David Broder, longtime writer for the Washington Post and other media publications, has passed away.

Our sympathies to his family. May he rest in peace.

Since the economic reality that now is not the time to be dealing with deficits is ignored by every Very Serious Person, from President Obama on down, the next question is how to address the deficit.

Economic reality tells us that it is not the time to reduce government spending as the nation continues to suffer from insufficient aggregate demand, slack that the private sector is simply not capable of picking up at this time. So, if we must address the deficit now, the most efficient (not to mention fair and decent) policy choice is to raise taxes on the rich. President Obama blew this issue when he did The Deal. A terrible mistake. At the federal level, the discussion is about how much the poor and the middle class must "sacrifice," the rich must never do so. And that cake is baked. At the state level, the electorate voted in zanies as governors in many states (Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania . . . New York?) who seem determined to destroy the economies of their states (and to contribute to the destruction of the national economy.) They will likely get their way. In a sense, this will be an additional experiment regarding the basic tenet of Republican governance. But does it matter how it turns out? More . . .

In what is being called the largest insider trading trial in a generation, opening arguments in the trial of Galleon Group's Raj Rajartnam begin today.

Since arresting 53-year-old U.S. citizen Rajaratnam in October 2009 and announcing criminal charges against 26 former traders, executives and lawyers, the U.S. government has pressed ahead with what it calls the biggest probe of insider trading in the $1.9 trillion hedge fund industry. Nineteen people have pleaded guilty in the Galleon case.

There are wiretaps and cooperators galore. There will be a feast of corporate-leaked secrets. It will expose the hedge-fund industry.

Former Goldman Sachs Group director Rajat Gupta, who has not been criminally charged but had civil SEC charges brought against him last week, may play a prominent role. The feds have phone calls in which he allegedly provided Rajaratnam with confidential information from Goldman Sachs. [More...]

Is it too early for a "Let's Go Gators!" chant?

In other news, Barcelona faces Arsenal in a do or die Champions League soccer game at the Camp Nou this afternoon. Arsenal won the first leg in London. Go Barca!

Open Thread.

President Obama issued an executive order today clearing the way for more military commission trials at Guantanamo. The ACLU says Obama has now "institutionalized indefinite detention." It calls Obama's new review process "window dressing."

Here's the Order. Here's the administration's Fact Sheet. From Obama's statement. [More....]

Joran Van der Sloot's attorney was interviewed this weekend and said that three weeks ago he told prosecutors Joran would plead guilty to killing Stephany Flores but argue the killing was spontaneous and unplanned, falling within Peru's "murder by violent emotion" statute, which allows for a sentence of between three and five years. This would mean Joran could be released in about 20 months.

The prosecutor is asking for 30 years. Flores' family wants at least 25. (I don't care what Beth Holloway wants -- she isn't part of this case and her opinion should be irrelevant.)

So how would this work if the prosecution doesn't agree? There are three separate homicide offenses in Peru with three separate penalties: Homicide Aggravated, Homicide Violent Emotion and Homicide Simple. [More...]

My pal Blair Sabol has a new column today on the fascination with celebrity meltdowns, particularly Charlie Sheen. As always, her unique take, her acerbic wit -- even her refusal to feel guilty about writing about such banality, instead of Haiti, Darfur and the Middle East -- make for fun reading.

In 48 hours [Charlie] made TMZ more important than 60 Minutes and exploited the media better than the media could exploit any other personality. Who was screwing whom?

Blair asks an intriguing question: Are some people just unrehabable -- meaning no amount of rehab will work for them? [More...]

The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Ginsburg, has ruled that Hank Skinner, a Texas inmate, can sue under the federal civil rights act , for refusal to grant his request for DNA testing. The case is Skinner v. Switzer, and the opinion is here. The dissenting justices were Thomas, Scalia and Kennedy.

Texas enacted a law in 2001 allowing post-conviction DNA testing in certain circumstances. Skinner's request was refused by prosecutors who said he should have asked earlier.

Skinner sued under the Civil Rights Act (Section 1983) alleging Texas's statute violated his due process rights. The TX appeals court said his only remedy was a habeas petition. Today, the Supreme Court disagreed, stressing their ruling was narrow and would not open any floodgates (or as Justice Ginsburg put it, even cause any rainfall.) [More...]

Atrios asks:

I wonder what Andrea Mitchell is sacrificing for the new austerity.

Here's the thing, the time to ask Andrea Mitchell and Alan Greenspan and rich people like them to sacrifice was when President Obama was striking The Deal. Everyone wants to pretend that what is happening now on the "New Austerity" has nothing to do with the The Deal that was struck in December. It has everything to do with it. When Ezra Klein was giving The Deal a standing ovation back in December, me and a few others were saying that it was a terrible mistake because the "New Austerity" was coming. If Obama has simply said No to The Deal, he could be negotiating tax rates right now, not just budget cuts. The Deal was a terrible mistake and anyone who was honest when thinking about it knew this.

Speaking for me only

March Madness is nearly upon us. Gators SEC Champs! Could be fun.

Open Thread.

Regular readers are familiar with my writings on the Madman Theory of Political Bargaining. Today, E.J. Dionne discusses the GOP's use of it in the budget negotiations:

Richard Nixon espoused what he called "the madman theory." It's a negotiating approach that induces the other side to believe you are capable of dangerously irrational actions and leads it to back down to avoid the wreckage your rage might let loose. House Republicans are pursuing their own madman theory in budget negotiations, with a clever twist: Speaker John Boehner is casting himself as the reasonable man fully prepared to reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown. [. . .] Thus are negotiators for President Obama and Senate Democrats forced to deal not only with Republican leaders in the room but also with a menacing specter outside its confines. As "responsible" public officials, Democrats are asked to make additional concessions just to keep the bomb-throwers at bay.

There is less "madman" to this approach for the GOP than in the past. The reason is simple - the GOP has rolled the Dems for most of the past two years (some would say past 2 decades.) In any event, the only way to defeat the madman bargainer is to stand up to him. In this case, that means being willing to suffer a government shutdown. Are the Dems ready for that? We'll see.

Speaking for me only

There's so much on TV tonight, I don't know what to watch first. Probably Shameless on Showtime. Then Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, and the season premiere of Celebrity Apprentice. There's also a new Chopped and a new Iron Chef.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.