Tim Russert on the Imus show called it for Bush.

Since I was a teenager I was always intrigued by the NFL draft since I'm a big NY Giants fan. I tape it and then scan until they draft. The Giants took Hakeem Nicks out of NC because the idiot known as Plaxico shot himself in the leg.

The NY Jets made a big trade today to get the highly rated USC QB, Mark Sanchez.

Are you a draft geek too? How is your team doing?

Bloggers Amanda Carpenter (Townhall.com) and Jane Hamsher (firedoglake.com) discuss John McCain, his inability to control North Carolina Republicans over their ads against Barack Obama, Cindy McCain, the "Sugar Momma Express" and ANWAR. Open Thread below...

Facing South: Who is Women's Voices Women Vote, and why are they making shadowy and legally-questionable calls that are causing voters in North Carolina and other states so many headaches?

The OpenHelix Blog: GINA passes the Senate. Kudos to Rep. Louise Slaughter.

The Rude Pundit live from Eschacon08 on disrespecting John McCain

Robert Reich's Blog: The best thing to have occurred during the Bush administration is something that didn't happen.

Politico: Why am I not surprised that the Republicans oppose a bill allowing recounts?

Crackpot Press: LSD, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld

Leave it to a wingnut Republican to post a video from inside the green zone after an attack. I would think that's a no-no, but I'm not a Republican in Congress.

The Pentagon told a North Carolina lawmaker Tuesday that he couldn’t re-air a video he'd shot in Baghdad after accusations surfaced that he breached operational security in detailing enemy rocket attacks. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican, traveled to Iraq with other lawmakers for the first time on March 22. The video was the second incident stemming from that trip that has drawn unwanted attention to McHenry.

I wonder if he had on his lapel pin? Here's a golden oldie?

(posted on January 11th, 2007)

Barney came down on McHenry for breaking the rules and trying to implement an amendment. It's a new dawn in the House and the Republicans will not like it all that much…

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Mark)

He cracked me up when he said his past behavior was not relevant…Hilarious.

UCLA vs Memphis

North Carolina vs Kansas

It's the first time in tournament history that all #1 seeds made the final four. I'm a big UCLA fan, but Memphis is very good and it should be a great game. Josh Shipp has been in a slump and needs to hit a few 3's if they are going to win it all because they will have problems if Collison is the only Bruin hitting outside shots. Kevin Love is awesome. NC looks like the team to beat, but they should all be good games and any one of them can win the title.

Update: Logan and Mike F. are big KU fans so they'll be rooting hard for the Jayhawks.

For college hoop fans, what say you?

The WSJ’s Peggy Noonan argues today that her top characteristic when evaluating presidential candidates is “reasonableness.” The former Reagan speechwriter insists: "We are grown-ups.... We’d like knowledge, judgment, a prudent understanding of the world and of the ways and histories of the men and women in it."

At face value, there’s nothing especially troubling about this standard. Noonan is setting the bar fairly low, but she’s sketched out a relatively practical model. That is, until Noonan starts applying her standards to specific candidates. Here’s her take on the former senator from North Carolina:

John Edwards is not reasonable. All the Democrats would raise taxes as president, but Mr. Edwards’s populism is the worst of both worlds, both intemperate and insincere. Also we can’t have a president who spent two minutes on YouTube staring in a mirror and poofing his hair. Really, we just can’t.

Noonan had just finished arguing that American voters “are grown-ups,” and then she turns around and takes on John Edwards’ hair? What’s more, Glenn Greenwald notes that “poofing” isn’t actually a word, “but rather, a British epithet for a male homosexual — ‘Slang: Disparaging and Offensive’ — a synonym for ‘faggot.’”

Noonan’s looking for a candidate with a “prudent understanding of the world.” I’m looking for a columnist with the same attribute.

When history looks back at the disgrace of the Bush presidency, the one celebrated quote that will help capture much of what went wrong will be John DiIulio’s. It was DiIulio, the first director of the president’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who told Ron Suskind, “What you’ve got is everything — and I mean everything — being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.”

DiIulio was taken in by a bogus pitch in 2000. He notes today in the Philadelphia Inquirer that it was eight years ago this week that Bush delivered his first campaign speech, which DiIulio helped write, titled “The Duty of Hope.” Candidate Bush rejected as “destructive” the idea that “if only government would get out of the way, all our problems would be solved.” Rather, “from North Central Philadelphia to South Central Los Angeles,” government “must act in the common good, and that good is not common until it is shared by those in need.” There are “some things the government should be doing, like Medicaid for poor children.”

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s rather difficult not to laugh.

DiIulio pauses to take stock of what happened to “compassionate conservatism.” He's not impressed.

AP Via Yahoo:

A federal appeals court has ordered Shell Oil to stop its exploratory drilling program off the north coast of Alaska at least until a hearing in August.

The order, issued Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comes after the federal Minerals Management Service in February approved Shell's offshore exploration plan for the Beaufort Sea.

Opponents contend that the Minerals Management Service approved Shell's plan without fully considering that a large spill would harm marine mammals, including bowhead and beluga whales. They say polar bears could also be harmed, and they question whether cleaning up a sizable spill would even be possible in the icy waters.

Company officials are obviously disappointed, said Shell spokesman Curtis Smith. Read more...

Halfway There: A Summer War Camp for Chickenhawk chicks. Thanks to Lt. Colonel Oliver North, your teenager can spend the summer roughing it in military barracks and doing some basic training—without actually doing any military service at all.  For many Americans, however, military service is all too real...and tragic.

BeggarsCanBeChoosers: In September, General Petraeus gets his chance to declare his efforts in Iraq a success and make everyone in the Pentagon and the White House happy.

The Rude Pundit wants to "Cap the ass of the Giuliani campaign", but there will always room for craziness in the GOP.

Vox Verax: Senators who raised millions of dollars in campaign donations from pharmaceutical interests secured industry-friendly changes to a landmark drug-safety bill, according to public records and interviews.

Scrutiny Hooligans: The immigration issue is a juicy topic for demagogues and faux populists everywhere. In North Carolina, Screwy Hoolie reads the Ashville Citizen-Times to get a sense of regional opinion.

HOLY CRAP: Religious bigotry cuts both ways...Know your Christianists...Lou (it's true if I said it) Dobbs is confused about church/state separation...Pimpin' aint easy...How are the Jehovah's Witnesses like the NRA?...Theocrat of the Week...Final chapter of Mick Lasalle's, The Event...Jewish critics of the apocalyptic group, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) are being silenced...Phyllis Schlafly justifies senseless murder...A church's sign against Islam sparks controversy...Conserva-bible...Scientology using YouTube as weapon...A Pope so close to politics but far from the people...That dispute over a proselytizing teacher has been resolved...The Department of Defense is bringing historical revisionism to a high school near you...Now, the Fundies are upset with 'secular conservatives'...All Muslims blow shit up, right?