Picture of the day

From the Big Picture blog comes more scenes from that whole revolution thing in Iran that is still evidently going on. Who can keep track with all the celebrities dying? I'm not certain but it seems like they're taking Michael Jackson's death pretty hard. It's OK Iran, his music will live on in our hearts forever.

This series does point out one of the better perks of being a Supreme Leader or Iran: a swank marble prayer pit. I mean other than the ultimate power, the ability to rig elections, the control over the media and security forces, and a yearly centerfold in Beard Aficionado Magazine, it's gotta be one of the better ones.

Broken News: Specter to electorate: "...from my cold, dead hands”

HARRISBURG—In a stunning announcement today, Pennsylvania’s senior Senator, Arlen Specter, announced that he was switching from the Republican party to the Democratic party in a thinly veiled attempt to hold onto his seat in the 2010 midterms.

“Good people of Pennsylvania, you will knock me out of this seat when I’m dead and fucking buried,” the sweaty and panicked new Democrat announced to the assembled media. “With recent demographic shifts in the state, coupled with your performance in last year's presidential election, I can see the writing on the wall. And that writing says ‘kill, strangle, wound, lie, and cheat anything or anyone who tries to take this seat.' You thought a Republican primary challenge was going to take me down? I just flipped the script, motherfuckers. Specter forever! You can have my seat when you pry it from my cold dead hands!”

The Senator is of course referring to his Republican primary challenge from orthodox right winger Pat Toomey. Early polling has Senator Specter down over 20 points and unlikely to even gain the nomination of his party.

Those close to the Senator note that while he will be nominally a Democrat, he in no way will change his moderate Republican views nor alter the enabling pisspot behavior that had him decrying the same tactics, opinions, and judges he would almost immediately help push through his Judiciary Committee during the Bush years.

“Oh yeah, he’s still the same guy, albeit more desperate and worried” an aide to the Senator said. “This is completely a naked move to hold onto that seat with those wrinkled, bony hands for as long as he can. He didn’t suddenly become enamored with socialism. He’s just hoping that residual disgust over the Republican leadership of the country will let him waltz back to his seat, when the only thing that’s changed about him is the letter next to his name.”

Political analysts see Specter easily able to coast to victory in 2010 based soley on name recognition and party affiliation. While the right wing attitudes of Pat Toomey are perfect for the fever swamps of the Republican primary and surely would have defeated Specter, in a larger general election they taint Toomey with the similar stink of right wing crazy that Pennsylvania, which formerly called Rick Santorum its senator, is still desperately trying to wash off.

“He’s a Democrat now?” asked Billy Wozniak, a confused and disinterested voter from Kittaning, in between naps. “Whatever. I can’t reflexively vote against him based on party affiliation, so I’m not going to bother to learn if he’s made his ideas more like the state he represents. I’ll just assume he does and continue voting for him based on the fact that he’s been senator since this state was founded.” He finished before dozing off again.

“Wait!” Wozniak said, snapping awake with a snort and a cough. “Wasn’t his ’04 re-election entirely based around the fact that it was his last go-round and we all needed to reward him for being elected so many times by electing him one final time… because we owed him or something? Ahh fuck it, whatever. Like I have time to learn about a third party.”

Sources close to Specter say he has been taking judo and a krav maga class, engaged in weapons training, and carries no less than 12 knives on his body at any given time. An increasingly paranoid and tense Specter feels that these challenges may soon move beyond the mere electoral process and may have to move his contesting of the seat into straight physical combat and murder of those he sees as potential rivals.

Those close to the senator say that Mr. Specter has begun the process of mentally preparing himself to devolve into an almost animalistic, feral state should post-party switch polling not show an immediate uptick in his election prospects. Should this occur, Specter plans to paint himself the same color as the actual senate chair in which he sits and proceed to attack anyone who enters his peripheral vision.

Aides hope this contingency will be avoided by the state once again rubber-stamping another six years in office for Mr. Specter.

“Don’t they owe him?” one aide was heard to say. “I mean he really, nakedly wants to hold onto the thing in any unprincipled way possible. Can't they admire his conviction to bend his convictions just so he can stay in office? Isn’t that enough? I mean, this is America!”

This same aide was reluctant to confirm that, mere minutes after his press conference, Specter received a personalized invitation from Senator Joe Lieberman offering him provisional membership in the Senate's Emasculated Irrelevance Club.

Real ultimate power

The White House is expected to send up legislation arguing that Congress should give Tim Geithner more power. Robotic eyes, super speed, metal claw hands, and jaws that crush steel beams. You know, the basic bionic man package. But also some financial powers as well. Because, why not? He's been doing so awesome let's just expand his jurisdiction.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is set to argue for the new powers at a hearing today on Capitol Hill that was scheduled to address the furor over bonuses paid to executives at American International Group, which the government has propped up with about $180 billion in federal aid. Administration officials say the proposed authority would have allowed them to seize AIG last fall and wind down its operations at less cost to taxpayers.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Giving the Treasury secretary the power to seize a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process.

Normally, I'd say this was a good/great idea. Why shouldn't the government be able to step in and control/quicken the liquidation/fix problems in companies it already ostensibly owns? It already can step in and take over banks, why not financial giants it's shoveling billions into? Yeah, except I doubt they'll ever take over AIG, judging by how they've handled the banks.

Instead of nationalizing banks, we've just concocted scheme after scheme to allow them to go on pretending they hold assets of some value and are financially solvent, most recently last weekend with the unveiling of Geithner's toxic/legacy assets program. They keep drawing the misery out there, stalling action, prolonging the recession, dumping more money in, taking extra bite after extra bite of the shit sandwich instead of one big final one. So why would we expect them to ever do something different with AIG? In the end it'll just be one more thing they drag their feet on.

He's all growed up

Barry's taking his first steps, taking off the training wheels, going to his first boy/girl dance. *sniff* So many important milestones, so many important memories. He even gave his first signing statement. How precious. I hope someone took a photo. Here it is:

Numerous provisions of the legislation purport to condition the authority of officers to spend or reallocate funds on the approval of congressional committees. These are impermissible forms of legislative aggrandizement in the execution of the laws other than by enactment of statutes. Therefore, although my Administration will notify the relevant committees before taking the specified actions, and will accord the recommendations of such committees all appropriate and serious consideration, spending decisions shall not be treated as dependent on the approval of congressional committees. Likewise, one other provision gives congressional committees the power to establish guidelines for funding costs associated with implementing security improvements to buildings. Executive officials shall treat such guidelines as advisory.

Yet another provision requires the Secretary of the Treasury to accede to all requests of a Board of Trustees that contains congressional representatives. The Secretary shall treat such requests as nonbinding.

LEGISLATIVE FACE!!!!!!! Try not to get your inappropriate oversight on fund reallocation all over Barry's budget, Pelosi. It's nice though to see Barry continue the legacy set forth by Andrew Jackson. I mean I guess he was just bitching about the Bush signing statements, not the signing statements themselves. Here's one major difference between an Obama signing statement and a Bush one: one is based around constitutional legal precedent over funding and the other was based around declaring entire laws invalid. So Obama has tackled this area in a different manner.

Still, could you not have broke it out the same week you get all "constitutional reviewy" on you predecessor's ones. This and the 'enemy combatant' thing and the 'state secrets' thing, and a bunch of other things are making me and Glenn Greenwald paranoid. I'm not buying tinfoil to make into hats, but I'm pricing it.

Presidential bombing

ABC graphic of Obama and a predator drone, so you're better able to comprehend the complexities. Plane predator, not movie Predator. Though that would be fucking pimp if Obama controlled the Predator.

If any of you had Day 3 in your office poll on how long it would take President Obama to get an itchy trigger finger and launch some motherfuckin' bombs because he's the Commander in Chief, well, collect.

The CIA's bombing campaign against al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan continued with two more attacks today, an indication, senior officials say, that President Barack Obama has approved the U.S. strategy that has killed at least eight of al Qaeda's top 20 leaders since July 2008.

The two attacks today in Pakistan's were the first since President Obama took office on Tuesday.

Asked about it at his daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "I'm not going to discuss that matter."

During the campaign, Obama called for cross-border attacks against high-value al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, even before the CIA campaign began.

Pakistani officials and villagers told ABCNews.com that 17 people were killed in two successive predator drone strikes against compounds in North and South Waziristan.