It's 1:00 a.m., do you know where your Senator is? Voting in the Senate to table the GOP amendments to the Reconciliation health care bill.

Watching on C-Span, it seems like they are all there. The latest defeat: The Bunning amendment, which would have allowed seniors to opt-out of Medicare Part A. 97 voted, it was killed 61 to 36.

If you have insomnia tonight, you can follow along on C-Span, they could be going all night. An "aye" vote is to kill (table) the Amendment.

On to the next one. Chuck Grassley. It wants to delay some provision by 30 days. Republicans are so silly. Max Baucus says it's designed to send the whole bill back to the House. Here comes the vote, all 100 names will be read out loud again.

The New York Times has a late report here.

The petition signatures have been counted and certified in California. Voters in November will decide whether to legalize recreational use of marijuana.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified that the petitions seeking to place the question on the ballot had more than 433,971 valid voter signatures, the minimum number needed to qualify.

If approved, the initiative would allow those 21 years and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, enough to roll several marijuana cigarettes. Residents also could cultivate the plant in limited quantities.

If passed, California will be the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana. Local governments would then decide whether to allow and tax marijuana sales.

Slim pickings tonight on TV: Survivor and American Idol are the best bets.

Health care is still dominating the news. And Sarah Palin apparently is still not ready for prime time, her "reality" show on Alaska has been picked up by... the Discovery Channel. What reality show costs $1.2 million an episode?

Charlie Sheen may be retaining new counsel...Denver's Hal Haddon whose firm represented Kobe Bryant in his Eagle County sexual assault case. While the DA isn't seeking jail time, he's also not offering a deferred judgment to the felony.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The sad saga of the Uighur brothers held at Guantanamo has come to an end. They arrived in Switzerland today.

The two Uyghurs were neither charged with any crime nor condemned by the US authorities; today they are free again. They have expressly undertaken to respect the law in force and to learn the language spoken in their place of residence. They are also willing to take up a gainful employment and to provide for their basic needs.

Arkin Mahmud, 45 had been accepted months ago, but refused to leave without his brother Bahtiar, 32, who had become mentally ill while at Gitmo. Props to Switzerland for agreeing to take both. Only five Uighurs remain at Gitmo.

The U.S. sent three detainees to the Republic of Georgia yesterday. It did not provide information about them, but the lawyer for one of them today said two of the three are Libyans.[More...]

Original Post 3/23: Controversial Texecution Weds: 30 Day Delay Sought For DNA Testing

Gov. Rick Perry, what's your hurry? Test the DNA before killing Hank Skinner. So says the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle and Austin American Statesman.[More...]

I prefer this to "Mission Accomplished" on health care (see Cenk Ugyur warning against "Mission Accomplished" on health care):

[W]e're not done. Even if the bill does a better job than CBO projects, health-care costs will still bankrupt us. This is one small step for cost, one giant leap for coverage. My great hope is that the bill makes the next steps easier. But there's still no guarantee we'll take them. And the debate and difficulty Congress had passing a bill that was too small and deeply compromised has left me very pessimistic about our system's capacity to make harder decisions. The danger is not that we can't solve our problems, but that we won't. And that's the biggest risk of all.

From Ezra Klein. Good post.

Speaking for me only

Still busy. So is Jeralyn apparently.

More Open Thread.

Busy today. More from me tonight. Not sure about Jeralyn's schedule.

This is an Open Thread.

One last thing - Kevin Drum is right that the health bill's most progressive element is the income distribution implicit in it. The permanence of this distribution is arguable though, and I will argue about it tonight.

Strange approach imo:

Senate Judiciary Republicans are looking to defeat the lifetime judicial appointment of Goodwin Liu to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by painting him as President Barack Obama’s most extreme pick and a likely advocate of universal health care from the bench. [. . .] The argument against Liu, a law professor at the University of California-Berkley, is the first time that Republicans have injected the partisan health care debate into the confirmation of a judicial pick.

I've longed argued that the courts are indeed political. But it is interesting ground the GOP has chosen - making Liu a referendum on universal health care coverage seems a strange argument to make. I imagine it will manifest itself as a debate about the mandates. In any event, we will found out today at 2:30 at the Senate Judiciary committee hearing on Liu's nomination. It will be webcast and you can see it here.

Speaking for me only

David Sirota will be delivering a petition today to the offices of Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) demanding Bennet offer a public option amendment to the health reconciliation fix. Sirota writes:

Facing an increasingly difficult Democratic primary challenge, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) has spent the last many weeks trumpeting himself as the Senate's main champion of the public option, issuing a letter demanding a reconciliation vote on the public option. [. . .] Politico reported that his campaign manager suggested Bennet would not offer the amendment because "we're not going (to) kill the bill to make a point." [. . . E]ven as he promises to "continue to push" for a public option, he is refusing to offer a public option amendment right now when it has the best chance of passing (ie. only needing 51 votes, rather than 60 later), somehow claiming that offering a public option amendment to a separate reconciliation "fix" bill would kill a bill that he acknowledges has already passed.

My guess is Bennet is following the Democratic leadership's orders not to offer any amendments - as the leadership is trying to prevent the separate reconciliation bill from having to be voted on again in the House [. . .]

Sirota is berating Bennet for honoring the deal made between Dems in the House and Senate on the reconciliation fixes. That's not fair. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, almost certainly at the behest of the White House, refused to push for a public option in the House version of the reconciliation bill. It is absurd to blame Bennet for the deal made by Obama and Pelosi. Of course, if this happens, all bets should be off:

I'm glad to see news unrelated to health care today. The media was getting awfully one-dimensional.

Tonight the top 11 on American Idol sing Billboard's top songs. Can't wait to see Crystal, hope she has a good night. Casey too.

We're in the midst of a whopper of snow storm. It began with thundersnow around 3 pm and will continue until tomorrow.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Tomorrow the votes will be counted on a California ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana:

The 10-page California initiative would allow anyone 21 or older to possess, share and transport up to an ounce for personal use and to grow up to 25 square feet per residence or parcel. It would allow local governments, but not the state, to authorize the cultivation, transportation and sale of marijuana and to impose taxes to raise revenues.

To make the ballot, the measure needs 433,971 valid signatures. By Tuesday, it was just 15,000 short. Los Angeles County, where supporters collected 142,246 signatures, is expected to put it over the top.

[More...]