Rudy Giuliani will be on CNBC's Kudlow Report tonight. He's considering another run for the Republican nomination for President. Here's an excerpt, received by e-mail from CNBC:

LARRY KUDLOW: " Will you take a look at 2012, there are lots of rumors in New York City?"

RUDY GIULIANI: "I will take a look at 2012. It's really a question of, can I play a useful role? Would I have a chance of getting the nomination? Those are things that I'll have to evaluate as the year goes along.

LARRY KUDLOW: "But the door is open, that's what I'm hearing from you tonight?"

RUDY GIULIANI: "Yes, yes, Absolutely Larry."

He never could stand to be out of the limelight for long. Is this just a way for him to rev up demand (and fees) as a motivational speaker? [More...]

Sexist a**hole:

When [Arianna] Huffington said there's nothing in the Duelfer Report to bolster [Joe] Lieberman's conclusions, the senator replied, "I don't think you've read it, sweetheart."

Unfreakingbelievable.

Speaking for me only

Matt Yglesias writes:

Apple doesn’t have “monopoly power” (its market share isn’t even that big) in the markets for laptops or smart phones. What Apple has is intellectual property—operating systems.

The definition of "relevant market" is crucial here. In a good comment thread, the issue is fleshed out a bit. It's complicated though. A lot of my work involves this issue so I'm not going to write about it here. I will point you to this related development from the past few years - the Bush DOJ's policy on Sherman Act Section 2 enforcement (PDF) and the Obama DOJ's withdrawal of the policy. Now talk amongst yourselves about it.

Speaking (or not, as the case may be) for me only

Following up on medical marijuana raids conducted last fall, the Feds have indicted 11 people in Nevada. John Birmele, Jr., the owner of The Happiness Consultants, is charged with 15 counts including distribution of marijuana, using a firearm in
drug trafficking and concealing information from social security. The indictments are here and here.

Nevada state law is a little peculiar.

Under Nevada state law, a person with a medical marijuana license can legally possess up to one ounce of pot and grow seven plants. Technically, it's illegal to buy or sell it.

Many people who are authorized to possess pot in Nevada have argued that state law is a "catch 22". Unlike California, there aren't any legal dispensaries patients can go to. The Las Vegas businesses that were raided are only legally licensed to consult patients in getting medical marijuana cards.

Nevada needs to authorize and regulate dispensaries as do other states. While its law allows people to use medical marijuana, they must grow it themselves. Not everyone has a green thumb. And it's questionable whether it's legal for anyone to possess the seeds needed to grow a marijuana plant.

It begins:

A number of the House GOP’s leading conservative members on Thursday will announce legislation that would cut $2.5 trillion over 10 years, which will be by far the most ambitious and far-reaching proposal by the new majority to cut federal government spending. [. . . The] “Spending Reduction Act” would eliminate such things as the U.S. Agency for International Development and its $1.39 billion annual budget, [. . .] the $1.5 billion annual subsidy for Amtrak, $2.5 billion in high speed rail grants [. . .] and it would cut in half to $7.5 billion the federal travel budget.

But the program eliminations and reductions would account for only $330 billion of the $2.5 trillion in cuts. The bulk of the cuts would come from returning non-defense discretionary spending – which is currently $670 billion out of a $3.8 trillion budget for the 2011 fiscal year – to the 2006 level of $496.7 billion, through 2021.

This is, of course, just a scare document, intended to move the conversation in the Norquist direction. When Boehner comes in with a lower spending cuts number, he'll be "the reasonable one." Boehner will "negotiate" with Demint. Who will Obama negotiate with? Oh BTW, extension of the Bush tax cuts cost more in revenue ($4 trillion) to the government than the amount of the draconian cuts the GOP will propose today ($3.3 trillion.) What is interesting about this proposal though is what it does not touch - defense spending, Social Security or Medicare. How about that?

Speaking for me only

Good news for President Obama. Is it good news for progressive policies? Time will tell.

Open Thread.

Via Atrios, Felix Salmon asks the unaskable question:

[W]hat if part of the problem is that Obama’s economic team just wasn’t a good team? What if, in fact, it turns out to have been a very bad team?

My answer is that is was in fact a very very bad team. Obviously not as bad as Bush's economic team, but really bad. And the real problem is Obama had a bad economic team during a time that cried out for a great and bold economic team. Obama's Brain Trust was simply a disaster. Imo of course. YMMV.

See also Jason Linkins and Marcy Wheeler.

Speaking for me only

I think this bit from Ezra Klein exemplifies Beltway Dems' fundamental misunderstanding of politics and goes far in explaining why even when Republicans lose elections, they gain ground in the policy debate:

For the first two years of his administration, Obama benefited from huge Democratic majorities that allowed him to get things done by locating the senator who would be the 60th vote in the Senate and aiming legislation right between the whites of his or her eyes.

"The 60th vote" generally has no idea where they stand on any particular piece of legislation. For the most part, they look to see where everyone else stands first and then pick ground between the two sides. More . ..

A new report released last month by the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA)has some interesting statistics on Mexican and Central American drug arrests.

The unprecedented one-year comparative study of the drug laws and prison systems in eight Latin American countries – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

The findings show that:

The weight of the law falls on the most vulnerable individuals, overcrowding the prisons, but allowing drug trafficking to flourish.

How so? [More...]

President Obama is about to lift the ban on military commission trials at Guantanamo.

One of those expected to be recharged and tried is Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who was captured in 2002. Al-Nashiri was originally charged by the Bush Administration with participating in the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole. He was facing the death penalty. The Obama Administration moved to dismiss the charges against in in 2009. Al-Nashiri's co-defendants were moved to federal court. Why wasn't Al-Nashiri? The obvious answer is because the evidence against him was obtained by torture. His lawyer, Lt. Com. Stephen Reyes says:

“Nashiri is being prosecuted at the commissions because of the torture issue,” Mr. Reyes said. “Otherwise he would be indicted in New York along with his alleged co-conspirators.”

[More...]

Can Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez save American Idol? The new season begins tonight. (Update: The answer is yes, they are terrific and an improvement over past seasons. I thought I'd miss Simon but I don't. I'd much rather watch Steven, and JLo is way more "real" than I expected. Their personalities just shine.)

Jared Loughner has been indicted on three counts. The feds are calling it a "preliminary indictment." You can read it here.

The counts allege the attempted murder of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her staff members who were federal employees, Ronald Barber and Pamela Simon. The feds did not charge Loughner with the murder of Judge John Roll. Will they add it later, or did they decide to let Arizona charge Loughner with Judge Roll's murder in state court, as a capital crime?

The House has voted to repeal the Health Care Act.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Kevin Drum writes:

An effective regime for foreclosure relief would have done wonders for economic recovery, but it would have hurt the interests of the financial sector, which fought furiously to kill it in early 2009. And they won. Not because they were right, but because they had the raw muscle to get their way and middle-class homeowners didn't. That was good for banks, not so good for the rest of us.

This is entirely too kind to President Obama and the corrupt and incompetent Tim Geithner. Indeed, in the link Drum provides, he quotes Atrios writing: