Midday Open Thread

• Funny:

  The candidates for Republican National Committee chair have been talking about how to effectively campaign in the era of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. But it looks like they're having problems with technology that first became widespread back when Eisenhower was president.

  A C-Span staffer has informed us that the RNC voted to close today's meeting, which is being held as a forum for the leadership candidates, and eject the cameramen and press so it won't be carried on TV or elsewhere.

• The Shepard Fairey portrait of Barack Obama was seen everywhere during the 2008 presidential campaign, and now you can see the original at the National Portrait Gallery.
• Jack Kemp, former congressman, NFL quarterback and Bob Dole's running mate in 1996, has been diagnosed with cancer. Best wishes for a complete recovery.
• Via Americablog, Bob Barr, the author of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), now believes it should be repealed:

  In effect, DOMA's language reflects one-way federalism: It protects only those states that don't want to accept a same-sex marriage granted by another state. Moreover, the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws -- including, immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran's benefits -- has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions.

• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the deficit  federal budget deficit will be $1.2 trillion for 2009. Ouch.
• Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson says that President-elect Obama is now the "decision maker" when it comes to the spending whatever is left from the $700 billion TARP fund.
• John McCain just can't let go of his campaign slogan:

  Less than two weeks from the inauguration that he hoped would usher in his own presidential administration, Senator John McCain announced the formation of a new political action committee that will work to promote Republican causes.

  Borrowing a slogan from his campaign, Mr. McCain is calling the committee, “Country First,” and it is likely to help lay the foundation for his 2010 re-election bid.

• If you're attending one of the ten inaugural balls on January 20th, expect long lines, packed crowds, and little or no food and drinks. And have fun.
• Want to see something both amazing and terrifying?  Watch the spread of Walmart and remind yourself that this isn't a time lapse analysis of a epidemic... or is it? - Devilstower
• Next up on the list of critical American industries seeking a bailout; the porn industry. Says Larry Flynt in seeking a potential $5 billion bailout from Congress:

  But the industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. "People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said in the statement. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

  "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."

  Insert joke - brownsox