The Whole Delivery

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy "I think we come back to the entitlement question. The Democrats should actually be in favor of certain kinds of progressive entitlement reform, it's not actually that big of a give..... One of the big concerns is doing too much fiscal austerity too soon in 2013. The more that you did in the form of, say, social security, one of the things with Social Security, which can be phrased in gradually over time, the lighter the load imposed in 2013." - Peter Orszag Personally, I like Erza Klein, especially after meeting him once in person. He's genuinely a nice guy overall for sure, and we know how intelligent he is from exploding onto the scene with consistent diligence on budgets at The American Prospect. Most people would probably say the same about Peter Orszag genuinely as a person. Nice guy who is definitely quite a personality for a lot of wonk people who aren't able to be pers...

Positive ads don't get any better than this: Mother of a child: "They wanted to close our schools. They didn't care what happened to us or our children." The camera then goes to a close-up of a child asking, "Where am I going to go if they close my school?" Back to the mother, who says, "I didn't have an answer for her." Grayson: "My five children go to public school right here in Orlando. I fought for $200 million to save our schools for them and for all of us." Children: Alan Grayson saved our schools." Close: "I'm Alan Grayson, and I improved this message." What more could be said about the messages this ad elicits to the public, especially Grayson "swing" district? It clearly displays the political figure on the side of the people he represents, and doesn't throw an assortment of accomplishments and facts in a half-minute span. Not that accurate information about a politician's record...

Photo from Reuters' Jonathan Ernst The damage control has been quite phenomenal . The story may not be over for GOP Rep Joe Barton. Even though he has now issued a statement retracting his apology to BP, House GOP leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor privately warned him that if he screws up again, he'll lose his slot as ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, a senior GOP aide tells me. "This may not be the end of the story," the aide says, adding that if he starts making similar noises about BP, he's out. "Boehner and Cantor told him he came within a centimeter of losing his seat, and to strongly keep that in mind." I'm also told that Barton's retraction came after Boehner and Cantor exerted heavy pressure on him, and that there was wrangling over Barton's final statement -- another sign that GOP leaders knew just how lethal Barton's apology to BP was for the party. The damage control continues. Update: And I ...

As Atrios said : Not surprisingly, he was embarrassed at how much of an a---hole he was here : "I have seen the video posted on several blogs," says Etheridge. "I deeply and profoundly regret my reaction, and I apologize to all involved. Throughout my many years of service to the people of North Carolina, I have always tried to treat people from all viewpoints with respect. No matter how intrusive and partisan our politics can become, this does not justify a poor response. I have and I will always work to promote a civil public discourse." Real embarrassed.

Ezra Klein said this perfectly yesterday , among many things, about the man of the week: So I take Paul at his word that he's not a racist. What he is, however, is an ideological extremist. He is so categorically opposed to public regulation of private enterprise that he cannot even bring himself to say that the Woolworth lunch counter should've been desegregated. Instead, he falls back on the remedies of the market: "I wouldn't attend, wouldn't support, wouldn't go to," a private institution that discriminates, he told Rachel Maddow. But he would let them discriminate. And in the segregated South, that would've been a perfectly viable business model for many, many very important institutions. And he still can't say it : Paul had a chance this morning on ABC News to clarify his views on the proper role of Federal power vis-a-vis discrimination by private entities and institutions. He conspicuously declined to do so. During that remarkable ...

Joan McCarter was the one brave enough to write about the Washington Toast's stupidity today, and Mr. Moulitsas also summed it up nicely in his tweet . But just to talk about it, it weird considering The Post gives a platform to The Root to exist. Now I think this was more of a painful mistake that we can all laugh at, a moment of awful indolence by the editor of the web version. But I know for sure (as you should too, the reader) that The Shrub W. would not have a headline about him juxtaposed under a picture of say, Richard Nixon or Herbert Hoover. And by the way, Malcom X is not the equivalent on "the left" of those two, for all addicted to the madness of the false equivalency. Your liberal media.

In today's version of our post-racial society, we have this lovely nugget : A federal judge Tuesday ordered a rural county in southwestern Mississippi to stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county's only majority-white school, the U.S. Justice Department announced. The order, issued by Senior Judge Tom S. Lee of the U.S. District Court of Southern Mississippi, came after Justice Department civil rights division lawyers moved to enforce a 1970 desegregation case against the state and Walthall County. Known as Mississippi's cream pitcher for its dairy farms and bordering Louisiana 80 miles north of New Orleans, Walthall County has a population of about 15,000 people that includes about 54 percent white residents and 45 percent African American residents, according to the U.S. Census. Man, I really, really, really love how postracial our society is with its still occasi...

The Washington Post has this headline from the latest development of Senator Airbus's hostage holds of more than 70 presidential nominees. Shelby releases holds on Obama nominees Yayyyyy, everything a-okay, Shelby stopped being the nut that he is publicly by letting it go from the growing heat he was getting. Um, no : But as Shelby’s own statement makes clear, he is still holding up some of the military nominations to benefit Airbus. The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House’s attention on two issues that are critical to our national security – the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI’s Terrorist Device Analytical Center (TEDAC). With that accomplished, Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition until the new Request for Proposal is issued. The Air Force tanker acquisition is not an ‘earmark’ as has been reported; it is a competition to replace ...

It is what it is with that paper nowadays Yesterday, Anne Applebaum was one of two -- two! -- Washington Post columnists who argued for leniency for child rapist Roman Polanski . Applebaum's argued that Polanski shouldn't be imprisoned because he has suffered enough -- he's had to pay lawyers' fees, and was unable to pick up an Oscar he won for fear he'd be taken for jail. No, really -- that was Applebaum's argument: He did commit a crime, but he has paid for the crime in many, many ways: In notoriety, in lawyers' fees, in professional stigma. He could not return to Los Angeles to receive his recent Oscar. That's just dumb. People who commit crimes do not pay their debts to society when they write checks to their lawyers. And saying that someone has paid for the crime of child rape by being unable to receive an Oscar may be the single most clueless thing ever written by a Washington Post columnist. Until tomorrow, as Duncan Black says so well . And ...

Eugene Robinson and E. J. Dionne sure couldn't produce this brilliance. Neither the likes of centrist arrogant specialists David Broder or David Ignitaus. Even Charles of Krauthammer (because you have to put the preposition in between his two names to give him his due respect) of all special people couldn't make these words happen. And that Obama guy, pffffffttttt. The op-ed of the year has been written, and it sure isn't written in the New York Times. It sure isn't written in the New York Post or Washington Times. And the Daily Kos front pagers would certainly be happy to have it be on their front pages (and it is sure to be linked by on Eschanton by Artios and not made fun of at Think Progress). Ladies and gentlemen, the op-ed of the year has been written. It starts off with a gem like this: There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America's unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries a...

Last week, a formerly great paper probably took the final step to well, making itself irrelevant . Here's the flier with how the Washington Post wanted to pay lobbyist for inside coverage to shape the health care debate: Thomas Frank, one of the only rational voices at the Wall Street Journal, said it just right this morning (via the A..P.R.U from Dr. Greg Dworkin ) If this was a slip it was a Freudian one, the kind that tells us something true and revealing about what is going on inside. It's a good read indeed about a paper's decision to disregard its great history for the shoddy present it is now.

He has something to tell you : The Washington Post died today. It was five months short of its 132nd birthday. And he has much more if you read it. He writes the obituary for the Washington Post. Classic. Sorry Greg Sargent and Ezra Klein, but yes, he is teliing the truth about your bosses.

It's not a pretty sight For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff." The Washington Post, continuing on the journey away from what it used to be.

So what if some think that this headline maybe a little sensational, he went out in style Today's column is my last for The Washington Post. And the first thing I want to say is thank you. Thank you to all you readers, e-mailers, commenters, questioners, Facebook friends and Twitterers for spending your time with me and engaging with me over the years. And thank you for the recent outpouring of support. It was extraordinarily uplifting, and I'm deeply grateful. If I ever had any doubt, your words have further inspired me to continue doing accountability journalism. My plan is to take a few weeks off before embarking upon my next endeavor -- but when I do, I hope you'll join me. It's hard to summarize the past five and a half years. But I'll try. It is a great read, including this paragraph When I look back on the Bush years, I think of the lies. There were so many. Lies about the war and lies to cover up the lies about the war. Lies about torture and surveillance. L...

I could never see this happening to fresh new media writers like Broader, Ignatius and Krauthammer. But then again, maybe I'm going to much into hyperbole. Via Ms. Hamsher, here's the editor of what use to be a great newspaper explain some more why a journalist who Kos and Glenn Greenwald of all justified media critics fully respected and gave praise to. As Jane notes about the whole traffic thing, and what Hiatt &crew really thought about Froomkin's post: Take a look at the Post's Politics page. Do you see Dan Froomkin's column listed anywhere? Nope. Nor is it listed on the front page. If you want to find his White House Watch, you better know where to look for it. The Post has been trying to kill off Froomkin's audience for a while. Anyone who writes for a web site knows that if you get no main page exposure -- or in this case, even a link on the Politics page -- your traffic is going to take a huge hit, regardless of the quality of your writing. ...

Another unfaithful dummy in the Senate Sources in Washington and Nevada say Republican Sen. John Ensign, a rising star in the Republican Party considering a 2012 presidential bid will hold a press conference later today in which he will acknowledge an extramarital affair. Ensign, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, flew back to his native Las Vegas today in anticipation of the public announcement, sources said, missing a vote considered key to the Nevada tourist industry. He is lucky that he is in Nevada though. He may actually keeps his job despite his cheating ways.

Via TPM, the Washington Post writers Christian Davenport and Paul Duggan give a fitting sendoff on slain officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Colleagues called Stephen T. Johns "Big John," for he was well over 6 feet tall. But mostly friends recalled the security guard's constant courtesy and friendliness. "A soft-spoken, gentle giant," said Milton Talley, a former employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where Johns was killed yesterday in the line of duty -- shot, authorities said, by an avowed white supremacist who entered the museum with a rifle. Deep.

Photo from UPI From Washington Post journalist Jeffrey Smith, who is scared to use the word "torture" apparently in this article, Leon Panetta and the CIA do the job that the Obama Administration wanted it to do: block the release of Cheney era videos showing torture . The Obama administration objected yesterday to the release of certain Bush-era documents that detail the videotaped interrogations of CIA detainees at secret prisons, arguing to a federal judge that doing so would endanger national security and benefit al-Qaeda's recruitment efforts. In an affidavit, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta defended the classification of records describing the contents of the 92 videotapes, their destruction by the CIA in 2005 and what he called "sensitive operational information" about the interrogations. The forced disclosure of such material to the American Civil Liberties Union "could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security by inf...

The incomparable Ted Kennedy is on the health care reform hustle , and Obama yesterday again “[W]e’ve got to get it done this year,” It really does. Check out "Health Care Friday" , a weekly report on the status of health care news from the brilliant DemFromCt at the Daily Kos.

(Photo from google.com) Meet the lady who tried to stop this mess we are in now Via the legendary Digby and her usual assiduous effort , you won't believe this Wapo profile on the woman , named Brooksley Born, who tried to stop all the deregulation destruction that took place in our financial markets, leading to a future recession that we are in now. She tried to warn us all, especially one Alan Greenspan. But here's what Green Greeny told her way back a decade ago: Greenspan had an unusual take on market fraud, Born recounted: " He explained there wasn't a need for a law against fraud because if a floor broker was committing fraud, the customer would figure it out and stop doing business with him." There shouldn't be a law to stop this wrongdoing is what Greenspan basically said. Hmm? At guess we should have no laws then at all, based on his crooked thinking. Digby may have went far on this next line, but it still resonates with me: Andrea Mitchell should res...