In a Friday night news dump, the Republican leadership in the House finally released their list of spending cuts that will be attached to the continuing resolution to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. In a statement, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says this resolution would cut spending by at least $100 billion over the final seven months of the fiscal year. But let’s scrutinize that.

Count me among those who constantly point out the dissonance between Democratic Primary Candidate Barack Obama’s progressive promises and the actions of President Barack Obama which tend to continue and even extend (as we see today on FISA) the Constitutional and international law abuses of George W. Bush. However, I am becoming more and more convinced that despite the accusations of fumbling and presenting multiple, conflicting public positions on the Egyptian uprising, a key strategic move by the Obama administration appears to have been communication to the Egyptian military that the US would move quickly to cut off financial aid to the military if it attacked peacefully demonstrating civilians. Would a President John McCain have taken this approach? I don’t think so, and we have his comments from last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference to support that idea.

The Chamber of Commerce has tried to craft another non-denial denial that they engaged a bunch of private spooks to spy on people like Brad Friedman.

For some 30 years, the US has had a Faustian bargain with Hosni Mubarak. “You help us, and we’ll ignore how you treat your people.” But when the devil arrives to demand payment, things can get ugly (see Iran in the 1970s).

To the extent that we’ve been supporting autocrats who are nervous about Egypt spilling into their countries, US diplomats might want to prod them to pay more attention to the rights of their own people. “If a revolution never happens, then you don’t have to worry about how we’ll react to it.”

Face it: getting out of a Faustian bargain is hard, but it’s easier to do before the revolution takes place and the bill comes due.

Let’s have a happy story, shall we?

Good news from the solar front: Solar Photovoltaics Getting Cheaper than Natural Gas in California.

Do Christmas lights stay on well after January where you live?

Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem — Sweet Tooth Jam, from The Muppet Show, episode 110.

Three months ago in this space, I wrote about Wisconsin governor-elect Scott Walker, who was showboating by making bogus demands and proclamations even though he was still two months from being inaugurated.

It’s probably no surprise that actually taking office hasn’t diminished Walker’s ambitions.

Just how crazy does a conservative have to be to get Bill Kristol to say please stop, you’re embarrassing us? I bet you can guess who was the first to find out…