Senate Dems' strange decision to change an arcane rule (one of many) that makes the Senate utterly dysfunctional is not being met with cheers by the "reform the Senate" crowd. Ezra Klein wrote:

Here’s what happened: Mitch McConnell wanted to bring up the president’s jobs bill, which Harry Reid is still modifying in an effort to win more Democratic votes. He wanted to do so for a simple reason: Sans modifications, the bill would fail and the Democrats would be embarrassed. McConnell tried a legal but arcane maneuver to suspend the rules after cloture and force a vote. [. . .] Reid objected [and] forced a majority vote on the parliamentarian’s ruling. The vote succeeded, and the rules were changed to outlaw McConnell’s maneuver.

This is known in the Senate as the nuclear option. It is a way to change the rules with a simple majority. [. . .] It was, in truth, an odd issue over which to go nuclear. [. . .] Democrats changed a rule because the Republicans were annoying them.

Senate Dems did not go nuclear to pass a stimulus or jobs bill when they controlled the Congress. Senate Dems did not go nuclear to pass the public option. They did it to stop the GOP from annoying them with a pointless political grandstand vote that no one will remember in a week. Just dumb.

Speaking for me only

In his column today, Paul Krugman writes:

[E]xperience has made it painfully clear that men in suits not only don’t have any monopoly on wisdom, they have very little wisdom to offer. When talking heads on, say, CNBC mock the protesters as unserious, remember how many serious people assured us that there was no housing bubble, that Alan Greenspan was an oracle and that budget deficits would send interest rates soaring.

A better critique of the protests is the absence of specific policy demands. [. . .] But we shouldn’t make too much of the lack of specifics. It’s clear what kinds of things the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators want, and it’s really the job of policy intellectuals and politicians to fill in the details.

(Emphasis supplied.) I think the notion of "policy intellectuals and politicians fill[ing] in the details" is very problematic. What policy intellectuals? What politicians? Krugman writes "Democrats are being given what amounts to a second chance." This gets at the problem it seems to me. Beltway Dems and wonks also failed. That Tim Geithner remains Treasury Secretary seems to me to be the ultimate indictment of Democratic "policy intellectuals and politicians." I think Krugman underestimates the breadth of the expression of discontent the Occupy movement represents.

Speaking for me only

In 2004, Barack Obama said the drug war was "an utter failure" and we need to rethink it.

In New Hampshire in 2007, he said he would not have the Justice Department prosecute medical marijuana.

Obama during the presidential campaign: He won't use Justice Department resources to circumvent state laws. He wants them to focus on violent crime and terrorism.

The Department of Justice has sent a threatening letter to marijuana dispensaries in California. The Associated Press has obtained the letter and reports:

Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

There will be a press conference tomorrow at which California U.S. Attorneys announce the new crackdown. At least 16 dispensaries and landlords got the letter which says they are violating federal drug laws, regardless of whether they are in compliance with California law. [More...]

Pakistan has completed its interviews of Osama bin Laden's wives and children and declared them free to leave Pakistan and travel freely.

The Pakistani Commission also recommended that a physician who worked with the CIA to conduct a fake vaccination program designed to obtain DNA from the citizens of Abbouttabad be charged with treason.

The vaccination ruse has been widely criticized by aid agencies, which have said it could harm legitimate immunization programs in Pakistan. The vaccination team was reported to have gained access bin Laden's house in Abbottabad, but that it didn't confirm bin Laden's presence there.

The U.S. wants Pakistan to allow the doctor to live in the U.S.

The jury has been selected in the trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. There was an interesting twist, as after the jury was picked, the Judge dismissed juror #321, a woman from Nigeria. The judge didn't explain why she dismissed the juror, who is president of a Nigerian cultural association in Metro Detroit.

During jury selection Wednesday, the woman said she has lived in the United States since 1994 and has relatives in Nigeria. She did not know Abdulmutallab's family. The Nigerian woman also said if she rendered a guilty verdict, it would not create a problem back home but she did not want her identity revealed.

She was replaced Juror 277, a female retired Secretary of State supervisor. [More...]

Open thread.

Go Yanks!

Apple oc-founder Steve Jobs has passed away. He was 56. From Apple's website:

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com

What a loss. How very sad. R.I.P. Steve Jobs, and thank you for so generously sharing your amazing talents with us. (Update below):

The IRS has now jumped into the fray of medical marijuana businesses -- including dispensaries operating legally under the laws of their states.

The IRS is asserting that dispensaries cannot deduct ordinary business expenses like salaries, rent and security costs.

Here are the letters the IRS has sent. Its position: [More...]

Raffaele Sollecito, the co-defendant of Amanda Knox who was also acquitted of murder this week by the appeals court, alleges the police treated him violently and with coercion after his arrest. Amanda Knox has said in the past she was assaulted and browbeaten by police.

Ms Knox has also claimed that she was assaulted during questioning and that the verbal and physical intimidation caused her to wrongly claim that an innocent man, the bar owner Patrick Lumumba, committed the killing. [More...]

Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, one of the two judges advising the jury suggested in an interview today that perhaps Amanda and Raffaelle know who was involved in Mereditih Kercher's killing.

Sarah Palin says she's not running for President in 2012.

Let's just hope she means it.

Rick Perry is going down in flames. Michelle Bachmann's 15 minutes appear to be over. Herman Cain protested the n-word. No one knows what Newt is doing. Ron Paul, well, Ron Paul. Big Man Christie knows he can't win. What's left for Anybody But Romney? Ed Kilgore suggests it may be Palin time:

[I]s there any doubt a certain universally known, beloved-of-the-base politician will hear her name on the restless wind and give fresh consideration to the prospect of "going rogue" and running for president? Yes, this could be Sarah Palin's moment to confound her critics, to send the GOP establishment types she hates even more than liberals into frantic hysteria, and most of all, to gain the attention she craves.

I agree. It's time for Sarah Barracuda. And I betcha Mitt Romney would make a donation. He is running out the clock now, knowing he beats the current field easily. Palin would soak up all the oxygen, but not the votes the Mittster needs.