Drinking the Ethanol-aid

Hmm:

Former Iowa Governor Thomas Vilsack is set to be named by President-elect Barack Obama as his choice for Agriculture secretary

My hopes for substantially improving the farm bill just decreased, but we'll see.

Senate Republicans Kill Auto Bill

Because it would have given normal people the means to live a normal lifestyle.

The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.

The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which say they may not be able to survive through this month.

After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a deal, but deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009.

I'm sickened. Republicans' ideological - privatize wealth! socialize risk! - and political - break the unions' backs! - reasons are disgusting.

This is not to say that this was the greatest plan ever - it wasn't - and that we needed to act right now - we don't - but there are principled objections that they could have made to the bill. Instead, they acted upon the most base and wretched motives.

Link.

Clarence Thomas Wants a Pony for Christmas

Too bad for him, I don't think it's likely:

in a highly unusual move, U.S Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues of the court to consider a lawsuit filed, that questions Barack Obama's citizenship.

Nobody likes Clarence.

War?

Oh yeah, that war.

At least 15 people died and 147 were hurt, including many schoolchildren, by two suicide vehicle bombs in the former rebel bastion of Fallujah on Thursday, an interior ministry official said.

Earlier, a defence ministry official said at least 10 people, including women, were killed in the bombings, which he said targeted Iraqi police posts.

The surge was a success!

Media Drama Queens

NYT's Alessandra Stanley.

Oh no she didn't!

Obama's Economic Team

Roubini likes.

Illegal Spying

Can we revisit FISA now?

Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that some employees had gained unauthorized access and viewed a personal cell phone account held by President-elect Barack Obama that is now inactive.

An Obama aide said his voice-mail messages and e-mails were not breached in the incident.

"We were notified yesterday that employees had accessed the records of an old cell phone no longer in use," the Obama aide said. "No voice or e-mails were listened to or read."

Irony

Dead.

The End of Cheneyism

TPM.

Rats Jumping Ship

Reuters:

Roy Blunt, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, will announce on Thursday he will not seek another term in leadership after his party's blowout election losses, Republican sources said.

Blunt will be the second senior Republican not seeking another term in leadership after Adam Putnam of Florida said on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election to his third-ranking job of Republican conference chairman.

I think Cantor is gunning for Blunt's job. Let him have it.

The Republican party has a lot of soul searching to do before it can be nationally viable again. Fortunately for us, I don't know what it can do. The party is disintegrating into civil war between the corporate-, theo- and neo-cons, as well as a large part of the base that won't take anything less than all three together (let's call this the National Review wing of the party), a philosophy that was hardly two days ago soundly rejected in the election.

The biggest mistake they can make is to enshrine themselves even further in their cocoon and claim that it's because they weren't Republican or conservative enough that they lost, which is what the National Review wing of the party is claiming. If they continue to cling to this and nominate a similar candidate in 2012 they will consign themselves to the wilderness for a very long time.