Over the weekend, DDay and other Califoria bloggers made the trek to the California Democratic Party convention in Sacramento and pushed through a resolution calling for the House to begin an impeachment inquiry into Torture Judge Jay Bybee, who sits on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. dday led the impressive online effort, so we’re helping him out.

Pretty much everything you read will tie today’s confirmation to our current national frenzy over the new swine flu, but the fact is this was slowed by obstructionist Republicans so they could fire up their base and send out a few more fundraising appeals, and the final approval was long overdue.

This is funny — watch Joe Lieberman describe his exit from the Democratic Party because it was dominated by extremists, just like Arlen Specter’s Pennsylvania GOP primary is dominated by extremists. Then Norah O’Donnell asks RGJoe why Arlen didn’t run as a GOP, then after he lost the primary, run as an independent like RGJoe did in Connecticut after his loss to Ned Lamont.

So Arlen Specter is switching parties. Who would’ve thought? Well, not Harry Reid, on March 27:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday that Sen. Arlen Specter’s (R-Pa.) decision to reject “card-check” legislation has ended any chance of a party switch.

Reid as well as Vice President Biden, Pennsylvania Gov.

A three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Mary Schroeder, William Canby and Michael Hawkins, has firmly rejected the vile cover up attempted against several detainees/former detainees led by Binyam Mohamed. Very good news.

Russ Feingold raised two biggest concerns in a press conference on his report card of the Obama Administration’s first 100 days. He said Obama’s use of State Secrets was “reminiscent of the Bush Administration.” And he suggested the intelligence community continues to stonewall the intelligence committees.

Arlen Specter on why he’s switching parties:

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

Specter has a lot of company.

Jon Tester has expressed his opposition to mortgage write-down in bankruptcy because “a deal’s a deal.”

His underlying assumption is that homeowners entered into good faith deals with banks, and should now have to live up to them. So I asked Bill Black to respond:

Here’s the key quotation: “Based on existing investigations and mortgage fraud reporting, 80 percent of all reported fraud losses involve collaboration or collusion by industry insiders.

Because he’s committed to the Democratic agenda?

My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords’ switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture.

Today’s NYT features a lengthy article detailing Treasury Secretary Geithner’s history in dealing with the financial crisis. Without saying so, the article paints a perfect picture of how an industry captures the regulators responsible for overseeing it, and more telling, how even an honest regulator fails to realize he’s been captured.