On Monday evening, Irish television station RTE One revealed the existence of a 1997 Vatican letter to the Bishops of Ireland, forcing them to back down from mandating that bishops report abusive priests to the secular authorities. The letter came with a threat attached, that if the bishops took action against a priest and the priest appealed to Rome, Rome would back the priest and the bishop would end up with a black eye.

The saddest part of the whole thing? This threat worked.

Today, Dr. William Hsiao presented to the Vermont legislature a draft proposal for three different health care systems for the state. They include:

Option 1 – government-run single payer

Option 2 – public option

Option 3 – public/private single-payer

(You can find the full report, presentations, and the statement from Hsiao here at the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office.)

The purpose of all three designs is to expand coverage to all the residents of the state while controlling health care costs. All three options are designed to save more money and cover more uninsured than would happen under just the new federal health care law alone.

President Obama pulled off a neat trick with his announcement on regulatory streamlining yesterday. Initially, it earned praise from the right (they claimed it was their idea) and emnity on the left, even though it looked to be more of an announcement of general principles rather than any specific prescription. Then, when asked if the streamlining would incorporate the two major legislative goals of the Administration so far, health care and financial reform, both of which have a major regulatory component, they said no, the announcement had nothing to do with that. And that earned the emnity of the right and muted praise from the left. So as a result, nobody’s happy with this clear kabuki announcement.

There’s always a lot of tut-tutting when the White House releases the list of people who attend a state dinner. While a lot of that, for the dinner honoring Hu Jintao tonight, has to do with which members of Congress have blown off invites (John Boehner, Harry Reid, and Mitch McConnell, though McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao will attend with her father), I’m rather interested in who will attend from the auto industry.

I welcome seeing China pressured on human rights – the media at the press conference today did its job on that front – but the trade announcements were essentially band-aids to make it look like China is cooperating on rebalancing the trade relationship legitimately. As the executive director for the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), Scott Paul, explained, “The state visit did little to change the underlying dynamic of the dysfunctional U.S.-China economic relationship. Business deals, while important, are no substitute for firm commitments from China to stop its currency manipulation and to end its illegal subsidies of industry. And they are no substitute for clearly defined consequences if China fails to make progress.”

Peter Baker has an almost 6500-word article describing Obama’s efforts to fix the economy. But nowhere in this epic does Peter Baker once use the word “foreclosure.” Or “housing.” Or, god forbid, “HAMP.”

Oral arguments were heard today in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Jacksonville, Florida in the ongoing Don Siegelman case. As I reported on Tuesday, the arguments today were in response to the Supreme Court vacating the convictions of Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy and sending the case back to the Eleventh Circuit in light of the Supreme Court decision in Skilling.

The panel of judges was Gerald Tjoflat, J.L. Edmondson and James C. Hill. Arguing for Governor Siegelman was Sam Heldman and arguing for Mr. Scrushy was Bruce Rogow. Arguing for the Justice Department was John-Alex Romano.

Reflecting a concern noted by the judges, Heldman noted to the media after the proceedings that the court seemed very concerned with the concept that what they do with respect to criminal law in this case has real implications for the First Amendment.

Awesome activism from members of the Sheetmetal Workers union (SMWIA), 200 of whom burst into a private meeting of mortgage bankers to protest layoffs by a homebuilding company that got a $900 million in federal funds intended for job creation, and instead laid off workers. The banksters fled the scene, though one said he would have engaged the workers if they had “worn a suit.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or weep watching Rachel Maddow last night as she pleaded with her friend Gene to talk her off another ledge, this one driven by the fear our President has completely sold out to corporate capture and Republican frames defending it.

Don’t jump, Rachel, call them out. Hint: He’s not on your side.

I really hope this video of the shooting doesn’t get leaked, but just the retelling of it reinforces what Cheney leaned toward today. Jared Loughner, a determined individual, ran up and shot dozens of people at close range, and only ended his rampage when he had to reload, providing a moment of opportunity for the victims. Nobody had any chance of stopping him at any other point; the only heroic acts available to them were to shield other bystanders and sacrifice themselves. Loughner’s victims never knew what hit them. “More guns” in this case would have amounted to nothing; in fact, the one person with a gun who came running out to aid in the situation almost wound up shooting an innocent man.