The comments on Balloon Juice can get quite witty. I love the imagery and alliteration in the following:
Wow. That’s some real weapons-grade Wingnut there.
That was used when talking about a purity purge going on over the “ground zero mosque” which is actually a community center with a prayer space. Another commenter wrote:
Calling this a mosque is like calling a casino in Las Vegas a cathedral because it has a wedding chapel.
Balloon Juice links to a Brookings study that measures educational attainment by metropolitan area and notes that 24 out of 25 areas are in states that went for Obama in 2008.
This made me immediately wonder which the outlier was. A quick scan said that the post is incorrect and that there are two outliers according to that metric. The first is Austin-Round Rock at #14 and the second is Tucson, AZ at #25. Doug was probably referring to Austin. But why talk about states, when we have the county breakdown? The county Austin resides in (Travis, TX) actually went for Obama by almost 2 to 1 (64-35%)—seems a shame to pick on Austin simply because it happens to be in a red state.
Continue reading about education and voting patterns after the jump. →
Joe Lieberman has a solution to rights for suspected terrorists who are U.S. citizens: take away their citizenship.
Joe Lieberman is Jewish. Hmm, I wonder how that idea worked for the Nazis?
(I love it when I can Godwin an argument before a discussion even starts.)
Glenn Reynolds suggests that the U.S. treasury defaults on its debt, Bruce Bartlett trashes it, and Glenn’s defense?
Well, I was hoping for a thoughtful email from an expert, but instead I got a typically intemperate blog post from Bruce Bartlett. Bruce, I’m not trying to turn the United States into Zimbabwe. That would be the guy in the White House, whom you seem surprisingly anxious to defend.
I’m surprised nobody noticed the racist undertone in this response. Bruce Bartlett brought up Zimbabwe because defaulting on the debt was the direct cause Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. The analogy Glenn sets up is: Barack Obama is America’s Robert Mugabe and he’s going to take all the land away from you White people!
While that was most likely completely unintentional, the only adequate defense is that Glenn Reynolds, a law professor and premier conservative political pundit, is both socially insensitive and politically ignorant.
The irony amuses me with the obviousness of it all. (NB Title: Glenn Reynolds teaches law at the University of Tennessee.)
Jane Mayer’s reporting on the Predator Drone program in the New Yorker last month is both fascinating and sad—on one hand we’ve definitely crossed the line between war and murder, on the other hand it is “the only game in town.” 
I cannot see good things coming from this.
1. What Is the Supreme Law of the Land?
The Ten Commandments.
2. What Do We Call the First Ten Amendments of the Constitution?
The New Deal.
3. What Are the Two Parts of the U.S. Congress?
Communists and Capitalists.
4. How Many Justices Are on the Supreme Court?
None. This is a trick question. Everyone knows the only people in court are the judge, jury and executioner.
5. Who Wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Jesus.
6. What Ocean Is on The East Coast of the United States?
The Mexican Ocean.
7. What Are the Two Major Political Parties in the United States?
Republican and Socialist.
8. We Elect a U.S. Senator for How Many Years?
Until they die or get caught in a wide stance.
9. Who Was the First President of the United States?
10. Who Is in Charge of the Executive Branch?
“He’s not a public intellectual—he’s a fucking wind sock. And he knows it.”
Beware the Man has a nice summary of a Joe Klein takedown. Missing setup if you don’t know the players after the jump.
This deserves to be quoted in whole:
“50 years ago you shouted nigger, 30 years ago you talked about States Rights, now you ask to see the president’s birth certificate.”
I’d say it dates back even further—to secession and the Civil War. Back then the reason was Slave Power, for the last half century it was the Southern Strategy, now they’ve been reduced to Glenn Beck throwing a hissy fit and senior citizens screaming to keep government out of their Medicare.
You’d think that after being on the wrong side of history for the last two centuries, these people would get a clue.
Another 8-1 decision and Guess who was the lone dissenter?
After they confirm Sotomayor, I hope they sit her right next to Clarence Thomas. Maybe some of her much-maligned “empathy” will rub off on the hypocrite “strict-constructionist.”
Surprising that it didn’t occur to me that Obama is the first Nerd Presdient:
So disappointed he didn’t know Shai-hulud, a thumper, and the Water of Life.
But then again, I have an edge with these questions. John Hodgman is almost exactly my age. 