Second exam written. Now we play the waiting game.

* Did Republicans accidentally defund the military-industrial complex? That's kind of fantastic.

* Darcy Burner spatializes the political spectrum on a left-right horizontal axis against a purist-pragmatist vertical access to uncover why bipartisanship compromise can't happen in contemporary America politics; there's no one in the northeast quadrant.

* The Daily Mail reports on an fascinating in vitro fertilization case in which a woman has decided to bring a baby to term after another woman's embryo was mistakenly implanted in her. What I find most interesting is the assertion that the genetic parent, and not the pregnant woman, is plainly the "real" mother; it's not at all clear to me why that should be true from either a legal or ethic standpoint.

* Rather specific genre watch: Top 10 YouTube acoustic Michael Jackson tributes.

I'm still Twittering, so I'll just say here that was pretty dynamite. We'll have to wait and see whether and how much it moves the needle, but it seems like a corner has been turned; Democrats in the chamber seemed ecstatic, Republicans angry and small. The Teddy Kennedy tribute, segueing into a explicit articulation of the moral duty for health care reform, was spellbinding, and, for some members, deeply shaming. Another historic speech from a guy who really makes it look easy.

Doing some liveblogging at Twitter.

My 4000th post on this blog—something like 9,500 since starting Backwards City in May 2004—is devoted to the president's upcoming speech on health care. Robert Reich says the trigger is bunk. Ed Kilgore says it isn't. Even-the-liberal New Republic's Jon Chait explains why centrism is bunk. Millionaire Rush Limbaugh says you don't even need insurance. An end to the gang of six? Tea leaves suggest Obama may finally be ready to go it alone. Schumer talks up reconciliation. President Clinton's health-care speech from 1993. Steve Benen on where things stand. Ezra Klein on where things stand. Excerpts from the speech.

All that's left of health care reform is a collection of piece-of-shit, weakling proposals that are preposterously expensive and contain almost nothing meaningful — and that set of proposals, meanwhile, is being negotiated down even further by the endlessly negating Group of Six. It is a fight to the finish now between Really Bad and Even Worse. And it's virtually guaranteed to sour the public on reform efforts for years to come.

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone on health care reform and total system failure in American politics. I'm more hopeful than others that the "trigger" compromise may actually provide the necessary political cover to get a postdated public option enacted—but not that hopeful. In any event it's out of our hands now. We heard from Pelosi and Reid today; we'll see what Obama has to say tomorrow.

Bad Democrat dance-off! Ben Nelson signals his support for a "trigger" that would create a public option later—because seventy years of broken health care just isn't enough—while Max Baucus goes him one better in stripping out the public option, the trigger, and even the co-operative alternative floated a few weeks ago by Reid and others.

Look forward to the Joe Liebermann No Health Care Reform At All Act of 2009, coming soon. It'll be bipartirrific.

That Republicans and Democrats always agree about who should chair the Federal Reserve tells you a lot about the way politics actually works in America. The most important issues are the ones that have been put beyond all possible dispute, on which all reasonable people can only agree.

Even more Sunday night links.

* Ev psych on the ropes? We can only dare to hope.

* MetaFilter remembers the Stonewall protests.

* Also from MetaFilter: Are we doing enough to prevent the asteroid apocalypse?

* Pawlenty says he'll finally let Franken be seated once the state Supreme Court issues its ruling. Aren't we moving a little fast, Tim? It's only been eight months.

* Katrina vanden Heuvel with Steve Benen against bipartisanship.

* 3 Quarks Daily's top science blog posts of 2009.

* And Ze Frank plays "That Makes Me Think Of" again at Time, this week about thigns that are and aren't black and white. Can't we get The Show back already? We keep getting closer and closer.

Sunday night links.

* Is Twitter the Drudge Killer? We can only dare to hope.

* The Art of the Movie Poster. (Thanks, Ron!)



* Accusations from the left that Obama was behind Honduras's coup seem completely unfounded.

* Sanford says he won't resign. Okay, then, impeachment.

* Steve Benen against bipartisanship. Also at Washington Monthly: early movement towards fixing the Democratic primaries for 2012 and beyond.

* Krugman has had a very good series of posts this weekend trying to bash denialist talking points on climate change. Here's the chart that dismantles the "we've been cooling since 1998" canard:

Obama on the stimulus (part 2). Give 'em hell, Barry. Via MetaFilter's omnibus post on the stimulus and the random cuts needed to sate "bipartisan" egos. (You really let a lot of people down, Claire.)

My days of childishly giggles over the term "stimulus package" may soon be over: a deal has apparently been reached that can pass the Senate. Meanwhile, FiveThirtyEight has some valuable first-month lessons for Obama, the most important of which is that bipartisanship is bunk.