Oracle Paul the Psychic Octopus predicts a win for Spain. However, having been in Amsterdam during Holland's amazing win over Brazil last week, I'll be going against cephalopod wisdom and rooting for the Big Orange.

Crooked Timber: Plucky King Leopold.

Angry Bear: What caused the budget deficit before the financial crisis?

The Aristocrats: Come see our beautiful beaches!

Steve Audio: "Battle-Tested" Meg Whitman.

Morialekafa: The disappearance of the concept of "doing the right thing."

The Satirical Political Report: The GOP plan on unemployment.

Guest post by Batocchio. Temporarily e-mail tips to batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com.

Newshoggers: Meet the new COIN boss, same as the old COIN boss.

Balloon Juice: Their own made-up, fictional universe.

Gin and Tacos: Marchel Duchamp versus Harry Reid, and the war on the poor.

Brad DeLong: How have we lost the argument?

Rumproast: Jeb Bush and his brother Fredo.

Guest post by Batocchio. Temporarily e-mail tips to batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com.

driftglass: Center/Center-Right.

Sensen No Sen: This just in – Fox is still a terrible source for news.

Opinio Juris: The Gitmo Task Force Report.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Gaza and discrimination against white people.

The Plum Line: Steve King is no Socrates.

earthfamilyalpha: The escape.

Guest post by Batocchio. Temporarily e-mail tips to batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com.

Beggars Can Be Choosers: Time is running out for Democrats to pursue charges against Bush and Cheney.

Raw Story: The neocons' influence remains strong under Obama.

Big Think: Spooks bemoan the death of newspapers.

Bay Area Houston: The Texas GOP party of fiscal responsibility is broke.

(The Good) Roger Ailes: Nice deep sea oil platform you have there, miss. Be a shame if something happened to it.

Bouphonia: Hope blogging.

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We Are Respectable Negroes: Barack Obama's oil speech rewritten to a seventh grade level.

Black Magpie Theory: Grover Norquist's bathtub.

You Are Dumb: What name-calling looks like.

Stuff White People Do: Pose in cowboy drag.

Group News Blog: Researching "a slave named John."

Guest post by Batocchio. Temporarily e-mail tips to batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com.

Peace can only begin with the telling of the truth. And now, thirty-eight years later, the truth is finally out:

LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland – Relatives of 13 Catholic demonstrators shot to death by British troops on Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday cried tears of joy Tuesday as an epic fact-finding probe ruled that their loved ones were innocent and the soldiers entirely to blame for the 1972 slaughter.

The investigation took 12 years and nearly 200 million pounds ($290 million), but the victims' families and the British, Irish and U.S. governments welcomed the findings as priceless to heal one of the gaping wounds left from Northern Ireland's four-decade conflict that left 3,700 dead.

Thousands of residents of LondonDerry — a predominantly Catholic city long synonymous with Britain's major mass killing from the Northern Ireland conflict — gathered outside the city hall to watch the verdict come in, followed by a lengthy apology from Prime Minister David Cameron in London that moved many locals long distrustful of British leaders.

The probe found that soldiers opened fire without justification at unarmed, fleeing civilians and lied about it for decades, refuting an initial British investigation that branded the demonstrators as Irish Republican Army bombers and gunmen.
Cameron, who was just 5 years old when the attack occurred, said it was "both unjustified and unjustifiable."

"I couldn't believe it, I was so overjoyed," said Kay Duddy, clutching the handkerchief used to swab blood from her 17-year-old brother's body that day. Jackie Duddy, the first of the 13 killed, was shot in the back.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I ever envisage a British prime minister would stand up in Parliament and tell the truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday," Duddy said. "David Cameron told the world and its mother that Jackie Duddy and the rest of the deceased and injured were innocent people. They were totally exonerated today," she said.

Continue reading »

Obsidian Wings: Yeah, torture didn't "work," nor is it really being "investigated."

Balloon Juice: Casino Jack and the United States of Money.

Mad Kane: Spending freeze.

Vidiot: Cui Bono?

Amygdala: Health care reform won't save me.

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Gin and Tacos: A bull market in stupidity

Tome of the Unknown Writer (satire): Well, lookee who made a deal with the devil.

Susie Bright (not work safe): Sex trends for 2010 (not involving political figures)

This Week in Peace History: An excellent weekly newsletter on anniversaries in peace activism. Subscribe at bottom of page; not spammy and highly recommended.

Fafblog: Accidental truths re Haiti

Guest post by Blue Gal; Batocchio takes over tomorrow. Send tips to batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com.

I love Google, don't you? It's so handy. Why, if I were a Republican presidential nominee and I didn't know who to select as my running mate, I too might use teh Google to determine my pick.

John McCain did that very thing when he selected Sarah Palin. On the Today Show, when Matt Lauer questioned him on his pick, he said that he "wouldn't know." Jesus. McCain tried to bring up the war to divert Lauer from pushing him, and to Lauer's credit he didn't back down.

John McCain refused to comment on it. That is insane.

Lauer asked, that the vetting of Sarah Palin was so woefully inadequate that no one from the campaign traveled to Alaska to interview her husband or any of her political opponents?

"I wouldn't know," McCain said. "The fact is that I'm proud of Sarah Palin, I'm proud of the campaign we waged, she energized our party, she will be a major factor in American politics in the future, and I'm proud of our campaign."

Somewhat taken aback, Lauer told McCain that he found it "somewhat surprising" that he didn't know anything about the vetting process, adding "You were the presidential candidate."

McCain testily shot back by saying that he had no intention of "looking back over what happened over a year ago," adding, "I'm sorry, you'll have to get others to comment on it."

Really? That's all Mr. Straight talk had in him? And it's embarrassing that they were so desperate for a female candidate that they actually had to Google Chick-Repubs to see who was available.

Among their revelations is how McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, spotted Sarah Palin while searching the Internet for possible female vice presidential candidates.

"Rick Davis saw one interview she did with Charlie Rose where she was very much the Sarah Palin that people find appealing. She was lively, she was engaging, she popped off the screen. And he said, 'Wow, she jumps out,'" Halperin said.

"McCain boxed himself in. He needed a game-changing pick for vice president. And that left them with a last-minute pick of someone who was, to McCain, a virtual stranger, and was, to his senior staffers, an absolute stranger," he added.

Gawker writes:

McCain knew Bristol Palin was pregnant, Republicans insisted. But suddenly stories were all-but-implying that McCain's campaign—the campaign of serious grown-ups—basically Googled Palin a couple weeks ago and decided she looked clean enough for the job. As John Dickerson puts it, Republicans are not being complimentary when they quietly call McCain "reckless."

Why didn't Davis just go to Hannidate or Match.com to find a running mate for McCain? I'm sure Laura Ingraham would have jumped at the chance too.