As James Fallows points out, S&P is basically making a guess, no more informed or uninformed than any observer of politics. No modeling went into this threatened downgrade. “They’re saying they have an opinion on the state of Congressional-White house dealings on the budget,” writes Fallows. “Fine. Go on a talk show or start a blog.”

Building on the success of his “The Runaway General” article that led to President Obama firing Stanley McChrystal, Michael Hastings returns to the pages of Rolling Stone with “Another Runaway General“, where he exposes information operations, or Psy-Ops, on dignitaries including US Senators as they visited Afghanistan on “fact-finding” trips. What should not be missed when contemplating the illegal and immoral aspects of this information operation directed against the citizens of the country and high level government officials is that it is just one more instance in an ongoing pattern of information manipulation and outright deception on the part of the military in recent years. A few recent examples include the use of retired generals posing as independent military analysts to spout information coordinated by the Pentagon, intentional deception to cover up Special Operations troops digging bullets out of the bodies of pregnant women they killed in a night raid and the more recent claim by General Petraeus that parents intentionally burned their children in order to exaggerate injuries received in a US attack, to name just a few.

Earlier today, the FCC and the Justice Department ruled in favor of the merger between Comcast and NBC Universal, creating one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and setting an unadvisable template for one company to combine the power of media and the Internet.

Sen. Al Franken, who has been a lonely critic of the proposed merger, released a caustic statement on the FCC action today.

Senators Tom Udall, Jeff Merkley and Tom Harkin have announced that their proposal for reforming the Senate rules now has 26 co-sponsors, all Democrats. But they represent a healthy ideological cross-section of the entire caucus.

Ben Nelson’s spokesman seriously walked back his opposition today.

The FCC officially approved rules that reportedly provide net neutrality protections to wireline Internet but not wireless services, and which include a host of loopholes for both types of service.

The Democratic argument about the tax cuts is right. But the leader of the party already stopped making it. He’s busy bargaining. And so that’s the bargain we’ll get. It’s a major loss for the party, and I think a lot of politicians inside it understand that.

As we settle into our Turkey Day here in the Great White North, I’m thankful for some comedy relief on the part of Norm “Pot Kettle Black” Coleman giving failed Alaska teabagger Republican Joe Miller some friendly advice.

So here’s a major breakthrough in the foreclosure crisis and in particular the failed HAMP program. It doesn’t mean anything’s going to happen, but it means a significant chunk of the majority caucus in the Senate wants a radical overhaul of HAMP.

I don’t know if the Olbermann suspension had anything to do with Comcast’s imminent takeover or just a reflexive tendency within MSNBC to follow the political winds. But there’s no question that media concentration has led to a narrowing of the subjects up for discussion and the voices allowed to brooch those subjects.

Jay Weiner’s book is to my knowledge the first on a race and recount that captured the nation’s (or at least the press’) attention throughout much of 2009. Unfortunately, I suspect that it is likely to be the only one, as the media has long since moved on to other things. This is a pity as the race was too big a happening to be covered fully by just one book, even one written by MinnPost’s Jay Weiner.