Barack Obama’s neighborhood newspaper, the Hyde Park Herald, has a longstanding tradition of opening its pages to elected officials-from Chicago aldermen to state legislators to U.S. senators. Obama himself, as a state senator, wrote more than 40 columns for the Herald, under the title “Springfield Report,” between 1996 and 2004. Read in isolation, Obama’s columns from the state capital tell us little. Placed in the context of political and policy

implicates kettle. Barney Franks wants less government intrusion into lifestyle decisions, at least when it comes to pot possession. Obama mau-maus McCain proxy for asking inappropriate voting record question.

Relating to Darleen’s post, yesterday, from Jake Tapper. CAESAR Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. ANTONY Fear him not, Caesar; he’s not dangerous; He is a noble Roman and well given. CAESAR Also, he is swarthy and has an odd name. Wherefore sent

A manlifesto, at American Digest. AP runs aground. Algal blooms are responsible for over half of beaching incidents, and directly affected by Global Warming. [h/t Insty]

Donald Douglas on the ethos of hatred.

A follow up to my follow up to a reaction against TSI’s eulogy for Solzhenitsyn, only written by Ralph Peters: The show preceding mine featured a young woman, Mahvish Rukhsana Khan, who’s published a book about the poor, innocent, kitten-loving prisoners at Guantanamo. Her interview climaxed with the claim that Guantanamo is the equivalent of the Holocaust. I guarantee you that no one from MoveOn or DailyKos questioned that outrageous

So far from having no understanding of my analogues am I that I will use them even when I understand that I am supplying ammunition for those who would deliberately misread me, and so it is when I reference Iago’s Rodrigo’s speech from Othello I.i. It is in fact more intriguing to me because it implicates me, because it makes me consider myself in that character, in that light. And

Scratch that. Bulletproof bras make a . . . come. (h/t Hot Air Headlines) It lifts and deflects!

Mickey Kaus has up an excellent post on why John Edwards’s . . . peccadilli are newsworthy.  I’d like to add, under heading 2, Hypocrisy, this telling video of Edwards accepting a Father of the Year award nine months before the birth of Rielle Hunter’s daughter, complete with a humble admission that Elizabeth is a better parent and a moving tale about his dead son Wade. Dickens couldn’t have invented

To the couple of examples of borderline insanity Darleen points out below, you can add Bob Herbert hallucinating racism in a McCain ad (dog whistle for the hearing impaired), and Alter and Olbermann subsequently co-hallucinating phalluses and miscegenation after dropping a couple tabs of dementia.  Much more of this and we’ll see these guys spontaneously deconstruct on live television. (h/t Hot Air Headlines)