From Paul Krugman’s blog…

Health care reform — which is crucial for millions of Americans — hangs in the balance. Progressives are desperately in need of leadership; more specifically, House Democrats need to be told to pass the Senate bill, which isn’t what they wanted but is vastly better than nothing. And what we get from the great progressive hope, the man who was offering hope and change, is this:

“I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there’s some things in there that people don’t like and legitimately don’t like.”

In short, “Run away, run away”!

And more from Krugman…

Obama Liquidates Himself

A spending freeze? That’s the brilliant response of the Obama team to their first serious political setback?

It’s appalling on every level.

It’s bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment.

It’s bad long-run fiscal policy, shifting attention away from the essential need to reform health care and focusing on small change instead.

And it’s a betrayal of everything Obama’s supporters thought they were working for. Just like that, Obama has embraced and validated the Republican world-view — and more specifically, he has embraced the policy ideas of the man he defeated in 2008. A correspondent writes, “I feel like an idiot for supporting this guy.”

“Obama has embraced and validated the Republican world-view.”

And that’s the whole story of Obama’s miserable Presidency.

My rent-a-car quit on the road, and a tow-truck dropped me off in this oasis of motels and gas-pumps nowhere with nothing but a smart-phone and hope for a better tomorrow.

3:21 AM.

On TV the channel-guide cycles slowly through 100 channels.

Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming

Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming

Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming

The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis is choice, the free market, America.

Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming

Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming

Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming

A block of named programs appears:

The Healing Power of Juicing. Your Baby Can Read. Collect Gold Coins. Celeb Hair. Cash in the Attic. Super-Size Beauty.

The Fox Movie Channel offers “Bad Boy,” a musical comedy made in 1935, starring James Dunn.

Then the crawl suddenly stops, for “scheduled hardware maintenance.” This thing runs on dedicated hardware! Live and learn!

3:51 AM.

Outside the motel, it’s very cold. Across the service road a quadrant of the truck-stop parking lot is empty.

The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis is choice, the free market, America.

From IPS…

In a surprisingly swift move on Thursday night that could have wide-ranging implications, the U.S. Senate passed a bill containing broad unilateral sanctions to punish foreign companies that export gasoline to Iran or help expand its domestic refinery capabilities.

“This means that no president can lift the embargo without certifying to Congress that Iran has met a laundry list of demands that no president in his right mind will certify,” (Patrick Disney, the assistant policy director of the National Iranian American Council) told IPS.

Furthermore, “crippling sanctions,” as broad-based gas sanctions are often called, is a potential checklist item on a path to military confrontation with Iran. But some think imposing and enforcing the sanctions themselves could be tantamount to war.

“Even half of the people that proposed (gas sanctions) say the only way to really impose that is a naval blockade,” said (Richard Sawaya, the president of USA*Engage, a group that opposes unilateral sanctions).

“Well, that’s an act of war!”

When this article appeared Friday, January 29, I thought it was premature to start talking about a naval blockade, but within 24 hours the other shoe dropped.