Kevin Drum writes:

Obama has always kept his distance from both the netroots and the broader lefty base, and the congressional leadership largely did the same during healthcare negotiations. And it's not just that they ended up with a policy choice that progressives were unenthusiastic about. It's that they never even pretended to take progressives seriously. This is a mistake that George Bush and Karl Rove never made. The conservative base frequently didn't get what it wanted from them, but they always felt like they had a friend in the White House whose heart was in the right place. Progressive groups, conversely, have mostly felt like they got the back of the hand from the White House on healthcare. So it's understandable that they've either given up or, in a few cases, actively turned against the whole process.

This seems both right and wrong to me. It's true that the White House and SENATE Dems ignored the concerns of progressives on health care. And Villagers berated progressives (and unions) for not accepting political reality (now they berate the House Dems in the same fashion.) What is wrong though is the notion that the concern was about the process, as opposed to the policy. Indeed, Kevin reflects the condescension that the White House, the Senate and the Village has demonstrated throughout this health care debate. I'll give you two examples -- the excise tax and the public option. These issues are more than symbols. They are honest to Gawd serious issues for progressives and unions. More . . .

The Super Bowl is tonight. The game itself is of interest and I will do an in depth analysis later today. But right now I want to discuss the key prop bet of the event:

Super Bowl XLIV - How many times will Pete Townshend do his legendary windmill move? Windmill move must be a full 360 degree revolution and be shown on TV to be counted for this wager. Pete Townshend windmill moves during halftime show.

Over 5½ (-270)o,(+210)u

I love the over, even at the price.

This is an Open Thread.

A survey of more than 100 retired NY police officials say they were pressured into fudging stats to make it appear crime was going down.

The totals for those seven so-called major index crimes are provided to the F.B.I., whose reports on crime trends have been used by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to favorably compare New York to other cities and to portray it as a profoundly safer place, an assessment that the summary does not contradict.

In Georgia, criminal defense attorney Mark Shelnutt, who was acquitted of 40 counts of money laundering, aiding a drug conspiracy, bribery and false statements, is suing the Government, using the Hyde Act, to recover his attorneys fees. What a nightmare the feds put this lawyer through, the article is just chilling.

The Third Circuit, which will be the first in the country to decide whether the Government must show probable cause before getting an order to obtain cell-site locator records, is finally going to hear oral arguments on Thursday. This is a really big deal, and not just for criminal defendants. Among those in the case: the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology and the American Civil Liberties Union.[More...]

The ACLU has released an issues brief arguing against the criminalizing of the undocumented. It's both unlawful and harmful to public policy.

The use by states and localities of criminal laws to go after undocumented immigrants simply for being undocumented is generally unlawful, because the federal government has sole power to regulate immigration.

[More...]

Matt Yglesias writes:

I was on the radio yesterday, for example, with a woman who said that the GOP’s Medicare privatization plan would save money by giving people vouchers to buy private insurance. [. . .] [W]hat Ryan’s plan actually does is first privatize/vouchers Medicare, and then “save money” by arbitrarily mandating that the cost of the vouchers have to grow slower than the cost of health care. In other words, with every passing year Ryancare vouchers get smaller and smaller relative to the cost of medicine. That’s just “saving” money by buying less.

(Emphasis supplied.) I am not sure why Yglesias objects to Ryan's plan while supporting the Gruber excise tax in the Senate health bill. Both work in the same way. Both are designed to encourage savings in health care by encouraging people to buy less expensive health insurance. Or, to put it in Yglesias' words - "saving money by buying less." If Ryan limited the vouchers to say insurance plans that cost $8,500 per individual and $23,000 per family, per year, with an inflation adjustment of CPI +1%, would Yglesias agree with the plan? Why not? Wouldn't the effect be the same as the excise tax in the Senate health bill?

Speaking for me only

It takes some chutzpah for a Village blogger like Jon Cohn to insist that progressives clamor for the Senate health bill. Cohn writes:

I should probably reiterate what I've said before. Nobody--not the president and not the members of Congress--are going to move if progressives don't push for [the health bill]. That's where the real shove has to start.

Progressives have been marginalized and insulted throughout the process. Many, if not most, do not care for the Senate health bill. And now one of the people who did the marginalizing and insulting (one of the big proponents of the bill killing excise tax), insists progressives have to fight for the Senate health bill? Amazing.

More importantly, it is not going to happen. Unless someone is offering up a public option (which is not on the table of course), forget about progressives whipping for the passage of the Senate health bill. The Senate health bill is Jon Gruber's and Max Baucus' and Barack Obama's and the Villagers' baby. It is on them. You can't spend a year ridiculing, ignoring, and insulting progressives and then expect them to rally to YOUR cause.

Speaking for me only

Andrew Young has been held in contempt for not turning over the Edwards-Hunter video of a personal nature....no punishment, he gets a few more days to "purge" himself. A copy of the tape has been turned over to the FBI. Court orders here.

Charlie Sheen's Mercedes was stolen from his garage in LA and found wrecked at the bottom of a canyon. Same thing happened to a Bentley and two other luxury cars last night. Sheen quips, "It was nice to have police come to my house and for once I didn't have to leave with them." He and his wife will appear in court in Aspen Monday. Sheen will be charged and the judge will address the modification of the protective order.

The stand-off between the LAPD and the LA District Attorneys' office over the perp walk police were insisting on when Dr. Conrad Murray appears in court for the expected involuntary manslaughter charge in Michael Jackson's death is over. Conrad will get to voluntarily surrender Monday. More from the New York Times.

Howard Stern to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol? I sure hope not.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Goodbye fingerprinting, hello iris scans.

Fingerprinting a suspect is so last year. Arapahoe County [Colorado]Sheriff Grayson Robinson unveiled new technology today that will allow officials to scan an arrestee's iris and within seconds get all the pertinent information about the person.

Funding comes from a $10,000 grant from the National Sheriffs' Association. Arapahoe County is the first recipient to install the program. Why they love it: [More...]

Paul Krugman:

[B]oth houses of Congress have passed broadly similar bills. In a normally functioning Congress, the differences would be negotiated, and a deal would be struck. But thanks to the filibuster, that can’t happen: a 59-41 majority isn’t enough.

There is, however, a fairly straightforward way to get back to more or less majority rule. The Senate has to pass a reconciliation bill — a money-related bill, that doesn’t require 60 votes — that modifies its original bill, making it more acceptable to the House. [. . .] Then the House passes both bills, and sends the combo to the president’s desk. [. . .] I’m not sure what the Senate’s problem is [. . . b]ut this is what has to be done.

For those folks who really want the Senate health bill to pass, that is the reality. If it does not happen, it will be because of the Senate.

Speaking for me only

Via C-Net:

• FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited
  

• Police want backdoor to Web users' private data

• Police survey provides glimpse of Net-surveillance figures

What's this all about? A NTIA/Commerce Department meeting yesterday for the Online Safety and Technology Working Group Meeting (OSTWG). What's NTIA?

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the executive branch agency principally responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policies.

What's OSTWG? [More...]

Seton Hall Law School's Center for Policy and Research has issued a new report responding to the Defense Department's latest attempt to justify its investigation into the 2006 deaths of three detainees at Guantanamo. The full report, DOD Contradicts DOD, is available here.

The Center for Policy and Research Report shows that each of the cell block guards on duty that night gave two statements, and the first statement for each is missing. The only statements from the guards in the NCIS report were made only after those guards had been threatened with prosecution because of the contents of their previous—and now missing—statements.

[More....]

Although Seantrel Henderson's commitment to USC may be up in the air, Lane Kiffin is not stopping in the recruiting wars. He just got a verbal commit from a 13 year old.

The latest unemployment news. At this point, it is hard to figure out what it all means. Meteor Blades tries to explain it.

The Super Bowl is Sunday. The Colts are 4 1/2 point favorites (Over/Under is 56.5.). The fun betting propositions in the Super Bowl are the prop bets. For example, I like Heads in the coin toss. We'll be posting a full rundown of the game this weekend.

This is an Open Thread.