Boston.com (yes, I know) is reporting that Tom Daschle is up for Health and Human Services.

Obama may not pick Kerry for SoS but Congress (ok, Harry Reid) lines up to give Kerry a consolation prize.

If Clinton accepts SoS, I'm trying to imagine what the nomination hearings might be like. (or can they just skip hearings and take it to a vote? The Senate does have to confirm Cabinet appointments, doesn't it? Or am I mixing it up with something else?). Read more…

I haven't encountered him before, but first, he nails the Obama campaign's (and most likely administration's) ignore-the-progressives strategy, and explains why it will likely succeed (h/t to amberglow on the It's the Reality, Stupid thread):

The Obama administration will not pay a great political price in abandoning the pretense of moving the country in a progressive direction for two primary reasons. First, for Senator Obama’s political base the symbolism of his election is the change they were seeking and not an idea or program based on a set of policies. The second reason is the political weakness of what passes for the left in the United States. Read more…

Shelly Mandell, pres. of the L.A. Now chapter, introduces Palin at a rally in SoCal:

In rarity for a Republican event, Mandell bragged about her efforts campaigning for the failed Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and her support for Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984.

"I know Sarah Palin cares about women's rights," Mandell said. "As vice president, she will fight for you. She cares about our children and she cares about women's lives."

Local news station has the rest. Read more…

Efforts to correct mistakenly(?) reported facts are counterproductive:

...journalists’ attempts to correct misinformation is unlikely to sway public perceptions, according to a series of experiments by a Duke University political scientist.

“What we found is that corrections are ineffective for the group most likely to have the misperception,” said Brendan Nyhan, a Ph.D. candidate in Duke’s political science department. “Even worse, we found that those people may actually end up believing in the misperception more strongly after hearing a correction.”

.... Read more…

Oops.

From Wired

Hacker's dad seems to be a Democratic state representative in Tennessee, nam e removed.

Nothing profound to say here, except: People! Don't use 'secret hints' for your passwords that are data freely available on Wikipedia.

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Since intranets has asked so politely, I'll repeat my apology (posted in comments, as soon as I saw tnjen's further information on the subject) and correct my original post: Read more…

I've been wondering why I haven't seen much about trying to alleviate the failing financial markets from the consumer end.

The Boston Globe had an article with a somewhat hopeful-sounding title today:

Fannie, Freddie Collapse Could Help Borrowers.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency "actively looking" at expanding loan modifications among the more than $5 trillion in loans that Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee, Bair said. Read more…

Just got a notice that Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, The Baroque Cycle) is launching his new book, Anathem with a live webcast at 10pm EST:

Anathem

If you love, as I do, the slightly naughty pasttime of sucking up history, politics and economics through well-told fiction, here's a guy for you. I haven't heard much about Anathem, but found The Baroque Cycle hugely satisfying (once I got into it; must admit it took me a few times with the first book). Yum!

Over at The Confluence, Riverdaughter received an email from Dr. Lynette Long responding to Gloria Steinem's piece explaining why women shouldn't vote for Palin. Read more…