Grab Bag – Monday Night

I hope that everybody is doing well tonight.

  • As a NFL Fan, I must start out with LaDainian Tomlinson’s release from the Chargers. I’m not surprised. He isn’t the same back that he was just three years ago, but damn.
  • Former Vice President Dick Cheney is back in the hospital with chest pain.  Former Presidential contender and Senate minority leader Bob Dole is also in the hospital. I wish both a speed recovery.

From Political Animal:

  • Afghanistan: “An airstrike launched Sunday by United States Special Forces helicopters against what international troops believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing as many as 27 civilians in the worst such case since at least September, Afghan officials said Monday.”
  • Senate vote on jobs bill still set for later today, though whether Republicans will allow senators to vote on the stripped-down bill remains unclear.
  • For those keeping score, there are now 21 Democratic senators who support using reconciliation to vote on a public option.
  • New consumer protections on credit cards go into effect today.
  • I can only hope that Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) does not support terrorist acts against the government of the United States.
  • Oklahoma’s outrageous anti-abortion law has been deemed unconstitutional. Good.
  • The “Volcker rule” picks up endorsements from five former Treasury secretaries.
  • Powerful piece from Adam Serwer: “Whereas al-Zawahiri and bin Laden turned to al-Sharif for a method to circumvent the plain language of the Koran, Bush and Cheney went to Yoo and Jay Bybee to circumvent the plain language of the law.”
  • Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) seems to be getting more and more confused.
  • Clarence Thomas hasn’t said a word on the court in four years.
  • Fox News hatchet-man Griff Jenkins loves being the ambusher, not the ambushee.
  • Alexander Haig dies at age 85.
  • Leonard Pitts Jr.: “To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper’s online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth…. [O]bjective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it’s a wall. And you shouldn’t have to hit it to find that out.”

Any other thoughts? Things to add?