Reacting to the Dem critiques of the GOP's madman bargaining on the debt ceiling, Atrios writes:

It is negotiating, just good negotiating (and, on the other side, bad negotiating). People and the press should highlight what Republican negotiating is so people can judge, but it's wrong to say it isn't negotiating. "Give me everything I want" is negotiating when it works.

It's also good negotiating when it ends up as "I got most of everything I want." Here's the thing - this negotiation goes back to last December, when the Bush tax cuts were set to expire. My contempt for The Deal is a tedious and repetitive matter of record. But it is worth remembering that many folks (Ezra Klein! cough!) were celebrating it as a bit of brilliant bargaining by Obama, who snookered the GOP into a 'big stimulus package.' Of course that was silly. The fact is the only goal for the GOP is this negotiation was the extension of the Bush tax cuts. They won what they wanted in December. After that, any cuts in the social safety net are gravy. 2 trillion dollars in such cuts is a ton of gravy. The GOP will gladly give the President back 100 billion of it to make The Deal, Part 2. Of course, they will have the budget negotiations in the Fall to extract even more. At this point, there is no sweat for the GOP in the bargaining - they got their big chip in December. The Deal was a terrible mistake.

Speaking for me only

Writing about the Obama Administration actions against confidential journalistic sources and whistleblowers, Glenn Greenwald writes:

Along with the apathetic, who by definition pose no threat to anyone, prominent cheerleaders for the President and his party, who labor every day to keep them in power, are the last ones who will be subjected to such programs. Obviously, nobody in the Obama administration is monitoring the phone calls at the Center for American Progress or ones placed to the large stable of columnists, bloggers and TV stars who daily spout White House talking points or devote each day to attacking the President's political opponents. That's why purported civil liberties concerns manifest only when the other party is in power, but vanish when their own is. Partisan loyalists are indifferent to their leader's ability to deter dissent; if anything, they're happy that their party's leader wields such power and can use it against political adversaries.

While I think the language is too strong (particularly on being happy that the Leader is wielding such power against political enemies), as a general matter, partisans are less concerned about what their Leader is doing. But I think a "so what?" is in order (to me as well on the Libya Congressional authorization question ) in this sense - did anyone expect otherwise? It is time to readjust expectations - there are team players on both sides. I think in general members of the Democratic team have less need for contortions, but will do so as required. I understand Greenwald's frustration, but fixation on what the "team" players are doing is not productive imo. I used to do it myself, but no more. At least, less of it.

Speaking for me only

Via NORML:

Today, a bi-partisan group of representatives introduced the first federal bill since 1937 aimed at ending marijuana prohibition. To coincide with the bill’s introduction NORML is launching a new public service announcement featuring NORML Advisory Board member, country music icon, and cannabis enthusiast Willie Nelson. In the video below, Willie calls on you to support this important legislation and to contact your elected officials and encourage them to do the same.

Major props to Colorado Rep. Jared Polis for co-sponsoring the bill introduced today. It's called Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 and was introduced by Barney Frank and Ron Paul. [More...]

In a Naked Capitalism post extremely critical of this Ezra Klein piece, I was struck by this part:

We then get to more dictation from the Ministry of Truth via Klein:

What’s remarkable about the financial crisis isn’t just how many people got it wrong, but how many people who got it wrong had an incentive to get it right. Journalists. Hedge funds. Independent investors. Academics. Regulators. Even traders, many of whom had most of their money tied up in their soon-to-be-worthless firms. “Inside Job” is perhaps strongest in detailing the conflicts of interest that various people had when it came to the financial sector, but the reason those ties were “conflicts” was that they also had substantial reasons — fame, fortune, acclaim, job security, etc. — to get it right.

Huh? He can write this with a straight face? He has the incentives 100% wrong. Asset bubbles are very popular. They look like increased wealth to the community. That’s why regulators are reluctant to intervene. If they do, they make people look less prosperous immediately, and they can’t prove the counterfactual, if they had left things alone, the damage would have been worse. [. . .] Did Klein miss the rise of access journalism? Clearly so.

(Emphasis supplied.) I doubt Ezra is unaware of the dangers of access journalism, but he is incentivized to ignore it at this point. But I am not big on motive-based analysis and critiques. I'd rather read the "reporting" and analysis on its own terms. More . . .

That's Booman's headline on the Cantor walkout. But he writes like it is a bad thing in terms of bargaining by the Republicans. Booman thinks that this means that "[Republicans] are going to blow up the global economy through their intransigence and unreasonableness." No they aren't. Democrats are going to cave. This is the Madman Theory of Political Bargaining.

As digby says, "after some drama, the votes will probably be cobbled together with Democrats being forced to form the majority because the GOP has successfully deployed the Madman Strategy. (Isn't that how it usually works?)" Yes, that's how it usually works.

We're doomed.

Speaking for me only

Freddy Adu was good last night. Point for Bradley. He still should go. I'm rooting for Mexico on the weekend. A little short term pain will lead to long term gain.

NBA Draft tonight.

Gators in the College World Series semis.

Wimbledon heading into Round 3 tomorrow.

Yanks a 1/2 game back of the Sox.

Anything I missed sportswise?

Open Thread.

Cantor Walks Out of Debt Ceiling Talks:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, said Thursday that he was quitting the debt ceiling negotiations being led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. because of an impasse over the role of taxes in any final deal. “I believe that we have identified trillions in spending cuts, and to date, we have established a blueprint that could institute the fiscal reforms needed to start getting our fiscal house in order,” Mr. Cantor said in a prepared statement. “That said, each side came into these talks with certain orders, and as it stands the Democrats continue to insist that any deal must include tax increases. There is not support in the House for a tax increase, and I don’t believe now is the time to raise taxes in light of our current economic situation. Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue.”

Let the caving begin! Actually, the President has a pretty strong legal argument that he actually does not need the debt ceiling raised. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides:

Reuters:

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting little improvement in the labour market this month after employment stumbled in May.

Maybe somebody should do something.

Captain Louis Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick Blaine: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Captain Louis Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert!
Rick Blaine: I was misinformed.

So Jon Stewart said that Fox News viewers were the most misinformed. The new "fair and balanced" "fact checker" Politifact said that was false, Fox News viewers were not the most "ill-informed." Yes, "misinformed" and "ill-informed" do not mean the same thing. See Media Matters on the success of the Fox News misinformation mission.

Moral of the story? "Fact checkers" are hacks too. Politifact is just the latest. Problem is people like to cite to "fact checkers" when they say what they like. Solution? Stop citing to "fact checkers."

Speaking for me only

Digby and Greg Sargent lament that Americans have come to believe the Obama Administration's parroting of Republican talking points on the relationship between economic growth and cutting government spending. Digby writes:

It's fairly clear that the administration long ago bought into the deficit trope and threw in its lot with the confidence fairy to create growth.

Indeed, Obama proved me an idiot when I thought he would use the "deficit trope" to fight against renewing the Bush tax cuts. Instead, The Deal was born. I'm with Kevin Drum - this is the policy the Obama Administration wants.

Speaking for me only

It's a busy work day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Osama bin Laden's Yemeni wife, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, age 29, and their 12 year old daughter Safiya, are finally going to be allowed to leave Pakistan and return to Yemen. No word yet on the fate of Osama's other two wives.

More uncertainty as to which of bin Laden's sons was killed along with Osama in the U.S. raid: The Guardian article says Hamza (not Khalid) was killed and buried at sea with his father. That is not what the U.S. and Pakistan have said (although the U.S. changed its story a few times.) Where is Hamza bin Laden?

On a related al Qaida note, there's been a jail break in Yemen, and 57 al Qaida members escaped.