Is he holding out for even more concessions? Or was the Dodd/Dorgan/Brown trifecta finally too much for him?

Actually, probably neither; he's instead trying to warn others not to undo the compromises made to get his vote, or else he'll bolt.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson earned himself the ire of the majority of Americans and pro-life advocates when he became the 60th vote for the pro-abortion government-run health care bill. Now, Nelson says Democrats shouldn't count on him to deliver the final vote on the final version of the legislation.

Should the top Democrats merging the House and Senate versions of the health care bill expand abortion funding beyond what Nelson already compromised on in the Senate, he says he will vote against the bill.

Nelson also says he is a potential no vote if they insert the public option, currently found in the House bill but not the Senate measure, into the final measure.

Asked if he planned to vote for the final legislation in the Senate, Nelson told The Chadron Record newspaper in an interview, “I hope so, but I'm not 100 percent certain of it."

“I've made it so clear. It isn't going to happen," Nelson said of the public option. “I'm not giving away that 60th vote. I've not been bribed for it.”

Whatever, dude.

Posted by: Ace at 11:50 AM | Comments (104)
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He's not moving back to after Leno.

He wants a Fox deal, I reckon, and will get one.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (120)
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Whoops! It's so, so old. From July 2009.

I guess I didn't notice he was wearing a short sleeve shirt in the heat.

...

Her distaste and apprehension is palpable.

They will never acknowledge that their cultural biases are indeed biases, and that they are not objective "facts" they can or should parade around.

Posted by: Ace at 11:17 AM | Comments (112)
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Unlikely to win them all, and even assuming we won them all, we still wouldn't control the Senate. Indeed, even if we won 9 and Brown won too, we'd still be at 50-50 -- with Super-Genius Joe Biden breaking ties in Obama's favor.

(Unless... Lieberman than flipped, which I have to imagine he would.)

Anyway, we're probably not going to take back the Senate, but Cook calls a 4-to-6 seat pickup for the GOP the most likely scenario.

Posted by: Ace at 11:10 AM | Comments (43)
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+1 GOP.

He probably would have won against Dorgan anyway. This should cinch it.

The thing is, all these -- what do you call them? -- these mountain states up northaways elect a huge number of Democratic Senators, despite being very, very red.

Why? I keep being told by locals it's due to farm subsidies -- egg subsidies are big. The Democrats promise more.

I don't know how to change this or how the hell we can convince these red-staters to stop electing these goddamn liberals-posing-as-centrists-except-on-crucial votes. Over egg subsidies? Jesus! Look at the bigger picture, guys!

And if takes bribing you for your so-sacred egg subsidies, fine, we'll bribe you. But stop voting for blue state liberals in red states.

Posted by: Ace at 09:42 AM | Comments (127)
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CNN's Headline:

CNN Poll: Americans split on success of Obama presidency

Are you f'n' kidding me? The key finding of the poll is...

Forty-eight percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday say Obama's presidency has been a failure so far, with 47 percent saying Obama has been a success.

...and they give it that anodyne headline? A plurality of 48% calls him a failure so far, and CNN can only rouse themselves to say there's a split in opinion?

Oh well. It doesn't really matter. The people know, and the people feel this way. If the media wants to continue living in pretend-world, it doesn't matter.

Oh yeah: Approval down 3 to 51%; disapproval up four to 48%.

"Only 44 percent approve of how Obama is handling the economy; just 4 in 10 give him a thumbs-up on health care and his approval rating on the federal deficit has plunged to 36 percent. Those are three of the four most important issues on the public's mind today," says Holland. "The president's ratings also suffer from the growing perception that he is too liberal - 46 percent feel that way today, up 10 points from March.

The poll also indicates that 1 in 10 say that Obama has not been liberal enough.

Important finding, CNN.

The president can also take heart in the fact that his 51 percent approval rating is nearly twice as high as the approval rating for Congress.

Oh definitely! He can sooooo totally take heart in that! He beats Congress' approval rating!

Um, except even Bush at his most unpopular also beat Congress' approval rating. I don't remember CNN ever suggesting The Fiend Bush could "take heart" in that.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

CBS/NYTimes Poll: Actually, I should say I don't know this is a joint CBS/NYT poll; I just assume it is, because they almost always partner up for these polls. (Correction: Nope, just a CBS poll, Geoff tells me. The NYT partners with them once a month, and this isn't that once a month.)

Their tears are so delicious.

46% approve, 41% disapprove. And this is with adults, the friendliest sample for Obama.

Geoff also tips we'll have a new Gallup number in ten minutes.

Cowbell:

more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:39 AM | Comments (372)
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Rape jokes, I love 'em, as the guy from The Phantom Menace review said.

No, but seriously, we lost the conviction on the perpetrators, but we want to prosecute those who applauded and cheered them on.

Posted by: Ace at 08:32 AM | Comments (48)
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Oh, did I say ordinary run of the mill hardened criminals? Sorry, I meant to say criminally insane mass murdering Dr. Evil type super villain Garden Clubs.

Attorney General Martha CoakleyÂ’s crackdown on Bay State gardening clubs for failing to file financial disclosure forms has left some green thumbs fearing arrest - and many sore at the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

Linda Jean Smith, president of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, has been besieged with calls from frightened, angry members after a prickly Jan. 4 letter from CoakleyÂ’s office declared many of them were breaking the law for failing to file their financial records for the past four years...

...The local clubs quietly maintain traffic islands, town halls, libraries and veteransÂ’ hospitals across the state. Most take in about $5,000 to $10,000 a year in annual dues and plant sales, Smith said...

These SCORCHING HOTBEDS of underground illegal economic Galtism clearly need to be crushed before the problem grows out of control. Heaven forbid someone sell an untaxed Petunia or Fern in the People's Republic. Its our patriotic duty to see these vile horticultural bourgeoisie traitors to the revolution rooted out and SEVERELY PUNISHED comrades. This counter-revolutionary independent volunteerism is a cancer eating away that threatens the very authority of the state itself.

H/T Jules more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:21 AM | Comments (85)
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From Johnny I's flickr...

Look at that. There's a motley crew with bad intent and heads full of bad chemicals.

Towards the back left, you can see Iowahawk shielding his face with a menu. I am, of course, nowhere to be seen.

An awful lot of fun. Kemp called in a $100 round of drinks for the table. That helped with the total $700+ bill. Thanks to everyone for coming out and being so generous. And good company.

By the way, Kemp: Write me so I can thank you properly. They gave me your phone number for two minutes but then took it away, saying they needed it, and then didn't return it.

Posted by: Ace at 08:19 AM | Comments (73)
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Oh my:

It's bad enough that Fan and Fred lowered the loan approval thresholds. [Former Freddie Mac Chief Credit Officer Edward] Pinto's point is that for 15 years, they doubled down by "routinely" misclassifying approved loans, effectively telling the capital markets and the public that these loans weren't as risky as they really were. Because of this, securities backed by these mortgages carried lower interest rates than they would have if the risks had been properly disclosed. Some of the offerings should probably never have been issued or should have been given junk bond pricing. Further, misrepresented loans Fan and Fred kept on their books enabled the two entities to continually make false claims of financial health.

Powerline blog comments:

. It seems that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--the U.S. government, in effect--"routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime or Alt-A...." The much-reviled Wall Street bankers relied on those representations by agents of the federal government when they bought and sold securities backed by those misrepresented mortgages.

Qualitatively, this is not quite as bad as Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, but it is worse than anything Enron did. Quantitatively, it caused financial devastation compared to which Enron and Madoff are barely grains of sand in the ocean. So, wouldn't one expect our reporters to show a little curiosity? Silly question, perhaps: mainstream reporters don't like where that trail leads. Also, to be fair, most of them are not smart enough to understand it.

Forgive me for just linking without any commentary, but really, what the hell more is there to say?

These rotten bastards built the bomb, they detonated, they stuck us with the massive clean-up costs, and they're building an even bigger bomb right now.

Thanks to ArthurK.

Posted by: Ace at 08:14 AM | Comments (58)
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