What's going on?

This is an Open Thread.

One of the interesting (and insane, imo) developments of the primary madness last year was how people like Paul Krugman became "bad progressives" due to their skepticism about Barack Obama's political style while others, like Andrew Sullivan and Joe Klein (and many others like them) became newly treasured voices of the "Progressive" blogosphere. It amused me but also angered me. The Sully love in particular, given his history of racism, sexism and McCarthyism. While Obama himself has made the disdain visited upon Krugman and those like him as ridiculous as it always should have been, via Digby, animai provides a classic debunking of the lionization of the Sullys and Kleins of the world:

This is the summer of Joe Klein, resurgent. He's been washed in the blood of the lamb and, like Andrew "fifth column" Sullivan wishes to be welcomed back into the liberal punditin' fold. Every time he says something mildly rational about the irrationality of our current Republican opposition--"nihilists" was good--he gets an approving link from someone in the blogosphere [MORE . . .]

I woke up to no water and the Denver Water Department outside my front door. A pipe broke under my lawn and sidewalk and was leaking large amounts of water into the street. First they said I might have to call a plumber and repair it if turned out the leak was on the house side -- but then they determined it was on the city side. Next, big tractors with huge claws arrived and they tore up the concrete sidewalk and lawn and dug down to replace the broken pipe. [More...]

The President's weekly address. He discusses the "myths" of health care reform. The public option is discussed in supportive fashion. Buuut, not in a particularly committed way. Jeff Feldman has a good take.

This is an Open Thread.

We've filled the page with health care and crime news today. What else is going on?

Newspapers are about to suffer another revenue loss...movie theaters are deciding to cancel their print ads with show times.

I'm getting excited about Huffington Post launching a Denver edition next month. I had dinner last night with the new editor of the Denver edition, 22 year old Ethan Axelrod, and Katharine Zaleski, HuffPo's Senior News Editor (just a few years older than Ethan.) We had a fun night, they've got great ideas and are assembling a well-balanced and interesting group of Coloradans to contribute to the venture. Memo to Ethan's dad: He'll need a car instead of just a bicycle in a few months. We get snow and nights are really cold and I'll bet he'll be working late on many of them. [More...]

Someone touted me to this article in The Atlantic about how we should be revising our health care system.

I disagree with almost every idea in it. Not surprisingly, a businessman wrote it. Everyone knows health insurance companies are a large part of our health care problem. But the writer's suggestions are far worse in my view.

Some of the worst of his proposals: Everybody pays for their own medical care personally -- no insurance except for catastrophic things, which would limited to events costing over $50k. How would people pay for their expenses up to that amount? They should use their savings or put it on a credit card. Unless they are dirt poor, and then the government would pay for all of it directly. Everyone would be required to have a Health Savings Account and contribute to it. What about Medicare? Abolish it of course, and let the elderly stop getting so many tests and procedures and pay for their own end of life care. What if they can't afford it? Whip out that credit card. [More...]

Daily Kos' poll demonstrated it and so does the Washington Post poll, as reported by Greg Sargent:

A major factor in President Obama’s slide in today’s big Washington Post/ABC News poll, which is preoccupying the political classes today, is his surprisingly sharp drops among Democrats and even liberals, according to crosstabs that were sent my way. Much talk today has focused on Obama’s difficulties with independents. But the drop among Dems and liberals is also a key driving factor in the President’s skid, according to WaPo polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta, who graciously provided the additional data.

Ahh, the windfalls of the Post Partisan Unity Schtick. See Digby, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Yglesias, AmericaBlog and Steve Benen for more.

Speaking for me only

Nate Silver:

[I]f the only two choices were to pass a bill with a public option and nothing at all, and everyone knew these were the only two choices, I believe at least some Blue Dogs would cave and the bill would stand a decent shot at passing. . . . The reason that I wrote earlier this week that a bill with a public option was "probably" dead is because I've long believed that leadership from the White House might make the difference between a bill with a public option just barely passing and it just barely failing to do so. . . . [T]he situation could also be a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: the public option might have passed, if only the White House had been willing to agitate for it -- but since they weren't willing to do so, it couldn't . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Maybe Ezra and Co. will pick up on this.

Speaking for me only

Matt Yglesias writes:

Since late July, it’s been clear that the strategy for killing health care reform is to delay it first. And it’s clear that killing health care reform is the top priority of the Republican Party leadership. And Max Baucus has been working hand-in-glove with GOP leaders throughout the process to join them in their delaying tactics, even while presenting himself as the man leading the charge for reform. It’s odd. And it’s continuing[.]

The funny thing is whatever Baucus presents is DOA anyway. Olympia Snowe has insisted, in the most stubborn, extreme and instransigent manner, that it be so, because she demands no public option. Since the Baucus plan will not have a public option, it is DOA with the House, where Speaker Pelosi has said no public option mean no bill. So why doesn't Baucus just let Snowe write his bill, Senate Leader Reid can throw it in the waste can and bring forth a different bill for vote in the Senate, go to conference with the House and formulate a bill (or bills) that can actually be enacted. Why wait for Godot?

Speaking for me only

U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina last month ordered the Government to provide Guantanamo inmate and habeas petitioner Abdul Raheem Ghulam Rabbani, who allegedly worked for accused 911 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with some of the discovery he requested about his interrogation in overseas prisons.

Judge Urbina also ruled that Rabbani can submit written questions to KSM. The declassified and redacted opinion has now been released. It's a long opinion, here are some of the more notable parts:[More...]

The hearing of Texas Judge Sharon Keller on ethical violations stemming from her refusal to allow the courthouse to remain open to accept a last-minute stay pleading for a death row inmate wrapped up yesterday. The New York Times calls her unfit for the bench and says she should resign:

We believe the death penalty is in all cases wrong. But people who support it should still insist that it be carried out only after a prisoner has been given every reasonable chance to make his case. Judge Keller’s callous indifference in a case where the stakes could not have been higher makes her unfit for office.

[More...]

Krugman writes:

[P]rogressives are now in revolt. Mr. Obama took their trust for granted, and in the process lost it. And now he needs to win it back.

That may be, but I am against the idea of trusting any politician, including Obama, Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi and Anthony Weiner. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Speaking for me only