Gawker has published a misleading and uninformed article on the detention conditions of Bradley Manning; the truth is that he is presumed innocent and being held pre-trial, not a convicted criminal being punished.

Makes you wonder what might have been.

Funny how those dangerous states aren’t really dangerous enough to be deprived of Slim-Fast?

Eartha Kitt — Santa Baby, from 2006.

Why do Governor Scottdemort and his helpers hate people who don’t have jobs?

My advice to any political party is to focus the bulk of their energy on doing what ever possible, as quickly as possible, to deliver real improvements for the electorate. People pay attention to how the government is affecting their lives, not the show politicians put on for each other.

If Democrats had spent even half as much time on getting more people help with their health care as soon as possible as they did getting that “pretty” CBO score for their bill, I suspect they would have had a better showing last November.

We’re getting our first indication of how the President will use the State of the Union address. With Speaker John Boehner behind him, President Obama will address a solidly Republican House of Representatives and a Senate with a 53-47 Democratic split. In his press conference yesterday he alluded to his persistence and unfinished business on a variety of issues, particularly surrounding the federal budget, the first wave of which will need to be completed by March to avoid a government shutdown. According to spokesman Robert Gibbs, the State of the Union will have a focus on the budget and deficits.

We are left with no jobs, no pensions, Social Security being cut/defaulted. But hey! We bailed out the banks!

Greg Sargent reports that Harry Reid will respond to the call of his entire caucus and devise rules to reform the Senate rules.

Twenty three-year-old computer programmer David House is the only person besides Bradley Manning’s aunt and attorney to visit him in prison, as Manning almost enters his sixth month in extreme isolation while awaiting trial at Quantico Marine Base.

House appeared on the Dylan Ratigan Show today to discuss his Firedoglake story about Manning’s detention, revealing new information about Bradley’s health, the Pentagon’s deceptions, and the weak accusations hurled at Manning by Adrian Lamo, the one man whose story the government used to arrest and detain Bradley.