Joel Surnow is leaving “24,” effective immediately.  I’m not as concerned about the effect of his leaving on the show’s political content as I am about the quality, although co-creator Robert Cochran will be staying on, so there will be at least some continuity. Update:  Via Happyfeet in comments……never mind.

Australia’s Parliament on Wednesday apologized to Aborigines for past mistreatment. Here is the full text of the motion passed by lawmakers: “Today we honor the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.  The most indigenous of the indigenous peoples of the world, the Australian Aborigines. “We reflect on their past mistreatment.

Apparently he was Best Man at the secret nuptials.

I’m happier than you are, schmuck!  How do you like them apples? Most studies show that wealthy people are marginally happier than poor ones. People with pets or children are no happier than those without. People with active sex lives are — surprise! — happier than those without. No single morsel of happiness data, though, is more intriguing than this: Republicans are happier than Democrats. A 2006 Pew Research poll

Thirteen miles from Dulles International Airport, to be exact.  Twice, according to Molly Henneberg on FNC’s Special Report.

ever again. “Finally, There’s A Way To Learn What’s Really Going On Inside A Guy’s Mind…”

At MyDD, Jerome Armstrong does not see the stars lining up for Sen. Barack Obama, asking, “what is Barack Obama’s winning coalition of states that puts him over 270 electoral votes?” Kos calls the argument of his “good friend and partner” Armstrong “tired”: Jerome is too smart to not know the answer. It’s easy: Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, Virginia, Ohio, and Nevada. Kos has two problems in making

In light of this blog’s longstanding interest in the issue, I note that Michelle Malkin has the latest on the Senate’s slow-motion effort to preserve the Terrorist Surveillance Program and to protect those who assisted the government in its implementation in the wake of one of the biggest attacks on US soil.  RTWT, but the short version is that the Senate has taken a series of votes rejecting — by overwhelming margins

Stanley Fish’s special pleading for Hillary! is getting old and stenchlich: The responses to my column on Hillary Clinton-hating have been both voluminous (the largest number in the brief history of “Think Again”) and fascinating. The majority of posters agreed with the characterization of the attacks on Senator Clinton as vicious and irrational, but in not a few posts the repudiation of Hillary-hatred is followed by more of the same.

David Brooks, as is so often the case, manages to get something right that his New York Times readership may ignore because of his lede: There’s a big difference between the Republican and Democratic campaigns: The Republicans have split on policy grounds; the Democrats haven’t. There’s been a Republican divide between center and right, yet no Democratic divide between center and left. But when you think about it, the Democratic policy unity is a