Seriously?

There are thirty movies that are worse than The Covenant? Really? Seriously?

"Mostly Dead is Slightly Alive"

"Still Alive", "by" GLaDOS (hey, it was that or "Are You Dead Yet" by Children of Bodom. Trust me, this is the better choice).

Reactions seem to vary. If you want to be depressed, read Congress Matters or the Wonk Room. If you want to feel uplifted, Kos has a snippet of an interview with Tom Harkin or quotes from Health Care for America Now.

It's hard for me to read the tea leaves. Do the relevant players—Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Tom Harkin—have the stones to play hardball on the public option? Can the various moderates sustain their kabuki position of voting for cloture but against passage? How serious is their opposition? Hard to say.

My guess is that something like the Schumer amendment has 50 votes today, and Schumer is enough of a pragmatist that he may be able to mollify the remaining Senators to get past cloture vote (Bayh, Begich, Conrad, Lieberman, Lincoln, McCaskill, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Tester). And my guess is that that is something that most of the House progressives can live with. There will be a few no votes from the left: Kucinich, maybe Raul Grijalva, maybe Jim McDermott. But the center-left looks like it can hold.

Inching Forward

Chris Bowers and Steve Benen point out that the vote on a Schumer amendment—which includes a public option, but not one tied to Medicare rates—garnered the votes of Bill Nelson, and, somewhat shockingly, Tom Carper, which is probably a good sign for the prospects of an equivalent amendment on the floor. Indeed, Tom Harkin (D-IA) seems to "believe that there are, comfortably, 51 votes for a public option". It certainly looks that way, especially once someone tells to Kent Conrad that the Schumer plan looks nothing like the United Kingdom's health care system. Maybe TR Reid can give him a call and explain the thesis of his book one more time.

Now the question is, can the Leadership convince those Senators who are opposed to the public option not to join Republicans in a filibuster, and simply vote no for an amendment that passes the prospects for a serious bill are looking pretty good.

Eight Out of Thirteen

My stream failed during the roll call for Jay Rockefeller's public option amendment. This is the strongest of the bunch. It failed 8-15, and I was able to hear three "no" votes from Ds.

• Kent Conrad
• Blanche Lincoln
• Max Baucus

Based on Chris Bowers whip count, I assume one of the remaining "no"s was wanker extraordinaire Tom Carper. The fifth turned out to be Bill Nelson.

The Schumer and Schumer-Cantwell alternatives, which are not tied to Medicare, look much more promising from a political perspective. Nelson has announced he'll vote for Schumer-Cantwell, so we'll see how this goes.

Roman Polanski

My understanding of the situation is that Roman Polanski made several good movies, and also raped a 13-year-old. The proper way for society to respond seems to be: admire his movies, and put him in prison for raping a 13-year-old. I don't really have a lot more to say about it.