ISRAEL AND HAMAS: So, What Next?

MITCH MCCONNELL puts the brakes on the stimulus plan?

HMM: And here I thought that “The Great Netroot Betrayal” was merely a tagline.

CALIFORNIA UPDATE: “California has seen epic failures of leadership before, but never over such an extended period and at such a perilous time. Because elected leaders can’t agree on a way to fix the state’s finances, California can’t sell bonds for public works projects that would provide paychecks for thousands of people. Schools and local governments are uncertain about state aid, creating a culture of paralysis and wishful thinking that will only make the pain worse later. . . . In an editorial last week, we criticized the governor for making unreasonable demands at a time of ‘Armageddon’ – his words. But Democratic lawmakers deserve at least equal attention. In the face of a $42 billion two-year deficit, Democrats have yet to publicly acknowledge that a reduction in state payroll must be part of the solution.”

11 MUST-SEE MOVIES coming in 2009. I wonder how many of those I’ll see. Not many, at least not in the theaters.

HEH: “Two years ago, like many somewhat financially literate readers, I was perusing newspapers stories about crazy negative amortization mortgages and exclaiming, ‘What are they, on crack?‘ Now we have our answer.”

SARAH PALIN becomes a grandmother.

A TRAILER FOR Terminator Salvation, the next Terminator movie.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG:

If someone was sending rockets on my house where my daughters were sleeping at night, I would do everything to stop it, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.

These aren’t my words — they’re Barack Obama’s. But I attach myself to this sentiment.

Me too.

HOUSE PRICES: Still too high? I think so, and I’m surprised at how unrealistic sellers still seem to be. I’m seeing people put houses on the market for 10-15% more than they paid two years ago, when those houses are probably worth 10-15% less. Or worse.

UPDATE: Reader Bob Molyneux writes:

Amen.

My wife and I are in the market for a house in the Duluth, Georgia area and we have seen a ton. So many are junked up–don’t you folks know what a garbage bag is? Are banks really that uninterested in selling foreclosed houses that they make it almost impossible? I don’t know about a buyers’ market but our credit rating is great and our current locked in interest rate is 4.97%, we have money in the bank, and this will be an oldie but goody: a “conventional” loan. Maybe we are picky but I would guess that you are right that the better houses are 10-20% high. The bad houses are 90% high.

Yeah, I think people are still in denial. Don’t know why the bankers aren’t better about prepping these houses for sale.

PERRY DE HAVILLAND: Do not expect us to cooperate.

AN UNUSUAL VAGUENESS RULING, from the Sixth Circuit.

REASON TV on bailouts and the financial crisis.

REIHAN SALAM on Samuel Huntington.

BIG AFTER-CHRISTMAS MARKDOWNS on jewelry. I don’t think jewelry did that well this year; one of the (7) jewelry stores at our mall actually went out of business right after Christmas.

THIS IS INTERESTING: Women Profs Spend More Time on Teaching, Less on Research.

BEST QUOTES of the past year.

RAHM EMANUEL will resign on Friday. “A special election now must be scheduled to fill Emanuel’s seat in the 5th District, and several Chicago politicians have already expressed interest in the seat.”

MARK TAPSCOTT: “Barack Obama will either be the last liberal president of the 20th century or the first Internet chief executive of the 21st century. It will become clear earlier rather than later in his White House tenure which he will be.”

A LOOK AT PREGNANCY AND WEIGHT GAIN.

“FOR NOW?” ER, MAYBE BECAUSE BUSH IS ACTUALLY PRESIDENT NOW? Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis. But here’s the real news: “When President-elect Barack Obama went to Israel in July — to the very town, in fact, whose repeated shelling culminated in this weekend’s new fighting in Gaza — he all but endorsed the punishing Israeli attacks now unfolding.”

UPDATE: No free vacation for Glenn Greenwald.

GAWKER: Caroline, No.

CHRIS DODD’S CONTINUING LACK OF CANDOR:

It was past time months ago for Connecticut U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd to come clean and release documents on two mortgages he received from Countrywide Financial Corp. That it still has not happened is now approaching outrageousness.

Following a meeting in Westport last Monday with Fairfield County labor leaders, Connecticut’s senior senator once again hedged on saying when he would release the documents. Mr. Dodd continues to say the information will be forthcoming but he refuses to say when.

The situation has kept an ethical cloud over the state’s senior senator since the disclosure that he and a colleague appear to have received preferential treatment in 2003 on mortgages from Countrywide Financial, which was later implicated in the subprime mortgage scandals and eventually was taken over by Bank of America. For the mortgages, Mr. Dodd was placed into Countrywide’s “VIP” program, which saved him some $2,700 in upfront costs on the loans and allowed his loan rates to decrease as rates dropped. . . .

Full disclosure is key because Sen. Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and is at ground zero in the nation’s Capitol in trying to put a stop to America’s economic meltdown.

Indeed.

FABIUS MAXIMUS: Some guesses about the economy.

MORE ON Caroline Kennedy vs. Sarah Palin.