The Obama administration and America's Asian allies are preparing for a possible regime change in North Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday.

[snip]

"If there is a succession -- even if it is a peaceful succession -- you know, that creates more uncertainty," Clinton said. "It also may encourage behaviors that are even more provocative, as a way to consolidate power within the society. So we will spend a lot of time -- I will -- trying to determine from the South Koreans and the Chinese what their information is, because obviously they have a lot of sources they can share with us."

FOX

80k a year, kids in private school, two-family house recently renovated, and crying poverty.  Unreal.  Here's a clue guy...put the kids in public school and cut up the credit cards...for starters, then report back.

What the hell is going on around here?  I was taught that you do everything within your power to help yourself first, and if that fails you loof to others for help...this guy doesn't even appear to be trying.

If you know a little bit about it, it's rivetingly presented, but not a whole lot of new info.  But on the program Web site, as is usual with Frontline, there's a whole lot of additional fascinating material, including transcripts of the extended interviews with the major talking heads in the film, everybody from Paul Krugman to Sheila Bair to "Ace" Greenberg, and Adam Davidson from NPR's "Planet Money" and a bunch of other economists, reporters and banking types.

If you missed the program, you can watch it on line at the site, and there should be a transcript up soon, as well.

The site map is here.

"When we met with Roland Burris in January, we made it clear that in order for him to be seated in the U.S. Senate he needed to meet two requirements - first, that he submit the proper paperwork certifying his appointment, and second, that he appear before the General Assembly's Impeachment Committee to testify openly, honestly and completely about the nature of his relationship with the former governor, his associates and the circumstances surrounding this appointment."

"We asked him to testify in the impeachment proceedings, not to embarrass Roland Burris, but to give him an opportunity to clear the air regarding this appointment from a tainted governor. Our hope was that he would use that opportunity to assure the people of Illinois and the other members of the United States Senate that he was not involved in any wrongdoing."

"Now the accuracy and completeness of his testimony and affidavits have been called into serious question. Every day there are more and more revelations about contacts with Blagojevich advisors, efforts at fundraising and omissions from his list of lobbying clients. This was not the full disclosure under oath that we asked for."

"These news reports and the public statements by Roland Burris himself are troubling and raise serious questions which need to be looked at very carefully."

"The State's Attorney in Sangamon County is reviewing the affidavit and other materials associated with Senator Burris' testimony to see if criminal charges are warranted and the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee has begun a preliminary investigation into this matter."

"This is the appropriate course of action and I await the outcome of those investigations. The people of Illinois deserve nothing less."

The legislation would have the effect of banning abortion in North Dakota.

Representatives approved the measure 51-41. It now goes to the North Dakota Senate.

The measure says North Dakota law and the state constitution should consider anything with a single human cell as a human being, with the rights that a human being has.

Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday installed as his chief operating officer an appointee of ousted predecessor Rod Blagojevich who also has close ties to convicted fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

The decision to name longtime friend Jack Lavin as one of his top aides raised eyebrows with some who said it might send a message of politics as usual in Illinois.

"Certainly he comes with some baggage that we have to be very sensitive about at this moment in our state's history, but personally I want to work with everyone right now to make sure we get through the very serious problems we're facing," said Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont. "I can only hope the governor has fully vetted his association and knows full well that they won't in any way, shape or form interfere."

Lavin served as Blagojevich's director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity after Rezko recommended Lavin for the post. Lavin once worked as the chief financial officer for Rezko's food-related business and took more than $12,000 in donations from Rezko's firm while toying with a run for elected office in 2001.

Quinn spokesman would not comment on Lavin's ties to Blagojevich and Rezko, but said the governor has "the utmost confidence in him."

Lavin worked with Quinn after Quinn won the state treasurer's position in 1990. His new duties include overseeing the distribution of federal stimulus dollars.

When Beltway insider Jack Valenti died two years ago at age 85, he was playing the role of intermediary between Washington and Hollywood as the theatrical, snowy-haired president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

But back in 1964, Valenti was a Houston ad executive newly installed at the White House as a top aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson. And J. Edgar Hoover's FBI found itself quietly consumed with the vexing question of whether Valenti was gay.

Previously confidential FBI files show that Hoover's deputies set out to determine whether Valenti, who had married two years earlier, maintained a relationship with a male commercial photographer. Republican Party operatives reportedly were pursuing a parallel investigation with the help of a retired FBI agent, bureau files show. No proof was ever found, but the files, obtained by The Washington Post under the federal Freedom of Information Act, provide further insight into the conduct of the FBI under Hoover, for whom damaging personal information on the powerful was a useful tool in his interactions with presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard M. Nixon

Ironic, since Hoover was very insecure about his own se_xualtiy.

But here's some interesting info:

Even Bill Moyers, a White House aide now best known as a liberal television commentator, is described in the records as seeking information on the sexual preferences of White House staff members. Moyers said by e-mail yesterday that his memory is unclear after so many years but that he may have been simply looking for details of allegations first brought to the president by Hoover.

There seems to be a ton of anger among ordinary people, and also on Wall Street, about Obama's housing bill.  Maybe it's a function of homeowners being last on the list after the bailout of AIG and Fannie & Freddie, the two TARPs to aid other financial institutions that contributed to the conditions for the blow-up, and the auto industry assistance.

On one level, some people do seem to understand that these institutions need to be stabilized if the economy is going to stop the free-fall, and that the mortgage/foreclosure crisis is a piece of that, but on another level, it's really hard for people who didn't go to that party - the one with no documentation loans, and 0% down, and a chance to treat one's home like an unlimited bank account - not to feel some anger and resentment at the gargantuan amount of assistance being given to people and institutions that made irresponsible and bad decisions.

More banks will quietly fail today; I don't think there has been a Friday in weeks that one or more banks have not been taken over by our friends in the government.

Most banks no longer hold the loans they make, content to collect interest until the debt comes due. Instead, the loans are bundled into securities that are sold to investors, a process known as securitization.

But the securitization markets broke down last summer after investors suffered steep losses on these investments. So banks and other finance companies can no longer shift loans off their books easily, throttling their ability to lend.

The result has been a drastic contraction of the amount of credit available throughout the economy. By one estimate, as much as $1.9 trillion of lending capacity -- the rough equivalent of half of all the money borrowed by businesses and consumers in 2007, before the recession struck -- has been sucked out of the system.

Banking chiefs, who have come under sharp criticism for not making more loans even as they have accepted billions of taxpayer dollars to prop themselves up, say it is the markets, not the banks, that are squeezing American borrowers.

The Obama administration hopes to jump-start this crucial machinery by effectively subsidizing the profits of big private investment firms in the bond markets. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve plan to spend as much as $1 trillion to provide low-cost loans and guarantees to hedge funds and private equity firms that buy securities backed by consumer and business loans.

The Fed is expected to start the first phase of the program, which will provide $200 billion in loans to investors, in early March.