Barney Frank, pretty much owns this dude, but hey, they kept the video up, so there I'll give them a hand for that, although I am pretty sure they think their reporter got the best of Frank. Not realizing, no one gets the best of Barney "arguing with you is like arguing with a table" Frank.

Yesterday the FCC passed new ‘Net Neutrality’ rules along party lines: 3-2.  The full text of the rules haven’t yet been released, but the core proposals have drawn plenty of fire from both sides, and many experts predict different portions will end up in court soon after they take effect at the beginning of next year.

not very impressive.

Some years ago, probably around the start of W's second term, PBS did a program on his brief campaign to privatize Social Security--just in time for us to have diverted our payroll withholdings into securitized sub primes.

At one point in the program they tried to make things more visual by showing the Fund. It was easy. It wasn't a room full of gold bars, or thousand dollar bills. Just a couple of filing cabinets about 4 feet by two feet.

according to Robert Kuttner, via destor.

I'm almost without exception a defender of Obama here.  Not on this one if Kuttner is right.  Not just no but damn no.  In spades.  With bells on.

The Guardian's feed of diplomatic cables from Wikileaks is just now putting out a cluster of them on nuclear security matters, and they have also published a couple of related articles So far, for me at least, there's some clues why Obama might be so fixated on nuclear regulatory issues. Especially if the PDB is full of this kind of stuff. Some links after the jump.

Some here at Dagblog are big on saying that ‘all of us want the same things’, and sometimes it’s been a little more plaintive than others.  I’ve found myself resisting that in any but the most shallow meaning of the phrase, and over the past few days I’ve been coming closer to why I don’t think that it’s altogether true.

This is a great achievement. Where's the applause?  Where's the commendations for Barack and Harry and Nancy?

We are in full throat here when expressing our disapproval of some Administration fault or failure. And rightly so. But this great victory seems to have been welcomed with a resounding ho hum.

Is it more fun to punish someone?  To write a stinging post dwelling on Barack's failure(s)?  Or some other targets?

There is nobody on "our side" of the political gulf who did not cheer, feel vindicated, or thought of the many people in their lives who just have to read the University of Maryland study of the misinformed viewers of what is laughingly called "Fox News." When we calm down a bit, it might occur to contemplate that a) what is being done is a deliberate political strategy and b) is working.

As a lead up to my next blog which explains why I accept that I am defeatist liberal, I offer today’s blog by Charles Blow in the NY Times:  Whose Party Is It?  He begins:

The near-apoplectic level of agita within the liberal screeching class over President Obama’s tax-cut compromise has exposed a seismic crack in the Democratic monolith — outspoken liberal Democrats on one side and barely audible moderate Democrats on the other.

"Make em beg for more, and then don't give it to them": Mama Rose's advice to Louise.

You can uh, you can uh, you can uh...uh...uh

I have been uh uh uh frustrated with the messaging from Obama, let alone what he is actually doing as President. While the Republicans have the single message of "cut taxes" Obama seems to be all over the lot in his effort to be bipartisan. Progressives are baffled and/or angry. What does the President stand for?