Ezra Klein writes:

The president call[ed] for a five-year non-security discretionary spending freeze tonight. [. . .] The Obama administration's proposal is better than [the GOP alternatives], to be sure. But it also feels more like the policy you'd get at the end of a compromise process, not the beginning.

This goes to the Obama administration's theory of negotiating more generally: Do you start with a reasonable compromise? Or do you end with a reasonable compromise? [. . .] The usual liberal critique of this approach is that starting with a reasonable compromise just means you end with a less-reasonable compromise, and the Obama administration would be better off rejecting calls for across-the-board cuts or freezes and trying to persuade Americans that the Republican approach here is wrong, and tax cuts for the wealthy are a much bigger contributor to the deficit than spending on food safety (which is true, incidentally). They might not win that fight, but maybe they'd end up with a three-year spending freeze rather than a five-year spending freeze.

As regular readers know, I'm generally sympathetic with this critique. I think it is misplaced here. Why? Because a "budget freeze" is pretty meaningless jibberish. Freeze what exactly? I'm sure Obama can come up with a good budget at 2010 spending levels that will have no chance of passage. And then folks will forget the freeze proposal entirely. After all, who remembers Obama's freeze proposal from last year? In the context of this particular budget negotiation, this is more "school uniforms" than the 2009 stimulus negotiation bungled by the Obama Administration. More . . .

Last night, President Obama said:

Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again. But we have never measured progress by these yardsticks alone. We measure progress by the success of our people. By the jobs they can find and the quality of life those jobs offer. [. . .]

That’s the project the American people want us to work on. Together. We did that in December. Thanks to the tax cuts we passed, Americans’ paychecks are a little bigger today. Every business can write off the full cost of the new investments they make this year. These steps, taken by Democrats and Republicans, will grow the economy and add to the more than one million private sector jobs created last year.

(Emphasis supplied.) Obama posits that the tax cuts in The Deal will create jobs and spur economic growth. I think that in fact The Deal was a terrible decision that will retard economic growth over the medium and long term because it exacerbates the biggest economic problem we face, income inequality. Buttressing my view is, via DougJ, this Harvard Business Review article by Justin Fox:

The big news that emerged last night was that, despite Pete Peterson's best efforts, no pol will touch the Third Rail. Via Yglesias, Ross Douthat writes:

[Paul] Ryan’s rejoinder was more urgent and more focused: America’s crippling debt was an organizing theme, and there were warnings of “painful austerity measures” and a looming “day of reckoning.” But his remarks [. . .] were even more vague about the details of that reckoning than the president’s address. Ryan owes his prominence, in part, to his willingness to propose a very specific blueprint for addressing the entitlement system’s fiscal woes. But in his first big moment on the national stage, the words “Medicare” and “Social Security” did not pass the Wisconsin congressman’s lips. [. . .] It’s clear that both parties have decided that a period of divided government twelve months before a presidential election is the wrong time to make big moves on entitlements and the deficit.

"Deficit hawks" were AWOL when The Deal was made so they have little to complain about in this. There will be no cuts in Social Security (which as Yglesias notes, is pretty stupid to be considering right now anyway.) The Third Rail remains untouched.

Speaking for me only

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aka the Underwear Bomber, will go to trial on October 4. The federal judge presiding over his case today refused to set a later date.

Judge Nancy Edmunds tried to talk the 24 year old out of representing himself -- he fired his public defenders months ago -- to no avail. He does have a standby counsel.

As Abdulmutallab repeatedly affirmed that he wished to continue as his own lawyer, the judge reminded him that -- even if he accepted representation -- he could always come to her directly with any concerns or questions.

"I understand you may worry about losing control over what happens to you," she said. "I can understand that is a frightening prospect and I am here to listen."

Abdulmutallab faces life in prison if convicted. His stand-by counsel says it's a very defensible case. Apparently, the Public Defender's office has expert reports that the device in his underwear could not have blown up the airplane.

Our troops come from every corner of this country – they are black, white, Latino, Asian and Native American. They are Christian and Hindu, Jewish and Muslim.

And, yes, we know that some of them are gay. Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love.

And with that change, I call on all of our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and the ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation.

(Emphasis supplied.) Hear! Hear! Speaking for me only

BTD will be here in about 10 minutes. Here's an open thread for your reactions to Obama's State of the Union Address.

Be with you in a sec. Fla-Georgia is in OT. 2OT.

Winning the future! Live blog on the flip.

From the prepared remarks of the State of the Union: Obama urges reform for children of undocumented workers.

Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet live every day with the threat of deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.

[More...]

Big Tent Democrat will be here to share his thoughts on the President Obama's State of the Union address which begins at 9pm ET. Until then, here's the speech as prepared for delivery and sent out by the White House.

He doesn't seem to think much of the proposed plan to seat Dems and Republicans together:

What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow.

There's a lot of bipartisan talk:

With their votes, they’ve determined that governing will now be a shared responsibility between parties. New laws will only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans. We will move forward together, or not at all – for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics.

Obama has a new target: Medical malpractice reform "to rein in frivolous lawsuits." Of course, that's nothing new. He voted for it while in the Senate and pushed it in 2009.

With 45 minutes to go, here's a place for your pre-speech concerns.

A federal judge today sentenced Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani,convicted of conspiracy in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, to life without parole.

Ghailani, whose case was moved from Guantanamo to federal criminal court in New York, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property and acquitted of more than 280 charges of murder and conspiracy.

Mr. Ghailani received the same maximum life sentence, without parole, that he would have faced had he been convicted of all counts; and it seems likely that he will be sent to the so-called Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo., where other defendants convicted in the same embassy plot are being held.

Ghailani's lawyers raised his torture while being held in a CIA "black hole" prison, and the fact that he had provided valuable intelligence as mitigation.

Bump and Update: The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case on an expedited basis, without oral argument, using the briefs filed in the lower court.

Bump and Update: Rahm gets his stay, he's back on the ballot for now.

Bump and Update: Rahm Emanuel filed his petition with the Illinois Supreme Court today. He makes six arguments, and relies in part on People ex rel. Madigan v. Baumgartner, the case I discuss below. You can read the petition here. No word yet on whether the Court will agree to hear the case or grant the stay he requested yesterday. [More...]

The Department of Justice today announced new rules for the Bureau of Prisons and other correctional agencies for addressing and preventing sexual abuse of inmates.

The Justice Department today released a proposed rule that aims to prevent and respond to sexual abuse in incarceration settings, in accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Based on recommendations of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC), the proposed rule contains four sets of national standards aimed at combating sexual abuse in four types of confinement facilities: adult prisons and jails, juvenile facilities, lockups and community confinement facilities.

A 60-day public comment period will follow publication in the Federal Register, after which the department will make revisions as warranted and the standards will be published as a final rule. The department expects the final rule will be published by the end of the year.

The standards will be immediately binding on the federal Bureau of Prisons upon publication. States that do not comply with the standards may lose five percent of the funds they would otherwise receive for prison purposes from DOJ.

There are separate standards for each of the four categories of facilities: [More...]

ABC reports that President Obama will propose a budget freeze and ban on earmarks in his State of the Union Address tonight. The theme of the speech ,“How We Win the Future”, stresses innovation, education and infrastructure. (Note: link is safe to click on, there's no automatic video that plays, hopefully ABC is learning.)

Is Obama going to discuss anything besides the economy tonight? I hope so. BTD - Conceptually, the President's proposal has a lot in common with the Tea Party Caucus's ideas. What seems clear is that no one seems willing to step on the Third Rail of touching Social Security and Medicare and thus "austerity" will fall on the rest of the budget for the time being.