Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- HowStuffWorks “What’s so special about Route 66?” – Love to travel this someday …
- McCain: I’ll Cut Deficits Like Reagan! – What? Some vile calumny against Saint Ronald of Blessed Memory? Fie! Fie!
- Meet Barbara Milano Keenan – The broken system. “It’s one thing to block an up-or-down vote on a judge some senators find problematic. But we have a Senate where Republicans filibuster nominees who enjoy unanimous support. We’re left with a confirmation process in which it takes seven months to approve arguably the least controversial judicial nominee this administration will ever send to the Senate.”
- Making the need for Senate reform all the more obvious – The working of the Senate rules has depended on a modicum of reason and willingness to get things done. Both seem to have failed, which means we need to change the rules. That will have, no doubt, unfortunate and unexpected consequences, but there seems to be very little choice.
- How to Fix the Filibuster Problem : Dispatches from the Culture Wars – I’d settle for filibusters actually being “Mr Smith”-style marathons. It should be work to make a noble (or ignoble) gesture to stop the Senate in its majority tracks. Sometimes it’s worth doing. But it should be hard, a personal effort and sacrifice, not just a rhetorical gesture.
- Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents — Engadget – Read, “Apple sues Google by proxy for coming out with successful competitor.” This will be interesting.
- Right Wing Employs McCarthyite Tactics To Smear DoJ Lawyers As Terrorist ‘Abettors’ And ‘Coddlers’ – These guys should get medals, not smears. Fighting for the rule of law against all emotion and mob mentality is a “profile in courage.”
- Hatch Forgets About The Bush Years, Claims Reconciliation Is Meant To ‘Balance The Budget’: Zaid Jilani
- Limbaugh compares Pelosi to a terrorist for saying passing health care is more important than re-election. – Elegant, Rush. If it was GOPers standing on principle, he’d be singing their praises as true patriots. Because it’s Dems, they’re the equivalent of Islamic child terrorists. What an ass.
- Hatch abandons pretense of intellectual seriousness – Money graf: “What Hatch conveniently forgets is that reconciliation wasn’t used when Republicans expanded Medicare (without paying for it) because Democrats didn’t filibuster the final bill. The GOP didn’t skip majority rule because of the goodness of their hearts; the Republican majority skipped it because they didn’t need it. ‘That precedent should carry the day here’? Why, that’s a great idea. As soon as partisan hacks like Hatch let the Senate vote up or down on major pieces of legislation, the way Senate Democrats did in 2003 and the way the chamber operated for the better part of 200 years, that precedent will be honored.”
- GOP just doesn’t like the unemployed – Ah, the compassionate conservatives. I’m sure that if everyone getting unemployment were just cut off, they’d quickly get off their asses and find one of those millions of jobs just waiting for them out there. Slackers.
- And Now, The Coffee Party – The federal government is “not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face as Americans.” How utterly refreshing. I don’t have much hope for this group, but I like what they have to say so far.
- Sign of the apocalypse: blood waterfalls – Funny world, innit?
- Acorn Cleared By Brooklyn Prosecutors; Tape Found To Be Edited – Because, remember, the Right is all about Law & Order.
- Dancing tot prevails over UMG in YouTube fair use case – A good decision. Music that occurs in the background doesn’t constitute infringement.
- Firefox may never hit 25 percent market share – I actually don’t mind, as long as it’s because of the growth of a diverse, if standards-based, browser ecosystem.
- Supremes deny Schismopalian petition to hear Diocese of L.A. property case – Good.
- He’s flipping off more than just journalists – Poster Child for Republican Obstructionism. Thank you, Sen. Bunning (R-Ky).
- Graham says GOP should stop demonizing climate change: You’re risking ‘your party’s future with younger people.’ – Next up: GOP pushes to close college campuses (except Liberty U, of course).
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