The London Conference on Yemen begins at 1800 GMT. that's 1pm ET. The UK is streaming it live here. The meeting is being chaired by UK Foreign Secretary David Milbrand and will cover three themes:

• discussions of the challenges facing Yemen, including the drivers of radicalisation and instability, and agreement that a comprehensive approach is needed to address them
• greater impetus to the political and economic reform agenda, including urgent and concrete action by the Government of Yemen; and
• improved international coordination and support towards Yemen.

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The world is awaiting today's release of the Apple Tablet and President Obama's SOTU address.

Remember John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who claimed waterboarding worked and caused the detainees to spill their guts after just seconds? Now he says he was wrong (or he made it up, take your pick.)

Dumb idea of the week: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to outsource California prisoners to Mexico -- in new prisons paid for by the U.S.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

A federal judge yesterday dismissed "Shoebomber" Richard Reid's civil lawsuit challenging the conditions of his confinement at Supermax.

(Note: This is an extremely long post because while I don't want to post all the pleadings directly, I think many people who are curious about what life is like at Supermax will be interested in reading the description contained in affidavits by BOP officials in this lawsuit.)

Back in June, I wrote about Richard Reid's lawsuit challenging SAMS's restrictions and noted the Government in a pleading stated the SAMS would not be renewed.

In December, I noted the SAMS had been lifted, Reid had been moved to general population at Supermax, but was still fighting to be able to take Arabic correspondence courses and have greater media access. Reuters has more here. [More...]

With the announcement today of the return of a Uzbek Guantanamo Bay detainee to Switzerland, the population at Gitmo is now down to 192. Of them, almost half are from Yemen, more than 40 have been cleared for release.

One of the topics expected to be addressed tomorrow at the London conference on Yemen, is the creation of a Yemeni rehab program, similar to the Saudi program, so that the Yemeni detainees can leave Guantnamo. The Telegraph reports:

A source close to the Obama administration said the Yemenis had agreed in principle to the establishment of a Reintegration and Risk Reduction Initiative, which would be internationally funded and monitored. Aimed at steering detainees back into society, it would be modeled on previous efforts in Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

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The Department of Justice today issued a "fact sheet" today, outlining some of its successes using cooperating defendants and the criminal justice system against terror suspects. I think it is in response to critics who have suggested that Mirandizing terror suspects and providing criminal trials is dangerous. Two of the current examples provided:

• David Headley, arrested in 2009 and charged in connection with a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper and his alleged role in the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, has provided extremely valuable intelligence regarding those attacks, the terrorist organization Lashkar y Tayyiba, and Pakistan-based terrorist leaders.

• Adis Medunjanin, an alleged associate of Najibullah Zazi, was taken into custody in January 2010, and, after waiving his Miranda rights, provided detailed information to the FBI about terrorist-related activities of himself and others in the United States and Pakistan. He has been charged with conspiring to kill U.S. nationals overseas and receiving military-type training from al-Qaeda.

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I like Jon Walker of FDL, but this post is bizarre.

Walker criticizes increasing taxes on the wealthy in order to modify the excise tax. Wha? That's neither smart nor progressive.

What's up with that?

Speaking for me only

In case anyone was counting on Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln to vote for the reconciliation fix to the health bill, your faith was misplaced:

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) rejected using the budget reconciliation process to pass health reform legislation on Tuesday.

Lincoln joined Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) to reject using the parliamentary maneuver bypassing the 60-vote majority needed in the Senate to bypass a filibuster in order to pass Democrats' health reform bill. “I am opposed to and will fight against any attempts to push through changes to the Senate health insurance reform legislation by using budget reconciliation tactics that would allow the Senate to pass a package of changes to our original bill with 51 votes," she said in a statement.

I would not count on Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman either. That leaves 5 Dems to spare. Who would want to wriggle out the most? Landrieu? Pryor? McCaskill? Byrd (based on his bizarre House of Lordism)? Feingold? Even if you lost all of these (which I doubt), you still have 50 votes. That gets it done.

Speaking for me only

Media Matters:

Back in 2004, the United Church of Christ (UCC) attempted to run the following advertisement during CBS' broadcast of the Super Bowl:

The attempt was thwarted however when CBS rejected the ad – apparently because of the network's policy of "prohibiting advocacy ads, even ones that carry an 'implicit' endorsement for a side in a public debate." Now, six years later, CBS is set to air an ad by the anti-choice, anti-gay, far right-wing Focus on the Family during this month’s Super Bowl broadcast.

This is a blatant double standard. CBS should run both ads. Update - CNS said today, under its new guidelines, it would air the UCC ad.

Speaking for me only

ABC reports:

Rep. Chris Van Hollen said Monday that Democrats are crafting legislation to prevent foreign owned corporations from funneling money into American political campaigns [. . .] "There's a big danger that the decision opens the door to foreign owned corporations indirectly spending millions of dollars to influence the outcome of U.S. elections through their American subsidiaries," Van Hollen, D.-Md., told ABC News. "The American people should be deeply concerned. This decision raises all sorts of questions."

Forget for a moment the difficulty of determining what corporation is "foreign-owned," would such a restriction be constitutional under Citizens United? Not given the "First Amendment protects speech, not the speaker" logic of Citizens United. Of course this contortion will not be difficult for the radical and reactionary Roberts Court, but it certainly would shoot a hole through the decision's logic, such as it is.

Speaking for me only

Matt Yglesias:

The clearest path forward for health reform is for House Democrats to (a) pass the Senate bill, and (b) pass a “sidecar” of amendments that deal with reconciliation-eligible topics, allowing House leaders to improve the bill by modifying the “cadillac” tax and replacing the Senate’s state-based exchanges with a nationwide exchange. But Carrie Budoff Brown reports that not every Senator likes this idea:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Monday that he would oppose any health care reform bill with a national insurance exchange, which he described as a dealbreaker. [. . .] If Senate Democrats still had 60 votes, this would matter a lot.

[. . .] The real point, however, is that Nelson’s views are irrelevant. The exchange set-up will either be determined by reconciliation or else nothing will be done. Either way, he doesn’t matter.

(Emphasis supplied.) They are beginning to get it. They have the best of both worlds from their perspective - a locked in Senate vote that can be amended with the agreement of only 50 Senators. Gawd forbid they get ambitious about it.

Speaking for me only

ABC:

Sen. John McCain will support President Obama's plan to freeze much of the federal budget for the next three years, but said the president must also promise to veto any bills that are stuffed with pork barrel spending items. [. . . However,] McCain said a freeze wasn't enough and that Obama should resist a $90 billion jobs stimulus bill that is making its way through Congress.

(Emphasis supplied.)This was predictable. And, let's face it, McCain's position is the more coherent. If you believe in a "spending freeze," what's the logic for spending more money for jobs? Good work, Obama political shop.

Speaking for me only

For things not related to political and policy stupidity, an Open Thread.