The Geithner Justice Department? Last time I looked Geithner was at Treasury. Did you mean the Geithner Treasury Department or the Holder Justice Department?

"or Israel will attack Iran's nuclear facilities itself."

Then we should tell Israel, if they do such a dumbshit move, they're on their own from now on. Enjoy getting along with your neighbors Israel, without us backing you up.

palinoscopy, I would guess that Israel would do just fine "without us backing you up." Israel did the same thing with Iraq about 25 years ago. Look, I doubt whether Iran's serious about pursuing nuclear weapons, but the leadership there is committed to the destruction of Israel. If I'm Israel and I'm convinced (I mean really convinced, not in the George Bush sense of the word) that Iran's going for nukes, I don't think such a move would be dumbshit at all.

Glenn Beck ain't no rodeo clown. He's one o'them sissy party clowns.

"Waxman, along with Rep. Ed Markey, have set a deliberately ambitious goal of, 20 years hence, reducing carbon emissions in the United States by 20% of their 2005 levels."

Am I missing something? This doesn't seem terribly ambitious. If it were reducing carbon "to" 20% of their 2005 levels, that would be something. Reducing carbon "by" 20% still leaves 80% of 2005 levels in 2025. That might be o.k. had we done it 20 or 30 years ago, but I doubt it's going to cut it today. Furthermore, most "reduction to" talk use to use 1990 levels, not 2005 levels.

Uhh... that correction didnt exactly correct anything. Unless Geithner is the Secretary of Italicized Justice.

[Sorry. Benen came back all tanned and refreshed, and now the whole damned office is infected with Spring Fever. It's really fixed now. --Mod]

Chocolate Thunder I understand Israel is a sovereign nation and can certainly defend itself as it pleases. But when they puff up and deliver ultimatums to the U.S., they make themselves look silly.

Israel is a paper tiger without U.S. weapons, training, and ongoing support. If Israel attacks, then we most certainly would be pulled into war. Are you volunteering yourself for World War III?????

Italicized Justice: Coming Fridays on CBS.

Unless Geithner is the Secretary of Italicized Justice. -- TG Chicago, 18:08

I, for one, wouldn't mind it at all, if Geithner moved to Rome, be it to their Justice or their Treasury dept.

While you're correcting things, you should change this sentence so that it makes sense:

"It looks Olbermann repeats will keep the 10 p.m. slot on MSNBC."

"It looks like repeats of Olbermann's 8 p.m. show will continue to fill the 10 p.m. slot on MSNBC."

Howzat?

I don't know if Sam or Eddie could have done well in that slot. At the least, it would have keep Howard Fineman up way past his bed time. And he's so much more rational on CNBC!

Geithner and company need to go.

Sorry if this has been covered before and I'm way late, but

Does anyone know how and where I might find some good progressive analysis and uncovering of the true motives of the YouTube documentary:
'The Obama Deception?'

What is this even?

I've actually been advised (via mass email and some distant cousins) that it's important viewing, and that I should (lol) ignore the title--right, the title means nothing. And I'm from the planet Ziginhold.

What is this? Is it more paranoia?

Is it right wing fear mongering?

Is it pure racist propaganda?

All of the above?

Thanks for any links of substance anyone might have.

Sibelius and tax problems now. Another good pick.

So Kaine signed a "choose life" license plate bill. Big deal. Isn't the Democratic party supposed to be more inclusive than the GOP? And can't you be anti-abortion and still be progressive on economic and other issues? (Don't throw that silly euphemism "choice" into the mix.)

Does anybody know when the results for NY20 will come in?

* Ugh: "Home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record in January,...
Well ... I keep saying, it is weird to think there's something intrinsically wrong in the net for the price of a thing to be low. The buyers saves just as much money as the seller loses. The housing bubble came from the idea and the stimulus (through capital gains taxes) of using a useful commodity as an investment vehicle. That is unsustainable since prices relative to general CPI have to keep going up, which is unstable in the long term.

Houses should simply cost a historically reasonable markup over their production cost. Really. And then people can afford to buy them in the first place, and to hell with reselling for more. (No one has any expectation they should be able to sell a given common item for more - only competing investment vehicles, in which some some falter so the few can be worth more.)

tyrannogenius

Vincent, if Kaine as Governor of VA wants to sign a largely symbolic bill favored by the anti-abortion crowd, I wouldn't suggest kicking him out of the Democratic party for that.

However, when he does that and also signs a really stupid bill blocking state funds from going to any business or organization engaging in embryonic stem cell research, then it is time to ask wtf he is doing as DNC Chairman.

Btw, good news in the ongoing drama over the Minnesota Senate seat.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/31/minnesota-court-gives-franken-good-news/#comment-2537734

.
Obama has his first big opportunity to show how differently he handles non-financial street-level crises compared to Dubya: A health crisis, no less: The security of our national food supply; pistachio, anyone?

Salmonella poisoning can lead to arthritis later in life, BTW.
.

And John McCain proves once again that he is a douchebag.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/31/mccain.afghanistan/index.html

"While President Obama has insisted that securing Afghanistan against a rise in terrorist groups is a top priority in the war on terrorism, Sen. John McCain said Tuesday that the problems in that country are not as thorny as those in Iraq.

"It's [Afghanistan's] not as tough as Iraq, and don't let anyone tell you that it is, because when we started the [2007] surge, Iraq was virtually in a state of collapse," McCain said during a speech at The Foreign Policy Initiative."

phoebes,

"Does anybody know when the results for NY20 will come in?"

Less than 100 votes apart. Down to the absentee ballots now. Could be days.

word on NY20 as of 11:18 -- all precints are in, murphy has a narrow lead but there are a large number of absentee ballots to count, so no one's calling it

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/03/ny-20_too_close_to_call_and_nothing_to_extrapolate.php

palin.,

I would think Iran would be really insane to not have nukes, considering the instability in the area and the US and Israeli propensity to invade sovereign nations.

Comments working again yet?

“I’m a rodeo clown,� he said in an interview, adding with a coy smile, “It takes great skill.� (Beck)

Beck, you are NO rodeo clown. A rodeo clown is an athlete that needs to outrun and outmaneuver a hostile bull. A rodeo clown has guts. A rodeo clown puts his life on the line.

You, on the other hand, are the antithesis of a rodeo clown, a fat, useless slug who enjoys sniping at decent people from a safe distance, with the emphasis on "safe."

Israel at the present time is reported to have somewhere on the order of 250 to 300 nuclear warheads in their arsenal and are making more as fast as they can. Since it will be quite awhile for Iran to develop even one warhead, something in Israel's belligerence doesn't ring true. They have some other agenda than protecting themselves.