Pachacutec

Steady, quiet love. Valentine’s Day, for us, was just a seamless kind of day, part of the rhythm of our lives. No big surprises, just the kind of little ones we always have as part of our little routines. Six plus years and we still make each other laugh. Six plus years, we’re very lucky, very in love, and neither afraid to admit it or compelled to make a big fuss about it. Every day is Valentine’s Day.

Yesterday I wrote of my attempts to get the Obama team on the record to reaffirm its support for the Employee Free Choice Act after Rahm Emanuel demurred on the question when asked. Team Obama has now responded.

Chuck Schumer released a statement (below) calling for a big economic stimulus in the order of $500 billion to $700 billion. Schumer uses coded language to get Mitch McConnell interested in the plan, such as “big package” and “it has to be deep.” Crafty guy, that Chuck. I’ve long been a critic, but gotta give him props on this one.

David Shuster quoted this post by Jane on MSNBC tonight. Peter Slutsky, the liberal guest on the show reacts to the quote. Peter’s a genuinely good guy, but he argues that if Obama made a mistake about Lieberman’s chairmanship, it will be Obama who pays the price. But this is not just a situation where Obama is playing with only his own risks: just ask Katrina’s victims. The dangers of Joe retaining his gavel are all too real and all too human, though outside the protected confines of Beltway Washington.

Ok, here are a few places where candidate and then President Elect Obama has put his foot on the scales to effect an outcome he wanted: 1. FISA. 2. Paulson’s blank check slush fund without homeowner relief 3. Lieberman’s chairmanship. . . I sure am glad the Democrats have changed.

I suspect Ted’s final reckoning with the “demons” he needs most wholly to embrace has not yet come, and I hope he survives that final flame out to emerge, bit by bit, a more whole and healthy man, intact. I note that, according to Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, in spite of the ballot initiatives November 4th, national tolerance for homosexuality has never been higher: 54% in a national survey endorse the statement, “Homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society,” while only 38% endorse the statement, “Homosexuality is a way of life that should be discouraged by society.”

For Ted’s sake and the sake of hundreds of thousands like him, and their families, let’s hope he catches up with the trend soon, before he does end up killing himself, directly or indirectly.

It makes absolutely no sense to have the steward of Obama’s agenda in the Senate be an occupant of a swing state, shaky, conservative Senate seat. Obama has asked Emanuel, a hard fighting partisan, to be his Chief of Staff. He may as well go ahead and give his blessing to Dick Durbin to become Majority Leader and make the Illinois posse complete. Harry Reid is just in a position to be an epic failure, even more than during this last session.

Young Latino voter Francisco Martinez of New Mexico, targeted by Republicans to have his name removed from voter registration in New Mexico, declares, “I won’t be intimidated. In fact, I voted early, and my vote will count.”

ACORN’s Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis thanks its allies and defenders, including Firedoglake. She also asks New York State residents to vote for Obama under the Working Families Party line, row E, to help support other community organizers.

The NYT says regulation is back in bipartisan fashion. Great. Let’s all just call it “National Airport” again and cut the bullshit.