Permanent link to MTA daily media news

College of St. Scholastica (yes, I’m aware of the irony)

Economists behaving badly (by Paul Krugman)
Ouch. The WSJ’s Real Time Economics blog has a post linking to Raguram Rajan’s prophetic 2005 paper on the risks posed by securitization — basically, Rajan said that what did happen, could happen — and to the discussion at the Jackson Hole conference by Fed vice-chairman Kohn and others. The economics profession does not come off very well.

Two things are really striking here. First is the obsequiousness toward Alan Greenspan. To be fair, the 2005 Jackson Hole event was a sort of Greenspan celebration; still, it does come across as excessive — dangerously close to saying that if the Great Greenspan says something, it must be so. Second is the extreme condescension toward Rajan — a pretty serious guy — for having the temerity to suggest that maybe markets don’t always work to our advantage. Larry Summers, I’m sorry to say, comes off particularly badly. Only my colleague Alan Blinder, defending Rajan “against the unremitting attack he is getting here for not being a sufficiently good Chicago economist”, emerges with honor.

A Bear Saw Around the Corner (by Steven Kotkin, New York Times)
THE long economic boom passed many people by, but the bust has nailed nearly everyone. The carnage has also made a clairvoyant of James Grant, the founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and a perennial market bear. In “Mr. Market Miscalculates” (Axios, $22), Mr. Grant serves up an edifying anthology of his previously published — and prescient — editorials and speeches from his much-read industry publication. Read them now and weep…

Lucid essays from well before the 2008 meltdown captured the toxicity of the mortgage market and the investments known as collateralized debt obligations (stacks of debt). Other writings celebrated Karl B. Hill, an unconventional banker who muses that it would be convenient if all the McMansions built with financial flows from Asia could now be exported to improve America’s foreign trade balance. (The alternative is for the Asian holders of American debt to move into the houses and employ the insolvent nominal homeowners as household staff.)

We’ve been here before. Technology stocks, Mr. Grant writes in the anthology’s foreword, were absurdly overvalued in early 2000, just before the tech bubble burst, “but, then again, they were only a little less overvalued in 1999 and 1998.” Ditto for 1997, and 1996. “I myself,” he adds, “thought the market was a little overvalued in 1992.”

Sam Huntington Was Plainly Correct (by Rod Dreher, a conservative)
If 2008 taught us anything, it was the danger of listening to people who tell us what we want to hear. Anybody with a lick of sense should have seen that we were living inside a bubble of Panglossian optimism that had little basis in observable fact. But as George Orwell quipped, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” Samuel P. Huntington, the eminent Harvard political scientist who died on Christmas Eve, was used to being derided for his ability to see what was in front of our collective nose and to describe it to people who didn’t want to hear… But then, great men rarely run with the herd.
Or great women.

Darwin and the terrible games of Homo sapiens (by Paul Seabright, Economists’ Forum, Financial Times, U.K.)
[M]any primates do not adapt well to life in zoos, and Wall Street is the biggest and strangest zoo of them all… Faced with evidence that a housing boom can’t continue forever, we do not unravel it back to the beginning but try to ride the boom till the very end, to do just a little better than the very best of the others. Those differences in status, you see. Faced with the arithmetic certainty that a chain letter, or a Ponzi scheme, cannot give us an expected gain, we nevertheless calculate two or three steps ahead and give it a punt… [W]hen the maths gets too tough we seek reassurance from the powerful groups to which we belong. If it is okay to them that is fine by us; the group will protect us if things go wrong. We have to trust someone: modern life would collapse if we did everything alone.

So we trust those who seem most like us, which means we trust the folks they trust, and so on in another long chain that stretches our strategic reasoning capacities to the limit.
Trouble is, most folks either trust the members of their group too much or lack the courage to stand out from the crowd.

On Groupthink: Part I (by vastleft at Corrente)
Recently, No Blood for Hubris suggested I look to Irving Janis’s 1982 book Groupthink (as the second edition of Victims of Groupthink is called) to shed some light on the kind of mass delusions and biased analysis I often critique… In the Introduction, Janis defines groupthink thusly: “..a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action… Groupthink refers to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures.” He concludes the Introduction with a description of his “central theme””: “The more amiability and esprit de corps among the members of a policy-makng in-group, the greater is the danger that independent critical thinking will be replaced by groupthink, which is likely to result in irrational and dehumanizing actions directed against out-groups.”

Could this shoe, perhaps, fit in-groups like The Village, organized religion, the aptly named “Dittoheads,” and Progressive Blogosphere 1.0? Various partisans in Israel / Palestine debates? Golly, that’s a tough one.
Can we add the inability to criticize Obama to the list?  For the danger that groupthink poses to the world as we know it, see below.

Jared Diamond: Why Societies Collapse (The Big Picture, thanks to Economist’s View)
Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how — if we see it in time — we can prevent it. Note that he mentions the conflict of interests — when Elites “insulate themselves from the consequences of their decisions, advancing their own short term interests against the interests of overall society.”
Click through to watch a 2003 video of Diamond discussing his book Collapse.

Obama sketches out recovery plan (CNN Money)
President-elect says he wants to double renewable energy production, rebuild roads and schools and cut taxes. Next step: Consulting with Congress.

Shutting the Eyes on the Back our Heads (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Joseph Stiglitz: “‘I’ve been a bit astonished that all the discussion around the private-sector stimulus has centered on infrastructure,’ he said. ‘Bailouts, too, are aimed at correcting mistakes of the past, so they are backward-looking. We would be much better off spending our money forward-looking. If we spend $700 billion on new technology and innovation, we’d have a stronger, new, real economy. Up to now, the discussion has focused on the sectors that have been mismanaged rather than the sectors that are creating our future.”

Innovation Should Mean More Jobs, Not Less (New York Times)
According to a 1995 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, periods of high productivity — often achieved through automation — were correlated with periods of high job growth throughout the last half of the 20th century. “Innovation leads to job growth directly and clearly,” says Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The data collected since that study was published continue to prove the point, he says, noting that even with the trend toward off-shoring earlier this decade, unemployment rates in the United States remained quite low until the recent economic downturn began.

Obama Considers Major Expansion in Aid to Jobless (New York Times)
The Democratic economic package may include much more government-assisted health care insurance and unemployment compensation.

Obama is losing a battle he doesn’t know he’s in (The Guardian, U.K.)
[E]vidence is mounting that Obama is already losing ground among key Arab and Muslim audiences that cannot understand why, given his promise of change, he has not spoken out. Arab commentators and editorialists say there is growing disappointment at Obama’s detachment – and that his failure to distance himself from George Bush’s strongly pro-Israeli stance is encouraging the belief that he either shares Bush’s bias or simply does not care.

Oh Yeah, Blame Hillary, But Where Is Obama? (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
Jesus Christ!! The so-called “Progressive” has a piece up blaming Hillary for not saying anything publicly about the Israelis’ Gaza misadventure… It is not Hillary’s role or responsibility to say anything at this point. If she came out in public and said anything, either for or against the Israeli op, she would immediately be accused of launching her own foreign policy or sand bagging Barack. It is not Hillary’s job to start telling the public what the Obama policy is. That is the job of Barack Obama. Although Barack Obama is not yet inaugurated, his silence is disturbing. Does he agree with the current U.S. policy of enabling Israel?

Obama Team Feels Richardson Wasn’t Forthcoming About Investigation Before Being Offered Commerce (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial contributor. Once the investigation became more widely known through national media reports last month, sources tell ABC News, the Obama Transition Team realized the FBI would not be able to give Richardson a clean political bill of health before the new administration is ready to send his nomination up to the Senate for confirmation.

The Richardson camp says the governor was forthcoming, with sources close to the governor noting that there had been reports about the controversy in local media such as the Albuquerque Journal as far back as August 2008. The governor discussed the investigation with the Obama team, they say, and believes that he and his administration have done nothing wrong.

Kaine Poised To Chair The DNC (Washington Post)
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become chairman of the Democratic National Committee later this month, serving as the top political messenger for Barack Obama’s administration even while finishing his final year in the governor’s mansion, several sources said. Kaine, 50, who emerged as a finalist for the job of Obama’s running mate last summer, will operate from Richmond in a part-time capacity until January 2010, when he will become the full-time DNC chairman. Kaine is constitutionally barred from running for reelection. Kaine, a friend of the president-elect’s, is a gregarious chief executive who is known to relish political combat and helped put Virginia in the Democratic presidential election column for the first time in almost 50 years.
Tim Kaine is anti-gay and anti-choice.  This appointment is another slap at liberals.

Obama Pushed Kaine to Take DNC Job (Political Wire)
According to Mike Allen, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine “first indicated that he was not interested” in becoming DNC Chairman, “but then decided to take the post when Obama personally intervened.” More Allen on why Obama wanted Kaine: “He’s a new-style Democrat — Obama-like in transcending ideological boxes – who comes from a state that emphasizes budget balancing and fiscal restraint. Kaine worked tirelessly for Obama, giving him a good chance in the Old Dominion even before the tidal wave formed. So the president-elect knows Kaine’s campaign skills first-hand.”

Sunday: Double X (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
The new administration would have us believe that women are “special interests”.  This is incorrect.  We make up 51% of the population in this country.  What does it mean when the country considers the majority “special”?  Do we have some kind of mental insufficiency that causes us to be less than equal in a country where we outnumber every other group?… When Obama and the Democrats sit down to craft legislation on the economy or any other issue, they are going to placate the ones who bought and paid for them and they are going to use the seriousness of the crisis to argue that our interests, the *common* interests, can’t be addressed because they would be a distraction.  The problem is that they will always be a distraction to the minority middle aged white guys who run this country.  We can’t let them get away with that.

Obama names first woman solicitor general. (Think Progress)
Today, the Obama transition team sent out a release announcing several key Justice Department positions, including Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan as Solicitor General. Kagan will be the first woman to serve permanently in this important post, which is tasked with conducting “all litigation on behalf of the United States in the Supreme Court, and to supervise the handling of litigation in the federal appellate courts. Kagan previously served in the White House during the Clinton administration, as Associate Counsel to the President, Deputy Assistant the the President for Domestic Policy, and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Kagan sent out an announcement to the Harvard Law School community:

Obama Taps Former ACS Board Member Dawn Johnsen For Key Justice Dept. Post (American Constitution Society)
President-elect Barack Obama announced today that he “intends to nominate” Dawn Johnsen, a professor of law at Indiana University School of Law, and until a few days ago an ACS Board of Directors member, as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. A statement from the president-elect’s transition Web site, Change.Gov, notes Johnsen’s ACS affiliation and also that she served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1997-98. ACS recently distributed an article by Johnsen on reforming the Office of Legal Counsel, in which she criticizes some of the office’s legal advice on torture

In Obama’s Team, 2 Camps on Climate (New York Times)
As Mr. Obama seeks to find the right balance between his environmental goals and his plans to revive the economy, he may have to resolve conflicting views among some of his top advisers. While [Laurence] Summers’s thinking on climate change has evolved over the last decade, his views on the potential risks to the economy of an aggressive effort to limit carbon emissions have not. But he now works for a president-elect who has set ambitious goals for addressing global warming through a government-run cap-and-trade system. It may once again prove to be Mr. Summers’s role to inject a rigorous economist’s reality check into the debate over the scope and speed of an attack on global warming.
Wasn’t it rigorous economists who gave us the dot com bubble?  And the housing bubble?  Why is it that we should listen to them, New York Times?

Where’s the Energy Plan? (by paradox at The Left Coaster)
[E]arnest Americans looking for change for won’t find it at the Department of Energy… “We will now have an energy policy that can mean the US will have a chance at obtaining energy self-sufficiency.”… Look, if this guy [Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate, Berkeley Professor] can’t talk straight to little people I’m going to assume he’s a little California energy lamb being lead to Washington DC slaughter until empirically shown otherwise. An incredible brain and academic record with good conservation credentials, does that really have a chance against Senators like Inhofe and limitless oil lobbying dollars to slam home the energy change America desperately needs?…

As humans we don’t get to choose in responding to the threats against us, we effectively deal with all of them or perish… Furthermore, energy is intimately entwined in economy and foreign policy, solving problems in energy instantly pays off for multiple policy wins across the board. Energy security is in fact part of Dr. Chu’s language, but the US would be a lot more secure if in fact we will be energy-independent, but there’s been nothing presented to the American public about that so far in the transition news…

Impatience is one thing, failure of duty another. For the warming planet, for the economy and most of all, for our people, there is only one implacable fact of screaming urgency, Dr Chu: we’re out of time. Please get moving.

Obama Moves to Counter China in Space With Pentagon-NASA Link (Bloomberg)
Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China. Obama’s transition team is considering a collaboration between the Defense Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration because military rockets may be cheaper and ready sooner than the space agency’s planned launch vehicle, which isn’t slated to fly until 2015, according to people who’ve discussed the idea with the Obama team.
So much for dealing any kind of blow to the military-industrial complex.

Howard Zinn on “War and Social Justice” (Democracy Now, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
So what stands in the way of Obama and the Democratic Party, and what stands in the way of them really going all out for a social and economic program that will fulfill the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Well, I can think of two things that stand in the way. Maybe there are more, but I can only think of two things at a time. And, well, one of them is simply the great, powerful economic interests that don’t want real economic change… And Obama so far has not challenged those economic interests. Roosevelt did challenge those economic interests, boldly, right frontally. He called them economic royalists.

Does It Infuriate Anyone That You Can Now Buy The Presidency? (by Ani at No Quarter)
What kind of “new politics” is it when you can buy the office? Barack Obama buried the competition under an avalanche of money. Period… How accountable will any of our politicians be when money is all that matters? How accountable are they now? Not very. Rather than “move on,” I say move forward and make as much noise as humanly possible to our elected officials – this kind of “campaigning” cannot be tolerated. How many elections do we want to have taken out of our hands? If we laud those who raise a bushel basket of funds, but decline to oust them when they renege on their promises to the American electorate, then we have no one to blame but ourselves when they tell us to “go off and play” while they run our country into the ground.

The economy crumbled (by Andrew Leonard, Salon)
It was the worst of times for ordinary Americans. And even worse times for deregulators and supply-siders. The bright side? Their party is over.
Really?  Over?  See below.

GOP Must Confront Obama on the Economy (by Lawrence Kudlow)
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is absolutely right to warn against Obama’s gigantic stimulus-spending package. McConnell says it “will be the largest spending bill in the history of our country at a time when our national debt is already the largest in history.” As a result, he says the bill “will require tough scrutiny and oversight.” According to McConnell, scrutiny should include this simple test: “Will the yet unwritten, reportedly trillion-dollar spending bill really create jobs and grow the economy — or will it simply create more government spending, more bureaucrats, and deeper deficits?” The Republican leader is drawing a clear line in the sand. Okay, good. But the GOP has got to do more. It must start talking about tax cuts to grow the economy. And it must get back to the supply-side by talking about lower marginal tax rates on individuals, businesses, and investors.

Fighting Off Depression (by Paul Krugman)
News reports say that Democrats hope to pass an economic plan with broad bipartisan support. Good luck with that. In reality, the political posturing has already started, with Republican leaders setting up roadblocks to stimulus legislation while posing as the champions of careful Congressional deliberation — which is pretty rich considering their party’s behavior over the past eight years. More broadly, after decades of declaring that government is the problem, not the solution, not to mention reviling both Keynesian economics and the New Deal, most Republicans aren’t going to accept the need for a big-spending, F.D.R.-type solution to the economic crisis.

The biggest problem facing the Obama plan, however, is likely to be the demand of many politicians for proof that the benefits of the proposed public spending justify its costs — a burden of proof never imposed on proposals for tax cuts.

The Folks Who Told You the Economy Is Just Fine are Worried that the World Will Get Less Crowded (by Dean Baker)
The last time I went to the beach it was very crowded. The Washington Post wants us to be concerned that it might be less crowded in 20 or 30 years. The problem is falling birth rates and declining populations. That’s right the same people who told us a few months ago that the economy was just fine are now telling us that we should be worried about a planet with fewer people consuming less resources. Yes, this is yet another piece in the Post’s jihad against Social Security and Medicare. A smaller population should make us richer, other things equal, since there will be less demand for beach space and other natural resources. The declining rate of workers to retirees can easily be met by productivity growth (a concept with which Post writers seem unfamiliar) and by losing a few jobs on the midnight shift at 7-11s.

The WAPO’s Missing Logic on Tax Cuts and Health Care (by Dean Baker)
The Washington Post’s obsession with the deficit thoroughly contaminates and confuses its economic and budget reporting. The obsession showed its ugly head yet again in a front page news story. The article notes that President-elect Obama’s health care plan is likely to carry an upfront price tag of $65 billion a year, even though it is projected to save money in the long-run. The article reports that Obama had originally planned to pay for this cost by raising taxes on the wealthy in 2009, but he now is planning to put off the tax increase until 2011 because of the recession…

Of course in 2011, when hopefully the economy will be back on track, we will be collecting the taxes that Obama had wanted to cover the cost of his health care plan. In that sense the plan will be paid for in the period in which we want it to be paid for… If someone supports a large stimulus, then the fact the first years of a health care reform plan are not paid for, should be a non-issue.

The Post Warns About the National Debt Yet Again (by Dean Baker)
Following its practice of merging editorial content with news, the Washington Post had yet another lead article warning about the budget deficit and national debt… The article is misleading in that it does not point out that a substantial portion of the deficit (e.g. the $700 trillion TARP) is being used to by assets. This money is not spending that just goes out the door, like money spent on the war in Iraq or on health care. The government will likely lose money on the TARP (my bet at least), but it will get most of this money back when it sells the assets (shares of preferred bank stock) that it has acquired through the program.

The discussion of the dollar fails to note that the main factor that will determine the value of the dollar in the long-run is the trade deficit, which bears no direct connection to the budget deficit… Readers should understand that the dollar will fall regardless of whether or not we run large budget deficits. A sharp decline in the dollar is the only plausible way to bring the trade deficit to a manageable level. The fall in the dollar is therefore a necessary correction mechanism, it will not be the result of a profligate fiscal policy.

Big Money still on strike, as $8.9 trillion in cash sits on the sidelines (by lambert at Corrente)
Hnak Paulson’s golfing buddies are hoarding: “‘There’s now an estimated $8.9 trillion sitting on the sidelines in cash and money markets,’ said Stephen Leeb, president of New York-based Leeb Capital Management. ‘High cash levels and low stock prices historically go hand in hand. The current level as a percentage of the stock market’s capitalization matches that at the market bottom in 1990.’” What I want to know: How much of that money is ours, from the bailout? I’m betting a lot of it, since Hank Paulson won’t say where the bailout money went, and the innocent have nothing to hide.

Madoff Chasers Dug for Years, to No Avail (Wall Street Journal)
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was examined at least eight times in 16 years by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators, who often came armed with suspicions… Mr. Madoff was interviewed at least twice by the SEC. But regulators never came close to uncovering the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme that investigators now believe began in the 1970s. The serial regulatory failures will be on display Monday when Congress holds a hearing to probe why the alleged fraud went undetected. Among the key witnesses is SEC Inspector General David Kotz, who was asked last month by the agency’s chairman, Christopher Cox, to investigate the mess.

Franken to be Declared Winner in Minnesota (Political Wire)
Minnesota’s Canvassing Board “was posed to certify the results of the recount in Minnesota’s grueling Senate election in Al Franken’s favor — but that doesn’t mean the race is definitely over,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The latest numbers showed Franken (D) with a 225-vote lead over Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). “But after the announcement, there will be a seven-day waiting period before an election certificate is completed. If any lawsuits are filed during that waiting period, certification is conditional until the issue is settled in court.”

Court Rejects Coleman’s Bid (Political Wire)
The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected a bid by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) “to have hundreds of rejected absentee ballots considered in the U.S. Senate recount, apparently clearing the way for a state board to certify election results” showing Al Franken (D) on top, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The action also opens the door “to a post-recount lawsuit that the Coleman campaign said ‘is now inevitable.’”

PPP Poll: Kennedy’s Standing Drops in New York (Political Wire)
A new Public Policy Polling survey in New York finds that 44% of respondents have a less favorable opinion of Caroline Kennedy than they did before she began a public campaign for the appointment to replace Sen. Hillary Clinton. The main beneficiary of the decline in Kennedy’s popularity appears to be Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Voters now prefer him for the appointment over Kennedy by a 58% to 27% margin.

Burris may have a chance at Senate seat (Los Angeles Times)
Democrats are opposed to Roland Burris getting Obama’s Senate seat because he was appointed by scandal-plagued Blagojevich. But the Senate majority leader says, ‘There’s always room to negotiate.’

Virginia might actually get a liberal leader… (by heidiliofpotpourri at The Confluence)
Terry McAuliffe  has announced his formal bid for the governorship of Virginia… In 2007-08, Terry McAuliffee worked harder than virtually anybody else I observed to see this country elect a true liberal to the Presidency, a true liberal who also happened to be a woman. If the people of Virginia elect Terry McAuliffe their Governor, and he brings his commitment to liberalism – to opposing absolutism, to being willing to experiment with all ideas except those that conflict with the fundamental tenets of liberalism, to being committed to supporting fellow liberals regardless of their sex – to the state of Virginia, then the state of Virginia’s future should be brighter. Whether an actual liberal can win high office at the state or national level remains to be seen. 

U.S. granted more time to indict Blagojevich (Chicago Tribune)
Federal prosecutors have been granted an extra three months to seek an indictment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. U.S. Chief District Court Judge James Holderman entered an order allowing the indictment deadline to be extended from Jan. 7 to April 7, according to the court docket in the Blagojevich case. Prosecutors had sought the extension last week, citing the complexity of their investigation of pay-to-play politics in the Blagojevich administration.

Conservatives Label Fitzgerald A Failure, Ignoring His Record Of Successful Terrorism Prosecutions (Think Progress)
Since U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald investigated the Bush administration’s leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity — and successfully prosecuted Scooter Libby for perjury — conservatives have sought to discredit the prosecutor… Continuing their assault on Fitzgerald, conservatives like to argue that Fitzgerald’s prosecution record is weak. Yesterday, Fox News’s Brit Hume decried Fitzgerald’s so-called “propensity” to make accusations “in news conferences” that he “is unable to prove in court.” This morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough slammed the prosecutor for bringing cases with “a lot of smoke” but “no fire,” and wondered, “Is Fitzgerald going to go 0 for 2 here in national investigations?”
Click through to watch the video.

Blagojevich’s Homeland Security access revoked (Chicago Sun-Times)
Gov. Blagojevich’s access to classified federal security information was revoked by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after he was charged last month with trying to sell a Senate seat to the highest bidder, officials confirmed Friday.

Gov. could be impeached [this] week (AP)
The Illinois House will meet several days [this] week. A spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan says the chamber may vote on a recommendation from the special committee studying whether Blagojevich should be impeached. It would take a simple majority vote for the House to impeach — which basically means accusing him of misconduct. Then the state Senate would hold a trial to determine if the governor is guilty. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority.

Politico’s Jonathan Martin to Howie Kurtz: Blago story is fun! (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Appearing on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Martin was asked if the new angle of race interjected into the Blago story, in the form of the Roland Burris pick, had been overhyped by the press. Martin said not really and that the press is just happy that the story continues to percolate. That there’s additional fodder! As long as the Beltway press is happy and entertained, right?

Signing Off — Farewell, TPMers (by Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central)
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but for the foreseeable future this is my last post at TPM. I’m heading over to The Washington Post, where I’ll be writing the lead blog on a new site that WaPo is launching. This will drive you mad with curiosity, unfortunately, but the details on the new site and blog will only be forthcoming when it launches the week after next.
Greg was one of the few bloggers on a high profile site to have defended Hillary Clinton consistently until Josh Marshall took away his separate blog, Horse’s Mouth, and folded him into the general election reporting.  (By the way, Josh fired the only woman at TPM, who also defended Hillary.)  Let’s hope that Greg will bring his non-Kool-Aide style of research and reporting to his new gig at the Washington Post.  He may actually be freer there than he was at TPM.

Obama Picks Official Photographer (Political Wire)
President-elect Obama picked Pete Souza as the official White House photographer, according to News Photographer. “It won’t be Souza’s first time in the Oval Office. He was also a White House photographer during President Ronald Reagan’s second term.” Examples of Souza’s work are available in [a] new book, The Rise of Barack Obama.

NBC’s David Gregory frets about Dem attacks on Bush (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Is it me, or is the Beltway press forever concerned when Democrats play hardball and use tough language in partisan battles with Republicans, in a way that the press never seems to mind when the GOP lets the invective fly? Sunday’s MTP was a perfect example. Host David Gregory pressed U.S. Senate Leader Sen. Harry Reid about tough language he’d  used in the past in describing the most unpopular president since modern polling was created nearly one century ago… Reid, for the record expressed no regrets. What’s so odd is that I’m thinking back to January of 2001, and I can’t recall the MTP moderator pressing leading Republicans if they had any “regrets” about the nearly non-stop insults they had heaped on the sitting Democratic president, who at the time of his exit was the most popular president to ever leave the Oval Office.

Sarah Palin 2009 Calendar Becomes an Amazon Bestseller (Mashable)
What’s the best selling office product on Amazon.com this New Year? Perhaps printer ink and paper for all those holiday pics? Cases for all the new laptops received this Christmas? Try: none of the above. While Obama may credit the web for his successful White House run, at least one corner of the Internet is voting Palin 2009; currently leading Amazon’s Office Products and Supplies bestseller list is the Sarah Palin 2009 Calendar.
I disagree with every political position Palin takes.  But I think Democrats are making a serious mistake by ignoring her or belittling her.

Live! Nude! Puppies! The year in viral video (by Caitlin Shamberg, Salon)
Except for those snuggly Shiba Inus, Sarah Palin and Tina Fey dominated as Web video went pro

Unsinkable Palin eyes run against Obama (The Times, U.K.)
Palin ended 2008 with a striking run of personal successes in high-profile popularity polls. According to a poll by Gallup she was the second most admired woman of the year, after Hillary Clinton. Time magazine chose her as the world’s fourth most influential person, behind Barack Obama, Henry Paulson of the US Treasury and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. Last week she triumphed in an annual poll, commissioned by a property website, as the person Americans would most like to have as their neighbour. She finished ahead of Oprah Winfrey, the television chat show queen, and Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer.

For all the abuse she endured as an underprepared vice-presidential candidate who knew more about skinning moose than resolving Middle Eastern conflict, Palin continues to excite Republican voters enthralled by what they see as a unique political style that could one day put paid to Obama.

Alaska State Trooper union: Johnston drug arrest delayed for political reasons. (Think Progress)
The Anchorage Daily News reports that the December 18 arrest of the mother of Levi Johnston for the sale of prescription drugs was delayed because of Johnston’s relationship with Bristol Palin during Gov. Sarah Palin’s vice presidential candidacy… While the Palin administration is disputing the union’s claims, the union tells the Daily News that it verified Young’s characterization “with the entire drug unit, with all of our members.”

George H. W. Bush: I’d like to see Jeb elected president. (Think Progress)
This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked former President George H.W. Bush about the possibility of his son, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, running for Senate. The former president expressed his hope that Jeb would run and then told Wallace that he’d ultimately like to see Jeb elected president… In an apparent reference to the current President Bush’s unpopularity, H. W. Bush then joked, “I mean, right now is probably a bad time. We’ve had enough Bushs in there.”
Click through to watch the video.

First Lady Signs Book Deal (Political Wire)
First lady Laura Bush “has sealed a deal worth millions with Scribner to publish a memoir that will encompass her recollections of personal and historical moments, including her eight years in the White House,” the AP reports. “Books by recent first ladies, including Laura Bush’s mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, have had more dependable commercial appeal than those by former presidents.”

The Defense of Marriage Act must go (by Bob Barr)
The author of the federal Defense of Marriage Act now thinks it’s time for his law to get the boot — but for political reasons, not in support of gays.
Political reasons. Shocking.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Consistent with Fox pattern, Chris Wallace used terminology favored by Employee Free Choice Act opponents

• Guilty: Coulter’s latest book filled with falsehoods

• Is NBC going to help Coulter sell this book?

• Wall Street Journal failed to report that DOJ report called Gonzales’ testimony on U.S. attorney firings “not true”

• MilitaryTimes.com article claiming poll respondents are “[w]ary about Obama” did not note poll was based on voluntary responses [Aren’t ALL polls based on voluntary responses?  Do other polls tie people down to make them answer the questions?]

HOW TO: Track the Israel Gaza Conflict Using Social Media (Mashable)
As the conflict continues in Gaza, where do you turn for up to the minute information? If you’re like us, you want a mix of information from traditional media outlets and social media sites alike. You probably already know about Twitter Search, but are you using custom searches, social searches, grabbing RSS feeds, looking at the aggregate view, or having alerts delivered to you? If you need a little help tracking news as it develops, use this post to find a few quick tips and tactics

Iraqi Station Rebuts U.S. Account of Employee’s Shooting
BAGHDAD The employer of an Iraqi television producer shot and wounded by U.S. troops on New Year’s Day disputed the military’s assertion Saturday that she had acted suspiciously and had failed to heed warnings before the troops opened fire.

China targets big websites in Internet crackdown
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has launched a crackdown against major websites that officials accused of threatening morals by spreading pornography and vulgarity, including the dominant search engines Google and Baidu.

Kevin Martin – The Exit Interview The outgoing FCC chairman looks back on his hits and misses
Kevin Martin is scheduled to preside over his last meeting as FCC chairman on Jan. 15. As Martin prepares to exit that post with the changing of the political guard in Washington, he talks exclusively toB&C’s John Eggerton about his successes and defeats, and defends a regulatory approach that ticked off cable big-time and occasionally had fellow commissioners taking their shots at policies and processes.

The Next Great Media War (by Larry Kramer at the Daily Beast)
The New Year’s Eve drama between Time Warner Cable and Viacom was the opening salvo in what promises to be a long and brutal battle for the future of our major media companies. It’s media’s version of the Hatfields and McCoys: Content vs. Distribution. Who should make more money?

Digg This, HuffPo: What’s $200 Million Divided by 2009 Reality? (by Simon Dumenco, Advertising Age)
What if the privately held Huffington Post is worth not $200 million — a cracked-out number floated last year — or even $100 million, but, say, $2 mil?… “[T]he site collected just $302,000 in ad revenue, according to an estimate from TNS Media Intelligence.”… Back in 1999, you may remember, Salon seemed like maybe it was the future of publishing… [A]s of last week, a single share of Salon was going for about 35 cents. With 2 million shares outstanding, that gives Salon a market cap of $700,000…

Now, HuffPo’s traffic is bigger than Salon’s. Quantcast estimates 1.9 million monthly U.S. uniques for Salon vs. 7.5 million monthly U.S. uniques for the Huffington Post. Then again, to its credit, Salon had $1.98 million in revenue in its quarter ending Sept. 30 (that revenue wasn’t enough to offset expenses, though, and Salon reported a $1.28 million loss to the SEC). So traffic aside, why give HuffPo a higher valuation? Two reasons:

1. Because master self-promoter Arianna Huffington inspired a “Simpsons” character last year; that’s gotta be worth something…
2. Because, unlike Salon, which (naively, old-fashionedly) pays for its content, HuffPo has an ethically questionable content-generation scheme: It doesn’t pay most of its bloggers at all. Worse, it sometimes even lifts content wholesale from other sites that do pay for their own content…

Now maybe the Huffington Post could be worth more if it further cut its burn rate. For instance, rather than not pay its bloggers, it could charge them — for the privilege of getting to help maintain the jetsetting lifestyle of the Great Arianna, of course. As for some of the people the site does pay, like its tech staff? Those jobs could be offshored to, I dunno, Third World child labor. If HuffPo takes such steps, I could see the site being worth maybe $4 mil.
Click through for Dumenco’s conjecture on how the $200 million figure came to be publicized.

Blurb! (by Jeff Jarvis)
I don’t intend to quote every review What Would Google Do? gets but I can’t resist this one from Michelle Archer in USA Today, short and sweet: “…There’s something for everyone in What Would Google Do? For newbies still struggling to comprehend the Internet, Jarvis puts it in context. For floundering industries, Jarvis suggests reforms via Google’s philosophy or strategies employed by entities such as Facebook and About.com. And for people and groups hoping to launch the next big Google, Jarvis takes a page from Craigslist’s Craig Newmark: Make something useful, help people use it and then get out of the way.”

At the Folger Library, Old News With Timely Relevance
When John Taylor, a bargeman and alehouse keeper turned journalist, published an edition of his Mercurius Aquaticus in 1643, he included a complete reprint of a rival paper, the Mercurius Britanicus — followed by a point-by-point smackdown of its contents. This was “fisking,” 17th-century-style: a form of argument beloved by bloggers who cut-and-paste something that offends them and then interlard it with commentary.

Loose change (by Jeff Jarvis)
[Here is a letter to the editor] from the Advertiser in Louisiana…: “The article says ‘newspapers are not going away’, well The Daily Advertiser is. I’ve spent thousands advertising in The Advertiser over the the last eight years and have noticed a dramatic decline in returns from those ads. I quit advertising altogether last summer. People just don’t read the hard copy of The Advertiser any more.” Gulp. Rather than telling readers what they’re not doing anymore and where they’re moving this and that – here’s where you’ll find that vital Sudoku and horoscope! – it might be better for papers to say what they aredoing. How about just saying: If it’s local, it’s here, if it’s not, it’s not. And how about saying: If you want depth and currency and conversation and more, go online.

The Times to Sell Display Ads on the Front Page
Faced with declining advertising revenue, The Times joins many other newspapers across the country in a break with tradition.

Publishers to Keep Bidding High on New Books
Publishing companies are continuing to employ a blockbuster strategy. They make outsized investments to acquire and market a small number of titles with strong hit potential, and bank on their sales to make up for middling performance in the rest of their catalogs.

The New Austerity in Publishing
For decades the New York publishing world promised a romantic life of fancy lunches, sparkling parties, sophisticated banter, and trips to spots like the Caribbean to pitch books to sales representatives. But that cushy schmooze fest seems to be winding down.

Google Hopes to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books
Google’s book search may allow writers to make money from titles that have been out of commercial circulation for years.

Prominent Magazines Lose Weight, Shedding Nearly Half Their Ads
In terms of ad pages, it was an ugly month for Condé Nast magazines.

A Five-Year Summary of Annual Ad Pages at Major Mags
After an economically horrific 2008, here’s a look at the past five years (2004-2008) review of monthly magazines’ advertising pages and revenues. This annual review has been produced almost as far back as MIN’s 1947 launch.

RIAA dumps evidence-gathering firm
The Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company charged with gathering evidence for use against people accused of illegally sharing copyrighted music, according to a report Sunday in The Wall Street Journal.

Universal Sells Rogue for $150 Million
The sale of Rogue Pictures, a maker and distributor of lower-cost films, to Relativity Media signifies further reordering in Hollywood’s specialty movie business.

A fat Christmas (ratings) goose.
Once again the all-Christmas format delivered like Saint Nick last month. Nowhere is that more evident than in Detroit where AC WNIC moved from 11th to 1st rocketing into double-digit shares (4.5-11.0). December PPM ratings from 14 markets show most stations playing Christmas music saw big gains.

Digital TV subsidy program running out of money
The Feb. 17 transition from analog to digital television broadcasts looms and as many as 8 million households are still unprepared, but the government program that subsidizes crucial TV converter boxes is about to run out of money.

CBS Holds Strong in Year-End Ratings
When it comes to momentum heading into the new year, the Eye has it. One year after the writers strike disrupted development and production cycles, the broadcast networks don’t seem to have recovered as a group. While CBS is doing just fine, the Big Four have ceded more ground to cable.

Broadcast Networks Face Identity Crisis (by Brian Steinberg , Advertising Age)
A world without NBC or CBS in their current form? The notion would have been laughable just a decade ago. Now it seems inevitable. Even Leslie Moonves, the CBS Corp. CEO who is one of the most vocal proponents of broadcast TV, suggested change is on the way to how broadcast networks operate. Speaking at [a recent] conference, he hinted that the traditional relationship of broadcasting content through a variety of local TV stations and affiliates may not be as strong in years to come.

CNN Gets Buzz It Wants (if Not the Way It Wants) (by Brian Stelter, New York Times)
Resembling MTV more than a cable news network, CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage included an eyebrow-raising performance by comedian Kathy Griffin.

Cable Flips Channel on Public Access TV
For decades, public access programming on cable television has provided a virtually free forum for community activists and aspiring entertainers, for preening star wannabes as well as serious-minded political watchdogs. But across California that forum began crumbling last week.

Idaho churches stream services online
New technologies, some developed for scandalous endeavors, have helped churches in the Treasure Valley and around the world grow by video streaming worship services and sermons to multiple meeting places and far-flung viewers each week.

ForeignPolicy.com gets a makeover
[R]oughly 20 new writers are coming aboard in a variety of individual and group blogs, as the website goes for a more contemporary design and broader mission, borrowing at times from the playbooks of Slate, Politico and The Atlantic in creating a more dynamic site. 

Are Paid Online Dating Sites Dead? (Mashable)
A recent launch suggests that the web’s love affair with paid dating sites may be coming to an end. DowntoEarth is a new, completely free dating site with an interesting pedigree: according to DowntoEarth’s Privacy Policy, this new, free entrant is “part of the IAC/InterActiveCorp family of businesses.” IAC, of course, acquired Match.com in 1999, and is also behind Match.com’s spin-off site Chemistry.com. Despite its success with paid dating, then, IAC is testing the waters with a free model.

Wikipedia to stay free as readers rush to the rescue
Christmas appeal by founder raises $6m to save site from adverts and charges

‘ItzaBitza’ brings kids’ drawings to life as they learn
ItzaBitza, a new computer game for the PC, offers an exciting new way for kids to play on the computer while learning to read and exploring their creativity.

Ads to Go Leaner, Meaner in ‘09
With U.S. ad spending expected to fall 6.2% to $161.8 billion this year, marketers and ad firms will be forced to do more with less, say advertising gurus. Evidence that marketers wanted ads to work harder began appearing last year as the economy slipped. Brands such as Microsoft, Burger King, Campbell Soup and Dunkin’ Donuts took direct aim at their competitors, a marketing technique deployed more frequently in a downturn. 

Famous Twitter Users Get Hacked; Who’s to Blame? (Mashable)
Twitter is being blindsided today by a new wave of attacks, this time involving the takeover of the accounts of prominent users. Barack Obama, Britney Spears, CNN’s Rick Sanchez, Fox News, and Facebook’s official accounts are amongst those that have been targeted thus far, with each sending out an obviously fake message ranging from explicit comments to ads for online scams.

Top 10 Free iPhone Apps to Lose Weight (Mashable)
Even if you didn’t make a resolution to lose weight this year, you probably have some fitness goals you would like to achieve in the new year. To help, we’ve put together a list of the top 10 free iPhone apps to help you lose weight and get into shape. From calorie trackers to fitness tutorials, you can find pretty much anything you could ever want for managing your diet, weight, and fitness goals — best of all, they’re all free. Now you have no more excuses. Download one or more of these apps and get going. Here’s to staying motivated in 2009!

Craigsphone puts craigslist classifieds on your phone
There was a time in which my entire living room was furnished by craigslist, the online classifieds site where you can find everything from furnishings to jobs to that special someone who happened to catch your eye on the subway the other morning. Craigsphone from Next Mobile Web promises to deliver that service to your iPhone or iPod touch, with a mobile interface for the popular online classifieds service.

Classic games find new life on iPhone
Dozens of once-popular console, computer and arcade games are now playable on Apple’s trendy smart phone, and take advantage of the device’s signature features: touch-screen display, built-in accelerometer (motion sensor) and online connectivity.

LG Adds a Direct Internet Link to a Line of HDTVs
A partnership with Netflix will bring access to the 12,000 films and shows in its Watch Instantly library.

Stung By Blu-Ray, And Yet, No One Cares (Paid Content)
A year since HD DVD conceded defeat at last CES, Blu-Ray and its backers will be touting their so-called success at this year’s CES, but the reality is far from it. As numbers point out, very few consumers know about Blu-Ray, and those who do still do not see enough value for the premium. As NYT points out…, “Going from the whirring VCRs of yore to a DVD player was a big leap in picture quality and convenience, while the jump from DVD to Blu-ray is subtler, at least for those who do not have the latest and largest high-definition televisions.” With the economy being what it is, the march towards HDTVs has also slowed down. Plus the inevitable march towards HD downloads online put the future of physical media, HD or not, in jeopardy.

Dolby makes push to bring 3-D home
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Dolby Laboratories Inc, a company best known for its audio technology, is now targeting one of the most buzzed-about areas in video: bringing digital 3-D entertainment to the home.

Lenovo Brings Wii Functionality to PCs
Taking a page from Nintendo’s Wii gaming console, Lenovo on Monday announced an all-in-one PC with a remote control that doubles as a motion-based gaming controller.