As I reported yesterday, the Dawn Johnsen-less OLC wrote an opinion on January 8 retroactively authorizing the FBI’s inappropriate use of the exigent letters to snoop on Americans’ telecomm records.

Now, Senators Feingold, Durbin, and Wyden, have demanded that opinion from Eric Holder. Of note, they tie their demand into DOJ IG Glenn Fine’s comment that DOJ should notify Congress of the opinion and this use of exigent letters so it can consider legislation on that count.

If the House Democrats can’t find the votes for the Senate bill, and the Senate Democrats are too collectively ego-driven to support a reconciliation sidecar, then the only remaining strategy I can see for a significant increase in insurance coverage is to use reconciliation to just give most Americans who can’t afford health insurance access to coverage through Medicaid, Medicare, or SCHIP. This is simple, clean, easy to explain, and a more cost-effective way to expand coverage. Not going this route in the first place was a huge mistake.

Give the good-government types some credit for finding a counter-intuitive hook (corporate execs opposed to the SCOTUS ruling) to sneak public financing into the news cycle.

Street by street, block by block, organized by city ward, PrayforNewark’s squads of church members are walking their city, praying for residents and businesses. Launched on Martin Luther King Day in 2008, its leaders claim their effort now fields enough volunteers to pray for almost every street in the New Jersey city. Endorsed by Newark’s liberal mayor, PrayforNewark would seem a blessing for any city. What could be wrong with prayer ? But the effort is directly tied to an international movement that, as detailed in my new video documentary Transforming Uganda, played a significant role in organizing and inspiring Ugandan politicians who have backed the internationally notorious “kill the gays” bill, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently before Uganda’s parliament.

Judge Vaughn Walker announced today that he would prefer that both sides in the Prop 8 trial delay their closing arguments –”perhaps for a matter of weeks” — in order to allow him to review all of the evidence, testimony, and exhibits that have been presented.

I keep seeing all of this chatter out of the White House about letting “the dust settle” and “slowing down” on health care. I could be wrong, but I can’t help but interpret this as capitulation.

Van Hollen’s job is getting Democrats elected in 2010. The Senate bill is a travesty for a variety of reasons, but anyone who thinks that passing some shitty bill is going to help the Dems in 2010 is dreaming.

f you don’t want progressives to buckle under pressure from the White House apologists and get railroaded into passing the Senate bill, you better act right now. Because the administration and all the children of Cass Sunstein have way, way more ability to put pressure on them than we do, and unless everyone takes action, they’re gonna jam this shitty bill on all of us.

Call progressive members of Congress and tell them to vote against the Senate bill now.

When President Obama announced additional measures to deal with too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banks, the key adviser standing behind him was Paul Volcker, a strong champion of breaking up the TBTF banks and sharply curtailing the casino activities of traditional depository banks. So does Obama mean it?

[FDL has complete team coverage of Perry v. Schwarzenegger--including more legal analysis, court documents, videos, and liveblogging direct from the federal court in San Francisco. You can find it all on our dedicated Prop 8 page.]