“You can’t explain it in 30 seconds, so politicians just ignore it.”
-Rep. Bart Stupack, quoted in the Taibbi-penned Goldman Sachs article.
(Stupack, a member of the House energy committee, was specifically referring to the political misframing of the oil price bubble of last year. But that statement could apply to virtually any political action in the last twenty years.)

Just shy of eight months after Election Day, the Minnesota Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman has finally been decided. The state Supreme Court upheld Franken’s win today and Colemen conceded defeat. Gov. Tim Pawlenty was set to sign the certificate of election this afternoon and Franken will be heading to Washington next week.

In a 5-4 decision, SCOTUS has reversed the Ricci case that has become a talking point for those opposed to Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination. Those in favor were Justices Kennedy, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts. The crux of their decision, per Justice Kennedy:

It isn’t surprising that Obama got such strong numbers considering he’s the current president and is still polling well overall. But the majority of responders had no opinion on who spoke for the Republican Party. The strongest showing for a specified person was Rush Limbaugh, who received the nod from participants of both parties. But even Rush didn’t make it to the 50% mark. The election was seven months ago and they still haven’t secured a publicly recognized leader. The party should hire a life planner.

Jane Hamsher has been covering the hell out of the House action around the war supplemental bill. There’s been a lot of action around that supplemental the past week– photo suppression out, “Cash for Clunkers” as a supposed seduction for progressives and Rahm Emanuel pushing hard because the White House needs the included IMF funding to go through.

This “I should move to Canada or the U.K.” moment is sponsored by Sebastian of Obsidian Wings:

I’ve been ill most of the week and while the six pounds in four days weight loss has been festive, I’m not feeling up to the task of wading through the nationalhealth care debate. Thus, a brief link roundup:

Shepard Smith has a history of rebelling against the Fox News propaganda machine. He went on air yesterday, shortly after the Holocaust Museum shooting, to express his concern about the vile and misguided anger expressed by many of thestations’s viewers via email.

Politico posted an article last night that highlights Republican claims that the national deficit will be Obama’s downfall. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was quoted as saying: “This is not an inherited situation. This was a matter entirely of this administration’s and this Democratic leadership’s making.”
Cornyn’s statement is an easily disproved lie. The current deficit is $11.4 trillion and that hefty sum was not amassed in the less than five months Obama has been in office. The New York Times analyzed nearly ten years worth of CBO reports to find the …

Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham are going to throw hissy fits and hold up whatever they can in the Senate if the provision that would block the release of those super-mysterious-and-probably-horribly- damning torture photos isn’t included in the supplemental spending bill. That provision would allow the release to be blocked for three years. Lieberman promises that “they will not go quietly into the night”. Whether they will go gentle and how much they would rage against the dying of the light remain unknown.