The results are in for the annual USA Today-Gallup poll of the year's most admired persons. Most admired man, for the third year in a row, is President Barack Obama. The most admired woman, for the 9th year in a row, is Hillary Clinton.

Who would you have picked?

At daily kos, Jed Lewison writes:

Apparently, the GOP's definition of "getting their country back" involves putting the health care lobby back in charge of health care policy:

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) has picked a former health care lobbyist to serve in an all-purpose role on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and also hired other longtime panel aides as his top lawyers, according to sources off Capitol Hill.

Maybe the name Liz Fowler rings a bell? More . . .

Republican pollster Jon McHenry said that agreeing with the GOP to cut spending will help Obama with independent voters. “He gets to look like an adult who can work with another side,” McHenry said

The sequel to The Deal, The Norquist Strategy: Part 2, opens in February. Here is a trailer for the upcoming attraction:

[C]onservatives interviewed by The Hill took issue with the notion that deep spending cuts will curtail growth. Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, said cuts would stimulate the economy because taxpayers will perceive it is less likely that their money will be “stolen” to pay for wasteful spending. [MORE . . .]

Let us not confuse objectives with methods. [. . .] The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. - FDR

DennisG at Balloon Juice scolds unenthusiastic progressives:

By any fair measurement the 111th Congress and the first two years of the Obama Administration have been an incredibly productive time. The list of real legislative accomplishments is long and so is the list of new Executive orders, Presidential Memorandas, rule making and changes to the way the Federal Government is run. But of course, none of that matters because not everything desired has been accomplished and there have been some compromises along the way that make some of the successes less than perfect.

This reflects the Beltway mentality of thinking passing laws is the goal, as opposed to making things better. It confuses methods with objectives. More . . .

If the health bill leads to a revolutionary reform of health insurance and health care delivery in the United States, history will consider Barack Obama to have been a very successful President. That's how history works. (I'm of the opinion that the health bill, while progressive in some aspects, such as expansion of Medicaid coverage, is not meaningful reform and does not contain elements that will lead to reform (I'm no fan of the exchanges.))

But the issues I care about the most right now - economic growth, the foreclosure crisis and income inequality, were not addressed adequately in the first two years of the Obama Administration and almost certainly won't be in the next two years, And indeed, to read the year end stories about the Lame Duck session of Congress, it is amazing how the Overton Window has moved well to the Right in the first two years of the Obama Presidency. Take, for example,TPM's Brian Beutler's listing of winners and losers of the Lame Duck session:

Federal forfeitures are handled by the U.S. Marshals Service. It's a huge business, involving $2 billion in seized and forfeited assets. Among their duties:

The U.S. Marshals manage and dispose of all assets seized for forfeiture by utilizing successful procedures employed by the private sector. The agency contracts with qualified vendors that minimize the amount of time an asset remains in inventory and maximize the net return to the government.

Forfeiture Support Associates LLC (FSA) has a $613 million contract with the Marshals Service to help administer the asset forfeiture program. Brian Aryani is a former former federal agent and CPA who worked for FSA and the Marshals Service in the Complex Assets Group of the Asset Forfeiture Program. (He says he was employed by both, although it's not clear if his contract was only with FSA.) He has filed a whistleblower and civil rights lawsuit alleging fraud by the former head of the Complex Assets Group, Leonard Brisksman and retaliation by FSA, the Marshals Service and its Assistant Director, Eben Morales, for bringing it to light. [More...]

The LA Times reports that jurors are telling judges they won't convict defendants in small marijuana cases.

The article focuses on a recent trial in Montana. One juror said she'd have a problem convicting the defendant. A second said she couldn't do it.

"Then one of the people in the jury box said, 'Tell me, how much marijuana are we talking about? … If it was a pound or a truckload or something like that, OK, but I'm not going to convict someone of a sale with two or three buds,' " the judge said. "And at that point, four or five additional jurors spontaneously raised their hands and said, 'Me too.' "

The judge adds: [More...]

Longstanding, extensive police harassment of Hispanics and Latinos in East Haven, CT appears to have triumphed. The wheels of justice grind so slowly that despite a Justice Department civil rights investigation, the commencement of a criminal investigation by the FBI, and a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by students at Yale, Hispanics are unable and unwilling to continue being subjected to the abuse, selling their homes and moving.

Santiago Malave, a probation officer who works in New Haven, says the racial abuse is so bad that he crosses the town line into East Haven only to go home. He and his wife are now preparing to sell their house and move, joining an exodus of Hispanics who say police have hassled them with traffic stops, false arrests and even jailhouse beatings.

It's not just a few rogue officers. It's a blatant systemic problem. [More...]

How are those of you on the East Coast holding up with the weather? Is it as bad as they say?

It's a balmy, 51 degrees here in Denver but the mountains have plenty of snow.

I'm boxing closed files and trying to make space for new 2011 files. Discovery in wiretap cases has gotten so massive we now get it on external 500 GB hard drives instead of dvd's. Each drive seems to be made by a different manufacuturer or is a different model with its own cords, so they can't all be stored in one box. And while the drives with 3.0 USB are supposed to be backwards compatible with USB 2.0, my XP desktop doesn't recognize them (the Vista laptop does.) Little problems in the grand scheme of things, I know, but still very time-consuming to deal with.

What's on your agenda or mind today? Did you get anything fun for Christmas? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The New York Times examines the Wikileaks cables and the DEA. What it finds: the D.E.A. has been expanding its global reach. It now has 87 offices in 63 countries. One of the things foreign governments love about the agency: its wiretapping capability.

The DEA has emerged from the shadow of the FBI and become much more than a drug agency. Its intelligence capabilities are in great demand, world-wide, but not always for the right reasons. This detailed article on the leaked Wikileaks cables concerning the DEA and war on drugs begins with Central and South America, where some governments want access to its technologies to go after political opponents. [More...]

Time for a little irreverance: A funny SNL claymation with Darlene Love (hat tip Mediaite)reminding that not everyone celebrates Christmas.

Over at Mother Jones (and Solitary Watch): Santa was in prison and Jesus Gets the Death Penalty.

We send good thoughts and wishes to the 2,284,900 people in our jails and prisons, the children of the incarcerated, and everyone in nursing homes and hospitals.

On a more traditional note, check out CBS and the top world news of 2010 in pictures.

This is another open thread, all topics welcome.

A great song to get you in a happy mood on Christmas morning. [Later taken down by You Tube]

If you're in a reading rather than watching mode, here's an old favorite, from The Onion, How the Weed Delivery Guy Saved Christmas.

If it's just listening you want to do, I always recommend Boulder's 93.7, KBCO, which will be commercial free all day. You can listen live here.

And if you're cooking, while I'm still partial to the lasagna I made last year, tell us what you're making and looking forward to eating.

But, whatever you're doing, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.