The Commentariat -- December 28

Greg Bluestein of the AP: "... so-called cluster killings of more than one officer helped make 2010 a particularly deadly year for law enforcement. Deaths in the line of duty jumped 37 percent to about 160 from 117 the year before." CW: brought to you by the NRA.

Juan Cole in Common Dreams: "Top Ten Myths about Afghanistan, 2010." Thanks to Kate M. for the link.

Mark Thompson of Time has a brief, thoroughly interesting post that begins, "So, you think we're going to start withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan this summer?"

** Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo: Congressional Republicans have "found is an obscure authority provided by a 1996 law called the Congressional Review Act. It provides Congress with an expedited process by which to evaluate executive branch regulations, and then give the President a chance to agree or disagree. House Republicans ... will be able to pass as many of these 'resolutions of disapproval' as they want.... A small minority in the Senate can force votes on them as well, and they require only simple-majority support to pass."

We've become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down. -- Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, after the NFL postponed Sunday night's Eagles-Vikings game because of snow

Nate Silver is one of those rare birds who makes statistics entertaining: "The political futures market Intrade puts Mr. Obama’s re-election chances at about 58 percent, which seems about as reasonable an assessment as any. Until we get a better sense for how the dynamics between Mr. Obama and the Republicans will play out — or in which direction the economy is headed — I would be skeptical of analyses that seem to express a significant amount of confidence on either side of that figure."

Peter Thal Larsen of the New York Times: "Global regulators are expected to reach an agreement that would make a select group of megabanks hold higher levels of capital. That requirement will make them safer, while removing some of the benefit they get from being big. But eliminating the taxpayer guarantee enjoyed by large lenders will require more fundamental measures, which will take years to achieve." CW: so perhaps where Dodd-Frank falls short, the international community will take up the slack. ...

... Amy Lee of the Huffington Post: "Nearly 100 banks previously rescued by the federal government are again poised to fail, despite billions of dollars of support from the American Treasury.... The banks in question have received $4.2 billion dollars in aid through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Most of the troubled institutions are relatively small." ...

... Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration has begun monitoring the high-level board meetings of nearly 20 banks that received emergency taxpayer assistance but repeatedly failed to pay the required dividends.... And it may soon install new directors on some of their boards. The moves come as the number of banks that failed to make at least one dividend payment to the government rose to 132 in the last quarter. These 'deadbeats,' as they are sometimes called, are virtually all community lenders and collectively received billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance."

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "An early feature of the new health-care law that allows people who are already sick to get insurance to cover their medical costs isn't attracting as many customers as expected. In the meantime, in at least a few states, claims for medical care covered by the 'high-risk pools' are proving very costly, and it is an open question whether the $5 billion allotted by Congress to start up the plans will be sufficient." ...

... Huffington Post: "As the Great Recession has sown unemployment and downgraded work even for those people who have held on to their jobs, the number of Americans lacking healthcare has swelled beyond 50 million, according to a sobering new report from the Kaiser Foundation. Among the report's most troubling findings: The number of Americans without any health care coverage grew by more than four million in 2009. That left almost one-fifth of non-elderly people uninsured."

Frivolous News

Let Them Eat Cake. I can hardly believe I'm linking to a Fred Hiatt (Washington Post) column, but any time Fred comes out supporting Michelle Obama & knocking Sarah Palin, it's worth a link. ...

... Julien Pecquet of The Hill highlights (firewalled) Wall Street Journal criticism of Palin on the subject, & mentions Hiatt & other right-wing/Republican critics of Palin's pro-obesity position.

Okay, I guess this is important. Perry Bacon of the Washington Post reports that President Obama spoke to Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie & in the course of the conversation, according to Lurie, "weighed in on the redemption of Michael Vick."

And I suppose this is news, too. Susan Page of USA Today on the results of a Gallup/USA Today popularity poll: "For the third year in a row, [President Obama] is by far the most-admired man. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton continues an even longer run, ranked in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll as the most-admired woman for the ninth straight year. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is second, as she was in 2009." The story includes the top ten results for both women & men.