As Najibullah Zazi was at the F.B.I. office in Denver with his lawyer voluntarily providing statements, handwriting samples and DNA, FBI agents were en route to search his residence. So why is Zazi talking to the feds? (Note: Update here.)

Zazi's lawyer says he called the FBI and offered to bring him down for an interview. The FBI called back and accepted. The local media sounds thrilled the lawyer for the suspect is "video-genic." I'll bet the F.B.I. is too. While Zazi was sitting in their office with his lawyer, volunteering handwriting exemplars and providing fingerprints and a saliva sample (and information about his travel history), they were searching his apartment (and his aunt's and uncle's nearby.) [More...]

Last August I wrote about the insane Bush Administration decision to announce a missile defense shield in Poland WHILE the Caucasus crisis was at its height. If we can say nothing else about the Obama Administration, we can applaud its sanity on foreign affairs (knowing that most of you disagree with the President, and me, on his Afghanistan policy.) The Obama Administration is scrapping the missile defense system based in Poland:

The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday that it will scrap former President George W. Bush’s planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe and instead deploy a reconfigured system aimed more at intercepting shorter-range Iranian missiles, according to people familiar with the plans. President Obama decided not to deploy a sophisticated radar system in the Czech Republic or 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland, as Mr. Bush had planned. Instead, the new system his administration is developing would deploy smaller SM-3 missiles at first aboard ships and later probably either in southern Europe or Turkey, according to those familiar with the plans.

Now, many of you will see the new plan as an unnecessary provocation of Iran. And perhaps it is. But surely no one can equate Russia and Iran at this point in history, can they? Well, I can't at least.

Speaking for me only

Susan Boyle is on America's Got Talent doing a killer version of the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses. I'll add the video when it's up.

The winner to be announced in a few minutes will be either Barbara Padilla or Kevin Skinner. This is an easy one, it will be Barbara Padilla Kevin Skinner. (I definitely got that one wrong.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Mary Travers, 72, of Peter, Paul and Mary, passed away today.

Via John Aravosis, The Hill reports:

Are Democrats dialling down expectations on what can be acheived under the banner of healthcare reform this year? Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) seems to be concerned they are. Rockefeller emerged from the Senate Democrats' weekly luncheon Tuesday afternoon, which featured an appearance by President Barack Obama's communications guru David Axelrod, wondering aloud (perhaps rhetorically) whether the White House's get-it-done message to Congress wasn't bold enough.

"David’s in there -- Axelrod -- saying we’ve got to try to get ‘something.’ So, the new benchmark is, ‘Well, if we can do something, if we can do anything, then we can say we did healthcare reform,’" Rockefeller said.

If that's true, that would provide the answer regarding the efficacy of Obama's Theory of Change. It would be, in the words of Dick Gephardt, a miserable failure.

Speaking for me only

Kent Conrad loves the CBO (see Ezra's bouquets to Conrad.) So I wonder what he says about this (PDF) (via dkos diarist tax problems):

The proposed co-ops had very little effect on the estimates of total enrollment in the exchanges or federal costs because, as they are described in the specifications, they seem unlikely to establish a significant market presence in many areas of the country or to noticeably affect federal subsidy payments.

So Conrad's Co-ops do nothing. By design one suspects. See also Sen. Rockefeller's letter to Baucus and Conrad pointing out that Conrad's Co-ops are a sham.

Speaking for me only

Ryan Grim at HuffPo:

[Sen. Jay] Rockefeller (D-W.V.) said he has company in his reservations in the Senate. "A lot of them have come up to me and thanked me because I said what they're thinking. And because I sit next to Baucus and am senior, my saying it, I think, was good leverage and helpful and made it easier on people," Rockefeller told the Huffington Post.

And from our old friend Roland Burris -- "If there is no public option in the bill that hits the floor, said Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.), he'll vote against it. "I will oppose any bill that does not have a public option," Burris told the Huffington Post. Sen. Russ Feingold called BaucusCare "health care reform in name only."

With what's going on on health care reform, we need a feel good moment:

Thanks to Steve M., here is the video.

Awwww. All of us dads with daughters wish our little girls would throw back some boys that way . . .

Update - So Major League Baseball decided they OWN these images of fans (not players) and decided it was a good idea to have the You Tube pulled down. What a bunch of idiots. Hopefully, their phone lines will fill up with protests. Jerks.

Speaking for me only

Brian Beutler quotes HCAN's pan of BaucusCare:

"The Baucus bill is a gift to the insurance industry that fails to meet the most basic promise of health care reform: a guarantee that Americans will have good health care that they can afford," says HCAN's campaign director Richard Kirsch.

The Baucus bill would give a government-subsidized monopoly to the private insurance industry to sell their most profitable plans - high-deductible insurance - without having to face competition from a public health insurer. [. . .] We urge Senators on the Finance Committee to replace the Baucus plan with legislation that will do what the Senate HELP Committee and three House committees have done: guarantee that Americans have good health insurance that they can afford with the choice of a strong national public health insurance option.

Consider HCAN the anti-Ezra.

Speaking for me only

I've missed a lot of news yesterday and today while trying to meet a deadline for filing briefs. Now I'm off to the jail to share them with my clients. Here's what I would have blogged about if I had been online:

• A Botched Execution in Ohio Results in Delay
  

• House Introduces Legislation to Repeal DOMA . Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette released this statement.

• Obama Seeks to Deny Bagram Prisoners Access to Courts

• Obama Administration Open to Patriot Act Reform
  

[More...]

On what has become the signature issue of the first year of his Presidency, health care reform, What Obama Really Meant with his theory of change will likely be answered. From my December 2007 post, E.J. Dionne:

Clinton[] claims that her experience readies her for the coming battles for change that all Democrats devoutly wish to wage. . . . The Edwards campaign is . . . appealing to the many Democrats who are in a fighting mood.

But Obama is running as the candidate who can transcend these fights. . . . Clearly but obliquely referring to Edwards, Obama preached that anger won't cut it, either. "There's no shortage of anger and bluster and bitter partisanship out there," he said. "We can change the electoral math that's been all about division and make it about addition."

(Emphasis supplied.) What about the policy math Mr. President? The Fix writes:

Ezra focuses on the exchange provision:

Color me impressed. I've argued before that the Health Insurance Exchanges are the most important piece of health-care reform, and they're being unacceptably weakened and constrained. The House bill, for instance, specifically allows businesses with only 20 or fewer people to join.

[. . . BaucusCare call for that], by 2022, the Health Insurance Exchanges will be open to all businesses of all sizes. That's a huge deal. And the first place where I've seen the Baucus bill go substantially further than the other bills.

Color me unimpressed. Ezra's argument for thinking exchanges are the biggest thing: