Happy 4th year blogiversary to C&L contributor Driftglass. Driftglass started as a Steve Gilliard commenter, and was kicked out of the nest by Steve himself. DG, the undersigned of this video feel certain that if he were alive, Steve would be kicking your ass as usual today.

Open thread below.

We won't have a winner tomorrow. Steele must be chewing on his fingernails.

The race in the 20th Congressional district between Republican Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy is too close to call.With 100 percent precincts reporting, Murphy leads Tedisco by only 59 votes, 77,344 to 77,285.

With nearly 6,000 absentee ballots that will essentially decide the race as of Monday, the election will not be decided at least until April 13.

As of Monday, 5,907 absentee ballots were received by the state Board of Elections out of around 10,000 mailed, according to spokesman Bob Brehm. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by March 30 and received within seven days for regular absentee ballots or 13 days for military and overseas ballots.

This election should have been a slam dunk for the republicans, but when you're a party that is run by RushBo, "stuff happens." At least RushBo is moving out of NY...Or as he says: Drop Dead.

American Idiot Tapped for Theatrical Presentation

Green Day was always pretty theatrical-- mugging for the fans, lots of eye makeup on stage, exaggerated antics... But now-- just when every Green Day fan in the world is waiting with baited breath for news about 21st Century Breakdown (the new album coming out May 15)-- we hear that Green Day's previous album, American Idiot has been adapted for theatrical presentation.

Continue reading »

I wrote about the original survey back in December, and this is great news for the families of children who attend these schools. (One of these schools is only a few blocks from my house. You can check your local school at the link.)

While I'm not too pleased with the direction of Obama's economic and military policies, I do give the administration big props for the actions taken so far by the top federal agencies:

WASHINGTON — In its most sweeping effort to determine whether toxic chemicals permeate the air schoolchildren breathe, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce plans today to monitor the air outside 62 schools in 22 states. Texas and Ohio have the most schools on the list, with seven each; Pennsylvania has six.

The plan will cost about $2.25 million and includes taking samples outside schools in small towns such as Story City, Iowa, and Toledo, Ore., and in large cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston. It comes in response to a USA TODAY investigation that used the government's own data to identify schools that appear to be in toxic hot spots.

"Your stories raised important questions that merit investigation and that's what we're doing," EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said Monday. "We want parents to know that the places their children live, play and learn are safe."

USA TODAY's investigation, published in December, used a government computer simulation that showed at least 435 schools where the air outside appeared to be more toxic than the air outside Meredith Hitchens Elementary, an Ohio school closed in 2005. At Hitchens, the Ohio EPA found levels of carcinogens 50 times above what the state considered acceptable.

Chris Matthews brings on Cliff May and Joe Conason to discuss Sy Hersh's recent allegations that Dick Cheney told the Israelis that President Obama was "pro-Palestinian" and described him as someone who would "never make it in the major leagues" while the incoming administration was trying to broker a cease fire.

The best May can muster to defend Cheney? Well maybe Sy Hersh's reporting is wrong. Cliff May has been an apologist for everything done by any of his fellow neo-cons at every turn. Let's see how long it takes him to do a one eighty on this one if he's proven wrong and take to defending Cheney's actions instead.

Is this the type of behavior the head of the DNC is supposed to engage in?

Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor and President Barack Obama's hand-picked choice as the head of the Democratic National Committee, infuriated abortion-rights groups Monday by signing legislation that gives abortion foes a long-sought victory.

Kaine brushed off intense lobbying by abortion rights supporters in Richmond to sign a bill that allows Virginia motorists to advertise their anti-abortion views by sporting "Choose Life" specialty license plates.

If Kaine were merely the governor of the Old Dominion, the move might have been less notable. Kaine—a Catholic who says he is personally opposed to abortion but pledged to leave the right to choose intact—won office in Virginia partly by seeking to reassure social conservatives.

But he is now on a national stage. And his decision could echo among women's activists who are among the most powerful financial supporters of the party.

“It is surprising that Governor Kaine would do this, but it’s all the more surprising that he would do it as chair of the DNC,” said Paulette McElwain, the president of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood.

“It is unfortunate that, even after receiving thousands of messages from Virginians and pro-choice activists across the country, Gov. Kaine has opted to sign a bill that advances a divisive political ideology at the expense of women’s health,” NARAL/Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan said in a statement.

By the way, Andy Barr's wording of this article is typical of right wing framing of this issue. Read it through and you will see. I remember when Kaine's name was floated around as a possible VP pick. Thanks for angering your base, Mr. Kaine, but I guess he feels like he has to attack the liberals if he wants Villager props.

Today is the day that NY-20 votes in the special election. CNN highlighted the race on The Situation Room and asked if it was a referendum on Obama-Nomics. John King looked at past elections in that district and realized while Obama took only 51% of the vote, it's traditionally a Republican district. Bush won it both times.

In one of the last polls taken, the Democratic challenger grabbed a four point lead and that has Tedisco shaking. King downplayed the election and said that if someone only grabs the win with a small percentage of voters then it's no big deal. Hey KING, there are 70,000 more republicans registered there. 70,000. If Tedisco loses it is a BIG DEAL.

Ex-McCaniac Dan Diaz, downplayed the significance of the race with Blitzer as having no national implications because he senses a problem there.

We do know that Tedisco is already filing a motion to overturn the election.

Tedisco is upset with the NRCC because they have been running attack ads against Murphy. Good times, good times.

Either way, Michael Spassky Steele has a lot riding on this election because his start as head of the RNC has been so embarrassing. A loss in a republican district will not look too good for the man who never makes any "gaffes." Oh, well, maybe a loss with 70,000 more voters on his side is what he really wants. You can never tell with the chess master.

You can be sure that if Tedisco wins, the cautious stance republicans are taking will shift into a full court press and screamathon about how this election proves America is not behind President Obama when it's a seat that they should easily capture. A lot of us weren't happy with Paterson's choice of Gillibrand because she did hold the seat in a republican district and in essence by picking her, he was giving up the seat to the republican just say no caucus. More shall be revealed. (Updated post)

DOWNLOAD (290)

PLAY (438)

Good to see. Sam "Joe the fake Plumber" Wurzelbacher was met by some real plumbers in Pittsburgh. His latest gig is attacking the Employee Free Choice Act for the anti-labor group Americans for Prosperity. Hopefully Mr. Wurzelbacher is continued to be greeted as warmly on the rest of his stops.

Think Progress has more. The report is from local affilitate KDKA. At the end of the segment they claim that Wurzelbacher supports union members but just not their leadership. Anyone who would say something like that obviously doesn't understand anything about unions because you cannot separate the two.

DOWNLOAD (385)

PLAY (488)

Just to be a jerk, Glenn Beck yesterday used his show to demonstrate -- like a number of his fellow right-wingers -- his utter contempt for Earth Hour: running his klieg lights at full blast to show how much energy he could waste. Yeah, that's the kind of responsible rhetoric we need more of. Whatever.

But the really special moment in the broadcast came when he started talking about wind power as an alternative form of energy with Tom Borelli of the "Free Enterprise Action Fund" -- a right-wing anti-environmental outfit -- about the Obama energy plan, and this burst out:

DOWNLOAD (346)

PLAY (392)

Beck: You can't make wind energy work without nuclear energy as well. Wind stops --

Borelli: You know that, but Congress doesn't know that.

Beck: Use your common sense! Hey America! Use common sense here! Let just try this out!

Wind, when it blows, makes energy. When it stops, you can't store it, so what's making the energy? Wind energy doesn't work without something else making energy for when the wind stops, which it does -- especially if Al Gore controls the temperature, and all the winds and everything else, so we never have blowy days!

Agh!

The problem with Beck is that he packs so much ignorance and misinformation into a single rant that it's hard to figure out where to start. Suffice to say that one can easily find out that there are numerous strategies for dealing with the unreliability of wind power:

Continue reading »

I know in the ideal Republican world, only the children of the wealthy should be able to attend college, but the rest of us are worried about the effect the economy has on everyone's else's educational options. Looks like there are good reasons to worry:

Facing fallen endowments and needier students, many colleges are looking more favorably on wealthier applicants as they make their admissions decisions this year.

Institutions that have pledged to admit students regardless of need are finding ways to increase the number of those who pay the full cost in ways that allow the colleges to maintain the claim of being need-blind — taking more students from the transfer or waiting lists, for instance, or admitting more foreign students who pay full tuition.

Private colleges that acknowledge taking financial status into account say they are even more aware of that factor this year.

“If you are a student of means or ability, or both, there has never been a better year,” said Robert A. Sevier, an enrollment consultant to colleges.

The trend does not mean colleges are cutting their financial aid budgets. In fact, most have increased those budgets this year, protecting that money even as they cut administrative salaries or require faculty members to take furloughs. But with more students applying for aid, and with those who need aid often needing more, institutions say they have to be mindful of how many scholarship students they can afford.

Colleges say they are not backing away from their desire to serve less affluent students; if anything, they say, taking more students who can afford to pay full price or close to it allows them to better afford those who cannot. But they say the inevitable result is that needier students will be shifted down to the less expensive and less prestigious institutions.

“There’s going to be a cascading of talented lower-income kids down the social hierarchy of American higher education, and some cascading up of affluent kids,” said Morton Owen Schapiro, the president of Williams College and an economist who studies higher education.