Jay Currie

Not in our name and all that:

While Skippy Stalin has tragically largely given up on linking beauty with very few clothes and a bad attitude, he keeps getting stuff right.

McChrystal asked for what he thought the traffic would bear, and Obama gave him slightly over a third of that. In light of that, the General should have told the President that [...]

This is, of course, entirely unfair to both men. Neither needs to be on the spill “job” 24/7. But surely they both have guys who think about optics 24/7 and these suck.

The Big Zero has done the impossible, become a lame duck in his first term. Impressive.

The press will only run cover for so long.

h/t [...]

Perhaps not.

“Justice Thomas would apparently not rule out a death sentence for a $50 theft by a 7-year-old,” Justice Stevens wrote. “Knowledge accumulates,” he wrote. “We learn, sometimes, from our mistakes.” nyt

Kids do idiotic things. If you have enough of them occasionally they will do evil things. Sending them to prison for life without the [...]

President Obama at the Washington Corespondents’ Dinner:

Obama picked out the singers the Jonas Brothers, also present, with the evening’s only questionable joke, one that might not go down well in Pakistan or Afghanistan. “Sasha and Malia [Obama’s daughters] are huge fans but boys don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you: Predator drones. [...]

Babble, with respect, doesn’t put hundreds of thousands of rabid, gun-toting, hissing and spitting racist partisans into the streets. What an abjectly silly bit of moral equivalence. Show me more than one or two Black people in the ranks of the Teabaggers. Show me even one of the latter who can argue instead of hork. [...]

That for about an hour I forgot he was white:

Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. Some other guy will be talking to a bunch of people later today and making promises he can’t keep. Steve Jobs is the future, the other guy is public service unions and really big deficits.

iPad details here.

The Haitian government has handed over control of its airport to the US military, which has landed 1,000 troops into the country already and will bring another 9,000 in coming days to supervise aid deliveries and ensure stability. Some US soldiers had to keep large crowds at bay outside the airport, where some aid supplies [...]

Early Report…

Flight 253 with 278 passengers and 11 crew members aboard was about 20 minutes from the airport when passengers heard popping noises, witnesses said. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to the front of the plane with his pants cut off and [...]

Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in Congress on Monday to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big solar plants and wind farms planned for the region. new york times

Not very. But at least they will save the money otherwise wasted on these unlikely to ever be economic [...]

Conservative Porfirio Lobo won the controversial first presidential election in Honduras since a June 28 coup with 55.9 percent of the vote, electoral officials said, after more than 60 percent of ballots were counted. AFP

Turnout was running 60-70% despite Zelaya supporters’ call for a boycott.

You might be forgiven for thinking that the Hondurans have just [...]

Adrienne Ross reports an egg attack following a Sarah Palin book signing in New York:

He had to get home in time to feed the beagles. tim blair

I generally don’t support the death penalty for philosophical reasons. For visceral reasons this is good news:

John Allen Muhammad was executed on Tuesday for masterminding and carrying out with his teenage accomplice the 2002 sniper shootings that killed 10 people and terrified the Washington, D.C., region a year after the September 11 and the deadly [...]

Nationwide, customers snatched up 700,000 new cars, most of them foreign-made, and the government ended up paying out nearly $3 billion toward the purchases. But from the start, analysts predicted that Cash for Clunkers would not boost sales for the year. September’s sales swoon seems to be making their case. Car sales are usually slow [...]

US forces have “likely killed” a top al-Qaeda suspect during a US military raid in Somalia, a US official has told the BBC.

The suspect, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, is wanted over 2002 attacks on a hotel and an Israeli airliner in the Kenyan port of Mombassa. bbc

Nice to see Obama has not abandoned the surgical [...]

Other outlets reporting 2 million but 1 million looks like a safe figure for the Tea Party march in Washington today.

Not at all bad for a largely unorganized group of Obama opponents. I am just trying to remember if anyone managed to get 1m plus to an anti Bush rally.

Some of my commentors have suggested I have been a bit harsh on the Hero of Chappaquiddick. And they may have a point. After all, Mary-Jo was trapped under four feet of water. Four feet…what is a hero to do? Here’s a sketch from the inquest:

chappaquiddick, a profile in cowardice via celestial junk

In 2008, over two million US citizens fled the United States for greener pastures, and while this figure still represents less than 1% of the total US population, the trend is astounding. Between 2006-2008, the average number of US permanent resident filings stood at roughly 1.1 million/year, placing the legal inflow at negative 900,000 people. [...]

Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying [...]