Bill O'Reilly won't like this, but Al Franken is proving his moxie as a US Senator yet again.

This is an important measure to be passed:

This is a big victory for financial reform:

The Senate on Thursday voted to impose tighter regulations on credit-rating agencies, which have been criticized for misjudging the risks of debt instruments at the core of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

The ratings services were tied to the banks that were using them so here's a tool stripped away that helps perpetrate corruption on Wall Street.

There's more:

Chris Bowers at Open Left had a good summary of the amendment this morning:

Making the bill stronger: Sen. Franken (D-Minn.) creates a Credit Rating Assignment Board which would assign the credit rating agency that does each initial rating in order to reduce the inherent conflict of interest in the current business model - where the person who hopes to sell the rated product pays the rater. This amendment stops securities issuers from shopping around among credit rating agencies for the best rating, leading raters to inflate their grades as they scrap for market share.

Why it matters: Credit Rating Agencies got paid to slap AAA ratings on packages of dangerous investments they did not even try to understand or evaluate. Their triple A ratings created huge markets for these investments, and spread them through every corner of the market. When the House of Cards built on their false promises collapsed, millions of Americans lost their savings.

The financial reform bill gets stronger and stronger by small increments. This is a good result. Let's hope there is more like it to come.

And the ratings agencies should be held accountable. That is unless this gets kicked to the Supreme Court, who will vote for big business every time with Roberts leading the way.

This week, CalPERS, the largest U.S. public pension fund, won a court ruling allowing it to proceed with a lawsuit accusing the three biggest rating agencies of assigning "wildly inaccurate and unreasonably high" ratings, causing $1 billion of losses. The agencies say they expect to eventually prevail on the misrepresentation claim.

The clearinghouse measure could give smaller ratings agencies a chance to challenge the dominance of the top three firms.

From Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian...What "traditional" marriage really means.

And please send your good thoughts to Lee Stranahan. His father had a stroke today and it has given him the inspiration and impetus to take on the US healthcare disinformation.

As much as they try to put on a happy face, their interest in having an active roll in politics is limited to attacking brown people. Case in point. The NRCC started a YouTube contest five weeks ago:

(T)he NRCC launched a project to get supporters to create their own campaign videos attacking Democrats. If successful, this project would defy a pattern where Republican grassroots activists never take action into their own hands.

The NRCC also said:

After the judging panel views the videos, the top five videos will be hosted on NRCC.org and voted on by the general public.

They only got "FIVE" submissions...Chris Bowers votes for...

It looks like our emails are having an effect:

Reporter John Carroll quoted MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong as writing that he was actually the person behind several online pseudonyms, including Scott Shields. Armstrong’s comments were satirical, a fact that was not evident to Carroll as he read the posting. Carroll believed he was quoting Armstrong accurately. Many people have written to tell us that with a little checking we could have determined that the individuals referred to by Armstrong are actual bloggers. We should have checked those facts, and we regret not doing so.

We will run a correction on tonight’s program (Dec. 11), and discuss the story on Friday’s “Beat The Press.”

I think he also needs to go to a few comedy clubs because it seems he's lost his sense of humor. Chris Bowers writes that he does actually exist after all. I will say that I'm the only John Amato who created C&L and blogs here, but there is another John Amato on the internet that is not me. Although---he does play the sax too...hehe

Powerline uses a chopped up video to attack Dingel falsely. The right wingers had a field day with it. TP has it also

See this before? As the desperation gets worse because of their uncertainty over the '06 election, this will happen more and more.

Chris Bowers has more about "selective quotations"

Captain Ed makes a ridiculous argument trying to defend Malkin for publishing the students telephone numbers. Notice Ed uses language like, "The Fever Swamp Strikes again" and "idiots" while Michelle calls us "moonbats, unhinged and the kings of hate, " just for asking her to be accountable for her actions. In my post-I didn't resort to inflammatory language. I just said she crossed the line of decency. Capt Ed's own readers don't by his flimsy arguments:

Oh come on!!!!
They did not post the press release on the internet. It was supposed to go to media organizations who might be interested in contacting them. Yes, they messed up and put their home phone #'s on there, but that's no excuse to post them up on her blog... That's wrong...

If she was really being innocent about it, why did she keep them up after they asked her to take them down? Its indefensible. "But what I keep coming back to is her refusal to take it down after they asked her to. Considering the death threats, I think it would only be prudent for her to have respected their wishes the first time around...

Ed, I know you support MIchele in this. And there's no defense for the pathetic emails she's getting, which I saw at Flopping Aces. But we also shouldn't reinvent conventions around Press Releases. I've written hundreds in my career. The contact information is not for publication.

I hate alienating fellow conservative bloggers. But changing the rules of the game mid-stream isn't a defense of somehting, it's a tactic I'd prefer to see relegated to the Left.

Get the point Ed? What she did was wrong and your fans know it. I do have the email that they sent Michelle. One of her favorite tactics is to print nasty emails about herself to deflect the criticisms. We all get emails like that, but she wallows in them. I frown upon that type of rhetoric myself as you know. All Ed had to do was watch the video I posted from "FOX & Friends" and he'd know what the truth is.

Georgia10 nails it. So does Duncan

UPDATE:

Don Suber delinked Malkin's blog and I say good for him.

"So they listed their contact numbers after the "For Immediate Release" line? This is not law. This is not science. This is journalism. Only a mean person would be so crass as to put that information in mass circulation. When people stoop that low, I as a reader realize that is all they have. They have lost the argument. It is like when a political candidate goes negative. Malkin went negative. She lost the argument. She lost a reader. "So has "Ace in the Hole."

Chris Bowers has more.

Chris Bowers has some new results up now. Check out his site to find all the releases of the Poll data..

Chris Bowers has the facts...

My DD: Now, blogger Chris Bowers has become candidate Chris Bowers. And again it is time to recommend him (for Committeeperson, Ward 27, Division 23 in Philly). When the best and brightest run, we need to support them...read on

Chris Bowers has two really interesting articles via MyDD on the right/left blogosphere. Here's his first article on the topic. Follow that up with his second post that has a response from Patrick Ruffini: Yet More on the Two Spheres

As always Chris crunches the numbers and it's not the "we're better than you because.." type of research. He lets the figures do the talking. Plus it was nice of him to include C&L as a "New Rising Star"

I'll write more about Ruffini's rebuttal of "we link more than you do" argument a little later.