SCOTUSBlog is liveblogging the Alito hearings, which thus far, from what I’ve been able to catch of them, is simply a series of grandstanding, self-righteous Senatorial speeches designed to “warn” Alito that he need be specific in his answers (Joe Biden, for instance, couldn’t “fathom” how the Founding Fathers would’ve wanted potential SC Justices to decide cases right there in the hearing rooms, so that we could appoint judges confident

QandO’s Jon Henke breaks his blog shackles and pens a Tech Central Station column on the rhetoric and reality of wages and compensation in the US.  In short, he says, we’re doing better than the data-mining from Paul Krugman and the Democratic Party would have us believe.  From “‘Real Wage’ Slaves?”: In the Census Bureau’s 2005 Report on Alternative Income Estimates in the United States: 2003, it’s true that Median

me: “Uh, dude?  I can’t feel my hands or fingers.” Klonopin:  “I know, awesome, isn’t it? And if you close your eyes and tug on yourself just so, it almost feels like some totally hot stranger’s doing you a naughty naughty solid.”

“The apathy of most of America is stunning and appalling to me, Billy. For instance, on December 12, 2005, Dear Leader admitted that his illegal war for oil and Zion has slaughtered 30,000 Iraqi civilians.  Even if one accepts this very low guesstimate by King George, there is no denying that his policies have been responsible for ten times the 3000 deaths of September 11, 2001. Which means that by

From Aljazeera.net: Venezuela has said it will expand a programme to provide cheap home heating fuel to poor Americans, helping low-income families in Vermont and Rhode Island, as well as four Indian tribes in Maine. Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp has already begun selling millions of litres of discounted fuel in Massachusetts and the Bronx in New York City as part of a plan by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, to

me: “So, this feeling of being incredibly stoned—y’know, walking sideways, banging into furniture, feeling lightheaded and abnormally relaxed in the bowels—all this is to be expected, right?” Klonopin:  “You’re damn skippy, trippy.  But rather than fight it, my advice to you is to pick yourself up a nice black light and a gross or two of glow sticks—then start trolling the local universities or coffee shops for hippie chicks willing

One of the most dogged detractors of the increasingly “official” pre-war intel history—specifically, of the notion that Iraq had no ties to Islamic terrorism or al Qaeda (a broad assertion offered dismissively by Bush war detractors that has been debunked by, among others, the 911 Commission Report and the NYT) —is the Weekly Standards‘ Stephen Hayes, whose investigative reporting on the history of an Iraq intelligence nexus to al Qaeda

[extended reply to the Left Coasters here – ed] From Jim Geraghty at TKS (via Allah): Reaction at the liberal blog, The Left Coaster, to the latest message from al-Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri: I have to admit it is fun to see Al Qaeda play Bush like a violin. Revealing. Left Coaster also discusses the NYT body armor story, addressed here by Conferederate Yankee, as well as the relative

—I know, I know.  But here’s the deal:  it turns out a 16 lb armadillo placed on a 2mg/day regimen of Klonopin is far less interested in dancing than he is in spooning an animatronic Elmo doll for hours at a spell, the hope being that he can create just enough friction under his shell to get that armadillo funny feel, then fall peacefully asleep in a warm pocket of