal record, and many had no deportation orders against them, either.

In 2007, only 9 percent of those arrested had criminal records, and 40 percent had no outstanding deportation order. Over 5 years, ICE spent $625 million to arrest 96,000 people, three-quarters of whom had no criminal record.

[more ...]

Binyan Mohamed's allegations of torture while at Guantanamo are making their way through the British courts. In a joint ruling, two British Judges issued a ruling blasting the U.S. for not releasing evidence that would show if British agents were complicit in torturing Mohammed and for threatening Britain.

The ruling implies that torture has taken place in the Mohamed case, that British agencies may have been complicit, and most important of all, that the United States Government has threatened our High Courts that if it releases this information, the US Government will withdraw its intelligence co-operation with the United Kingdom on matters of security.

More...

Refreshing candor from an American president:

“I’ve got to own up to my mistake, which is that ultimately it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with NBC News. “You know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.” ...

He added, “I’m here on television saying I screwed up and that’s part of the era of responsibility.”

After living for eight years with a president who could admit no mistakes, Obama's frank admission of "screwing up" is change for the good.

It was 50 years ago today that Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens were killed in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

[More...]

Visa has joined Speedo, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega and sports and Human Performance Labs in saying it will not drop Michael Phelps because he smoked marijuana.

"We have spoken with Michael, and he has expressed regret for the situation, has committed to being accountable and improving his judgment in the future," Visa said. "We intend to support him as he looks to move forward."

Still undecided: Kellogg Cereal. As to why it's not viewed as a big deal with sponsors, perhaps as Olympic historian Bill Mallon says:

It's marijuana. Our president smoked it. Clinton smoked it. It's not the worst drug in the world by any means."

As BTD noted earlier, South Carolina says its examining whether to file criminal charges. For what? What a waste of resources.

Time Magazine reports on declining death penalty numbers, saying a shift has developed against capital punishment.

Last year saw just 37 executions in the U.S., with only 111 death sentences handed down. Although 36 states and the Federal Government still have death penalty laws on the books, the practice of carrying out executions is limited almost entirely to the South, where all but two of last year's executions took place. (The exceptions were both in Ohio.)

Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy isn't as positive about the meaning of the decline:

The last few weeks of January 2009 brought seven executions (five of which were in Texas), the most in any concentrated period since June 2007. In addition, there are two executions scheduled for tomorrow (one in Tennessee and one in Texas). Also, Virginia's legislature recently voted to expand that state's death penalty law.

Death penalty opponents do see a shift. Time notes: [More..]