Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Sorry to have abandoned you for the last week.  I needed to take some time off.  Sometimes I get so discouraged that I just can’t make myself do the day’s research.  I’ve spent almost eight and a half years tirelessly promoting the work of others, with almost no return.  It’s just too much to handle sometimes.

Their turn to protest.  I wonder if they were kept out of the president’s view, as the Bush protesters were.
More than 500 protest Obama’s arrival (East Valley Tribune)
Presidential protesters made their voices heard in chants and signs Wednesday outside Dobson High School… They held their signs up high: “Don’t tread on me,” “Spend all you want, I’ll pick up the tab,” “I’ll keep my freedom! You keep the change!” “Free fertility drugs now.” And “B.O. smells and so does Socialism.”

GOP governors consider turning down stimulus money (AP)
A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment. Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, health care and infrastructure, the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will even help the economy.
Turn down the money.  Uh huh.

Kit Bond Touts Effects Of Stimulus Bill He Voted Against (Think Progress)
Last week, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) slammed President Obama’s recovery and reinvestment plan… “Unfortunately, this bill stimulates the debt, it stimulates the growth of government, but it doesn’t stimulate jobs,” Bond insisted. However, [this week] Bond is touring Missouri to tout the very stimulus plan he railed against. In a press release, Bond boasted about an amendment he included in the bill to provide more funding for affordable housing — and that will create jobs… Bond is not alone in trying to reap the political benefits both from voting against the bill and from bringing much needed funding to his district.

Assumptions (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
WaPo’s Michael Shear…: “Because the Republicans largely abandoned the stimulus bill, the Democrats are the ones that will own it — for good or ill.”… Democrats may “own” the stimulus, but Republicans share ownership of the fact that it wasn’t bigger.  If the stimulus doesn’t work, and insufficient spending turns out to be the reason, Republicans will own a large share of the blame.
Yes, but what the American people believe about who may be at fault depends almost entirely on what’s said by the media mavens who are constitutionally predisposed to blame Democrats for everything that’s bad, and to praise Republicans at all times.

Insufficient Boldness (by Simon Johnson, a Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, writing at The New Republic)
[A] definite advantage of [Obama’s homeowner rescue] plan is that it should help unblock the problem of securitization trusts. Housing loans that were “bundled” together into mortgage-backed securities have been hard to restructure, because no one has clear authority to negotiate on behalf of thousands of dispersed investors… The Obama plan is certainly better than the inaction that preceded it, and it signals that some unproductive ideology has quietly dropped away. Unfortunately, it feels like being vaccinated only after already contracting a disease; you would much rather be offered a potential cure. That cure would be expensive–particularly if it involved more money to support the modification of non-Fannie/Freddie mortgages–and it might not work. But there is little to be gained at this stage from being insufficiently bold.

A Step in the Right Direction (by James Kwak at Baseline Scenario
I agree that the main concern is that the plan does not go far enough. This is because the main proposal for struggling homeowners is to provide cash incentives to lenders… So I think that the Obama team has to be ready to sweeten the pot later – or take other, more aggressive measures – if this plan does not have the desired effect. Of course, if they were going to do that, they wouldn’t announce it now (because you don’t want lenders just to hold out for the next round of larger bonuses). So maybe that is the plan. But on balance I think most of what is in the plan is helpful. If only it had come, say, twelve months ago.

Recovery.gov (Political Wire)
The Obama administration set up a web site to show how the economic stimulus money is spent, state-by-state.

Obama Allies Launch New Ad Touting Stim Package As “First Step On Road To Recovery” (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
A Democratic operative sends over the new ad that Obama’s allies on the left — AFSCME and the labor-backed Americans United for Change — have just launched touting the benefits of the stimulus package President Obama signed… The ad touts the stim package as “the first step on the road to recovery.” This forward-looking formulation is yet another reminder that the political war over the package is only just starting. In the months ahead, Obama and Dems will be working to solidify public perceptions that the bill is righting the economy, while Republicans try to cast it as failing.
Click through to watch the ad.  We’re on the right track with ads like this, but it may not be enough.  The right wingers are way ahead of us in outlets and spokespersons, some of whom will lie and make hugely inaccurate comparisons to demean their opponents.  See below.

Fox & Friends asks: “Are we headed towards Socialism?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hannity declares recovery bill “a liberal hijacking of the American way of life” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Special Report takes a “fair and balanced look” at whether the recovery plan is “socialism” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Doocy claims “administration is talking down the economy” so that “anything up is up” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Cunningham suggests Obama should “resign the Presidency” if stimulus fails (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Right.  The way Bush did when we saw that there were no WMDs in Iraq.

Michelle Malkin takes photo with man holding swastika Obama sign (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
The man with the sign isn’t professing his affinity for Nazis.  He isn’t even identifying himself as a Nazi.  The swastika in question has a circle around it forming an O and the rest of the sign reads “BAMA”.  Get it?  Obama is a Nazi.

Stop the Democratic Suicide (by Michael Lind, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
[T]he Obama administration has seemed more concerned with reassuring Wall Street that it will be protected against Main Street hotheads than in disciplining Wall Street on behalf of Main Street Americans who have lost jobs, homes, and savings… Given the opportunity, Republicans can once again tap a reservoir of resentment… By stigmatizing Great Society programs as special-interest giveaways, the Republicans built an alliance of conservatives and populists that marginalized liberalism and governed America for a generation. Don’t think that they can’t do it again.
At least we have a few more people fighting back now.  See below.

Jewish group rips Washington Times for invoking Nazism (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Aaron Keyak of the National Jewish Democratic Council assails the Washington Times for invoking Nazism in an editorial critical of health care provisions in President Obama’s economic recovery plan.  

Shuster gives GOP ad on “Democrats’ Wasteful Spending Bill” an “F on the facts” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

MSNBC’s Carlos Watson tells Scarborough that Scarborough and Limbaugh “made it difficult” for stimulus bill to be bipartisan (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Fed Leaders Issue Bleak Forecast (Washington Post)
It could take years for the nation to fully bounce back from the recession, according to new projections by leaders of the Federal Reserve, who indicated that even once the economy starts expanding again, it will be an “unusually gradual and prolonged” recovery.

“Worst Is Yet to Come:” Americans Standard of Living Permanently Changed (Tech Ticker, Yahoo Finance)
There’s no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment. But “the worst is yet to come,” according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, who believes American’s standard of living is undergoing a “permanent change” – and not for the better as a result of:

     • An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
     • A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
     • A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid “exploding unemployment”, leading to “exploding bankruptcies.”

“The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car,” Davidowitz says. “A lot of that is gone.”

And Now Homeowners (by Robert Reich)
The two most important features of the administration’s plan to help homeowners are (1) its support for amending bankruptcy laws to allow judges to modify mortgages. This will give homeowners bargaining leverage with mortgage servicers (and give the servicers more leverage with securitized creditors on up the line) to get better terms; and (2) a massive expansion of the government’s commitment to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — allowing F&F to buy more mortgages by increasing the government’s guarantee against losses to $400 billion

Mortgaged Home, Sweet Mortgaged Home (by dakinikat at The Confluence)
Obama announced more details on his bailout plan that was focused more on borrowers instead of the lenders.  He released a four page fact sheet here… The bill is supposed to help s many as 9 million households in fending off foreclosures:
• Allows 4 million–5 million homeowners to refinance via government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Establishes $75 billion fund to reduce homeowners’ monthly payments.
• Develops uniform rules for loan modifications across the mortgage industry.
• Bolsters Fannie and Freddie by buying more of their shares.
• Allows Fannie and Freddie to hold $900 billion in mortgage-backed securities — a $50 billion increase

Housing repair (The Economist, U.K.)
By itself, the plan is unlikely to turn the tide. In combination with the stimulus, the bank rescue, and the collapse in home construction, it has a chance. Still, what would have been really nice to see would have been a comprehensive plan to get borrowers out of ownership without forcing them into bankruptcy or rushing waves of new foreclosures to market—an own-to-rent programme, for instance. Defaults are an immediate concern, but for the long-term health of the economy, lingering debt is going to be an issue. If foreclosure rates slow, but households continue to battle to get their heads above water by drastically cutting spending to pay down debt, recovery will be a long time coming.

Citi closes near 52-week low, housing plan falls flat (MarketWatch)
Citigroup shares fell about 14% on Thursday and ended near a 52-week low, pacing broad declines among banks and financial stocks as investors remained dubious of a series of unprecedented government plans to reinvigorate the nation’s economy and financial system.

Flashback: Just Days Ago, Conservative Lawmakers Said It Was ‘Essential’ To ‘Go Right At The Housing Problem’ (Think Progress)
During the congressional debate over the economic recovery package, Republican lawmakers voiced their opposition to the bill by complaining that it did not focus on housing. For instance, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who voted against the economic recovery bill, said: “…We have a lot of problems, but we need to fix the underlying cancer, and that is the housing crisis.”… [But] House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) signaled his opposition to Obama’s housing plan before even seeing the details of the legislation. Will his fellow conservatives follow in his footsteps and soon forget their concerns about the addressing the “root cause” of the economic crisis?

Limbaugh dubs Obama’s housing plan the “Rezko Rescue Plan” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Obama’s housing plan: The Michelle Malkin critique (by Andrew Leonard at How the World Works, Salon)
Just a few days ago, Republican politicians were criticizing Obama’s stimulus plan by observing that the root problem facing the economy was the housing crisis. But on Wednesday, they smoothly switched to criticizing Obama’s housing plan because any relief for homeowners runs the risk of rewarding people who don’t deserve help. Republicans, reported the Wall Street Journal Wednesday afternoon, are “wary that the plan would benefit homeowners who made rash decisions or committed fraud to obtain their mortgage.”…

Malkin’s prescription is the so-called suck-it-up strategy. Do nothing, and housing prices will eventually fall to their proper floor. Only then can a true recovery get under way. She doesn’t appear to entertain the possibility that inaction could lead to a disastrous “overshoot” in which housing prices fall far below whatever the “appropriate” price should be, leading to vast financial misfortune for millions of people who never took out a dodgy subprime loan or attempted to flip a house or mislead a mortgage lender as to their finances… It might seem ridiculous to take a bomb thrower like Michelle Malkin seriously, but go ahead, turn on Fox News and start counting the number of times you hear the word “socialism” in a single day. That’s their story, and they are sticking to it.

What planet does Greg Mankiw live on? (by lambert at Corrente)
Not planet Earth: “I certainly do not want the government deciding who deserves credit and who does not, what kind of investments are worthy of financing and what kind are not. That is a big step toward crony capitalism, where the politically connected get the goodies, and economic stagnation awaits the rest of us.” Last I checked, real wages have been flat for thirty years, and the average American is poorer today than in 2001. Meanwhile, Hank Paulson hands his golfing buddies two trillion dollars, and we still don’t know where it went. And it looks like the Pentagon looted their own billions from Iraq. And that’s before we get Halliburton.
Crony capitalism? CRONY CAPITALISM????!!!!!!!!!!  After all these years of shoveling money into the pockets of the already rich at the expense of the rest of us?  But this is typical for right wingers.  Whatever nefarious thing they’re doing, they accuse others of doing.

Fucking Raping You to Death: The Real Fun Begins (by Arthur Silber at the Power of Narrative)
Now, we get to serious payback time for the ruling class. You don’t know what real pain is yet. It’s almost certain we’ll all find out very, very soon. Michael Hudson: “The Obama bank bailout is arranged much like an IMF loan to support the exchange rate of foreign currency, but with the Treasury supporting financial asset prices for U.S. banks and other financial institutions…” Mike Whitney: “In truth, Geithner did us all a big favor on Tuesday by exposing himself as a stooge of the banking industry. Now everyone can see that the banks are working the deal from the inside…”

Needless to say, none of our leading commentators (or leading bloggers) will spell this out for you in the way Hudson and Whitney do. That’s because all such “authorities” are propagandists for this corporatist system… So who are you going to believe? The ignorant and/or lying voices of the system that’s killing you…, or your own lying eyes? Most Americans have never chosen to credit their own eyes, since that would require independence and courage unknown to them. So they willingly blind themselves and enthusiastically embrace what they regard as their own stupidity. “Oh, it’s so complicated!,” they whine. “We have to trust the experts!”

The Geithner delay (by Paul Krugman)
The WaPo reports that Tim Geithner realized late in the day that the approaches to financial rescue originally developed by the Obama team weren’t workable — hence the vagueness of last week’s announcement. In a way, that’s encouraging: we were spared Hankie Pankie II. But it’s a bit alarming that it took so long for the team to figure out the problems — and that they apparently spent a long time going down a route that led to a dead end. Many of these issues had been hashed out in public discussion last fall, when Paulson made his play… So what the WaPo report seems to suggest is a worrisome insularity. Geithner and Summers are smart guys — but they need to get out more.

Bernanke: Nationalizing banks, if it’s necessary, won’t last long (McClatchy)
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that there would be drawbacks to the federal government nationalizing banks and the Obama administration remained committed to “return them to private hands” quickly if nationalization became necessary.

GM, Chrysler seek more gov’t aid, to cut more jobs (AP)
General Motors and Chrysler said Tuesday their request for federal aid ballooned to a staggering $39 billion — only months after receiving billions in loans — in new plans that envision massive job losses and intense restructuring to survive a deepening recession.

For media elites, their class slip is showing (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Headline from ABC News…: “More Billions for GM, Chrysler? Auto Beggars to D.C.” We’re having trouble remembering headlines that have depicted Wall Street bankers as “beggars” when they lobbied from government bailout help. Then again, in recent months the press has been pretty open about its contempt for middle class autoworkers.

WSJ Examines Workers’ Uphill Battles In Federal Courts (American Constitution Society)
The Wall Street Journal today reports on job-discrimination cases in the federal courts, highlighting a recent study published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review (HLPR), the official journal of ACS. The study by Stewart Schwab, dean of the Cornell Law School, and Kevin Clermont, a Cornell Law School professor, finds that “the federal courts disfavor employment discrimination plaintiffs, who are now forswearing use of those courts.” The Journal article notes, “A battery of recent studies show that employees who sue over discrimination lose at a higher rate in federal court than other types of plaintiffs.”

Orszag Emerges as Key Player (Political Wire)
Budget director Peter Orszag’s “emergence as a central figure and key negotiator in the Obama’s economic policy team has come as a bit of a surprise to watchers of the administration,” Politico reports. Of his work on the economic stimulus bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “In my mind if there is hero in all of this it is Peter Orszag. He was wonderful.”… “Now Orszag is preparing for the biggest week of his career, with a ‘fiscal responsibility’ summit Monday and the release of Obama’s first budget Thursday. He’s signaling that the moves in the stimulus package are just a hint of what to come in a budget that will begin in earnest the arduous process of health care reform.”

The Gathering Storm: Social Security. (by campskunk at Alegre’s Corner)
Obama packed his economic adviser team with people like Jeffery Liebman, a Social Security privatizer, and Peter Orszag, who’s been proposing benefit cuts and similar major changes to the basic structure of Social Security… Orszag has his grubby mitts on the wheels of government already. He’ll be writing the Social Security “reform” proposal the administration will be presenting at the February 23 “fiscal responsibility summit”, which will conveniently short-circuit congressional deliberation of this matter by creating a commission  that will draft and present the legislation for a no-amendments-allowed, up or down vote. Obama huddled with 44 blue-dog Democrats this week to line up support for this already.

Jane Hamsher has recovered from her swoon enough to start a ruckus on this topic… And Digby is coming around, too. Remember how she got scared by the venom of the Obama internet police… Digby’s got her courage back, and her post [Tuesday] is worth quoting, as usual… “…They must be thinking that they can either buy cooperation from wingnuts (a losing proposition) or that they need to appease certain moneyed interests, which is just frightening.”… This is no time for niceties. I’m never going to vote for anyone who supports this POS raid on the Social Security trust fund… Rigging the caucuses and the RBC may have worked last year, but it isn’t going to save the people who vote for this travesty.

Stop Baby Boomer Bashing: Protect Social Security and Medicare (by Dean Baker)
Given the massive loss of wealth incurred by the baby boom cohorts that are nearing retirement, it would be reasonable to think that President Obama and Congress are trying to develop plans to ensure that they can still enjoy a secure retirement. In fact, the opposite appears to be the case. There are reports President Obama is considering establishing tasks to examine Social Security and Medicare with an eye toward making cuts in both programs… The idea of taking away Social Security benefits from baby boomers was always outrageous. After all, this is a generation that has paid into Social Security at the current 12.4 percent tax rate for almost their entire working life and will be forced to wait until age 66 or even 67 to get full benefits. Their average returns are projected to be lower than the generations that follow and far lower than the generations that preceded them.

Big Unions Unlikely To Fight House Dem Leadership’s Slow-Down Of Employee Free Choice (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
The big labor unions are unlikely to fight a decision by the House Democratic leadership to defer to the Blue Dog Dems in the House and let the Senate vote first on the Employee Free Choice Act, I’m told by several senior labor officials… The House Dem leadership’s perspective is irking some labor officials, because they’d hoped for the House to pass a strong version up front, and because letting the Senate go first could push back the bill’s timing. But instead of fighting the decision, labor officials are saying they’ll almost certainly accept it.
Yep, we’ve got to satisfy those Blue Dogs, no matter how many people suffer.

America on $195 a Week (by Sasha Abramsky, whose new book, Breadline USA, is due out in May from PoliPoint Press, writing at Mother Jones)
In essence, the nation’s biggest employers of unskilled labor often leave workers having to feed from the public trough. In 2004, a year in which Wal-Mart reported $9.1 billion in profits, the retailer’s California employees collected $86 million in public assistance, according to researchers at the University of California-Berkeley. Other studies have revealed widespread use of publicly funded health care by Wal-Mart employees in numerous states. In 2004, Democratic staffers of the House education and workforce committee calculated that each 200-employee Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers an average of more than $400,000 a year, based on entitlements ranging from energy-assistance grants to Medicaid to food stamps to WIC—the federal program that provides food to low-income women with children.

Supporting Our (Closeted) Troops (American Constitution Society)
Since being enacted in 1994, over 12,500 lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel have been discharged from the U.S. military for their sexual orientation… Under the Clinton-era Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, military recruiters and authorities are banned from asking about a soldier’s sexual identify. However, soldiers are required to hide their sexual orientation from public view unless they are heterosexual… While on the campaign trail, then Sen. Obama pledged to end gay discrimination in the military. However, more recent indications have been that Pres. Obama is in no rush to put this policy to rest.

Obama’s War on Terror May Resemble Bush’s in Some Areas (New York Times)
In little-noticed confirmation testimony recently, Obama nominees endorsed continuing the C.I.A.’s program of transferring prisoners to other countries without legal rights, and indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects without trials even if they were arrested far from a war zone. The administration has also embraced the Bush legal team’s arguments that a lawsuit by former C.I.A. detainees should be shut down based on the “state secrets” doctrine… These and other signs suggest that the administration’s changes may turn out to be less sweeping than many had hoped or feared — prompting growing worry among civil liberties groups and a sense of vindication among supporters of Bush-era policies.

Obama’s Top Lawyer Says Obama Doesn’t Want To “Weaken” Presidency (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
President Obama’s top lawyer, White House counsel Gregory Craig…, addressing the question of whether the Obama White House will uphold Karl Rove’s claims of executive privilege as he seeks to avoid revealing information about the scandal surrounding the firing of U.S. Attorneys, said this: “The president is very sympathetic to those who want to find out what happened. But he is also mindful as president of the United States not to do anything that would undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency.”… That seems to signal at least the possibility that the Obama team will buy into the Bush team’s framing of the issue, which is to paint any “weakening” of the Presidency — even one that rolls back Bush’s expansions of executive power — as automatically undesirable and something that “undermines” the Presidency.

Obama’s embrace of Bush/Cheney “terrorism policies” (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
If — as virtually all Bush critics agree — the Bush presidency ushered in a massive and dangerous expansion of executive power, isn’t it necessary, by definition, to scale back some of those powers – i.e., to “undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency” — if those abuses are to be reversed?… A genuine reversal of the last eight years — meaning something more than just sand-papering the roughest edges — will come not from having a kinder-hearted and more magnanimous leader, but only from a restoration of the legal and Constitutional framework that makes a President’s magnanimity irrelevant, since his powers are exercised transparently and with real checks and limits.

Obama sending 17,000 troops to Afghanistan (AFP)
President Barack Obama approved the deployment of 17,000 more US troops toAfghanistan, a surge in numbers promptly welcomed by the Kabul government Wednesday as it battles a Taliban insurgency.

U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Says Troop Level of 60,000 Will Be Needed for 3 to 4 Years (Washington Post)
The United States will have to keep about 60,000 troops in Afghanistan for at least the next three to four years to combat an increasingly violent insurgency, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said yesterday, warning that 2009 will be “a tough year.”

US to press allies for more Afghanistan troops (AFP)
The administration of President Barack Obama will expect NATO allies to up troop levels in Afghanistan ahead of elections there in August, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Wednesday.

A ‘fraud’ bigger than Madoff (by Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, U.K.)
In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff’s notorious Ponzi scheme. “I believe the real looting of Iraq after the invasion was by US officials and contractors, and not by people from the slums of Baghdad,” said one US businessman active in Iraq since 2003.
Joe Cannon reminds us that General Petraeus supervised the “reconstruction” project.

Investment Manager Stanford Was Big-Time Campaign Contributor (Capital Eye)
Between its PAC and its employees, Stanford Financial Group has given $2.4 million to federal candidates (including both candidate committees and leadership PACs), parties and committees since 1989, with 65 percent of that going to Democrats. Stanford and his wife, Susan, have given $931,100 out of their own pockets, with 78 percent going to Democrats… Stanford Financial Group has spent a total of $4.8 million on lobbying efforts since 1999, primarily on issues related to money laundering, financial services and banking. Last year the firm’s lobbying spiked by more than 300 percent, totaling $2.2 million, by far the most it has ever reported spending.

Stanford paid for Sen. Cornyn’s ‘travel expenses’ to Caribbean. (Think Progress)
Texas financier Allen Stanford was recently accused by the SEC of engaging in “massive, ongoing fraud” at his Houston investment firm. Bloomberg notes that Stanford “cultivated his image by shuttling politicians in corporate jets.” One politician he was particularly close to was Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)… Cornyn has issued a response to the revelations: “No one is above the law and prosecutors should follow the facts, wherever they may lead.” Stanford contributed heavily to former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), the Bush Inaugural Committee, and a host of other prominent leaders of both parties.

Earmark Scandal Breaking (Political Wire)
There’s a potentially big story brewing on Capitol Hill…  Apparently 104 members of Congress of both parties — 42 Republicans and 62 Democrats — secured earmarks for a lobbying firm linked to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) in a single bill. The earmarks were inserted in a bill Murtha controlled as the defense appropriations subcommittee chairman. The firm’s executives and clients are among Murtha’s biggest sources of campaign contributions. 

Siegelman To White House Counsel: Don’t Compromise With Rove (by Sam Stein at The Huffington Post)
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who was arrested on corruption charges alleged to be politically-motivated, offered a critical reaction to news that Obama’s chief counsel, Greg Craig, was considering cutting a deal with Rove in exchange for his testimony.

“This is not a matter involving civil damages. It is a matter of high crimes, abuse of power, the subversion of our country’s constitution and of our individual rights and liberties,” Siegelman wrote the Huffington Post. “There should be no deal cut with Karl Rove that would provide him with any immunity whatsoever. There is too much at stake. U.S. Attorneys were fired because they wouldn’t take on political cases and the DOJ was used as a political weapon to destroy people Karl Rove wanted out of the way. For Rove not to be held accountable means others in the future will feel more free to abuse power.

Deal for Rove? (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
No way. Call Conyers at 202-225-5126.

What Could Holder be Thinking (by Salmo at Corrente)
The US Attorneys, including the replacements Bush/Rove installed to be good Bushies, are being asked to stay on. I’m ok with Fitzgerald for a lot of reasons. However, this includes such notables as Mary Beth Buchanan and Alice Martin. Not only are they not being investigated for possible prosecution (Martin’s role in the the Siegelman case is one of the things Conyers wants to question Rove about, for example) but they are not even being fired. The opportunity to pick up the remains of Carol Lamm’s prosecutions are being passed by; Jerry Lewis gets a pass. Politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of Democrats are ok, it seems.

Buncha Bigots (by Cinie, an African American, at The Confluence)
Eric Holder, America’s first African American Attorney General under America’s first black President, said in a speech to Department of Justice employees celebrating Black History Month, that we are a “nation of cowards“  because we don’t like to talk candidly about race.  This is wrong on so many levels… We, as a nation, have never had a Native American much of anything politically significant, either; the same is true for many other racially diverse groups.  And, as we all know, our history regarding women’s history, contributions, and employment issues, not to mention those of LGBT people living openly, and people living with disabilities, is woefully deficient… When it comes to equality and diversity, let’s all just shut up and do the damned thing.

Pat Buchanan lectures AG Holder on how to talk about race (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Barnicle, Taibbi suggest Holder was “doing bong hits” before race speech (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Scarborough “flummoxed” by Attorney General Holders’ comments about social segregation, responds “maybe we need busing instituted for church service” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Megyn Kelly: ‘Addressing Racial Ills…Strikes Fear Down The Spines Of Many Conservatives’ (Think Progress)
Part of conservatives’ “fear,” according to Kelly, is that Holder would change the DOJ’s focus on voting rights. “The Bush administration was all about voter fraud, some of the Democrats more about voter registration rights,” she said. She’s right: As former head of the DOJ’s Voting Rights section Joseph Rich detailed, under Bush the DOJ “notably shirked” its traditional duty of protecting minority voting rights… Even after Bush’s DOJ made “voter fraud” a “top priority,” between October 2002 and September 2005, just 38 cases of voter fraud were prosecuted nationally — “and of those, 14 ended in dismissals or acquittals, 11 in guilty pleas, and 13 in convictions.” Yet, according to Kelly, diverting resources to a crime that exists only in the right wing’s imagination is entirely “reasonable.”

Troubling signs from Obama’s Administration (by Anthony D. Romero at the American Civill Liberties Union)
On his first day in office, President Obama moved our nation miles ahead on the road to restoring its fundamental values by signing executive orders to close Guantanamo, halt the military commissions and end torture… Upon close reading, the executive orders contained worrisome ambiguities… President Obama must unequivocally commit to pursuing accountability for those who have authorized torture and other crimes. While his desire to move forward is understandable and necessary, it cannot be at the expense of upholding the law, which no one – not even the highest government officials – is above. Our government doesn’t get to turn society’s other cheek to admissions of torture and violations of law

Pelosi foresees prosecution of senior Bush administration officials. (Think Progress)
Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she is open to pursuing investigations of abuses by the Bush Justice Department. “I want to see the truth come forth,” she said. But in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Pelosi went a step further, saying that she believes some senior Bush officials — such as Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten, and Karl Rove — will be prosecuted… Pelosi later said that “we should have a full examination” of the Bush administration’s alleged crimes, adding that what Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) “is putting forward, in terms of a truth-and-reconciliation committee, has always been helpful. It was helpful in South Africa, [and] it was helpful in Rwanda.”

E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide (New York Times)
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials… The environmental agency is under order from the Supreme Court to make a determination whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare, an order that the Bush administration essentially ignored despite near-unanimous belief among agency experts that research points inexorably to such a finding.

A Source of Energy Hiding in Plain Sight (Yale University)
Imagine an energy resource so revolutionary it could improve energy security, strengthen the economy and protect the environment simultaneously. This resource is widely abundant in the United States and, according to some studies, offers more potential than any other known resource. It’s commercially available, ready to be utilized without the need for subsidies or further research. It could provide thousands of high-paying jobs and does not need to be drilled, dug or drained out of the earth… This resource is energy efficiency.

14,000: Number of Americans losing health coverage each day. (Think Progress)
Since spring 2007, 3.5 million Americans have lost their health benefits and are now uninsured. And while the stimulus begins to address the skyrocketing health costs and lack of access to coverage, the ranks of the uninsured will only grow as the recession persists. In fact, according to a forthcoming analysis by The Wonk Room’s James Kvaal and Ben Furnas, approximately 14,000 people a day are losing their health coverage:

Obama May Talk About Health Care During Big Prime-Time Speech (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
President Obama may make health care a theme of the big prime-time speech he’s making next Tuesday about the major challenges facing this country, Obama aides confirm to me. This could be a big deal, particularly if Obama uses the high-visibility speech (which will be made before Congress) to press the case that health care reform is essential to righting our economy. The news comes amid other signs that Obama is moving on health care. [See below.]
Ah, so THAT’s why American Idol is on Wednesday and Thursday next week, instead of the usual Tuesday and Wednesday.  My buddy Michael Johns was on last night, as a visiting performer.  Not my favorite performance of his, but his album will be out in May.

Obama Picks Sebelius for HHS (Political Wire)
President Obama has settled on Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), a key ally with a record of working across party lines, as his top choice for secretary of health and human services, the New York Times reports.

President Obama Taps Bronx Borough Prez to Direct WH Office of Urban Policy (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
ABC News has learned that President Obama has tapped Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión to serve as director of the White House’s new Office on Urban Policy. Carrión — borough president since 2002 and president of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials — will coordinate federal programs to help cities. He has served as a city planner, assistant pastor, teacher, and city councilman.

Burris Ethics Investigation Begins (Political Wire)
The Senate Ethics Committee “has opened a preliminary inquiry into Sen. Roland Burris’s (D-IL) conflicting testimony on the circumstances surrounding his appointment,” according to The Hill. A spokeswoman for Ethics Committee Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) confirmed the investigation last night. The Hotline: “The last time the committee recommended expulsion? 1995. The committee voted unanimously that Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) should be expelled for sexual misconduct, among other behavior. Packwood resigned before the full Senate could vote on the matter.”

Burris Statements to Lawmakers Referred to Prosecutor (Bloomberg)
U.S. Senator Roland Burris’s statements to Illinois lawmakers about whether he solicited political donations for former Governor Rod Blagojevich before getting named to the Senate are being reviewed by a prosecutor.

Burris Lobbying Disclosures Don’t Add Up (Political Wire)
CQ Politics has another Burris bombshell: “The names of lobbying clients that Sen. Roland Burris declared to a state legislative panel do not match those on records he filed over the last decade with Illinois and Chicago agencies.”

John Kass at the ChiTrib Commits Truth re: Burris (by campskunk at Alegre’s Corner)
John Kass, columnist at the Chicago Tribune, … lays out his premise. [Illinois House majority leader Mike] Madigan and Obama knew – or should have known – that the craven, egotistical Burris was in pay-to-play shenanigans with Blago up to his eyebrows. There wasn’t ANYTHING that Burris wouldn’t do to get that seat, and everybody in Illinois politics knew it. However, Madigan had to construct a scenario whereby he could say he was first informed of this AFTER Burris delivered the crucial stimulus package vote for Obama.  Obama, of course, can say he’s ignorant of the whole mess.

Black ministers may rethink backing Sen. Burris (AP)
CHICAGO – Many of the city’s most influential black pastors supported Roland Burris’ appointment to the U.S. Senate, even though his name had been put forward by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Now that support may be waning. A faction of black ministers plans to ask for Burris’ resignation following revelations that the senator tried to raise money for the disgraced governor who appointed him, one of the ministers told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Senate not likely to oust Sen. Roland Burris anytime soon (Los Angeles Times)
Though Roland Burris had some trouble being admitted to the U.S. Senate, he will not be easily expelled now that he has arrived. It takes a vote of two-thirds of the senators to oust a member, and the last senators to be formally expelled were charged with supporting the rebels during the Civil War. “It’s a collegial body that doesn’t like to police its members,” said Donald A. Ritchie, the Senate’s associate historian. “It prefers to leave that to the voters and to the courts.” But a veteran Washington campaign lawyer said that Burris (D-Ill.) may not benefit from the Senate’s usual protectiveness toward its members, and that he could face strong pressure from within the Senate to resign.

Coleman Would Need a Miracle (Political Wire)
Does Norm Coleman have any chance of retaining his Senate seat? Politico: “The answer, according to state political and legal analysts, is that it would take a miracle. Miracles do happen in politics — but four weeks into a court case that will decide the winner of Minnesota’s tortured Senate race, the GOP incumbent is facing just-about-insurmountable hurdles to overcome the 225-vote deficit he was saddled with at the end of the official recount.”

Blunt Will Run for Senate (Political Wire)
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), “a long-time GOP leader in Congress and head of one of Missouri’s prominent political families, intends to formally declare his candidacy for the U.S. Senate,” the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports. “On the Democratic side, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan already has declared her candidacy, setting the stage for a high-powered race.”

House Democrats Hold Large Financial Edge (Political Wire)
Democratic candidates for the House have a large advantage in cash left over from the 2008 election cycle, according to a CQ MoneyLine study of campaign reports.

Poll: Majority of Americans disapproved of congressional GOP during stimulus fight. (Think Progress)
Over the past several weeks, Republicans have bragged about their unity in opposing President Obama’s economic recovery package, predicting that their obstruction would “give us a shot in the arm going forward.” However, a new AP/GFK poll taken during the final days of the fight over the stimulus bill shows that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Republican efforts to block Obama’s plan: “…Only 30% say Obama hasn’t done enough to cooperate with Republicans in Congress — the GOP base vote, basically — while 62% say he’s doing the right amount and 6% say it’s been too much. Flipping it around, only 27% say Republicans have done enough to cooperate with Obama, with 64% saying not enough and 5% saying too much.”
Americans overwhelmingly disapproved of the way Republicans treated Bill Clinton, too, but Republicans still won lots of elections.

Obama Approval Down Slightly (Political Wire)
A new Fox News Poll shows President Obama’s approval rating at 60%, down from 65% three weeks ago. The reason: “Almost all of the change can be attributed to a decrease in approval and an increase in disapproval among Republicans.”
See what I mean?  But, of course, it’s Fox, so we can’t be sure it’s accurate.

Obama Approval Stays High (Political Wire)
A new Pew Research poll shows nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) approve of President Obama’s job performance, while 56% approve of his handling of the economy, 52% of his handling of foreign policy, and 50% for the threat of terrorism.

Intellectually Challenged President (by pm317 at No Quarter)
No, I am not talking about Bush. But I can’t escape the feeling that I am looking at a Bush redux. It seems that the autocue technique is not enough for President Obama. His handlers now think he needs in addition to a teleprompter, a hidden computer screen on the podium during his press conferences, giving him hints on how to answer questions… If he is so smart and intellectual, why can’t he answer those damn questions without external help?
I’m thinking that it doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence.  Maybe it’s due, as with Bush, to lack of interest.  See below.

Blankley on Obama (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
Tony Blankley is not a person I go to much for analysis or opinion on much of anything. Nevertheless his take on Obama’s emerging management style is interesting and, as far as I can see, spot on… On what Obama’s management style may indicate: his personality type leaves him surprisingly uninterested in things that aren’t personally about him. [This] quote goes to one of my primary hunches about this man who is President – a hunch confirmed by ample anecdotal evidence, from debate insults, to over the top set pieces backgrounding speeches. BHO is supremely narcissistic. This is both a danger and, possibly, an asset in a President. A danger if his illusion of himself is confronted and debased by outside events. An asset if he sublimates his deep desire to be adored and uses it as a reason to lead, and lead well.

Turdblossom Says Obama Is “Winging It” (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
Donna Brazile’s BFF may be a despicable human being, but he’s one of the people who tells the media what to think and say.  In [Thursday’s] WSJ Karl Rove gives us a preview of what is likely to be the media narrative for the next few weeks: “… this fast start can’t overcome a growing sense the administration is winging it on issues large and small.”… I have long suspected that Rove and the GOP bigwigs knew they were going to lose the election last year, so they picked a weak and inexperienced Democrat they could destroy once he was in office.  Because the Republican is so tarnished after eight years of George W. Bush, in order to make a fast recovery they needed to claim that the Democrats are worse.

I promise you these campaigns (see below) have nothing to do with selling books on how to get government money and everything to do with discrediting Democrats in general and Obama in particular.
GovGrantFunds.com

Limbaugh likens Democrats to murderers, rapists, and “this Muslim guy” that “offed his wife’s head” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Power Line defends NY Post chimp cartoon (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
The right-wing site thinks the wildly offensive cartoon (click here), which seemed to equate Obama with a crazed, dead chimp, is no big deal. Not that we’re surprised. The Golden Rule of the Republican Noise Machine is that nobody from within is ever supposed to apologize or even mildly criticize the hateful rhetoric that’s often produced. We did get a kick out Power Line’s defense though, which was, what’s the big deal because critics compared Bush to a chimp in the past…

Here’s the thing, the Post cartoon in question depicted the chimp shot through the chest and dying on the sidewalk. When Power Line finds a cartoon published in a major metro American newspaper that associated Bush with a chimp dead on the sidewalk and his body riddled with bullets, than Power Line might have a point. Right now, it’s just defending the indefensible.
Personally, I think the objections to the chimp cartoon are overblown.  Many of the people outraged by this cartoon had nothing at all to say about the cartoons during last year’s primary that treated Hillary Clinton as a shrewish, low-life ball buster.  Myiq2xu points us to some of this guy’s other cartoons, which are alarmingly homophobic.  But fiercely liberal cartoonist Ted Rall said it just wasn’t funny.

THAT CARTOON (New York Post)
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period. But it has been taken as something else – as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize. However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback. To them, no apology is due. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon – even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.
Welcome to the Club of Racists, Rupert!

Once-reputable BAG News repeats big lie that Hillary called for Obama’s assassination (by lambert at Corrente)
Disgusting. If you can’t hear it from me, maybe you can hear it from Bob Somerby: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. No, I really don’t want to relitigate the primaries, but if you don’t stomp the lies, they come back — as we saw with CDS in the primaries. It’s a shame. I guess there’s some Kool-Aid you just can’t undrink.
See what I mean about Hillary bashing?  It’s ALWAYS acceptable.

Washington Times Reports On Obama’s “New” Flag Frenzy (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
And now for a bit of late afternoon comic relief. The Washington Times made a valiant grab for a Drudge link and some cable news love [Wednesday], running a story titled: “Obama has new flag frenzy.” The piece claimed that the flag-festooned backdrop of President Obama’s stimulus bill signing yesterday signaled some kind of shift. “Look. It’s President Obama, and he’s surrounded by American flags,” the piece said. “That’s the same president who once would not wear an American flag pin. Things have changed.”… Thing is, as The Note, Allen, and everyone else knows (but no one pointed out), the idea that Obama’s flag pin and flag-heavy backdrop is something new is completely bogus… Needless to say, [Wednesday’s] story got its Drudge link.

Obama Restates Opposition to Return of Fairness Doctrine
President Barack Obama has reiterated his opposition to reimposing the Fairness Doctrine. That comes in the wake of various reports, commentary and speeches suggesting the doctrine, which required broadcasters to seek out the other side of controversial subjects, could be revived.

It’s like GOP Reefer Madness, cont’d (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Oh, like a firm White House statement about how Obama is not in favor of reinstating the Fairness Doctrine is going to stop the chattering masses on the right from claiming, y’know, Obama is in favor of it. After all, there is no more pressing issue facing our nation today than debating a long-forgotten FCC statute that hasn’t been on the book for two decades, right?

Keeping it classy, KeithO and Flanders helped show that little has changed (by Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler)
The segment concerned Sarah Palin… Olbermann seems to love nothing more than beating up on Palin. He no longer gets to mock the young blondes, something he used to do every night, but Palin seems suitable as a replacement. And he doesn’t waste much time explaining what’s actually wrong with Palin’s views–or even what they are. It’s all about calling the lady stupid–and it’s all about calling her a hypocrite, without quite explaining why. And of course, the tasteless insults fly… A Palin presidency would be “like a Nadya Suleman labor.” Laura Flanders was keeping it classy–and respectful feminist that she of course is, she was crawling up Suleman’s snatch in pursuit of prime insults for Palin.

Palin is never going to be president–but Olbermann will keep presenting guests who serve his viewers tacky, gender-based insults. He can’t mock Lohan or Kirsten Dunst any more–the network was getting in too much trouble for the way its various male hosts were behaving–but he’s still allowed to speak this way about Palin!

Progressive Hosts Vie For MSNBC’s 10PM Slot (by Sam Stein at The Huffington Post)
With MSNBC announcing that it was looking to fill its 10PM time slot with original broadcasting, two prominent self-avowed liberals are positioning themselves for the post. Cenk Uygur, of the Young Turks Show, and Sam Seder, who headed a popular eponymous show on Air America, aren’t taking the traditional route to the recently announced opening. Rather than rise through the cable news structure, they are using new media tools to organize their supporters and put pressure on MSNBC brass.
Can’t they find another woman, for goddess’ sake?  One who’s not in the pockets of the corporatists?  Or how about Bill Press?  He makes more sense than these two jerks.

Hartmann Segues To Dial-Global (NTS Media Online)
Currently syndicated through Air America Media, The Thom Hartmann Show will move to Dial-Global beginning March 1. D-G will handle advertising sales and affiliations for Hartmann’s daily talk show which airs from noon-3pm (ET) Monday-Friday. “With the addition of Thom Hartmann, Dial-Global solidifies its position as the premiere content provider of the very best progressive Talk radio,” said D-G SVP/GM News/Talk Amy Bolton. “We’re delighted to work with WYD Media Management and Thom on his show.” Dial-Global also syndicates national progressive talk programs The Ed Schultz Show, The Stephanie Miller Show, and The Bill Press Show.
Also, Randi Rhodes is off the air.

Sam Donaldson to Retire from ABC News
Sam Donaldson, who covered presidents from Kennedy to Obama, is retiring next week from full time work at ABC News. The 41-year ABC News vet will continue to appear occasionally on This Week with George Stephanopoulos as well as on ABC Radio.

CNBC reporter thinks traders represent “the silent majority” (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Drudge is making a big deal about this because I guess we’re supposed to care when CNBC’s Rick Santelli starts yelling and whining about Obama’s recovery effort. Because, y’know, traders and bankers did such a great job stewarding the economy for the last few years, why should the government step in, right? Anyway, the hilarious part comes at the end of the rant when Santelli, reporting from the floor of Chicago Mercantile Exchange, announces indignantly that the all-white, all-male traders nearby represent “a pretty good statistical cross-section of America. The silent majority.”

Wash. Post defends George Will’s climate change denial: We ‘check facts to the fullest extent possible.’ (Think Progress)
The Washington Post has refused to run corrections on George Will’s recent “global cooling” column, despite its “stunning, boneheaded, egregious errors.” In response to a ThinkProgress request, Washington Post ombudsman Andy Alexander “sought clarification from the editorial page editors”: “… George Will’s column was checked by people he personally employs, as well as two editors at the Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicates Will; our op-ed page editor; and two copy editors.”
But they all got it wrong.  And we’re supposed to save this kind of “journalism”.

Savage: “[T]here’s only … one thing left for a woman after her prime of sexual excess and that’s radical left-wing politics” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

She Went All the Way to Rome for THAT? (by Alegre)
Surprise, surprise, surprise… we all knew the Pope would tell Nancy to turn her back on our reproductive rights.  He could have phoned this drivel in – she surely didn’t need to use our tax dollars to go all the way to Rome and spend a week touring around Italy for this… “Pope to US Speaker Pelosi: Reject abortion support…” Oddly, Pelosi and the Pope can’t seem to get on the same page about what was discussed.  She avoids mention of his comments re our reproductive rights, and he says that’s all they talked about.  She & her hubby got 15 minutes with him in a tiny room – and he gets the chance to release a statement saying he scolded one of our top Democrats about our rights.

On O’Reilly, Miller claims that when the pope saw Pelosi, he “thought [she] was the Shroud of Turin” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Juan Williams finally drops his NPR identification when appearing on O’Reilly. (Think Progress)
Juan Williams’s often incendiary rhetoric when appearing on The O’Reilly Factor as a Fox News analyst finally caught up with him after he compared Michelle Obama to “Stokely Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress.” Fox News has regularly identified Williams as a “senior correspondent of National Public Radio” or an NPR “political analyst.” However, [Monday] night — at the request of NPR — he was stripped of this designation.

Aerosmith tells Cantor to stop using its music. (Think Progress)
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) recently created a YouTube video called “The House GOP is Back,” which was set to the tune of Aerosmith’s “Back In The Saddle” and bragged about conservative opposition to the recovery package. But Stage Three Music, which owns the rights to the Aerosmith song, has objected to Cantor’s use of the song.

Santorum ignorantly refers to language of Qur’an as ‘Islamic.’ (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) delivered “a lecture on Islam” at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Santorum argued that the American public knows too little about the Islamic faith… “‘A democracy could not exist because Mohammed already made the perfect law,’ Santorum said. ‘The Quran is perfect just the way it is, that’s why it is only written in Islamic.’”… [The Quran] is, of course, originally written in Arabic. Islam is not a language, but rather a religion. Santorum concluded, “I think that if every citizen was fully informed about the war, it would create a commonality between faiths.” Indeed, much work remains to be done.

America’s law-free zone (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
[According to David Rivkin and Lee Casey, right-wing lawyers and former Reagan DOJ officials, no] international tribunals or foreign countries have any power to investigate or prosecute American officials for war crimes (even when those war crimes are against citizens of those countries and/or committed within their borders).  And, American political officials must also not be prosecuted inside the U.S., by American courts.  “Nobody is entitled” to do that either, because “attempting to prosecute political opponents at home or facilitating their prosecution abroad is like pouring acid into our democratic machinery.”

The implication of their argument [is] that American political officials (in contrast to most other leaders) are completely and explicitly exempt from, placed above, the rule of law.  That conclusion is compelled from their premises. At least to me, it’s just endlessly perplexing how anyone — let alone our political class in unison — could actually endorse such absolute lawlessness for political leaders.

Brent Bozell, Free Speech Hypocrite (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
So, Media Research Center has a new “Free Speech Alliance” through which it is urging President Obama to “Oppose All Govt. Radio Censorship.”  MRC President Brent Bozell released a statement saying Obama “should state his opposition to the use of any FCC regulation with the intent of censoring talk radio.  He should also guarantee a veto of any bill that will silence free speech on the airwaves.” That would be the same Brent Bozell who brought you the Parents Television Council, a group best known for urging the FCC to crack down on the broadcast of words Brent Bozell doesn’t like. 

Utah State Sen. Compares Gays To Alcoholics, Terrorists: ‘They’re The Greatest Threat To America’ (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], Utah’s local ABC station received leaked portions of an interview with state senator Chris Buttars (R), which will be highlighted in an upcoming documentary on Proposition 8. Buttars is an outspoken opponent of gay rights; in the latest interview, he compares gays to alcoholics and Muslim terrorists, and warns that gay people are “probably the greatest threat to America.”… Buttars discussed how the Mormon church would never give in on gay rights. Indeed, Mormons contributed nearly 40 percent of the more than $40 million raised to defeat marriage equality in California. He helped kick out Gay Straight Alliance clubs in Utah schools, claiming they were “criminal” and threatening that gay people’s “greatest target is your kids.”

Now Issa cares about taking extra measures to preserve White House e-mails. (Think Progress)
In a letter to White House Counsel Gregory Craig [Thursday], Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, “called on President Obama to put in place a system that ensures all White House emails be preserved even if official business was done through private e- mail accounts.” This newfound interest in the use of outside e-mail accounts at the White House is ironic, considering his dismissal of such concerns when Democrats investigated the Bush administration’s use of RNC e-mail accounts.

California legislature approves budget bill (AP)
The California Legislature passed a long-awaited budget early Thursday after an epic battle that involved several all-night sessions, sending the governor a package of bills that raise taxes and cut spending to help close a $42 billion deficit… The package included a combination of spending cuts, tax increases and borrowing, intended to close a projected multibillion dollar deficit and avert fiscal disaster for the state…

Senate leaders secured the final vote needed from moderate Republican Abel Maldonado in late-night negotiations by agreeing to his demands for election changes, government reform and removal of a gas tax increase, giving them the two-thirds vote needed to pass the package. To win Maldonado’s support, legislators also agreed to ask voters to revise the state’s constitution to allow open primaries for legislative, congressional and gubernatorial elections. Leaders also met Maldonado’s demands to freeze legislators’ salaries in deficit budget years and to eliminate new office furniture budgeted for the state controller.

The Swiss Bank UBS Is Set to Open Its Secret Files (New York Times)
In the hush-hush world of Swiss banking, the unthinkable is happening: secrets are spilling into the open. UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, agreed on Wednesday to divulge the names of well-heeled Americans whom the authorities suspect of using offshore accounts at the bank to evade taxes. The bank admitted conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and agreed to pay $780 million to settle a sweeping federal investigation into its activities. It is unclear how many of its clients’ names UBS will divulge. Federal prosecutors have been examining about 19,000 accounts at the bank, but UBS ultimately may disclose the identities of only a few hundred customers.

But to some, turning over any names at all heralds the end of the secret Swiss bank account, whose traditions date to the Middle Ages.
Many murderous dictators have hidden their countries’ wealth in Swiss banks.  It’s well past time for them to open their books.

UBS AG Helps Fill Lawmakers’ Coffers (Capital Eye)
Swiss bank UBS AG agreed today to pay $780 million to settle claims by the U.S. Department of Treasury that it helped American customers evade paying taxes by hiding their Swiss bank accounts from U.S. tax authorities. But that’s not the only help that UBS has provided Americans. In the 2008 election cycle, the foreign bank’s employees and PAC contributed $3.1 million to federal candidates (including candidate committees and leadership PACs), parties and PACs, 54 percent of which went to Democrats. Among all finance, insurance and real estate companies, UBS has given more campaign donations than all but six other companies. It also spent nearly $1.3 million lobbying between 2007 and 2008.

UBS not only split its funds between Republicans and Democrats, it also made sure to help out more than one presidential candidate in the 2008 election cycle and directed its funds to a few of the higher ups of the finance-related congressional committees.

Shades of the 1960s!  I’m glad to see this kind of passion:
3am Update: Still a Dance Party (Take Back NYU!, a coalition of nearly two dozen groups and hundreds of students at New York University demanding budget disclosure, endowment disclosure, and student representation on the Board of Trustees—thanks to Lambert at Corrente)
We are writing to you from inside NYU. There are still hundreds of dancing masses swelling at the exterior of the building. Morale is high. We are sticking this out.  The administration’s negotiation consisted of repeating the same ultimatum over and over… The  crowd’s energy is high. They overtook the streets several hours ago, and are maintaining their position along West 4th St. They are shouting, dancing and having a good time. At a certain point in time, the crowd began to push against police barricades in front of the Kimmel entrance. There was one confirmed arrest, who was told informally that he was charged with assaulting an officer. These claims are not fully confirmed.

Valenti’s Sexuality Was Topic For FBI (Washington Post)
When Beltway insider Jack Valenti died two years ago at age 85, he was playing the role of intermediary between Washington and Hollywood as the theatrical, snowy-haired president of the Motion Picture Association of America. But back in 1964, Valenti was a Houston ad executive newly installed at the White House as a top aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson. And J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI found itself quietly consumed with the vexing question of whether Valenti was gay.
All of Washington breathed a huge sigh of relief when J. Edgar Hoover, who apparently was a closeted gay himself, kicked the bucket.

Don’t worry guys, its natural to objectify women. (by garychapelhill at The Confluence)
“New research shows that, in men, the brain areas associated with handling tools and the intention to perform actions light up when viewing images of women in bikinis…” [G]uess it couldn’t possibly be caused by living in a society that teaches men that women are nothing but “tools” to be used for their service or their sexual pleasure.  Nope, just the way evolution built them… [D]on’t worry girls, because most guys aren’t evil, they just succumb to “benevolent sexism”.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Limbaugh misquoted Obama on home values, used it as evidence of Obama “talking down the economy”

• Rove falsely claimed Frank “was one of the more prominent opponents of [housing] reform in 2004 and 2005″

• Fox News’ Van Susteren did not challenge Kyl’s false stimulus math

• Wash. Times, CNN.com advanced 61-detainee falsehood

• NY Times ignored Holmstead’s extensive energy lobbying

• Beck falsely claimed average UAW worker makes $154 per hour

• Fox Business Network infested by false tale of stimulus bill’s salt marsh mouse

• Fox special promoted numerous myths and falsehoods about Obama and the economic recovery bill

• Politico, ABC’s The Note spotlighted Wash. Times article reviving Obama flag smears

• Echoing GOP, Fox figures falsely claim Reid included $8 billion in bill directed to LA-Vegas rail

• NBC’s Myers is latest to repeat inflated GOP’s “quarter of a million dollars per job” calculation

China to Create Blacklist of Local Journalists
China plans to create a blacklist of journalists who break its reporting rules, state media reported Friday, adding to an array of controls used to restrict its domestic media. According to a report in the China Press and Publishing Journal, the agency that exercises control over the state-owned Chinese media plans to “establish a database of media professionals with a bad record.”

Press freedom just another casualty in Afghanistan
The decision by an Afghan daily newspaper to shut down after several of its editors were briefly jailed on blasphemy charges is seen here as the opening salvo in a campaign to quiet the news media in advance of the coming presidential vote.

25% of Analog TV Signals Cut Off
About a quarter of the nation’s TV stations cut off their analog signals Tuesday, causing sets to go dark in households that were not prepared for digital television. Though most viewers were ready, some stations and call centers reported a steady stream of questions from frustrated callers.

Europe Taunts Obama With Its ‘World-Leading’ DTV Switchover (Paid Content)
As America’s transition to digital TV is delayed by president Obama, Europe is boasting it’s “leading the world” in the shift from analogue to digital. No prizes for guessing who Viviane Reding, the EC’s telecoms and media commissioner, was referring to when she said this in a release on Monday: “Europe’s switchover is going according to plan and well on track, especially when compared to other countries around the world…”

Kentucky police investigating YouTube video for cyberbulling
Doug Trantham of Danville is upset about a homemade video posted on YouTube that depicts several boys making sexually explicit comments about two girls, including Trantham’s 14-year-old daughter, Marcie.

Judge Allows AP Lawsuit Against All Headline News To Move Forward (Paid Content)
U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel agreed to dismiss two counts of the Associated Press lawsuit against All Headline News but will hear the news coop’s claims that the aggregator is misappropriating “hot news.”… The idea of treating “hot news” or “breaking news” differently from other news dates back to International News Service v. Associated Press, a 1918 Supreme Court decision holding that breaking news is the “quasi property” of a news-gathering organization and that allowing one news agency to profit from the work of another “would render publication profitless, or so little profitable as in effect to cut off the service by rendering the cost prohibitive in comparison with the return.” That may have been preempted by federal law but it is still recognized as a cause of action in many states. The lawsuit has been pending since January 2008.

82 Million User-Generated Content Creators and Counting (by Adam Ostrow at Mashable)
More than 82 million people in the US created content online during 2008, a number expected to grow to nearly 115 million by 2013 according to numbers released by eMarketer. Looking inside of those numbers, it’s not surprising that the bulk of content creators are simply social networking users that do things like post photos or links, but there’s also a quickly-growing number of people participating in more involved activities like blogging or uploading their own videos.

The J-School Conundrum (by Rob Fishman at the Huffington Post)
I question the logic of J-school every day — but is it so crazy to pay for an education in an established profession? No, what’s crazy is when that profession decides to eschew profits because of some insane notion that information ought to be free.

Content, Once King, Becomes A Pauper (by Douglas McIntyre, Time)
No one knows to what extent content will be “re-valued” as the economy improves. The largest media companies are making the case that the only reason their asset values have dropped is the economy. That case may not hold up.

How Low Will Newspapers’ Ad Revenues Go? (by Howard Kurtz, Washington Post)
It was arguably a mistake for newspapers and magazines to hand out their goodies to anyone with a computer screen, but the culture of the Net was — and is — that everything should be free. The question now is whether that mind-set can be changed.

Paying for the Press — And the Rest of Online (by Ed Wasserman, Miami Herald)
We all have a stake in the debate about how to keep newspapers from financial ruin. The problem is, reading news isn’t like buying chewing gum. It’s an act of vital social participation that should be encouraged, not penalized by levying a fee on every download.
Just as I’ve been saying—one subscription for most content, just like cable.

The Press Should Declare Itself a Religion (by Stephen Bates, Slate)
If the press really wants to secure its future, here’s a modest proposal: It ought to declare itself a religion. The tax benefits, as the accountants say, would be substantial — and there would be other advantages, too.

Inventing and Refining the Rich Content That Wants to be Sold (by Jack Shafer, Slate)
Very few online newspapers or magazines are sufficiently useful to demand a paying premium. But for those who hold dear the notion that information on the Web will forever want to be free, it’s early yet.

Politico’s *Intense* Internal Memo (The Plank, The New Republic)
In his big magazine piece on The Politico this week, Gabriel Sherman referenced an internal memo revealing the organization’s formula for “must-read” coverage. But the memo he acquired is worth more than a reference; it’s worth a full-read. Here’s a taste:

Stories need to be both interesting and illuminating–we don’t have the luxury of running stories folks won’t click on or spend several minutes with in the paper.
a) Would this be a “most e-mailed” story?
b) Would I read this story if I hadn’t written it?
c) Would my mother read this story?
d) Will a blogger be inspired to post on this story?
e) Might an investor buy or sell a stock based on this story?
f) Would a specialist learn something from this story?
g) Will my competitors be forced to follow this?
IN MOST CASES, THE ANSWER WILL BE “YES” TO SEVERAL OF THESE QUESTIONS IF THIS IS A STRONG POLITICO STORY…

Be sure to check out the whole thing here.

Politico’s mission statement: serve as “key outlet” for DC spinners (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
[T]he Politico memo … omits any mention of striving to ensure accuracy or quality.  No questions like “Do I have the story right?” or “Am I being spun by my sources?” or “Is this story important?” (And certainly no “Does it really matter how much someone paid for a haircut?”) Maybe those questions aren’t included because they aren’t relevent to Politico’s extraordinary mission statement, presented at the top of the memo: “THE MISSION: Politico journalism drives conversation in official Washington, making us ESSENTIAL READING for anyone who is or wants to be a player, and a KEY OUTLET for anyone who is trying to shape a political or government debate.” That’s it.  That’s the whole mission.  Nothing about informing people, or finding the truth.

Gawker makes fun of dumb Politico article so we don’t have to (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Brilliant Politico premise? Some academics joining the Obama administration were paid very well by universities… We officially endorse Gawker’s conclusion: “Seriously, there is no journalistic justification for this article.”

Oh, the irony:
Google Buys Finnish Newsprint Mill To Build A Data Center (Paid Content)
Google’s cloud is crossing the Atlantic. The search site is buying a paper mill, hit by the declining print media business, at Summa, Hamina, in southeastern Finland for €40 million ($51.6 million). What’s Google want with a dead-tree processing factory? “We are currently considering to build a data centre at this site,” a spokesperson told Reuters.

Union Explores the Idea of a Seattle P-I Buyout by Employees
The union representing most Seattle P-I workers is scheduled to meet next week to discuss an employee buyout of the newspaper. The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild is “trying to figure out if enough P-I employees are interested in a buyout,” Guild Administrative Officer Liz Brown said.

5 Major Northeast Dailies to Share Content
Five major newspapers in New York and New Jersey are the latest to forge a content-sharing agreement. The group includes: The Newark Star-Ledger; The Bergen Record; the Albany Times Union; The Buffalo News; and the New York Daily News.

Reuters Streamlines Global Multimedia Groups As Challenges Heat Up (Paid Content)
As competitors like Bloomberg and Associated Press have become more aggressive on the digital and video front, Thomson Reuters is trying to step up by introducing a new management structure for its multimedia offerings.

Unable To Find Buyers, Journal Reg Shutters 33 Smalltown Weeklies (Paid Content)
An increasing number of newspapers are facing the dire consequences of being closed unless their owners can find a buyer. Considering the state of newspapers in general and this being the worst economy in 50 years, the prospect of finding someone with the wherewithal to take over a paper is pretty slender. That’s the situation Journal Register, which owns 27 daily newspapers and 327 non-daily papers, found itself in as it tried to unload its dozens of smalltown weeklies. Mediapost catalogs the recent list of 33 fallen—or about to fall—Journal Reg papers throughout New York, Connecticut, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Tribune Freezes Non-Union Salaries
The Tribune Co. has announced a salary freeze for 2009. It affects all non-union employees (for the small percentage of union employees, “the issue will be addressed in collective bargaining”). Tribune exec Gerry Spector wrote he hopes the change will “allow us to avert more drastic action in the future.”

More Layoffs Hit Belo
A.H. Belo Corp., publisher of The Dallas Morning News and The Providence Journal, is laying off another 500 people and cutting expenses by $50 million before the end of the first quarter — but it won’t stop publishing or home deliver on certain days, chairman and CEO Robert Decherd told analysts.

Earnings: EW Scripps Posts Loss On $48.8 Million In Writedowns (Paid Content)
Pointing to the same set of troubles pressing down on the newspaper industry, E.W. Scripps posted an operating income loss of $19.4 million before taxes and “minority interests” while its revenues decreased 6.2 percent to $265 million in Q4. Among the costs leading to yet another loss for the Cincinnati publisher of the troubled Rocky Mountain News in Denver and Memphis’ Commercial Appeal, was $5 million in severance costs related to the 400 job cuts it announced in Q308, $1.9 million in costs tied to the separation of the Scripps Networks and interactive media divisions, the write-down of a number of “long-lived” assets in the TV division totaling $31 million, and $10.9 million in charges on the company’s investment in its Colorado newspaper partnership, for a total of $48.8 million in write-downs.

Viacom Profit Falls 69 Percent
Viacom Inc., the media conglomerate controlled by Sumner Redstone, said Thursday [a week ago] its fourth-quarter profit fell 69 percent as the recession hurt advertising, home entertainment, and video game revenue, and it recorded $454 million in charges.

Lee Enterprises Strikes Refinancing Agreement On $306 Million Debt (Paid Content)
Attempting to get a hold on its costs as the recession deepens, Lee Enterprises has struck agreements to refinance $306 million of debt related to its the borrowing it did to buy Pulitzer Inc., the parent of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for $1.5 billion almost four years ago. The agreement also allows Davenport, Iowa-based Lee to restructure future payments under its $1.1 billion bank financing arrangements. Lee also has redeemed the 5 percent interest of its minority partner in the Post-Dispatch.

James Patterson To Release “Crowdwritten” Novel Next Month (ReadWriteWeb)
Best-selling crime author James Patterson will release a new kind of novel next month – one that’s been collaboratively written with the crowd. Called AirBorne, the upcoming novel will feature 30 chapters, each written by a different author except the first and last – those will be written by Patterson himself… Although the James Patterson novel is more of a marketing campaign than anything else – and, in this case, the “crowd” is actually a hand-picked selection of aspiring writers – it’s still interesting to see such a widely-read writer embracing the co-writing trend… What remains to be seen at this point is whether a crowdsourced, co-written novel can actually be any good.
What remains to be seen is whether there will be a way to make money from such an effort and, if there is, whether these co-authors will benefit.  Jeff Jarvis solicited help from his blog readers in writing “What Would Google Do?”, but as far as I know hasn’t offered to share any bounty from the sale of the book.  Scott Adams has for many years used readers’ suggestions in crafting his Dilbert cartoons and still openly solicits ideas on his blog.  Again, as far as I know he has never suggested any revenue sharing.

What Would Jeff Jarvis Do? (by Alan Mutter at Newsosaur)
Free is a business model. I know this, because Jeff Jarvis says so. Given Jeff’s deeply held belief that content should be free, why is he charging a retail price of $26.99 for his new book? And why is Jeff charging $14.84 for the Kindle version of his new book?

Authors Get $60 Per Book—And 63 Percent Of Ad Revenue—In Google Book Settlement (Paid Content)
Google settled its longstanding Book Search lawsuit last October for $125 million, and now affected authors and publishers have begun submitting claims for compensation via a special site. Claimants are eligible for $60 per scanned book—and 63 percent of any revenue Google generates from ads running against copyrighted material. Google is required to notify affected authors, publishers and their heirs that they may be eligible for payment as part of the settlement; CNET reports that the company has published the notice in 218 countries and 72 languages.

As TechCrunch notes, it’s not that bad a deal as the books named in the suit were already out of print. And since Google has increasingly incorporated Book Search results into everyday searches, the ad share portion of the settlement should represent an ongoing revenue stream. The search giant has been digitizing books since 2005, and announced that it was adding magazines to the mix in December.

RDA Launching Two Titles in Less Than Two Months
Even as the pile of folded print magazines continues to grow, the Reader’s Digest Association is launching two magazines in less than two months. The latest is Fresh Home, a quarterly home improvement title, which is set to hit newsstands February 27.

Zagat Expands to Include Doctors Guides
Nina Zagat, the queen of eat-and-tell restaurant guides, is invading a new and even trickier reviewing niche: doctors. The editors are asking people covered by one of the country’s largest commercial insurers to post reviews of their doctors and rate them in categories like trust and communication.

Return of the Zine
Zines — those tiny, xeroxed pamphlets of counterculture — certainly aren’t as prevalent as they once were, but is the culture really as dead as the rest of print media, or has it just returned to its underground roots?

Slimmer Newsweek Has Mag Staff Steaming
Newsweek staffers have yet to simmer down after [the recent] stunning announcement that it was going to radically downsize its circulation. Some insiders were disgruntled that they first learned about the new plan in a New York Times article.

Playboy Will Consider Company Sale
During a conference call yesterday announcing Playboy’s financial results, interim chairman and CEO Jerome Kern indicated that the company will consider a sale and/or changes in the strategic direction of Playboy magazine. Playboy reported a year-end net loss of $156.1 million in 2008.

Missing Domino
Barely a month after Conde Nast folded Domino, more than seven fan sites of the chic home-design magazine have sprung up, including a Facebook bereavement page. Many fans wonder why Si Newhouse shuttered Domino, which had rising newsstand and subscription numbers.

Meredith’s Figure, O’Reilly’s Craft Fold
The number of magazines folding in 2009 continues to mount. The latest: Figure — a fashion magazine targeting plus-size women — and Craft — a do-it-yourself crafting title — have been shuttered, their publishers said.

Sirius XM, Liberty Media Near Deal
Liberty Media is close to finalizing a deal to buy a major stake in Sirius XM Radio Inc that would spare the satellite radio from bankruptcy. The discussions involve Liberty helping Sirius with the debt it owes and, in return, getting just under half a stake in the company.

Entire Band Discography in Apple App Store For 3 Dollars (Mashable)
We keep saying there are different ways to sell music, as well as the merch and the experience that goes with music. Here’s one: The Presidents of the United States of America have released four of their albums, plus rarities, live tracks and demos, in the form of an iPhone application that costs a mere 3 bucks. There’s a small catch, but it’s not a dealbreaker: the songs are free to listen as many times as you like, but you have to stream them from the application. If you want to actually own a copy of the MP3 file, you can buy it from iTunes. But the fact that almost the entire discography (!) is available for mere 3 dollars makes up for the inconvenience.

Agreement Reached on Internet Music Royalty Rates
A group that collects royalties for music artists and recording companies has agreed to reduce rates for thousands of U.S. commercial radio stations that also play songs over the Internet. The new deal lowers those rates by about 16 percent in 2009 and 2010.

The Future of Network TV (by Michael Hirschorn at The Atlantic)
As network television takes up a lower-brow position in the cultural pecking order, the higher-quality, more expensive shows will become increasingly independent of the networks that broadcast them. Eventually, networks will stop being brands and start becoming, at least in part, mere “distribution platforms.”

Alcohol, Sex Ads Get Prime TV Time
The Absolut Vodka commercials that aired in Los Angeles and 14 other cities during Sunday night’s Grammy Awards marked the first time in years that liquor ads ran in prime time on network-owned stations. As the recession takes its toll on firms that rely on advertising, TV stations aren’t the only companies running ads once considered inappropriate.

Saturday Morning Network News Shows Growth
Once home to cartoons, the big three networks each produce one to two hours of morning news on Saturday. Last Saturday (Feb. 7) the three network news shows were up an average of 7.7 percent in total viewers and up 14 percent in younger viewers when compared to last year.

Couric’s Evening News Cuts Gap With ABC World News
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric continues to defy the odds, which started to play in her favor during her presidential campaign coverage. If you believed the skeptics, Couric might have been gone from the show by now. But now her third-place show is gaining on #2 World News with Charles Gibson.

CBS Slashes Dividend as Income Falls 52%
CBS slashed its annual dividend by 81% as it moved to assure investors it would be able to self-fund its debt maturities until the end of 2012 despite few signs of an advertising market recovery in 2009. Declines in revenue and profits nearly across the board led to a 52% drop in net income for Q4.

Disney Launches Cable Channel to Keep Boys Inside
Disney rebranded its failing Toon Disney cable channel as Disney XD… Disney says the channel is “boy-focused, girl-inclusive.” It will feature action-adventure programming and some sports news. Disney hopes to target boys aged 6 to 14 and their dads, a $50 billion market.

Cable Companies See Subscription Growth Slow
It looks like cable might not be worth the price tag to some in a tight economy, as consumers cut back on their cable and satellite subscriptions at faster rates than anticipated. The top three cable companies — Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications — have already been hard hit.

Earnings Call: Comcast Will Invest In Digital During 2009; Area of Growth (Paid Content)
CEO Brian Roberts, CFO Michael Angelakis, and COO Stephen Burke led an upbeat fourth quarter 2008 earnings call for Comcast that highlighted a continued emphasis on digital offerings at the company amidst increasing competition from telephone and internet companies. Burke said that 70 percent of the households it reaches can now get digital services, which led to an increase of 247,000 digital subscribers during the quarter.  The company acknowledged that even with its dual revenue streams from subscriber fees and advertising, it was still feeling pressure from the economy, but digital remained an increasingly large contributor to growth at the overall company. 

The Rise Of ‘Swap Sites’ For Gamers (Paid Content)
Game publishers have long complained about retailers like GameStop that sell used games, because they don’t get a cut of the resale revenues. But now the resellers themselves are facing increased competition—from a crop of new sites that help gamers find bargains, vintage games, and even let them trade games and consoles for free, according to the WSJ. 

Hulu’s Content No Longer Available On CBS-Owned TV.com; What About Other Partners? (Paid Content)
So TV.com’s relaunch as a possible competitor to Hulu may not be sitting right with the News Corp-NBCU joint venture after all. The CBS-owned online video site which was relaunched last month, has pulled down Hulu content from its site, according to reports and confirmed by CBS-owned News.com. CBS has said previously that TV.com is not squarely aimed at competing with Hulu, but rather wants to be a community site with lots of video content on it. CBS was invited early on to be a part of Hulu, but it has consistently declined to be part of it, instead focusing on syndicating its content on other sites directly. At that time, then CNET-owned TV.com had signed on early as a Hulu distribution partner (along with AOL and others), even before Hulu has an official name.

Forbes Media-backed FlipGloss Launches Beta (Paid Content)
FlipGloss.com [, the] latest entrant in the glossy-magazine-online category is billed as an “interactive photo experience that lets you flip, hover and discover.”… In some respects, the look and the emphasis on black-background photos with hover text is reminiscent of Wonderwall, the MSN celeb site from BermanBraun that launched a couple of weeks ago. But FlipGloss is after something else, a fashion mag feel combined with a requirement that users interact with the image to get the most out of it; all content shows up as full-page images with “relevant” advertising, product information, related recommendations or how to purchase. Like Tina Brown’s Daily Beast, FlipGloss is launching the consumer product without advertising locked in… Ad/revenue options include branded content and sponsorship sales through full-page glossy ad inserts sold by CPM and affiliate-style paid links.

Next New Networks Launches Indie Music Video Site With Verizon As Sponsor (Paid Content)
Next New Networks is seeking to tap into its music DNA with the launch of a new video site with a funny name: $99 Music Videos. The idea is to offer emerging artists and filmmakers a low-cost promotional vehicle—as anyone can submit their video (provided it cost about $99 to produce), and fans can rate their favorite submissions. The N.Y.-based digital content production and distribution company has signed on Verizon as the exclusive launch partner.

Earnings: WebMD’s Ad/Sponsorship Revenue Up 21 Percent; 2009 Holding Up OK (Paid Content)
WebMd reported fourth-quarter 2008 results after the market closed today, highlighting audience growth and increasing advertising/sponsorship revenues, even as the broader market for online advertising was weak. Revenue grew 15 percent to $111.5 million.

RealNetworks Breaks Out Subscriber Numbers For First Time: 775,000 Pay For Rhapsody (Paid Content)
When RealNetworks released its Q408 earnings after hours Thursday [a week ago], it also included some data the company says it is releasing for the first time: subscriber numbers. It’s not as detailed as some of us might like—for instance, basic Rhapsody for $12.99 and Rhapsody-to-Go for $14.99 are lumped together with no color about how many get which—but it’s more than we had before. The grand total: Real says it has 34.1 million total subscribers across all of its services—direct to consumer and through other providers. That includes ringback tones, music-on-demand, video-on-demand, Rhapsody, Rhapsody-to-Go, RadioPass, SuperPass, GamePass, and stand-alone subscriptions.

Facebook Now Worth Seventy-Five Percent Less
It turns out even Mark Zuckerberg never thought his social-networking Web site Facebook was worth $15 billion. Separate examinations of the company’s common stock valued the stock at no more than $8.88 a share. That places Facebook’s market value at just $3.7 billion, nearly 75 percent less than the value given it following the Microsoft deal.

Facebook Pulls About Face (American Constitution Society)
After a near revolt from users and privacy advocates, Facebook has backtracked from recent changes to its terms of use… Those changes were met with an uproar, including one organization beginning to prepare a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. In order to assuage users and potential litigants, Facebook has just announced that it is temporarily reverting back to the prior terms of use.

Checking In With Mark Cuban’s Funding Reality Show: 1,400-plus Responses—Two May Get Money Soon (by Staci D. Kramer at Paid Content)
I gave up reading all of the responses to billionaire Mark Cuban’s offer of funding for businesses with serious potential run by people willing to post the plans online but Cuban slogged through all 1,400-plus. The “vast majority” didn’t qualify, he reports. Of those who read the rules and submitted requests within the parameters, Cuban gave priority to already-operating businesses… Twelve businesses got a closer look: two will get site visits and could be funded in less than two weeks from the time the original offer went live Feb. 9. Five are being evaluated and five have been weeded out after evaluation. The requests from the seven that could get money range from $20,000 to more than $100,000.

Parsing Yahoo’s Latest Search Gains (Paid Content)
Is Yahoo’s slight gain in search share last month meaningful?… Yahoo has rolled out some new features that suggest it is taking search more seriously. Increasing its paid search share could at least help the company achieve greater balance, as performance-based ads are trending upward, while online branding campaigns—a focus for Yahoo—are heading the other direction. Yahoo hopes new features such as the inclusion of more pictures and video will push its share even higher

YouTube Adds Some Downloads—And Possibly Some Revenue With Purchase Option (Paid Content)
After a quiet start, YouTube is expanding its roster of downloadable videos—and putting some up for sale in a small test. Viewers have been able to download select videos since mid January, when YouTube previewed the option on Barack Obama’s ChangeDotGov channel (via the Lessig Blog).Google Operating System’s Alex Chitu broke the news about the purchasing option before YouTube blogged its own announcement, and paidContent spoke with Obadiah Greenberg, YouTube’s manager of strategic partnerships, to fill in the details:

Google Spurns Radio Ads; Will Develop AdSense For Streaming Audio Instead (Paid Content)
Last month Google gave up on serving newspaper ads; now the search giant is calling the radio business quits. In a post on Google’s blog, the company will exit the broadcast radio business and instead focus on streaming audio. The Google Audio Ads and AdSense for Audio products will be phased out; Google also plans to sell the Google Radio Automation business, the software that automates broadcast radio programming.

Facebook Tests an Ad Network for Application Developers (Mashable)
Facebook is testing its own advertising program for application developers… The company isn’t disclosing any details on the revenue sharing agreement, and notes that the test will dictate whether or not they decide to roll this program out to a wider audience of developers. But the move has to give pause to the dozens of ad networks that specialize in selling ads on Facebook apps, both to brand advertisers and other developers looking to attract more users to their applications.

Local Web-Ad Market Cools Down
Local ads have accounted for some of the fastest growth in Internet advertising in recent years, as small businesses have taken their marketing online. But this year growth in the local-ad market — which represents about a third of total online ad spending in the U.S. — is expected to shrink.

At Least Half Of Kid-Related Ad Dollars Going To Non-TV Sites (Paid Content)
The share of online ad dollars going to TV-related sites appears to be dwindling, unidentified sources tell Mediaweek, eroding the domination by Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network. Competition against the TV-centric media companies have been rising from companies such as ad network Betawave (formerly GoFish) to the iPhone. As kids’ spend their online time outside the larger companies sites like Disney.com, Nick.com and CartoonNetwork.com, between 50 percent and 75 percent of online advertising is being directed at sites that aren’t tied to TV programming.

Research: Most People Ignore Web Ads, Especially On General-Interest Sites (Paid Content)
Most money spent on web ads is going down the drain because a majority of users (57 percent) rarely or never pay attention to them, says new research by Addvantage Media for YouGov (via AOP). Just 12 percent of visitors to “large” websites often look at ads, and ABC1s (ie. the demographic many ads target) are less likely than C2DEs to pay attention. But social networks are proving better ad platforms than general sites – a lower number, 26 percent, of users shun ads there, though 36 percent say they rarely pay attention. In contrast to all this, specialist sites are far more effective than general-interest sites for ad delivery, with 73 percent of users saying they pay attention to ads there.

Report: Mobile Ads Are ‘Stickier;’ iPhone Users Are The Most Receptive Audience (Paid Content)
A rare bright spot for digital advertising: eMarketer released a report this morning that found that consumers are more receptive to mobile ads than ads on other media. The report aggregated findings from social network Limbo and research firm Gfk NOP , which surveyed mobile users. Not surprisingly, according to the report, iPhone users consumed far more information on their phones, from ads to services, than non-iPhone owners. Mobile ads also tended to stay in consumers’ minds for longer, and those consumers were more apt to click through the ads. Some of the data points in the survey:

Paid Apps Enter Google’s Android Market (Mashable)
Google Android just got a lot more attractive to developers. The Android Market – the Google equivalent to the iPhone app store, is now accepting paid application submissions. Developers can set their own pricing when submitting, with Google taking a 30 percent transaction fee. It will be interesting to see if paid apps give a boost to the Android platform. Currently, the Android Market boasts less than 1,000 applications, versus the 20,000+ available on iTunes.

Seeing Opportunity, MySpace Flexes Mobile Muscles
MySpace, which in a few years expects half its traffic to come from mobile devices rather than desktop computers, is unveiling new deals with Palm Inc. and Nokia Corp. this week that it says will make it the first social network to support every major smart phone.

11% of Online Americans Now Using Twitter
Online microblogging services like Twitter, a popular social media tool for many media companies and television networks, are used by 11% of online Americans, according to a research report conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project in December.

Skype Comes to Nokia Phones (Mashable)
Skype has partnered with Nokia to integrate its software into the Finnish company’s handsets, starting with Nokia’s N series of smartphones. The first smartphone to receive the Skype treatment will be Nokia N97, starting somewhere in the third quarter of 2009, and other devices will follow. In practice, this means that on the Nokia N97, you’ll be able to see your Skype contacts and their presence in the phone’s address book. You’ll also be able to message them, as well as make skype-to-skype voice calls using 3G and WiFi.