My NYT lunch buddy:
Ben Bernanke’s maiden Congressional testimony as chairman of the Federal Reserve was, everyone agrees, superb. He didn’t put a foot wrong on monetary or fiscal policy.
But Mr. Bernanke did stumble at one point. Responding to a question from Representative Barney Frank about income inequality, he declared that “the most important factor” in [...]

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Good interview with Alan Sandals from the Jewish Voice. Alan is one of three candidates running for the Democratic nomination to go up against Rick Santorum.

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Sign the petition, then call your Congress critter. This is important if you want the internet as we know it to survive.

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Someone over at DU very nicely posted an excerpt from the Harpers cover story (UPDATE: Longer excerpt now online here) on impeachment. I strongly recomment you read this remarkable article in its entirety:
On December 18 of last year, Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.) introduced into the House of Representatives a resolution inviting it to [...]

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An arctic air mass came through last night and damn, is it cold. I wore a turtleneck sweater to bed over my pajamas and brought a hot water bottle as well, in addition to cranking up the electric blanket.
My friend called me this morning while I was on the train and I said as much. [...]

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I’m not sure of the exact date, because when we migrated from the other site, we lost some of the archives. But my third blogaversary is this week.
Thanks for hanging around, y’all.

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Little Ricky, looking out for the big energy companies. Isn’t that sweet.

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Guess it’s time for another tax cut:
Six months after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast, charities have disbursed more than $2 billion of the record sums they raised for the storm’s victims, leaving less than $1 billion for the monumental task of helping hundreds of thousands of storm victims rebuild their lives, according [...]

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And yet, we don’t have money for so many other things:
The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon’s own auditors had identified more than $250 million in charges [...]

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It’s time for another bloggers ethics conference:
Sean Hannity, co-host of the Fox News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes, is apparently no longer content just to ask Rick Santorum softball questions every time he shows up on Sean’s show. Hannity will be in Western Pennsylvania tomorrow to attend a fund raiser for Rick.

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Glenn Greenwald on Arlen Specter’s proposed wiretapping law:
It is, of course, so disorientingly bizarre to hear about a proposed law requiring FISA warrants for eavesdropping because we already have a law in place which does exactly that. It’s called FISA. That’s the law the Administration has been deliberately breaking because they think they don’t have [...]

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Caught this over at Melanie’s place:
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds of Afghan soldiers with tanks and grenade-launchers surrounded Kabul’s main prison Sunday after rioting inmates seized control of much of the facility in an uprising that officials blamed on al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
Local media reported several people were killed and dozens injured. But it appeared [...]

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But you have to admit, the people of Iraq are better off than they were under Saddam Hussein.
How can they tell the difference?
Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by death squads working from the Ministry of the Interior, the United Nations’ outgoing human rights chief [...]

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This is much more important than the fact that U.S. troops are forcing prisoners to have sex for the cameras because they were doing it for free. See?

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1. If You Want Me To Stay - Sly and the Family Stone
2. Faithless Love - Linda Ronstadt
3. No One Takes The Train Anymore - Holly Dunn
4. If She Knew What She Wants - Jules Shear
5. Steady As She Goes - The Raconteurs
6. Creep - Radiohead
7. With You - The Subways
8. Diamonds On My Windshield [...]

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The Philadelphia Inquirer is so darned adept at the equivalency game. After Will Bunch’s attention-getting piece on Rick Santorum’s unusual financial arrangements, the Inky broke the “story” that, EXACTLY LIKE RICK SANTORUM, NO, REALLY! Bob Casey (who’s favored to win the Democratic nomination to run against him) also got a mortgage from a bank whose [...]

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See? It’s never too late to pursue a dream. (Be sure to watch the video.)

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I’ve been very social this week, I have. I was back at Drinking Liberally for a short visit Tuesday, and at Johnny Brenda’s happy hour Friday to welcome back my dear friend Somegirl from Venezuela. Last night, I had dinner at the White Dog (I had a scrumptious battered St. Peter’s fish with crabmeat and [...]

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Darren McGavin, 83.

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Oops.

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Look what’s happening out in the streets
Got a revolution, got to revolution
Hey I’m dancing down the streets
Got a revolution, got to revolution
Ain’t it amazing all the people I meet
Got a revolution, got to revolution
One generation got old
One generation got soul
This generation got no destination to hold
Pick up the cry
Hey now it’s time for you and [...]

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Blogging triple axle: Fred sees the world through a shower curtain.

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Wait. Are we to believe the former Florida secretary of state who handled the 2000 recount with such utter integrity took illegal contributions and possibly bribes?
Boy, if there was one magazine I wish was online, it would be Harpers. (And yes, I already subscribe.)
Guess I wasn’t imagining things.
Max keeps track of the numbers.
More on Little [...]

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You know what? If you can complete a Martha Stewart project, you can probably handle performing an abortion. And if things keep up, you may have to learn.

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And suddenly, an autistic kid is a high-school basketball star.
I saw this story on the news this morning. What a wonderful way it was to start the day.
Dwight Meredith writes:
Autistic kids rarely get to be in the spotlight. Their hard work and accomplishments are not often noticed by people outside of their immediate circles. Special [...]

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Busy little beavers, aren’t they? And yet, no one from BushCo thought to mention it this week:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) — A United Arab Emirates government-owned company is poised to take over port terminal operations in 21 American ports, far more than the six widely reported.
The Bush administration has approved the takeover of British-owned Peninsular [...]

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Yeah, I agree. I think many, many of BushCo’s political moves are geared mainly toward preventing administration officials up to and including Bush from being tried as war criminals.
And for that reason, I don’t believe they’ll ever give up power peacefully.

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Roll Call:
The Federal Election Commission announced today that it will hold a final vote March 16 to determine the rules governing political communications on the Internet.

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Thanks, Christie! Nice public service you did at the EPA, telling everyone it was safe at Ground Zero!
It’s “your party, too“? You can keep it.

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Laura Rozen:
Let me just recommend again this FT piece on the Pentagon doing some Iran policy planning. I am not sure how Congressional oversight works when the intelligence unit of the Marines outsources a study on Iran’s ethnic minorities and how they might be exploited against Tehran to a subisidiary of SAIC. I suspect there [...]

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