In the U.S. it would be a crime to enter a prison to visit an inmate under a false name. Apparently, it's not in Peru.

That's what Beth Holloway did , pretending to be a journalist, not using her real name, hoping to sneak in a camera to tape Joran Van der Sloot for yet another hyped TV movie by Dutch tabloid journalist Peter de Vries. The visitor's log does not contain her name. But even her lawyer confirms she entered Castro Castro prison in Peru and got into his cell -- for five minutes.

Good for Joran that he refused to discuss anything with her and handed her his attorney's card. Holloway and De Vries were thrown out when the camera was discovered. The Dutch media initially reported she was detained, but her lawyer says she wasn't and that she broke no laws.

Holloway's attorney says she didn't tell him she was going and is being "guarded" about the meeting. Sounds like she just wanted to threaten him:

"I think it was more to deliver the message that he might be in Peru but she hasn't gone away.

[More...]

Paul Krugman writes:

[B]ack in 2001, the Bush administration bundled huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans with much smaller tax cuts for the middle class, then pretended that it was mainly offering tax breaks to ordinary families. Meanwhile, it circumvented Senate rules intended to prevent irresponsible fiscal actions — rules that would have forced it to find spending cuts to offset its $1.3 trillion tax cut — by putting an expiration date of Dec. 31, 2010, on the whole bill. And the witching hour is now upon us. [. . .]

In response, President Obama is proposing legislation that would keep tax rates essentially unchanged for 98 percent of Americans but allow rates on the richest 2 percent to rise. But Republicans are threatening to block that legislation, effectively raising taxes on the middle class, unless they get tax breaks for their wealthy friends.

I think that is an accurate description of the state of play. But what is the policy rationale for tax cuts for the middle class? Krugman argues:

Matt Yglesias:

[Marty Peretz is] scheduled to be honored by Harvard University since a lot of his famous and important friends got together a bunch of money to give to Harvard in exchange for Harvard honoring their friend. Since Harvard is in the business of raising money, they have every intention of keeping the money and going ahead with the honoring[. . . .] It’s really too bad that Harvard has chosen to take this tack. [. . .] My alma mater is doing a disservice to their brand and to public understanding of the issues by deliberately obscuring things in this manner.

It would be more honest to say that Harvard is a business run for the benefit of its faculty and administrators. The business model of this business is the exchange of prestige in exchange for money. Peretz has friends who have money that they are willing to exchange for some prestige, and Harvard intends to take the money. It is what it is.

Good post from Matt. He's been out in front on calling Peretz out for a lot of years now.

Speaking for me only

TGIF. Two working days until Monday.

Open Thread.

One of the more amusing spectacles I have been following is how American Prospect writers continue to argue against Markos' book "American Taliban" without ever acknowledging that The American Prospect co-editor Robert Kuttner penned an article in the American Prospect titled, yep, "American Taliban."

"Intellectually honest", aren't they?

Open Thread.

The list of usual suspects supporting tax cuts for the rich among House Dems is not remarkable. This a group that has been with the Republicans on any number of issues. Having said that, they are preferable to their Republican opponents and I hope they win in November. But they won't fight for my issues so I certainly won't be fighting for their reelection.

But I want to remark on one Democratic Senate candidate who is being fought for by the Netroots. That candidate is Jack Conway, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Kentucky. Conway favors tax cuts for the wealthy. Is Conway better than Rand Paul? No doubt. I hope he wins. But the question is should progressives be fighting for him. When Barbara Boxer (half the amount raised for Boxer as compared to Conway on ActBlue) and Russ Feingold (less than 1/3 the amount raised for Feingold as compared to Conway on ActBlue), two progressive champions, are fighting for their political lives? The answer to me is obvious. No. Progressives should fight for progressives like Boxer and Feingold. They fight for us. Not for Blue Dogs who fight for Republican tax policies.

Speaking for me only

Republicans “want to hold these middle-class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.” - President Obama

President Obama has it exactly right on the tax cut debate. The question is who are you for?

“We simply can’t afford [the GOP tax cuts for the rich],” [President] Obama said. “It would mean borrowing $700 billion in order to fund these tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans — $700 billion to give a tax cut worth an average of $100,000 to millionaires and billionaires. And it’s a tax cut economists say would do little to add momentum to our economy.”

He added: “Middle-class families need this relief. These are the Americans who saw their wages and incomes flat-line over the last decade, who’ve seen the costs of everything from health care to college tuition skyrocket and who have been hardest hit by this recession.”

(Emphasis supplied.) The question is, as the President states, who are you for?

Speaking for me only

Via McJoan at Daily Kos, Sen. Harry Reid says the defense authorization bill will include an amendment with the Dream Act, creating a path to citizenship for the undocumented who came to the U.S. as children.

Who qualifies? Those who have lived in the U.S. for five years, arrived in the U.S. before turning 16, and have completed at least two years of college or two years in the military.

Republicans aren't happy, but they will probably vote for the defense bill anyway. This would be a welcome first step towards much needed immigration reform.

I'm just getting back from work and there's a lot of TV about to start...from the Big Brother and Top Chef D.C. finales, to America's Next Top Model and the new Jimmy Smit law show "Outlaw" which got totally panned by USA today.

My prediction for Big Brother: It will be Hayden and Lane in the F2 and Hayden will win. Too bad for Brittany, her house in Arkansas burned down last night (in real life) and they aren't telling her until after the finale. I hope she at least wins the $50k viewer's favorite player award.

The 9th Circuit today reversed the arson related convictions of ELF activist Briana Waters. Waters was sentenced to 6 years. The case involved the firebombing of the offices of a Univ. of Washington researcher who ELF allegedly "mistakenly believed was genetically engineering poplar trees." Reason for reversal: The rulings of the judge and evidence introduced by the prosecutors rendered the trial unfair. The opinion is here.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The President has to stay on the issue of his middle class tax cuts and the GOP attempt to hold them hostage in favor of tax cuts for the rich. And it looks like he will:

The White House has added an event to today's schedule for President Obama. An administration source tells TPM that Obama should be expected to mention the tax cuts debate raging on Capitol Hill.

Stick to your guns Mr. President. He did, hammered the Republicans. Now what to do about the Blue Dogs?

Speaking for me only

Kevin Drum writes:

O'Donnell is only one candidate, and every professional politician knows that once you get a freight train barrelling forward you can't control every last twist in the tracks. And it's quite possible that the result of the Tea Party freight train this year will be lots of ultra-conservative victories and one or two preventable losses. Is that a reasonable price to pay? I don't know, but I do know that there are plenty of liberals who'd be willing to make that trade in the opposite direction.

[More...]

I’m told by some Dem-leaning pundits that I’m supposed to feel bad that the GOP has gone to crazytown, that this portends unwell for progressive politics. I just don’t really agree. [. . .] People should stop pining for some golden version of the Republican Party, a conciliatory, collegial team of problem-solvers. They’re not coming back. They haven’t been around for a decade and a half. - D-Day

They are who we thought they were! Don't let'em off the hook:

Open Thread.