Because the Oscars are fairly insufferable at the moment…

• Tim Noah is absolutely right, the Senate bill doesn’t allow funding for abortion, but that’s hardly the point. Stupak simply wants his hard-earned victory, and it’s about power – mainly, power over women – rather than any policy.

• Imagine that, people don’t assent to being cut to ribbons by banks. And the Icelandic government will probably pay off Britain and Holland anyway.

• This is a great catch by the LA Times. The slow descent into Torture Nation began with the 1990 nomination hearings of Clarence Thomas, and the Federalist Society/far right legal pipeline that eventual confirmation set into motion.

• Lamar Alexander, who I didn’t remember was a former Secretary of Education, flat-out lied today in the WaPo editorial pages about the implications of the student loan bill. In reality, the same private companies will service the loans. We just won’t pay servicers and banks massive subsidies for no reason whatsoever to do so.

• Moving to things on the WaPo editorial page that are actually true (a short list), Kent Conrad explains once again how reconciliation works. I guess there’s value in redundancy, but it’s appalling that the people paid to know this stuff don’t understand this fully at this point. People like Mike Allen.

• Here’s the ACLU’s full-page ad in the New York Times blasting President Obama for potentially moving the KSM trial to a military commission.

• Doesn’t look like China will cooperate on sanctions for Iran at the UN Security Council, and they hold veto power. They want more time for negotiations.

• John Murtha’s district director Mark Critz is the candidate, chosen by local Democrats, for the special election to replace the late Congressman. However, he has to run in a Democratic primary on the same day, and a win there, against such opponents as former State Treasurer Barbara Hafer, is not guaranteed. He may win the first election and lose the second, becoming a lame duck House member.

• Given the track record of US interventions in Somalia, we should probably just stay out.

• Unbelievable that it’s taken this long to get to “serious questions” about the government giving MORE contracts to Blackwater.

• It’s the small pieces of financial reform we’re not even going to miss but will get muscled out by lobbyists and have major consequences for everyone in this country.

• A good overview of why Pete Stark isn’t liked inside Washington – he speaks his mind. That’s just a serious no-no. By the way, Dan Weintraub’s wrong, he didn’t seek a tax benefit for a house in Maryland, it was automatically applied. Good fact-checking, NY Times.

• To Fascinating article about the proposed renovation of Michigan Central Station.