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. -- FDR

Paul Krugman:

So it’s time to try something different. [. . .] The point is that we need to start doing something more than, and different from, what we’re already doing. And the experience of other countries suggests that it’s time for a policy that explicitly and directly targets job creation.

The fierce urgency of now.

Speaking for me only

Audrey (Kim Raver) from "24" (last on Lipstick Jungle) joins Grey's Anatomy tonight in a recurring role. Good choice. Joel Grey is also a guest star tonight.

After temperatures in the 70's all week, we're dropping by 30 degrees tomorrow as another storm front moves in.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The military will seek the death penalty against Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood killings.

The Army's intent to seek the death penalty in the Hasan case will likely set off years of legal wrangling. No active-duty troops have been executed in nearly 50 years, and defendants in military death-penalty cases can appeal their convictions in a series of military and civilian courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even if a ruling is fully upheld, the president has to personally approve an order to carry out the execution, further slowing the process, according to Eugene R. Fidell, an expert on the military justice system at Yale Law School.

Another waste of resources. Or maybe it's just a bargaining chip to get Hasan to forego an insanity defense and plead guilty, accepting life in the brig as a sentence.

I'm not sure why the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York chose to amend the Government's forfeiture complaint after 11 months to include four mosques around the country. (Press release here.)

The complaint was filed in December, 2008, seeking to forfeit assets of the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corp., including a NY office building at 650 5th Avenue (which houses Piaget) which the Government alleges are fronts for Iran and tied to money laundering. The Government says the non-profit foundation sent money to the Iran's Bank Melli. The Treasury Dept. in March said Bank Melli is a fundraiser for Iran's nuclear program.

Today, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara issued a press release and made a big deal out of the amended complaint, which added four mosques as assets it is seeking to forfeit. More on that here. [More...]

Transform, a UK think tank and drug reform organization, released a new book today, After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation. The executive summary is here(pdf.)

As to Transform:

Transform’s vision is a world in which the War on Drugs is over, and effective and humane systems of drug regulation have been established.

Its "medium term goals":

• To explore alternatives to drug prohibition, and build trust in models of regulation
• To bring together a coalition calling on governments and the UN to count the cost of current drug policy
• To reframe the drug policy debate within a wellbeing perspective that considers the impact of policy on human rights, human security and human development

Some highlights in this BBC article. [More...]

Fernando Bermudez cried as the Judge vacated his murder conviction today, after serving 18 years in prison. There will be no retrial, his case was dismissed.

Bermudez ''has demonstrated his actual innocence,'' state Supreme Court Justice John Cataldo said. ''This court wishes to express its profound regret over the past 18 years. I hope for you a better future.''

He was not freed immediately due to a pending 27 month federal sentence on drug charges. How was he convicted? Faulty eyewitness evidence and another participant in the fight in which the victim was killed got immunity for pinning it on Bermudez. [More...]

Damned stupid imo:

Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

As Atrios says, "Good. Someone else who [cares] can run them with federal tax dollars."

Speaking for me only

Richard and Mayumi Heene, parents of "the Balloon Boy" will plead guilty in exchange for probation. Mrs. Heene will plead to a misdemeanor and Mr. Heene to a felony.

Mr. Heene's lawyer, David Lane, issued this press release explaining that a felony would have resulted in Mrs. Heene's deportation to Japan and the prosecutors required a package deal. From his statement:

Mayumi Heene is a citizen of Japan. As such, any felony conviction or certain misdemeanors would result in her deportation, even though her husband and children are Americans. Because Mayumi, while being questioned by law enforcement made certain statements which the prosecutor could use against her to possibly obtain a felony conviction and thus, her deportation by the federal government, she is avoiding that possibility with this plea. Unfortunately, the prosecutors insisted upon a package deal where Richard would have to fall on his sword and take a felony plea despite the fact that he made no incriminating statements to law enforcement and Mayumi’s statements could not be used against him.

[More...]

The Hill reports:

Senators from both parties on Tuesday put new pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to turn the power to trim entitlement benefits over to an independent commission. Seven members of the Senate Budget Committee threatened during a Tuesday hearing to withhold their support for critical legislation to raise the debt ceiling if the bill calling for the creation of a bipartisan fiscal reform commission were not attached. [. . .] The panel, which has been championed by Conrad and ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H), would be tasked with stemming the unsustainable rise in debt.

The panel would [. . .] have the power to craft legislation that would change the tax code and set limits on government spending. The legislation would then be subject to an up-or-down vote; it could not be amended.

(Emphasis supplied.) This seems plainly unconstitutional to me. This is not the creation of an agency to administer laws passed by Congress. This is a commission that would be empowered to write the laws that Congress would vote upon (and the voting rules seem problematic too. They certainly could not bind subsequent Congresses.) Makes you wonder if anyone has actually thought this one through. BTW, if it works, why not use it for health care reform?

Speaking for me only

I believe that we are at the threshold of a fundamental change in our popular economic thought, that in the future we are going to think less about the producer and more about the consumer. Do what we may have to do to inject life into our ailing economic order, we cannot make it endure for long unless we can bring about a wiser, more equitable distribution of the national income. [. . .] It is toward that objective that we must move if we are to profit by our recent experiences. [. . .] True leadership calls for the setting forth of the objectives and the rallying of public opinion in support of these objectives.

[. . .] 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. We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking!

FDR's words in 1932 ring true again today. The time for bold leadership is now.

Speaking for me only

Reuters:

Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg, formerly of Merrill Lynch, thinks the unemployment rate is going to at least 12 percent, maybe even 13 percent. Optimists, Rosenberg explains, underestimate the incredible damage done to the labor market during this downturn. And even before this downturn, the economy was not generating jobs in huge numbers. [MORE . . .]

CNN:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a provision to raise payroll taxes for the wealthy as part of a health care bill, a Democratic source told CNN. [. . .] Reid is considering an increase in the Medicare tax for individuals with income exceeding $250,000. The current Medicare deduction is 1.4 percent of income. The idea is an alternative to the Senate Finance Committee's proposal to tax so-called "Cadillac" health insurance plans that offer broad coverage at a much higher-than-average price.

The House proposal would fund health care reform through an income surtax of 5.4% on income above $500k. The House proposal is utterly superior to the rumored Reid plan, because it would apply to all income above $500K (including capital gains and dividends), not just payroll income. Clearly, Reid is trying to co-opt the Democratic Senators who make it their life's work to protect the rich (think Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln and the estate tax.) That said, Reid's proposal is eminently superior to the excise tax preferred by the Village Wonks and contained in BaucusCare.

Speaking for me only