Here's an excerpt:

As Obama entered office a year ago, one of the biggest questions on the minds of political observers was how this massive grass-roots force might help Obama shake up Washington. Expectations were high, not least because of Obama's own campaign rhetoric. "The more we can enlist the American people to pay attention and be involved, that's the only way we are going move an agenda forward," he told audiences on the trail. "That's how we are going to counteract the special interests." On Jan. 17, 2008, when Obama announced the formation of Organizing for America (OFA) as the successor organization to his campaign, he told would-be supporters, "The movement you've built is too important to stop growing now." He promised that "volunteers, grass-roots leaders and ordinary citizens will continue to drive our organization, helping us bring about the changes we proposed during the campaign." More than half a million people watched the YouTube video of Obama's OFA announcement within just a few days.

Well, those heady days of hope, change and activism are long gone. The (useful) myth of Obama's grass-roots philosophy collided with the reality of his embrace of Wall Street and the political establishment. The Obama movement days are over, perhaps never to return. If you doubt this, just ask yourself: How did a campaign supposedly powered by small donors and "super-volunteer" activists produce an administration whose economic chieftains come straight from the belly of big finance? How was it that the day after the election Wall Street was calling the shots on the most critical decisions of the nascent administration, while no one had a plan for keeping the grass-roots movement going?

The conclusion:

Unfortunately, after running the most brilliantly organized insurgent campaign in recent political history, Obama and crew have chosen to play an inside game in Washington and put their outside force in a carefully crafted holding pen, imagining they can turn the grass-roots juice on again in 2010, like flipping a switch. But now that they need it, heading into the tough headwinds of 10 percent unemployment and a frustrated electorate, the authentic movement is gone. Too late, Obama will learn the most basic lesson of grass-roots organizing: You can't order volunteers to do anything -- you have to motivate them, and Obama's compromises to the powers that be have been tremendously demotivating. It's a shame. A movement is a terrible thing to waste.

Furthermore he says, "I want to be clear: it wasn't even that we thought Obama's foreign policy agenda would lead to these outcomes. We were certain that his cosmopolitan style alone would do the trick."

Now I'm not at all surprised at this revelation -- it was obvious that many Obama supporters, in and out of the media, expected magical things from Obama based on who he was rather than what he had previously done and achieved. But I am shocked that Chiat could admit something like this and still presume that he and his crowd should be taken seriously as observers and "analysts" of the political life of the nation.

It gets better and better.

The deal would temporarily exempt union health plans from a significant surtax on unusually generous health policies plans, giving union leaders time to negotiate new contracts, according to sources familiar with the talks. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid affecting ongoing negotiations. Additional details of the deal were not immediately available.

Steve Brusk of CNN tweets this:

Under tent. deal, health care policies for state, local workers, ones negotiated by labor unions would not be taxed until 2017.
.......

about 1 hour ago from web Still fluid, but involves raising the threshold for tax on insurance plans above Senate bill (tax on plans costing $23,000+ for families.)
about 1 hour ago from web

Stupid criminals 2

Stupid criminals 3

Stupid Criminals 4

And, my favorite:

A bride who stole nearly half a million pounds to fund her dream wedding has been jailed for two years.

Joanne Kent, 26, hired every room in a cliff-top hotel, laid on a fireworks display, splashed on flowers and even bought Armani bracelets for guests.

The mother-of-two spent the money on the lavish ceremony in Newquay, Cornwall, in September 2007 while tying the knot to fiance David.

Kent pilfered £470,000 from her former employers Wilson UK Ltd, a Walsall subsidiary of an American company supplying the oil industry, before leaving the firm two months before her wedding.

Guests were treated to a night at the Hotel Victoria funded by the bride, unaware that the champagne they were quaffing had been funded by the firm.

Kent, originally from Cannock, Staffordhsire, who now lives in Fraddon, Cornwall, even blew more than £50,000 on cars, paying for an Audi A4 and a £38,000 Mazda.

The court heard she transferred cash to her bank accounts after disguising the money as payments to other firms.

Prosecutor Mark Phillips said she worked the scam by paying money out of the firm to existing clients, but changing the bank details so it went to her.

...

He said: 'Mrs Kent accepts that she spent £50,000 on her wedding, the hotel bill alone was over £37,000, without the flowers, cards, or fireworks on the beach.

'She also admits bracelets were given as gifts to guests. With the money she also bought a Mazda worth £38,000 and an Audi A4. Some of the cash was also spent on mortgages on properties.

'Using dormant companies she would put in her own bank details so the records showed existing creditors as paid when it was her and nothing would be thought of it.

'The financial manager acted after she saw a discrepancy in a £22,000 payment. It was to a U.S. company who should have been paid in dollars and not in pounds sterling.

'But for this discrepancy it is very unlikely that Mrs Kent would ever been caught

The tightened security comes after U.S. officials said new intelligence data suggested that the al-Qaida offshoot in the Arabian country of Yemen was planning another attack on the United States. A British-based Nigerian man affiliated with the group is believed to have been responsible for the aborted attempt to bomb a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.

The new intelligence was first reported Wednesday by NBC News, which quoted three U.S. officials as saying the intelligence was considered credible. The officials would not describe the information or say whether it indicated a specific target or date.

"No one believes al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has stopped planning for attacks on the United States," one of the officials said. "No one believes that the events of December 25 are the last we will see of these guys."