Earlier today, the Washington Post reported that Republicans would tie a trade adjustment assistance bill valued by Democrats to the finalization of free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.

Sure enough, when Democrats tried to pass this bill today in the Senate, Republicans blocked it. They tried to call up the bill by unanimous consent and Republicans objected. In case you didn’t notice, then, Republicans just broke the gentlemen’s agreement on getting bills to the floor to try and force the President to sign off on some corporate-written trade bills with countries that kill their workers for trying to unionize.

This is priceless: then-Congressman Chris Lee (R-NY26-Shirtless) penned an advice piece for teens that appeared in a local paper midway through his first year in office. Good times.

Responding to the Obama Administration’s apparent decision to cut Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding, Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute says that progressives “are losing the argument at a higher level” about the budget in general, putting all programs and services at risk.

It was only three months ago that the Republican Party saw one of its largest political gains ever, yet already the electorate has swung back to supporting Democrats.

As the diplomatic tussle between the United States and Pakistan over US demands for the release of Raymond Davis continues, it is interesting to note that their are varying reports of what Davis had in his possession (photos here) at the time he was arrested after shooting dead two Pakistanis on the streets of Lahore on January 27. Varying reports mention a GPS tracker, a GPS navigation system or a phone tracker, along with a telescope and digital cameras said to have photos of “sensitive” locations. In a very interesting development, we learn from multiple sources that on Thursday Pakistan successfully test-fired its Hatf VII cruise missile, which it also calls “Babur”. When the Express Tribune first reported that Davis’ victims were from the intelligence community (which ISI has since denied and threatened the paper with legal action), the Washington Post followed up by mentioning that Davis was trailed and confronted because he had “crossed a red line“. Was gathering information on the impending test firing of the Babur missile that red line?

The Senate leadership, Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, just paved the way for major spending cuts in this budget year in a conference call with reporters. Saying that “we have to start living within our means to invest in our future,” Reid tried to make a distinction with Republicans only on the idea that Democratic cuts are more responsible and reasonable. This implicitly agrees that spending cuts will be made.

I noted yesterday the mind-numbingly ignorant analysis of Glenn Greenwald’s motivation as a careerist hack that was provided by HBGary. And if the allegations in the excerpts of former WikiLeaks volunteer Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s book are accurate, HBGary’s analysis about WikiLeaks itself is even more ignorant.

The rumors of just what Hosni Mubarak will do are rampant. I’ve heard several reports that Mubarak will resign, and just as many that Mubarak will not. There are reports that he’ll give up power to Omar Suleiman, and reports that he will cede to a transition led by the military. So it’s not clear [...]

When I pointed out that the bankruptcy bill was going to exacerbate the financial crisis that was about to hit back in 2008, Sens. Chuck Schumer, Byron Dorgan, and Sherrod Brown all agreed the law was a problem. But, Schumer said, we couldn’t just fix the obvious problems with it in 2008 because (you guessed it) we needed a bigger majority. That was, of course, in 2008. That November, the Democrats would win solid majorities in both houses, as big a majority as you’re ever going to get. Yet the Democrats never found time to get around to fixing the Bankruptcy bill.

I’ve been listening to all the speeches so far, and basically, they ca be summarized thusly: “Obama’s a socialist, taxes are evil, freedom is good, Reagan is teh awesome. Also, U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!” My favorite line so far was from Ron Johnson (T-WI) who bragged about how much Reagan cut taxes for rich people. I’m [...]