Saturday night at the ballpark

The Somerset Patriots just scored a home run. We are playing the Lawn Guyland Ducks. I’m sitting in a field box on the third base line, sipping a Newcastle brown ale. The BFF is hunting the elusive hot dog. It’s a beautiful night in Jersey. Fireworks at the end of the game. It doesn’t get any better than this.
What are you doing tonight?

Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence

Obama = Bush 44?
Obama’s “progressive” base is wondering:

President’s Detention Plan Tests American Legal Tradition

President Obama’s proposal for a new legal system in which terrorism suspects could be held in “prolonged detention” inside the United States without trial would be a departure from the way this country sees itself, as a place where people in the grip of the government either face criminal charges or walk free.

Facts and myths about Obama’s preventive detention proposal (Glenn Greenwald Note: There are very interesting links in Update IV)

In the wake of Obama’s speech yesterday, there are vast numbers of new converts who now support indefinite “preventive detention.” It thus seems constructive to have as dispassionate and fact-based discussion as possible of the implications of “preventive detention” and Obama’s related detention proposals (military commissions).

Obama’s Detention Plans Face Scrutiny

The Obama administration’s efforts to craft what it calls a “preventive detention” plan for suspected terrorists will face constitutional challenges similar to those raised against the Bush administration’s policies.

Eye Of The Beholder

Obama commends climate change bill

President Obama tonight praised a House committee’s passage of a sweeping bill designed to reduce global warming and create alternative energy jobs.

Handouts and loopholes

America’s climate-change bill is weaker and worse than expected

Dick Go Away!

What happened to the undisclosed location? It’s puke inducing to watch this insane creep watching from TV set to TV set advocating torture. As Reihan Salaam puts it “National Security has become part of the culture wars, only with Dick Cheney as the new Jerry Falwell.” If it’s a book deal he’s looking for, give it to him as long as he promises to go away.
Cheney Seeks Book Deal on Bush Years and More

With his sustained blitz of television appearances and speeches, former Vice President Dick Cheney has established himself as perhaps the leading Republican voice against President Obama.
Not a bad time, then, to be in the market for a multimillion-dollar book contract.

Send Him Back to the Bunker!

Dick Cheney’s dishonest speech about torture, terror, and Obama.

Bush-era officials reject Cheney security stance

Two top Bush-era officials rejected ex-vice president Dick Cheney’s scathing criticism of US President Barack Obama, saying the country’s national security was not in jeopardy.

Worst to of we have to put up with his daughter too. Dick Cheney comes and spews some nonsense and lies, whereafter his daughter comes and tells us how right he is. Has there ever been anything this incestuous in the media? Steve Benen on the embarrassing participation of the media in this charade
Nepotism Reigns

[A]s part of a full-throated defense of her dad’s torture policies, Liz Cheney has been all over the television news. I asked my friends at Media Matters to check on just how many interviews Cheney has done lately
(…)
That’s 12 appearances, in nine and a half days, spanning four networks. (On today’s “Morning Joe,” Liz Cheney was on for an entire hour — effectively becoming a co-host of the program.) And this is just television, and doesn’t include Liz Cheney’s interviews on radio or with print media

To quote Vanity Fair, “is it too much to hope that Cheney will shut up and crawl back into his hole, if only to avoid provoking any more self-righteous sermonizing by the Countdown host?”

Economy Watch
To quote Brad Delong:
“The best way to understand the world is through these two rules:

1. Paul Krugman’s analysis is correct.
2. If you think that Paul Krugman’s analysis is incorrect, see rule number 1.”

Krugman talks down the dollar

Even when Paul Krugman is saying relatively encouraging things about the economy, he still leaves some room for deep gloom. Speaking at a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City today, reports Bloomberg, Krugman said he thinks the “free fall” of the global economy may have come to an end.

Dollar hits ’09 low on rating fears; stocks dip

New Rules for College Credit Cards

The credit-card bill signed into law by President Obama addresses some, but not all, of the industry’s most controversial campus practices

From intern to chief executive: black woman rises to the top

Ursula Burns watched her mother iron shirts to pay her school fees. The new head of Xerox made sure the effort was worth it

American Airlines’ Frequent-Flier Upgrade

AA’s looser frequent-flier program makes it easier for customers to redeem miles and could set a new standard for other carriers’ reward offerings

Stay Classy GOP
RNC’s below-the-belt shot at Nancy Pelosi

She’s the 69-year-old speaker of the House of Representatives, second in the line of succession and the most powerful woman in U.S. history.
But when you see Nancy Pelosi, the Republican National Committee wants you to think “Pussy Galore.”

In TV Appearance, Powell Plans To Answer Right-Wing Critics

Interesting Stuff
How could explosions cause brain injuries without piercing the skull?

It is easy to understand how explosions involving shrapnel – such as those caused by improvised explosive devices in Iraq – could cause brain damage. But what about such injuries that seem to be caused by blasts themselves, rather than from being thrown or hit by shrapnel?