Conan O'Brien sighs off tonight. The NY Times has quotes from his monologue and the text of his entire closing. He takes the high road, particularly with respect to NBC. A snippet:

To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.

Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

I'm going to tune in later just to watch him deliver them. (Of course, since I am cynical, I have to add that if I had just been handed $30 million, I'd be feeling charitable towards everyone too.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Steve Benen writes:

The pundits want the House to pass the Senate bill. Leading reform advocates want the House to pass the Senate bill. Major union leaders want the House to pass the Senate bill. [ . . .]

Either Benen did not read the link he provides or thinks people will not click the link. The title says it all:

Here are the details for Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, a telethon which will be aired live tonight across the globe. Hosts for the event are: George Clooney in Los Angeles, Wyclef Jean in New York and Cooper in Haiti.

The show begins accepting donation at noon, ET. Here's how:

• Online: www.hopeforhaitinow.org
• Phone: 877-99-HAITI
• Text: Text "GIVE" to 50555
• Mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017

[More...]

Paul Krugman urges House Dems to commit political suicide and pass a health bill without an excise tax fix. Krugman seems oblivious to the political realities. Now more than ever, after the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision (which also abolished limits on union spending on elections), having the unions firmly on the side of Democratic candidates is critical for avoiding an utter rout in November.

In addition, Krugman seems to have no clue what the House Dems are offering - passage of the Senate bill in exchange for a parallel reconciliation bill that reflects modifications of the Senate bill - most prominently to the excise tax. Krugman's tirade is completely separated from political reality and the actual discussion taking place now. Then again, maybe Krugman has a good GOTV operation to make up for it.

Speaking for me only

The late show wars have ended: Conan O'Brien gets $30 million, his staff $12 million and Jay Leno will be back hosting the Tonight Show in the 11:35 PM ET time slot.

I'm not a regular late night TV watcher (not surprising, given how much prime time I watch) but when I do watch Letterman or Leno, it's because of the guests, not the host. I'm also not a fan of Jimmy Kimmel, too much schtick. (He reminds me of his ex-girlfriend Sarah Silverman who I'm also not a fan of...two peas in a pod.)

The one who stands out to me, and it didn't happen overnight, is Jimmy Fallon. At first he seemed too eager and upbeat, like a kid in a candy store. But now I like his spontaneity and he's funny. He doesn't even need guests. I really like when he joins in to play music or sing. For someone so vanilla looking, he's got some rhythm, and he pulls off the vocals. [More...]

UPDATE: Pelosi says not enough votes for Stand alone Senate bill (meaning she needs a companion reconciliation fix, as her aides stated to the WaPo.) Josh Marshall's head explodes.See Greg Sargent for a measured response.

Village Dems and bloggers are going wild urging the passage of the Senate Stand Alone bill. Matt Yglesias called Raul Grijalva a "monster." Kevin Drum has his pitchfork out. Josh Marshall is melting down. Ezra Klein is suggesting "going Nader". But then Ezra Klein stumbled upon the sweet spot:

Lanny Davis has a form WSJ/NY Post column he pulls out to punch the hippies for any occasion. Here's his Blame The Left (the literal title of his Wall Street Journal op-ed) piece explaining Massachusetts:

We Democrats had to explain to Massachusetts voters and other Americans why non-Nebraskans and nonunion members have to pay more taxes, while Nebraskans and union members get to pay less. Those two deals seem to have alienated most people across the political spectrum. That's not easy.

Somehow, in the last 12 months, we allowed the party of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to morph into the party of George McGovern (or more accurately, his most ardent supporters) and Howard Dean, who called for the defeat of the Democratic health-care bill if it had neither a public option or Medicare buy-in.

Heh. Now the "hippies" are responsible for Ben Nelson's sweet heart deal and for the unions taking care of themselves regarding the excise tax. Lanny Davis is one strange dude. But what is funny is this is exactly what you are hearing from some blogs.

Speaking for me only

Kevin Drum:

I've got all sorts of complaints about Obama. [. . .] Still, none of that comes within light years of providing a reason to turn on him. Conservatives gave Bush five or six years before they really turned on him, [. . .] Given the cards he was dealt, he hasn't done badly.

(Emphasis supplied.) Sheesh Kevin. "Turn on him?" What does that even mean? Was some loyalty oath violated? Yes, let's be blind loyalists like the Bush supporters were. Again, sheesh. As Bill Maher says, he's not your boyfriend.

Speaking for me only

Update: Golden Globe show thoughts:

9:01 pm: The full winners list is here. (I switched to "24" at 8, so didn't catch the past hour.

7:55 pm: So glad Christopher Walz won best actor in Inglourious Basterds. He was great as the SS officer -- there were so many facets to the character's personality, it was like five characters in one.

7:05 pm: I always love when Merly Streep wins and she deserves it for Julia and Julia. Really emotional and moving acceptance speech, you could hear a pin drop.

6:45 pm; Julia Roberts sitting next to Paul McCartney. Cher looks great. This is such a much better show than the Oscars. Avatar first nomination: Best original score. Will it win? No, "Up" wins this one.

6:35 pm: Glenn Close looks very pretty. Juliana Margolies wins for The Good Wife. I didn't like the show the first few episodes, but it grew on me, as did her acting. I'm glad she won. Damages wasn't that good this season. Great slam at NBC, she thanks her network "for believing in the 10:00 drama." [More...]

New York Magazine reports that within days a decision will be made by the New York Times whether to charge for online access to its articles.

After a year of sometimes fraught debate inside the paper, the choice for some time has been between a Wall Street Journal-type pay wall and the metered system adopted by the Financial Times, in which readers can sample a certain number of free articles before being asked to subscribe. The Times seems to have settled on the metered system.

...The appeal of the metered model is that it charges high-volume readers while allowing casual browsers to sample articles for free, thus preserving some of the Times' online reach.

Their attempt at paid access to opinion columns was a disaster. Why repeat it? Will you pay for NY Times access? And if the Times goes this way, are other papers likely to follow? I think the paid bloggers at the Times and other MSM publications will see a huge decline in readership numbers if readers have to pay to access them. Who is going to pay for access when they can read non-MSM bloggers for free? Not a smart move by the Times.

This just seemed appropriate tonight as the reports from Haiti get worse and worse. (I'm not crazy about the photo montage, but the audio is terrific and you can hear the lyrics clearly.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, see you all tomorrow.

The reporters in Haiti look pretty good. Props to them, considering the conditions they are enduring. I thought I saw Anderson Cooper, at one point last night during his report from the prison pointing out the dead bodies, turn his back to camera and shake as if he was gagging. Then I dismissed it as being my imagination. After reading this, I'm not so sure.

Update: Extra props to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta who was the only doctor to stay overnight treating the injured at a hospital last night. The others left when ordered to for security reasons. They returned this morning.