Late Night Video — Kid President Gives You a Pep Talk

I love this kid. This might be the best video of the year -- already. It is hard to pick my favorite bits, but the You Can Cry About It or You Can Dance About It works as advice I especially needed recently. Kid President wants you to know that the time to be awesome is now (approx. 3.5 minutes long):

Tuesday Open Thread [1.29.2013]

Yesterday, the wingnutoverse was on fire about Sunday's interview by 60 Minutes with President Obama and Hilary Clinton. They thought it was awful, too soft, too cute and in the main tried to use it to frame Hillary as the Worst Secretary of State ever. (Your agenda is showing, Roger Ailes. Besides, I think that history has already written in Condi Rice as the worst Secretary of State in contemporary memory.) In a few liberal circles, this interview is being seen as Obama's endorsement of Hillary in 2016. What did you think of this interview? (I confess I haven't seen it yet.) You can watch it here:

Late Night Video — Unions Are Needed

Awesome rant by this MSNBC commentator (with the cringeworthy name of) Krystal Ball. She reminds us that one of the things not touched on in President Obama's inaugural speech was the health of unions, and reminds us that the war on unions coincides with the stagnation of American wages. This video is about 1.5 minutes long:

Next Up — Immigration Reform

This week will be very interesting on this front -- as a bipartisan group of 8 Senators will release a plan to address issues with illegal immigration today and President Obama will release a plan tomorrow in Las Vegas. This comes after an election where Hispanics decisively voted for Barack Obama and the GOP spent a great deal of time demonizing them. While fixing the undocumented immigrant problem is indeed important, keep in mind that Democrats want to solidify their relationship to Hispanics and the GOP wants to start one. This deal would cover border security, a path to citizenship for approx. 10M people, and work visas for high tech workers. From the LA Times:

Essential Reading on the Deficit/Debt Issue

Since we are to be treated to multiple staged crises by the GOP in order to dismantle entitlement programs so that there is more money to funnel to wealthy people, I thought it would be useful to collect some of the better pieces trying to assess where we (and the US Budget) really are. The coming months will be filled with more of the usual he say/she say fake objectivity from the media, who won't do much to give you any context much less any real numbers. In other words, they'll be participating in the fear factory that will be generated in order to create a better opportunity to cut back on entitlements. Several of these pieces will be longish and some will be fairly data-rich (we want that), so you might need a little time to read through them. But a good deal of the story is that we've gotten in a good deal of deficit cuts and we're pretty close to the number needed for long term sustainability. This is good ammunition for talking to our Congressional delegation who seem hell bent on helping the GOP to cut Social Security and Medicare. Because what we should be focusing on is fixing these two -- not in asking seniors to cut back. I'm sure there will be other good work coming down the pike and I'll add that to this list, but am not sure yet how to revive the thread. In the meantime, you can bookmark this as a place to find smarter journalism (or just plain wonkishness) on the budget issues.

Senator Chris Coons Reintroduces the FAST Voting Act

Senator Coons and others filed this bill last November, after we saw one more US election marked with long lines to vote, registration questions and issues and other problems that got in the way of very many Americans to exercise their franchise. He has reintroduced this bill, with Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to help states to improve their election capabilities and make it easier for Americans to vote.

John Carney Brings the Pete Peterson Entitlement Destruction Circus to Town

These events don't seem to be on Representative Carney's website yet (or I just bypassed them), but he is holding two Town Meetings to talk about the deficit. From his Facebook page:
Want to discuss ways of reducing the federal deficit? I’m hosting two town hall meetings, in coordination with the Concord Coalition, on January 31st to get your thoughts and ideas. We’ll be at Wesley College in Dover from 1 – 2:30 and at Delaware Tech’s Stanton campus from 6:30 – 8:00. These meetings are open to the public, but seating is limited, so please RSVP by calling (302) 691-7333 or (877) 899-7872.