Jerold Nadler joins fellow Democratic members of Congress calling on President Obama to fire Alan Simpson from the Catfood Commission. But it’s not just Simpson. Rather, Simpson’s comments reflect the far deeper conflicts and illegitimacy of the commission itself. It’s a collaboration between corporate America, the executive branch and congress to create a body that will do something no politician wants to take responsibility for: cut Social Security benefits and drive seniors into poverty so that hedge fund billionaires like Pete Peterson won’t have to pay their taxes.

Sign the petition: Tell President Obama to Can the Catfood Commission

Chris Cillizza must have been the first one with his hand up in the Washington Post editorial meeting to volunteer to write the “Democrats in disarray” piece, about the Cordoba House project. He must have dialed with glee into all the campaigns and heard all the anguished responses. I particularly enjoyed the anonymous operative at the front of the article, who said, “Obama is right on substance but wrong on politics, and right now we need to focus on politics.”

Adam Schiff–a CA Democrat (!)–just filed a bill aiming to not only give prosecutors 4 days to question “terror suspects” before bringing them to court, but also expressing the will of Congress to let them delay Mirandizing suspects “as long as is necessary.”

One highlight of the week in Sin City during Netroots Nation 2010 for me will surely be my panel Saturday at 1:45 Las Vegas time (4:45 ET). Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Center for Constitutional Rights Director Vince Warren, Matthew Alexander, American Prospect’s Adam Serwer, and I will talk about why we need to close Gitmo and how we can do it.

You don’t often get a piece of cable TV this good, so it’s worth transcribing and posting in its entirety. In a rare and contentious eight minute cable news segment, Glenn Greenwald decided to set the record straight with Eliot Spitzer on MSNBC regarding the Gaza flotilla.

I guess all these Congressional hearings about BP’s oil disaster aren’t entirely a waste of time.

Lynn Woolsey says she’s a definite “yes” vote on the Senate health care bill. Even if it lacks a public option. Despite the fact that it’s the biggest blow to a woman’s right to choose in a generation, and may come at the price of a stand-alone vote that allows Blue Dogs and ConservaDems to join with Republicans and roll them back even further in order to get Bart Stupak’s support.

Any ability for progressives to negotiate, to achieve meaningful concessions, to exert their influence and make the bill better just disappeared.

It’s time for Lynn Woolsey to resign as the head of the Progressive Caucus.

Circumventing conference can’t happen without the help of progressive members of the House. There are 83 members of the Progressive Caucus I believe.

It will present a whole host of interesting organizing opportunities that we haven’t seen before when rage in these communities allows us to put up reform challengers who will siphon off the strongest activist support over a health. Since those districts have no chance of ever going Republican, it would shake up the entire dynamic and pose the first real threat that many of these members have ever had.

I said this much closer to 9/11/01, and I’ll say it again now: America is a big, strong, wealthy country with a rich history and a time-tested tradition of civil adjudication. What happened eight years ago was deplorable, sad, and horrible to witness, but it wasn’t anything close to an attack that could threaten America and American identity. . . unless we let it.

The House Judiciary today passed Jerry Nadler’s bill reining in state secrets abuse by a vote of 18-12, with Adam Schiff as the sole Democrat voting against the bill. One thing Nadler has added to his bill since it was first introduced are measures to prevent the government from refusing to give plaintiff lawyers clearance [...]