Pruning Shears

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

Barack Obama really doesn’t want those torture photos released. Keep in mind no one is asserting any kind of national security claim; it’s just about avoiding bad press. It’s censorship, and it’s un-American.

Britain, on the other hand, showed how to handle unreasonable claims of secrecy.

I’d say political witch hunts (via) are un-American but unfortunately they have a long if sporadic history here.

Things are getting interesting for Rick Perry. In fairness, who wants to be known as the first governor to knowingly execute an innocent man? If only the death penalty were not a natural phenomenon but something that could be repealed via legislation.

Kay Bailey Hutchison could have just kept her damn mouth shut, which is generally good advice for a politician and especially good advice when your opponent is talking himself into his political grave, but she decided to weigh in with her devotion to the low road anyway:

“The only thing Rick Perry’s actions have accomplished is giving liberals an argument to discredit the death penalty,” said Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder, adding that Hutchison, a staunch death-penalty supporter, “believes we should never do anything to create a cloud of controversy over it with actions that look like a cover-up.”

Republicans won’t elevate the discourse even when it’s the easy and right thing to do. It’s an admirably consistent if bizarre dedication.

It looks like Harry Reid’s failure to lead might cost him his seat.

Cognitive Regulatory Capture:

A condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one’s duty as regulator and one’s actions, such as regulating the banking sector and trying to become well-liked by bankers. If the condition persists, CRC can mutate into an infectious disease, leading to euphoria and irrational exuberance. Can be fatal to the economy if allowed to continue for many years.

Ahem:

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve lied to the American public last fall when they said that the first nine banks to receive government bailout funds were healthy, a government watchdog states in a new report released today.

The FDA is another victim of CRC:

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has required since May 2007 that makers of contrast agents use a stern “black box” warning cautioning physicians to weigh carefully the benefits and risks for patients with weak kidneys. Screening out people with kidney problems appears to eliminate the danger of NSF. But the FDA has not said GE’s product is any more problematic than those of its competitors. The agency reached that conclusion even after two of its staff doctors—in findings disclosed here for the first time—determined that Omniscan is riskier than its rivals. GE had urged the FDA to treat all of the agents as equally risky.

Digby worried yesterday that the days of the independent political blogger are numbered, but I don’t think so. Sure, the big outlets are muscling in, but they’re muscling in to a larger and more legitimized space. Until recently the blogosphere was derided when it wasn’t ignored. Now everyone wants in and it’s necessary to have a presence. There may have been a very brief window when it was becoming “respectable” that independents were highly visible but mainstream media didn’t have their operations up and running. If so that’s been in the last couple years, though. There wasn’t some kind of long-running Eden when unaffiliated bloggers had an outsized impact. I’ve only been a regular blog reader for about five years, and blogging for less than half that, so I can’t trace my roots back to the Mayflower. But I get a little impatient when I see long running A-listers start waxing nostalgic about Media Whores Online or how much better it was Back In The Day when it was like a secret club only the cool kids knew the password to. As digby notes, there’s a low barrier to entry with blogging and there will always be room for exciting, original voices. That is a permanent change to the landscape, even if it ends up getting pushed to the margins. It’s not like it was center stage when blogs could fundamentally shape the narrative anyway.

All of which is a very long way of saying, individual blogs will continue to be relevant because the GE story is not one you’ll see on First Read. The blogs that are extensions of multimedia empires will suffer from the same corporate mindset and atmosphere of self-censorship that their print and video companions in the org chart do. And they won’t be able to write “fuck” either. As long as digby, Atrios et. al. maintain a reputation for quality analysis and independence they will not be endangered.

It appears YouTube is turning into America’s service desk.

Here’s what the poor spellers are searching on:



Perfect.