The Agenda

Yay diplomacy: North Korea has agreed to suspend its nuclear program in exchange for food assistance.

More: The Egyptian government has agreed to allow the seven non-profit workers who were arrested and jailed for interfering in Egyptian politics to post bail and leave the country.

Syria has launched an offensive on rebels in the besieged city of Homs.

Romney won the Arizona and Michigan primaries last night.

The U.S. GDP grew 3% in the fourth quarter—better than expected.

Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerry has announced he will run for Senate again to replace the retiring Ben Nelson.

I completely agree with Kevin Drum and Atrios.

Russia, man. Here are some downright creepy Putin ads.

Rick Santorum in college.

A bill in Utah would mandate that at least two members of its Alcohol Beverage Control Commission be drinkers.

“I gotta press the button. That will be my heavy lift in terms of manufacturing.” – Mittens Romney

Won’t somebody think of the poor bankers?!

Don’t read this unless you like shitting out of your mouth:

Schiff, 46, is facing another kind of jam this year: Paid a lower bonus, he said the $350,000 he earns, enough to put him in the country’s top 1 percent by income, doesn’t cover his family’s private-school tuition, a Kent, Connecticut, summer rental and the upgrade they would like from their 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex.

“I feel stuck,” Schiff said. “The New York that I wanted to have is still just beyond my reach.”

The smaller bonus checks that hit accounts across the financial-services industry this month are making it difficult to maintain the lifestyles that Wall Street workers expect, according to interviews with bankers and their accountants, therapists, advisers and headhunters.

“People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. “Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”

Hump-Day Song of the Week: Jump Around by House of Pain

Happy Leap Day, bitches.

Friday Funny: Dubstep solves everything

The Agenda

Today’s must read: A solid piece on Mitt Romney’s change of mind on abortion.

A U.N. report released today has found that Syria has committed “gross human rights violations.”

Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) has apologized for telling constituents at a town hall that he’d have to personally pull a gun and maybe kill some senators to pass the Paul Ryan budget.

Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland says he has not ruled out taking on Governor John Kasich in a rematch.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has lost her hairstylist until she changes her mind on opposing same-sex marriage.

What people should know before they say say “some degree of airpower” with regard to Syria.

The myth of the eight-hour sleep.

Men aren’t going extinct.

We noted a while back a video of a teacher beating his 17-year-old student in a rap battle. Turns out, the teacher has now quit his job to pursue a career in rap.

Lego Millennium Falcon Stop Motion Assembly 3d from Francisco Prieto on Vimeo.

The Agenda

A little light. Work has been crazy today.

President Obama sent a $3.8T budget to Congress today. To their credit, two good pieces on Wonkblog.

The U.S. and North Korea are holding nuclear talks next week.

Rick Santorum has taken a big lead in Michigan—the state in which Mittens Romney was born. He seems to have also caught up with Romney nationally.

Last week, the Obama administration compromised with Catholic bishops on mandating that their employer-provided health insurance provide contraception. After calling it a good step, now the U.S. Conference of Bishops have decided any compromise is unacceptable.

Shares in Apple now over $500 for the first time.

I’ve been calling this for months, so it’s good to see the news media picking up on it: The 90s are coming back.

Fuck no Rick Santorum.

“He’s a good friend. But, I would say 95.99 percent of our conversation is about President Obama’s re-election. That’s much to my chagrin. I would like to talk about me.” – Rahm Emanuel, on David Axelrod

Pedant Rant: AP Stylebook confuses acronyms and initialisms

The AP Stylebook has arguably been more valuable to me than the articles the Associated Press actually produce.

However, come on, not to be a grammar policeman (that’s your job!), but neither LRA nor IRA are acronyms. An acronym is a word made up of the first letters of other words. What you have there are initialisms.

You’re right to an extent, though: Don’t use them so often.

Just a major corporate record label being a dick…

Nothing to see here:

Sony Music has come under fire after it increased the price of a Whitney Houston album on Apple’s iTunes Store hours after the singer was found dead.

The music giant is understood to have lifted the wholesale price of Houston’s greatest hits album, The Ultimate Collection, at about 4am California time on Sunday. This meant that the iTunes retail price of the album automatically increased from £4.99 to £7.99.

I, of course, blame piracy.

CPAC Rap

Posted without comment. Carry on.

The Agenda

Today’s read: U.S. officials tell NBC News that attacks on Iran’s nuclear scientists are being carried out by a Iranian dissident group with assistance from Israeli secret service.

The Obama administration has compromised on its rule that mandates that health insurance cover contraception with no co-pay.

At least 25 have been killed by a bomb blast in the Syrian city of Allepo.

New formal rules will put women closer to fighting roles in the U.S. military.

The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) for insider trading.

Dating tips from CPAC.

The Agenda

Today’s must-read: James Fallows measures the Obama presidency so far.

The big news today is that a deal has been reached with Greece. Greece gets a $173 billion bailout, and in exchange they make some steep budget cuts (yay austerity!).  The bailout will be on hold until the austerity measures are reached. Bankers have agreed to take a 70 cent loss on every dollar of Greek debt.

Oh, other big news is that 49 states’ attorneys general have reached a settlement with five of the nation’s largest banks over foreclosure fraud.

It apparently is the 1990s again, because the House passed a line-item veto bill. It’s different from the 1990s-era version (which was found unconstitutional) in that it allows Congress to quickly consider the items the president vetoed.

Teen pregnancy fell to an at an all-time low in 2008 due to increased use of—and an increase in the effectiveness of—contraceptives. However, black and Hispanic teens experience pregnancy and abortions at a rate of 2-4 times that of their white peers.

The House and Senate have now both passed versions of a bill aimed at banning insider trading by members of Congress. However, there are major disagreements regarding differences between the bills as they move into conference.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today issued licenses to Southern Company to build two new nuclear reactors—the first in over 30 years.

Why Do All Panty-Sniffing *Young* Conservatives Look Alike?

Crazy, I know, but the rich are more conservative (with graphs!).

Democratic Mississippi state representative Steve Hollard has introduced a bill mandating that the Gulf of Mexico be called the Gulf of America (in Mississippi).

Scientists have been stumped over how the zebra got its stripes, but there is now a working theory.

The Gaslight Anthem covers The Who

There’s an extraordinarily small number of bands that are allowed to cover well known Who songs. I will allow that The Gaslight Anthem is one of them.

The Agenda

Well, look at that, Rick Santorum swept all three contests yesterday.  I agree with Jonathan Bernstein in that I don’t really think it’ll make much a difference in who the eventual nominee will be.

Syrian rebels say that the town of Homs has been hit with the heaviest shelling in days.

Supporters of Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, have started rioting, demanding he be reinstated, days after he was forced to resign the office by gunpoint following soldiers defecting and police joining street protests. The new president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan, has called for a unity government.

The payroll tax cut extension negotiations are stalled. The cut is slated to end at the end of February.

Time to start working to increase the minimum wage.

Just an amazing headline (and a pretty interesting story): Huggies Price Cut Shows Why Bond Market Backs Bernanke QE3.

Duane Jackson, the man who alerted police to the smoking vehicle that was carrying explosives in Times Square back in May 2010, is planning to run for congress.

Russian scientists have discovered a freshwater lake the size of Lake Ontario buried under two miles of solid ice in Antarctica.

Thief turns himself in after discovering a phone he stole had child pornography images on it.

Hump-Day Song of the Week: Cradle by The Joy Formidable

Poll: 43% of people prefer Athenian democracy

Rassmussen:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 43% believe a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree with that assessment, while another 19% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

This was, in fact, basically the way the ancient Athenian boule (council) was selected, because elections were considered an aristocratic practice.

The Agenda

Big story today: The 9th Circuit agreed with the lower court and ruled that California’s Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, violates the 14th Amendment. The opinion is actually really well written, and I fully suggest reading it.

Bouyed by recent positive jobs reports and news of progress in Europe, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above its highest closing level since 2008.

As Syrian government forces continue an assault against rebels in Homs, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited Syria today and pushed for a larger Arab League role in solving the conflict. Hundreds are reported dead since the assault began on Friday.

Read of the day: The second most popular pesticide used in America, atrazine, has been shown to disrupt sex hormones in amphibians. Biologist Tyrone Hayes is behind quite an amazing effort to get word out about the pesticide, a story that involves, yes, rap battles.

How politicians who focus too much on the middle class instead of the poor miss the point and lead to bad policy outcomes.

According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 50% of Americans approve of President Obama’s job performance, and 50% thinks he deserves reelection, better than President Clinton at this point and even with President George W. Bush.

Mitt Romney took his last question from a voter three months ago.

“Right-to-work” laws have two problems as remedies to lost manufacturing jobs: They’re the wrong remedy, and they don’t work.

Louisiana Republican Congressman John Fleming hilariously reposted an article from The Onion, ostensibly believing it was real.

“It’s a badge of honor that Romney has decided to try to destroy us.” – John Brabender, Santorum top adviser.

The Agenda

“If this is what it takes to get you on the heretofore lonely Screw Komen bandwagon, so be it. But you should not have a low opinion of Komen^tm because of their announcement on Wednesday. You should have a low opinion of them because they’re a fake charity run like any other company with a product to sell. In this case the product is a combination of guilt, pity, and hope dissolved in a weak acid and dyed a nauseating pink.”

The number of names on the U.S. “no-fly list” has doubled in the past year.

Republican senators, unhappy with the prospect of cutting one sliver from the Defense budget, now want to instead cut the rest of the government workforce by 5%.

Hey, look, one billionaire asshole is endorsing another billionaire.

So, who are the Super PAC contributors?

The Dodd-Frank financial regulation law in one easy graph.

When is White History Month?

“What a pathetic situation to be running for the President of the United States with nothing positive to say. All you got to do is try to tear your opponent down to where they get smaller than you are, that’s the Romney model.” – Newt Gingrich

The People’s House passes super-important legislation

The Republican-led House of Representatives yesterday overwhelmingly (395-27) voted to pass a bill that would prohibit those on welfare assistance from using their government-sourced largesse at strip clubs, liquor stores and casinos.

House Republicans introduced and promoted the proposal as a way to eliminate government wasteful spending. It has passed the House before, and they re-introduced it again hoping it will become part of a bill to extend the payroll tax credit, which both the House and Senate is expected to debate this month.

A solid move yet again by the House Republican leadership. That’ll solve all—er—none of the country’s problems, while cutting exactly zero dollars from total government spending. But nice work at passing a pointless bill that does nothing other than call out poor people for being poor.

Happy Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, so that means, I guess, six more weeks of “winter,” or whatever you call 60+ degrees on the first day of February.

However,  Phil Connors is probably more right:  “I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.”

The Agenda

Today’s must read: How the Affordable Care Act so far is already more successful than anybody wants to admit.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has set 2013 as the target to end combat in Afghanistan.

In yesterday’s special election to replace Rep. David Wu in the Oregon 1,  Democrat Suzanne Bonamici cruised to a a 15-point  victory over Republican Rob Cornilles.

The generally-terrible Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the largest breast cancer organization, is cutting off its funding for cancer screening and education provided by Planned Parenthood. In general, I for the most part like Marcotte’s analysis: “In the end, the grant money is less important than the symbolism of Komen buying into the conservative myth of good-girl health care vs. bad-girl health care.”

President Obama’s approval rating in battleground Ohio has risen to an even 48%/48% split. Meanwhile, Mittens Romney has seen a drop in his at an uneven 28%(!)/56%.

Who benefits from the new Super PACs: “Republican groups outraised their Democratic counterparts by four to one, a fairly incredible ratio. This could very well be a year in which, stunningly, an incumbent gets outspent by the challenger.”

Kalydeco, the first drug to treat the cause of cystic fibrosis, has been approved by the FDA. It costs $300,000 a year, but the maker will give it to anybody who does not have insurance and makes under $150,000 a year.

The Indiana state senate (you know, the state that just passed that right-to-die-at-work law?) passed a bill mandating the teaching of religious life-origin stories.

Of six-pack abs and real girl bellies.

An awesome chart illustrating celebrity endorsements.

Twenty common grammar mistakes you probably made in the past half-hour.

“I’m not concerned about the very poor.” – Mittens Romney