Happy Fourth

From 1976, a trippy tribute to the Bicentennial to help kick off the Fourth of July weekend. Happy Hot Dog Day!

You Won't Have Sarah Palin To Kick Around Anymore

While some are saying or, rather, desperately hoping-that Sarah Palin's bombshell means that she can now move on to bigger and better things, others aren't so sure. Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus has rounded up some other ideas as to the method behind her apparent madness.

Whatever her reasons, her chances for a Nixon-style comeback seem slim to none. I also have to wonder what she now thinks of John McCain. It can't be very pleasant.

Who Wants To Be A True Believer?

Frankly, I'm surprised American fundamentalists haven't come up with something like this:

What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?

Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers.

The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists.

But religious authorities in Muslim but secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality game show format and the Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to provide an imam for the show.

'Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs,' High Board of Religious Affairs Chairman Hamza Aktan told state news agency Anatolian after news of the planned program emerged.

The makers of 'Penitents Compete' are unrepentant and reject claims that the show, scheduled to begin broadcasting in September, will cheapen religion.

'We are giving the biggest prize in the world, the gift of belief in God,' Kanal T chief executive Seyhan Soylu told Reuters.

'We don't approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn't matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe,' Soylu said.

Well, with all due respect, in a secular society people also have the right not to believe. At any rate, Bhuddists don't believe in the Christian/Muslim/Jewish concept of a God. How about just letting people make up their own minds?

Steppin' Down

So there it is. Does this mean the end of her presidential ambitions, or not?

Personally, I have to say I do feel a little sorry for her. But she was in way over her head, she wasn't ready to take over on day one if anything had happened to McCain, and outside of an increasingly shrinking GOP base no one really took her seriously. Maybe she has a future somewhere, but it won't be in the White House, you betcha.

Wither The Bloggers?

Is this blogging thing becoming passe?

It's a lot harder to make it big in the blogosphere, while the old A-listers are burning out. Blogging more than a thousand words a day, every day, is mentally exhausting, and if you aren't getting paid for it, eventually, your life intrudes.

Back in the day, new bloggers were emerging all the time. Now it's happening much more slowly, and the old bloggers have gravitated to various professional positions. Is the new media revolution over?

It seems that the old stalwarts who are hanging in there are adjusting to the fact that they aren't the revolutionaries they once thought they were, but rather complimenting Big Media instead of replacing it. So, I don't think it was a fad, but for some it does seem to be more of an accesory these days than a necessity.

Dude, Where's My Recovery?

It's a good question:

American wages are up just 2.7% a year, and it is a lot harder for workers to borrow money to maintain their spending. The boost from lower gasoline prices (seen in the winter) is disappearing and consumers seem to be saving, not spending, their tax breaks. David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff points out that same store sales are down 4.4% year-on-year, a bigger decline than that seen in May. If consumers are not spending, why would business invest? We have seen some kind of a rebound, after inventories were slashed in late 2008, but will it last?

Maybe the economy will be in a turnaround later this year...or early the next. If it takes that long, it won't be good news for the Democrats going into the 2010 elections. But the reporting of the "Recovery" is less than inspiring:

The actual news has gotten worse, but the coverage of it has changed in tone. Today, reporters are eagerly looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. A year ago, and for a long time before that, they couldn’t wait to get into the tunnel.

Well, the rest of us are in that tunnel with them, and so far all I see is the other guy's tailights in front of me.

Workers Not Wanted

Are government policies scaring employers away from hiring people?

They are paralyzed by regulatory uncertainty. If they hire someone who ends up doing poorly, will they be able to fire that person? Will they have to pay their health care bills after they’ve been terminated? If so, for how long? Who will pay for all these stimulus checks? If it will turn out to be small business, why would they hire instead of keeping costs low to prepare for the big tax bill? Where will the market move? Are you in the right business or are your clients in a politically disfavored industry? . . . Jobs aren’t languishing despite the government’s best efforts. They’re languishing because of them.

And yet, there are still people out there who think this is the way things ought to be done.

The Einstein Interception

Well, here we go again. The more things change:

The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials.

President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve 'monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic' and Department of Homeland Security officials say that the new program will only scrutinize data going to or from government systems.

But the program has provoked debate within DHS, the current and former officials said, because of uncertainty over whether private data can be shielded from unauthorized scrutiny, how much of a role NSA should play and whether the agency's involvement in warrantless wiretapping under the Bush administration would draw controversy.

'We absolutely intend to use the technical resources, the substantial ones, that NSA has. But . . . they will be guided, led, and in a sense directed by the people we have at the Department of Homeland Security,' the department's secretary, Janet Napolitano, told reporters in a discussion of cybersecurity efforts.

Is this really the kind of "Protection" we want? And can we really trust a government that says it won't do what the technology will allow it to do?

The Puppetmasters

How worrisome is the Obama administration's penchant for scripted press conferences? Even Helen Thomas is upset about it:

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.

“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.

“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”

Whatever you might think of her politics, she deserves credit for trying to keep it real. Here's the video of her (and Chip Reid's) exchange with Robert Gibbs:

Ants Marching

I for one welcome our new overlords.

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.

Planet of the Ants? If they ever develop sentience we're so screwed...

This White House For Sale

Whoops:

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive 'salon' at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to 'those powerful few' — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.'

With the Post newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the solicitation, Weymouth said in an email to the staff that 'a flier went out that was prepared by the Marketing department and was never vetted by me or by the newsroom. Had it been, the flier would have been immediately killed, because it completely misrepresented what we were trying to do.'

Well, why would anyone think that? Just because it gave the impression that White House access could go to the highest bidder?

The Jacko Squad

It looks like everyone's looking for someone to blame these days:

The investigation of Michael Jackson's death is widening as questions intensify about the drugs he took, the doctors who provided them and the actions of police.

Why didn't police seal the mansion where he had been living? Why didn't they get immediate search warrants? Why did they tow away a doctor's car right after the death but not declare the home a crime scene? And why was Jackson's sister Janet allowed to move possessions out of the mansion two days after the death, before police searched it?

Los Angeles police say proper procedures were followed based on the circumstances officers encountered when they were called to the home at 12:21 p.m. on June 25. A doctor was attending to Jackson and stayed with him when he was placed in an ambulance at 1:07 p.m. There was no sign of foul play.

The LAPD may have its faults, but this seems to be stretching things a bit. They weren't psychic, and if there was no foul play, then why declare it a crime scene? Ultimately, Jacko was responsible for his own actions.

The Huggable President

Emotional investment-or just a good pitchman?

President Barack Obama wanted to put a human face on his plans to overhaul health care, and a Virginia supporter did just that Wednesday. Fighting back tears, Debby Smith, 53, told Obama of her kidney cancer and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job.

The president hugged her - she's a volunteer for his political operation - and called her 'exhibit A' in an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans.

'We are going to try to find ways to help you immediately,' he told Smith as hundreds looked on at a community college forum - and countless others watched on television. But the nation's long-term needs require a greater emphasis on preventive care and 'cost-effective care,' he said.

Now, I don't havea problem with a president who gets a little emotional with the people. Bill Clinton was very good at this and so, in his own way, was Bush. But they actually got things done, whatever you might think of them. When it comes to getting an actual accomplishment from this administration, I think I'd rather have Mr. Cool than Mr. Cry.

Bachman Conspiracy Overdrive

How bad is the census "Protest" for Michele Bachmann? Even other wingnut Republicans are telling her to knock it off:

Three House Republicans on the subcommittee overseeing the 2010 Census are asking Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to reverse her decision to boycott the national population count, fearing others will follow her lead.

“Boycotting the constitutionally mandated Census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.) and John Mica (Fla.), members of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Achieves, said in a statement Wednesday.

They have their own ways of making themselves look like nutjobs. They don't need help from the real thing.

The Win That Isn't?

So, has Al Franken's win finally given Obama his long-awaited majority? Maybe not.

Though technically Democrats have now reached the magic number of 60 senators, it's worth remembering that for practical purposes, the majority may have just 58. Edward Kennedy is still receiving cancer treatments in Massachusetts, and Robert Byrd is now home from the hospital but with no timeframe for returning to the Senate. When the major procedural votes happen on health care and other issues, will either of those aging legends be able to get to the Senate floor? The question may sound indelicate, but as David Espo writes, 'Neither man has been in the Capitol for weeks, and it is not known when, or even whether, they will return.'

Second, even if Democrats do have 60 votes, there's no guarantee of unanimity, as the ongoing intraparty disputes over health care illustrate. Just as Franken gives Democrats another vote, Bernie Sanders tells Ezra Klein he's establishing the 'Coalition of the Unwilling,' meaning that he is unwilling to go along with Max Baucus' strategy of trying craft a compromise that will attract Republican votes. Beyond health care, unions are also touting Franken's win as another step toward passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, or 'card check' bill. But that measure isn't at the finish line yet either, with multiple Democrats still opposed or at least hedging on it. Climate change is also a long ways from consensus in the chamber.

Why wait for a Republican win in 2010? The way things are going, we could have a divided government long before then.

Why McCain-Feingold Deserves To Die

Because Maverick and Goose, er, Russ, are using it as an excuse to pull stunts like this:

In a surprising move that invokes memories of a bitter skirmish during Obama’s annihilation of McCain in last year’s presidential election, Feingold (D-Wis.) and McCain (R-Ariz.) have placed a hold on the FEC nomination of Democratic labor lawyer John Sullivan, POLITICO confirmed Tuesday. Their hold could reverberate in Congress, the White House, the 2010 midterm elections and beyond.

In a statement issued in response to POLITICO’s inquiries, the lawmakers signaled they would release the hold only if Obama taps two additional nominees to fill expired seats on the six-member independent panel, which critics contend is systematically deregulating campaign rules.

“The FEC is currently mired in anti-enforcement gridlock,” read the joint statement from Feingold and McCain, whose names became synonymous with efforts to limit the role of special interest cash in politics when they teamed to shepherd into law the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, better known as McCain-Feingold. “The president must nominate new commissioners with a demonstrated commitment to the existence and enforcement of the campaign finance laws.”

I'm sorry, but this is one campaign pledge that I hope Obama does break. As Bradley Smith comments:

This move by Sens. McCain and Feingold is congressional meddling with the independence of the FEC at its worst. Demanding the President appoint FEC commissioners who will toe your pro-regulatory line despite clear Supreme Court precedent isn't 'reform,' it's the last gasp in an effort to defend failed government speech controls on Americans' First Amendment rights.

Essentially, McCain seems to be throwing a hissy fit that his pet cause is being ignored by Obama. For the sake of free speech, I hope Obama keeps on ignoring him.

Bum Steer

Yet more proof that you can get a government grant for just about anything these days:

A CHEEKY artist has been given a £20,000 National Lottery grant - to look at girls' bums.

Sue Williams was given the cash to 'explore cultural attitudes towards female buttocks'.
She will create plaster cast moulds of women's behinds to try to understand their place in contemporary culture.

Swansea-based Mrs Williams, 53, will also examine different racial attitudes towards bums in Europe and Africa. She said: 'The project is taking on the issues around the bottom.'

I wonder if she needs some hands-on assistance...

Buyer's Remorse

Is the era of "Hope and Change" ending?

Most major demographic and attitudinal subgroups show at least a slight uptick since 2008 in perceptions that the Democratic Party is too liberal. The increasing perception of the Democrats as too far left comes as President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have expanded the government's role in the economy to address the economic problems facing the country. Additionally, the government is working toward major healthcare reform legislation and strengthening environmental regulations.
....

The Democratic Party continues to hold the upper hand over the Republican Party in the current U.S. political environment by a variety of measures, including party identification and party favorable ratings. However, compared to last year, Americans are significantly more likely to see the Democratic Party as too liberal, and as a result, they are somewhat more likely to view the party as being too far left than to perceive the Republican Party as too far right. That may expose a bit of a vulnerability for the Democratic Party, and if perceptions of the Democratic Party as being too liberal continue to grow, the GOP may be able to win back some of the support it has lost in recent years.

Of course the question, as the article notes, is whether they can, given their recent track record. But this does give them something to work with.

Stimulus? No Thanks

So how much of the stimulus money that was given out has actually been spent so far? Not much, apparently:

The idea behind the government's economic stimulus package was to get money flowing through the system, boost economic activity and create jobs. But an msnbc.com review of the latest federal spending data shows that the money is flowing at a trickle.....

As of mid-June, for example, spending by the Transportation Deptartment for so-called 'shovel ready' projects represented barely 2 percent of available funds. The EPA has barely touched its $4.4 billion in stimulus spending. Same for the Defense Department.

According to our calculations, roughly $53 billion or one-third of the $150 billion in fiscal stimulus money available for this year has been spent as of June 19. As a percentage of the $479 billion in total stimulus funds, that represents only 11.1 percent.

Too much, too soon? I guess it's a good thing that the money will still be there when they really, really need it, whenever that may be...

Down And Out

It doesn't matter how you slice it-Norm Coleman got beat.

The Republican Party put an inordinate amount of faith in Norm Coleman’s long-shot legal challenge, spending a million bucks on the idea that he’d catch a break in court.

But like dominoes, each Coleman legal challenge failed, one after another, ruling after ruling, until the final, decisive blow Tuesday when the Minnesota Supreme Court picked apart Coleman’s arguments and awarded Democrat Al Franken the Senate seat.

Even though national Republicans talked a big game about taking this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Coleman had two key reasons to give up: he was running out of money and the state high court decisively rejected his constitutional arguments – undermining any case he might have made in federal court.

I wonder if the fact that Norm was pulling an Al Gore for the last several months and that he simply had fewer votes also had something to do with it?

The Recession Is Teh Gay

So who or what is responsible for our economic woes? According to this person, it's them durn queers. As her "Procolomation" explains:

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion,
pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and
many other forms of debauchery; and
WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking
the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and
WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused
to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of
Prayer; and
WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States
disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to
an immoral behavior;

Ah, the old immoral society card. I was wondering how long it would take for them to get around to using it instead of coming up with, you know, actual solutions. Never mind the fact that this mess began under Bush, whom the Sally Kerns of the world thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Of course, Obama's policies haven't helped. But it shows how intellectually vacant these people are when this is the wingnuttery they come up with in response.

Lessons From The New Deal

From the 1930's comes a reminder of why socialism simply doesn't work in real life:

[New Deal officials] constructed a town for 200 garment-worker families (selected from a pool of about 800 applicants). Each family paid $500 - about a year's rent in New York—to become a member of the cooperative.

Proponents included Albert Einstein; detractors included William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal, which called the project 'Boondoggle Manor.'

Almost immediately, [resident] Ticktin says, 'the dream collided with reality.'

There were many problems, including opposition by the New York-based garment workers union and a recession in 1937.

Above all, photographer and local resident Edwin Rosskam observed in a 1972 memoir that the workers were inexperienced in managing a factory in such a cutthroat industry and more concerned about their own wages and working conditions than the factory's success.

Each worker thought he knew best, Rosskam wrote, and 'idealist cooperators were few. You didn't think people would strike against themselves. But they did.'

The farm was no better. Most of the factory workers were unwilling to till the soil for a lower wage, according to a 1942 federal study. Many weren't good at it. 'My father used to say that most of them didn't know which end of an onion to put in the ground,' says Shirley Marcus, 75.

Thirty years later, hippies would try the same thing with communes that also didn't work for many of the same reasons. These Utopian schemes aren't new, but for some reason people keep trying them anyway, with the same result.

Use Your Climate Change Illusion

E.D. Kline opines:

Carbon credits, like papal indulgences, don’t actually limit carbon emissions anymore than indulgences sped one’s soul to heaven. Perhaps in theory they do, but in reality the concessions to industry are always too great, the compromises entrenching industry status quo and crowding out innovators and alternative energy start-ups. But meaningless legislation does wonders to ease a guilty conscience – the conscience of a liberal, perhaps, who sneers that opponents of Waxman-Markey have a “contempt for hard science” that is “unforgivable.”

Perhaps doing nothing is not, in fact, the worst course of action, when doing something is little more than an expensive illusion.

But the illusion seems so much easier to sell, doesn't it?

Iraq, After

Tom Ricks is worried about what happens next:

All the basic issues that faced Iraq before the surge are still hanging out there: How to share oil revenue? What is the power relationship between Shia, Sunni and Kurd? Who holds power inside the Shiite community? What is the role of Iran, the biggest winner in this war so far? And will Iraq have a strong central government or be a loose confederation? And what happens when all the refugees outside the country and those displaced inside it, who I think are majority Sunni, try to go back to their old houses, now largely occupied by Shiites and protected by Shiite militias?

All of these are valid concerns. The important thing is, they can now be called Iraq's problems.

A Nation Of Borrowers

When it comes to our debt, how bad is it? As a country, we're apparently in hock up to our collective eyebrows:

Foreigners now hold nearly 50 percent of the federal government's publicly held debt. If foreign investors significantly reduce their purchase of future U.S. Treasury debt securities, without even dumping their current holdings, U.S. interest rates could soar and the dollar could collapse, analysts fear.

At minus $3.47 trillion, America's net debtor status with foreigners represents nearly 25 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, the highest level in history.

'Three decades of massive [trade] deficits have converted the United States from the world's banker - able to 'pay any price and bear any burden in the cause of freedom' - to the world's largest debtor, utterly dependent on China and other foreign interests,' said Charles McMillion, chief economist of Washington-based MBG Information Services.

Is it too late to change this? Our economic fortunes are now entwined with those of China, so on the one hand they still need us-but for how much longer? What happens when we can't beg or borrow any more?

The Cristina Effect

I wonder if she'll try and stage a coup:

Hurt by a faltering economy and her own confrontational style, Mrs. Kirchner saw her faction of the governing Peronist party lose control of both houses of Congress. Meanwhile the Congressional slate headed by her husband and predecessor, Nestor, lost in Buenos Aires province, the most populous and economically important. Kirchner-backed legislative candidates even lost in Nestor's home state of Santa Cruz.

Analysts said the vote was a rejection both of the Kirchners' combative style and the populist policies, including price controls, high farm taxes and heavy intervention in the economy. 'Argentina has shifted towards the center,' says Carlos Germano, a Buenos Aires political consultant. 'Argentines voted for moderates who seek dialogue and build consensus.'

The article goes on to note that this is a largely symbolic victory for her opponents, but it should be a warning not just to other Latin American lefties but to Team Obama and the Democrats that the same thing could happen to them. When it plays its cards right, the center cannot only hold, it can thrive and prosper.

Memories Are Made Of This

Shades of Philip K. Dick:

Scientists have achieved a new milestone in brain imaging: we have seen a memory in the process of being formed. Using brain cells from a lowly sea slug, which actually makes a good model for our brains, images were captured of proteins forming between the neurons. These proteins distinguish the memory as a long-term one rather than short-term, as the proteins solidify the memory in the neurons. This process had been suspected but not visualized until now.

Kelsey Martin's team at the University of California focused their imaging on the synapse, the communication junction between two neuron cells. Scientists first coated certain proteins with a fluorescent dye that starts out green, but turns red when exposed to UV light. They blasted the neurons with UV light and shifted everything to red, just to prove the dye was there. Then they bathed the cells in serotonin, a chemical that can stimulate memory formation. They were then able to watch as new green fluorescent proteins were created as the memory was made.

This could have huge medical and legal implications. False and supressed memories could be revealed or discounted, for example. Of course we're not yet at the stage where they can actually be photographed, but it looks like we're getting there.

What Happened In Honduras

Perhaps Team Obama should take a closer look at who it is they're defending:

Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.

Is the military's behavior the best way to handle this? If history is any indication, probably not, but it's not quite the same as a generalissimo simply taking over and installing himself as el presidente.

They Can't Handle The Truth

Let's hear it for transparency!

A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.

The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin's report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined.

'He came out with the truth. They don't want the truth at the EPA,' Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, a global warming skeptic, told FOX News, saying he's ordered an investigation. 'We're going to expose it.'

The controversy comes after the House of Representatives passed a landmark bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, one that Inhofe said will be 'dead on arrival' in the Senate despite President Obama's energy adviser voicing confidence in the measure.

The Bush administration as rightfully criticized for distorting medical science in the name of supporting a fundamentalist agenda. The fact that Team Obama seems to be doing the same thing when it comes to the environment shouldn't excuse it, but with liberals it apparently is.

The Handover

The Iraqis are happy, Dick Cheney, not so much. Meanwhile, Marc Lynch points out:

American forces have been drawing down in line with the Status of Forces Agreement expectations for months now --- it's not like tomorrow all of the Americans will suddenly click the heels of their ruby slippers and vanish in a puff of smoke. Tomorrow's deadline is far more important symbolically than practically. And here, the Obama administration and General Odierno's team deserve a lot of credit for their careful, rigorous, and publicly affirmed adherence to the agreement.

Perhaps someone should remind Cheney that the agreement began under his old boss's watch. And the Awakening Councils had as much to do with the political turnaround that made this possible as anything Obama might have done. At any rate, Iraq is increasingly being turned back over to the Iraqis, and that's a good thing.

He Was Against It Before He Was For It

And it looks like another campaign promise may soon fall by the wayside.

The White House left open the possibility Sunday that President Barack Obama might pay for his health care overhaul by taxing employer-provided health insurance even though he had campaigned on not raising taxes on middle-class families.

White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration wouldn't rule out taxing some employees' benefits to fund a health care agenda that has yet to take final form. The move would be a compromise with fellow Democrats, who are pushing the proposal as a way to pay for the massive undertaking without ballooning the federal deficit.

'There are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going,' Axelrod said. 'We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey.'

But if Obama compromises on that point, it would reverse his promise not to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000.

'I pledge that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase,' Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year. 'Not income tax, not capital gains taxes, not any kind of tax.'

Considering the administration's recent track record on pledges, I'm not holding my breath.

The Final Pitch

It's the end of an era in the infomercial world:

Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.

Tampa police said Mays' wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and his wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators he didn't feel well before he went to bed about 10 p.m. that night.

There were no signs of a break-in at the home, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn't answer questions about how Mays' body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

'Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days,' Deborah Mays said in a statement Sunday. 'Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.'

This guy was just on The Tonight Show recently. His was the kind of delivery that was either annoying or exciting, depending on your POV. R.I.P.

Information, Please

In noting how little substance there seems to be at the official White House website, Jim Harper may have coined a new word:

Information is harder to find on the Obama Web site than it was on the site created and run by the Bush administration, according to Web site experts.

“It doesn’t seem to be quite in line with the notion of the pillars of government 2.0 being openness and transparency. It seems just the opposite,” said Mark Drapeau, a columnist for Federal Computer Week who writes frequently on the ways that new technologies can be used by the government…

“It’s lots of PR and not a lot of data,” said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, who called the site “brochureware.”

Well, if you have to advertise, do it well, I suppose.