It's women's night on American Idol. Two will get sent home on the live results show Thursday. I hope they are Lacey Brown and Paige Miles. Lacey was awful.

Really good: Janell Wheeler and Lilly Scott. I'm waiting for Crystal Bowersox to come on, so far she's been my favorite.

Update: Charlie Sheen goes into rehab, catching CBS by surprise. His show, "Two and a Half Men," for which he gets $900k an episode, is now in production limbo. His next court appearance is March 15. Sounds to me like his lawyers want to continue it and being in rehab is a good justification. If they wanted a rehab certificate to show the DA for a plea bargain, I don't think 3 weeks is going to be that impressive -- and aren't most in-patient rehabs 28 days? Or maybe the DA won't agree to drop the felony or offer a deferred judgment on it unless Charlie does a rehab stint.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Via Atrios and Sadly, No!, WaPo Deputy Editorial Page Editor Jackson Diehl writes:

Tehran's leading agent [in Iraq] is Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite who in 2002 played a major role in persuading the Bush administration to go to war. Now he has managed to have hundreds of candidates eliminated from the election on the mostly bogus grounds that they were or are loyalists of Saddam Hussein's Baath party. His targets are not just Sunni leaders but secular nationalists -- the two most important banned candidates are leading members of cross-sectarian alliances. The success of those tickets would be a triumph for Iraqi democracy -- and a huge setback for Iran.

Chalabi aims to become prime minister of the next government, which would be a disaster for Iraq and for Washington.

(Emphasis supplied.) Joseph Heller described the world and we live in the same endless loop. For those of you who forgot who Chalabi is.

Speaking for me only

Ezra Klein writes a peculiar column in the WaPo today in which he seems surprised that the President of the United States is considered the leader of his political party. Ezra writes:

The White House health-care summit on Thursday is supposed to mark a return to politics as it should be practiced -- the president leading the legislative process, the two parties talking things out, bipartisanship flowering, order restored.

For months, members of Congress have complained that the president should take a more active role in the health-care reform process. But the president of the United States is not, as we sometimes seem to think, the president of the United States Congress. He can sign or veto a bill, but that's about it. The president's powers within the legislative process -- as opposed to after its completion -- are unofficial and informal. He can give a speech or invite congressional leaders to the White House for a chat, but he has no firm control over the proceedings. Legislating is the legislature's job.

(Emphasis supplied.) How very quaint. Perhaps that vision would be a better one, but it has been a long time since such has been the case. This is has always been the silliest of defenses from the Village Dems for the Obama Administration -- the proclaiming of its legislative irrelevancy. More . .

Roman Polanski has been awarded the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival for his new political thriller, The Ghost Writer. It's a political thriller, starring Pierce Brosnan as a prime minister accused of war crimes. It's based on the 2007 Robert Harris book “The Ghost.”

Still under house arrest in Switzerland, Polanski was unable to accept the award in person.

Tiger Woods says he's sorry and he'll return to golf one day, he's just not sure when. Did he do a good job? Some say he didn't. Why now, other than he had a break in his therapy schedule? On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Tiger Woods or his apology to you?

I will probably be a supporter of passing the likely health bills (The Senate bill + a reconciliation fix) deal that will likely emerge from the ongoing House-Senate-White House negotiations. But not because of defenses like this one from Nick Kristof:

The debate about health care in recent months has focused on the shortcomings of the reform proposals. Critics are right to be disappointed [. . .] Critics doubt that the Senate and House bills would succeed in containing health care costs very much, and they may be right. It’s hard to know. But the existing system is a runaway roller coaster. Isn’t it prudent to try brake pedals even if we’re not sure how well they’ll work?

(Emphasis supplied.) Oy. I can do a better job of arguing for the current Senate bill than this. Here's a layup for Kristof - it will cover 31 million uninsured Americans, 15 million through an expansion of Medicaid. 'Maybe it will work' is a ridiculous argument. Why might it work? What does "work" mean?

Speaking for me only

Bump and Update: Shaun White wins the gold medal for the men's half-pipe. He still had another run to go, and he topped his victory lap with a Double McTwist 1260, two flips with three spins,finishing with a 48.4. (He also created the Double Cork.)

The 23 year old, who earns more than $10 million a year, perfected the move, which he created, at his own private half-pipe near Copper Mountain, accessible only by helicopter or snowmobile. Red Bull paid $500,000 to build it. It's at 11,000 feet above sea level and has a 600-foot foam pit so he won't get hurt while trying out new moves. What an amazing athlete, and he's done so much for the sport. [More...]

I have not even offered a comment on Evan Bayh today because I really don't care that he is retiring. I suppose you could make an argument that things will be a little worse in the Senate if a Republican wins his seat but honestly, how much worse can it really get? It's simply not that big a deal.

But I finally found something about the story that piqued my interest - Matt Yglesias points to this hilarious Charles Lane post. Lane writes:

Bayh [. . .] can now crawl away from the political wreckage for a couple of years, plausibly alleging that he tried to steer the party in a different direction — and then be perfectly positioned to mount a centrist primary challenge to Obama in 2012[.]

(Emphasis supplied.) That is damned funny. A centrist primary challenge. Who knew that Lane was such a kidder.

Speaking for me only

Via Crooks and Liars, Doug Fieger, lead singer of The Knack died this morning after a long bout against cancer. Fieger's brother, Michigan attorney Geoff Fieger.

My Sharona was such a classic. RIP.

Politico was stung by the criticisms of it as Dick Cheney's mouthpiece. So they published this rather ridiculous "nuanced" piece by Allen and Vandehei, 2 of their heavy hitters. It is embarrassingly pusillanimous. But I bet they think it is brave. In any event, there is one part that I find particularly objectionable:

Obama has pulled back on what he sees as the most inexplicable overreaches of the Bush-Cheney years — the “enhanced interrogation techniques” (“torture,” to critics) [. . .]

(Emphasis supplied.) You can have any opinion you want about waterboarding, but it is a fact that it is defined as "torture" under the relevant international treaties and federal law. That is a fact. In short, it is not "torture" to critics, it is "torture" under the law. And there is no dispute that the Bush Administration sanctioned waterboarding. If a news organization is too frightened to publish a factual statement, then what value does it have as a news organization? None. More . . .

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died during a training run today. NBC's Olympic coverage began tonight with a video of his fatal crash.

It's only the second time an athlete has been killed during the Olympics. The luge course seems incredibly dangerous. And it's an inauspicious way to begin the Games. But the ceremonies opened on schedule.

Kumaritashvili will be honored during tonight's ceremonies. [More...]

I applaud Matt Yglesias for discussing this openly

I worked for the American Prospect full-time for about three years and have written a column for TAP Online ever since leaving. And in all that time, no one has ever told me what to write or what position to take. But nobody thinks The American Prospect is an “unbiased” news source. It’s very biased! [But] producing a coherent “line” [does not] require writers to sell out their integrity. [. . .] When I was at TAP, most of my opinions were either in line with my editors or else were on subjects where the bosses didn’t have strong feelings. But there were also issues where my editors did have very strong feelings and I didn’t agree with their take, and so to make my life easier I tended not to focus on those issues.

(Emphasis supplied.) Let's make it even simpler. You are not going to rip a friend's work the way you might a non-friend. I am such a misanthrope that I do not need to hold back very much. But even I do. Especially when it is issues or people that Jeralyn has strong feelings about. That's not wrong imo. As long as we are frank about it.

Speaking for me only