Question of the Day
Which of the following will Republican obstructionists allow to take their inevitable seats first, the highly qualified Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court, or the popularly elected Al Franken in the US Senate? Which can they drag out the longest?

Aimless and Embittered
So at least we took down an organized cell of top-notch terrorists in New York, planning to blow up synagogues and shoot down planes and the like, right? A-list jihadis? Not so much.

[T]he overall portrait that's emerging is that of a group of struggling, disaffected petty criminals, who bonded at a Newburgh, NY mosque over having spent time in prison, before being taken in by a Pakistani immigrant looking to win leniency for a crime of his own.

There's little doubt the bumbling would-be bombers went far enough with the plot to demonstrate that they had the intention to commit terror, and for that they'll pay the price. But the whole tale comes off perhaps more as a sad glimpse into the lives of a loose group of aimless and obscurely embittered Americans than as a dire illustration of the threat of home-grown terrorism.

Watch Obama's Gitmo Speech
I think he's a bit angry. Defensive, at least. See for yourself.

[UPDATE: After seeing Cheney's speech, the anger/annoyance in Obama's seems perfectly placed.

UPDATE2: Andrew Sullivan really liked the President's address.]

New Legislation Quiz
The credit card reform bill that just passed the Senate 90-5 contains which of the following provisions:
A) Requires credit card companies to give 45 days notice before any rate increase.
B) Prohibits credit card companies from raising finance rates on any debt that is not at least 60 days late. And requires any rate increase in that instance to be lowered again after 6 consecutive timely payments.
C) Allow guns to be carried in national parks
D) All of the above

The Answer is D. Yes, I'm afraid the US Senate couldn't defeat a gun amendment....in the credit card bill. God bless America.

Wow
Through an elaborate media spectacle including a TV special and a book, scientists who worked for 2 years in secrecy are unveiling the complete fossil of a 47-million-year-old creature. "Ida" was a 10-month-old female... something that investigators claim will "change everything" about how we view human evolution. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have done much of a job explaining that to reporters:

About the size of a small cat, the animal has four legs and a long tail. It's not a direct ancestor of monkeys and humans, but it provides a good indication of what such an ancestor may have looked like, researchers said at a news conference.

This is very cool and all. But I do have a minor gripe. I'm not asking for sophisticated scientific analysis here or anything. In fact, if it were here, I probably wouldn't understand it. But, come on, throw us a little bit of a bone here (pardon the pun). If it's "not a direct ancestor", how does it help change the way we view human evolution, and how would it tell us "what such an ancestor may have looked like"? What about it so convinces the scientists who have worked on it that it's instructive at all about human ancestory? Would it be so hard to get just a mini-explanation that takes us a half-step beyond "Trust the scientists; they say this is huuuuge"? I don't doubt that there are excellent answers to these questions, just saying that's kind of the *news part*, right?

I had to rant about that to keep me from ranting about the idea that serious scientific discovery is now being treated like some kind of corporate product rollout.

The film, called The Link, will be shown on The History Channel Monday evening. You can see info on the book here.

One Way to $5 Million
Wonder if Woody Allen's next movie will be as profitable as his lawsuit against American Apparel.

Townes van Zandt
With a new tribute album out, Steve Earle talks about his "tor-mentor".

To all but a handful of his closest friends Van Zandt was a remote, elusive figure, apt to disappear and turn up with equal unpredictability. As mentor to Mr. Earle he was hardly a steady, guiding hand, and he was much too stoic to dispense sage advice about songwriting or anything else. The premise of their relationship was something like, if I didn’t think you were good enough to do it yourself, you wouldn’t be here. He did, however, recommend that Mr. Earle always put the top back on the bottle so that the alcohol wouldn’t spill when it inevitably got kicked over and, when injecting drugs, to use clean needles every time.

He also instructed Mr. Earle to read “War and Peace,” though Van Zandt had not read the book himself, as Mr. Earle discovered to his surprise when he dutifully returned with questions about it. “I just thought you should,” Van Zandt idly told him.

Supreme Court Hopes
Stephen Pearlstein: Forget abortion. It's the anti-trust, stupid.

Earth to Farge, Come In Farge
This seems pretty troubling. Hopefully somebody who reads this blog occasionally has enough breaks in between caring for her newborn(?) that she can shed some light on the real story here.

It's Grading Day
So no time to post. Here, read this good news instead.

It Wasn't a "Remark"!
It was a magazine article, no doubt carefully crafted, with plenty of opportunity to edit, re-think, take back, re-phrase, etc.

And while I'm at it, the people Feherty should apologize to are *not* the Speaker and the Senator, but to the military personnel that, in my opinion, were the most clearly insulted of all in his asinine piece.

Timing
Long-time readers (and I mean really long-time) may remember my fascination with cicadas. That is, fascination with the idea of 17-year cicadas anyway, not that I like hanging out in their presence. I was disturbed to learn that climate change may be altering the characteristic that has kept them going as a species: their peculiar life cycle.

Periodical cicadas best known for their 17-year-long life cycle are emerging four years early in several Atlantic states, including North Caroline and Maryland.
...
[A] paper to be published in the Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science suggests that mild winters affect trees that young cicadas feed upon, messing with the insects' timekeeping.

Funny
This check is funny enough all by itself.

But funnier still when you read the story that apparently inspired someone to write the check. At Verizon Math, George Vaccaro details his efforts to get folks at Verizon to admit they quoted him the wrong price because they couldn't grasp the difference between $.002 and .002 cents, including an epic call to customer service. There is audio of the phone conversation as well, but I enjoyed just reading it.

Cell Phones
When did students lose the art of being inattentive the old-fashioned way: daydreaming? At least then you bear some resemblance to a person that's listening - vaguely looking ahead, etc. - with the added bonus that you can get away with it for longer.

Dwindling
On the heels of Arlen Specter's defection, Joe the Plumber is now leaving the Republican Party as well. Hilarious. It's nice to finally see the screwed up coalition that is the modern GOP finally unraveling. If they're not militia crazy, they lose Joe. If they are, they lose Specter (i.e., Pennsylvania). If they try to walk the middle, they lose both.

The Next Supreme Court Justice
First of all, when was the last time a President actually picked the consensus favorite as a Supreme Court nominee? It certainly hasn't happened since I started paying attention (circa Clarence Thomas). Still, I guess that won't stop the speculation business. And so far, the money is on Sonia Sotomayor, presumably because a) she's a woman - which the Court desperately needs, and b) she's Hispanic, which the Court has never had.

As for her actual qualifications, abilities,and judicial temperament, of course Republicans find her lacking - no big surprise. And among Democratic/liberal commentators, either Sotomayor is a horrible choice or an outstanding choice, depending on what you read. Figure it out for yourself.

Either way, and whoever Obama picks, we need more women there. 51% of the population and 11% of the Supreme Court is just pretty ridiculous. And Ginsburg is not exactly a model of health. Let's not forget too that when it came to a cabinet, Obama was not opposed to naming a well-known figure. Hell he wanted Sanjay Gupta to be his Surgeon General. So I think he just might surprise everybody. Oprah for Supreme Court? Judge Judy? Well, maybe not that for out, but may at least break with recent tradition. I guess we'll see.

Oops
Specter screwed up, pissed off his new Democratic colleagues, and now has lost seniority on committees. I wonder if Obama regrets offering such immediate and unqualified support. Still, I don't think his presidential embrace was ever about Specter's campaign for 2010. It's about trying to get things accomplished in the meantime. Obama's not trying to help him win re-election so much as he's trying to win Specter's support over the next year and a half in return for helping him win re-election. That's how I see it anyway.

To that end, if he's really not going to play ball on the issues - and it doesn't look like he is, then cutting down on his committee influence is the better option toward getting things done - from judge confirmations to health care legislation to energy overhaul.

Star Trek
"The best prequel ever." I don't read reviews before seeing the movie, but that would seem to be a glowing recommendation. Consider this your Media Monday post for the week.

Weekend Deep Thought
I guess 50-1 are pretty good odds after all.

Swine Flu Question
We're supposed to cover our mouths when we cough, in case we have the illness, and we're supposed to not touch our mouths, so we don't get it. It seems impossible to follow both rules. Discuss.