The Senate passed a bill yesterday that will expand health insurance coverage for children. The 66-32 vote included 9 Republicans who favored the bill. The House passed the bill two weeks ago by a vote of 289-139 with the support of 40 Republicans. Two previous efforts to enact the law met with George Bush vetoes, but President Obama will sign the bill into law.

One of the most significant sections of the child health bill would allow states to use federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. Under existing law, legal immigrants are generally barred from Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years after they enter the United States.

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Samantha Power has a long and distinguished record as an advocate against genocide. In addition, Power is a very sharp foreign policy thinker. She has just been named to a position in the National Security Council. It is unfortunate that this is the title of the news story reporting her naming:

Professor who slammed Clinton will be Obama aide

I became familiar with Ms. Power when she was a supporter of (as was I) and an advisor to General Wes Clark during Clark's 2004 presidential run. Her thinking and instincts were excellent in my opinion. I hope that soon she can transcend the caricature as the "professor who slammed Clinton." It was obviously a terrible thing to have done but there is much more to Ms. Power than that. It is a disservice to Ms. Power that that unfortunate incident is what she is known for. Hopefully, her accomplishments in the Obama Administration will lead to treating that incident as the trivial event it was.

Speaking for me only

Update: This blog post explains the executive orders a bit more clearly, as do its linked sources.

original post:

President Obama signed three executive orders today designed to reverse the Executive Branch's hostility toward organized labor. The text of the orders hasn't been posted on the White House website as of this writing, but should soon be available here for viewing.

In the president's words:

One of these orders is going to prevent taxpayer dollars from going to reimburse federal contractors who spend money trying to influence the formation of unions. We will also require that federal contractors inform their employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Federal labor laws encourage collective bargaining, and employees should know their rights to avoid disruption of federal contracts.

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Via Digby. Once you open the door, the Blue Dogs run right through it:

[Ben] Nelson (D-NE], a moderate Democrat, is famous for gathering lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in a so-called "Gang of 14" to avert a shutdown of the Senate over judicial nominations. He is seeking a similar bipartisan effort to improve the stimulus bill. . . . Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate who was a member of the original "Gang" and a close friend of Nelson's from their time on the Senate Armed Services Committee, got an invite, as has Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Nelson's energy compromise group colleague. On the Democratic side, Nelson has reached out to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a strong ally of President Obama, as well as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and freshman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.

Good luck with the unity thing President Obama.

Speaking for me only

Tom Maguire makes a good point:

I am not sure how much of "the truth" needs to be classified and how much can safely be told but this approach is consistent with the stand taken by Jack Bauer. Presumably, Bush's supporters should not be afraid of the truth (if it can be told). Let the public learn and decide.

Jack Bauer was unafraid to tell what he did and why he did it and face the consequences, if any. Why then are some so afraid of following the example of Jack Bauer? (Yes, I know Jack Bauer is a fictional character.)

Speaking for me only

desertwine reminds us that 127 years ago today, the greatest American President of the 20th Century, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born.

Roosevelt, born in wealth, became a traitor to his class and the greatest champion and most revolutionary, in terms of our philosophy of governance, the nation has ever seen.

He was the father of modern progressive governance. On this day, living in these times, let us remember the great FDR. I want to refer you to his famous speech at Oglethorpe University in 1932, words that resonate today:

Your turn/

This is an Open Thread.

One of the bizarre strains of thought that has emerged in the blogs is the view that President Obama and Democrats will now be judged by the direction the opposition from the GOP takes. Here is Nate Silver:

[S]urely the phrase "ZERO Republicans voted for the Recovery Package" is more likely to escape Democratic lips on the campaign trail in 2010 than Republican ones.

Certainly that depends on whether the stimulus works no? More . . .

The bad news continues:

The economy shrank at a 3.8 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, as the deepening recession forced consumers and businesses to throttle back spending. The new figure, released Friday by the Commerce Department, showed the economy sinking at a much faster clip in the October-December period than the 0.5 percent decline logged in prior quarter.

This information makes clear that the stimulus plan proposed by the Obama Administration is simply inadequate for the crisis we face. Unlike in other recessions, the instruments of monetary policy are not available. As the NYTimes reports (and as Krugman has been explaining for months now (google liquidity trap + Krugman)), Fed rates are already at virtual zero. We need a huge fiscal stimulus in excess of a trillion dollars. The Obama plan is entirely too timid. In my opinion, it will fail.

Speaking for me only

The NYTimes story on the refusal of a military commissions judge to abide by President Obama's executive order halting all military commissions proceedings raises the level of importance of this situation. Indeed, the article raises some very worrisome possibilities:

[S]ome critics of the military commission system said the decision appeared to express the views of military officers who would like to complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to close Guantánamo and, possibly, abandon the military commission system.

Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, who has praised President Obama’s early actions on Guantánamo, said the ruling in the Nashiri case had raised questions about whether the Pentagon would resist the administration’s efforts.

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I was listening to the Foo Fighters sing "Times Like These" on the radio driving to the jail today, and when the line came, "It's time to love again" in my head it came out "It's time to work again."

I think the economy has everybody fearful, even those without pressing problems. I've worked non-stop all week, days and nights, and I think next week will be the same. Kind of like a "get it while you can" philosophy because we don't know how really bad it's going to get.

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Over at the New Yorker's Think Tank blog, former Washington Post managing editor and now New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll outlines a business model for "nonprofit newspapers" and proposes the establishment of a $2 billion endowment for the Washington Post.

The WaPo, Coll writes, is a "fountainhead of Watergate and so much other skeptical and investigative reporting critical to the republic’s health."

Really? Is the work of Iraq war bullies Charles Krauthammer and Jim Hoagland "critical to the republic's health"? Have these opinion writers ever expressed skepticism about power of any kind? What about David "Bush Regains His Footing" Broder? Or Richard "Cap, my Safeway buddy" Cohen? [More...]