There is much to praise in the Obama Administration’s financial reform proposals, but they don’t challenge the most important interests of the financial elites.

American journalists who questioned President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize have lost their already tenuous tether to reality. They need to quit sucking the helium of right-wing nuts and come back to down to the streets of the real with us.

Fox News brought on little Ms. Dick I-believe-in-torture Cheney and William I-love-it-when-we-invade Commie Muslim Countries Kristol to explain why it was American militarism, and not some guy who’d rather talk than fight, that deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jon Stewart had David Gregory, acolyte of conventional insider wisdom, on his show the other night. Stewart gently prodded Gregory to acknowledge the level of insane, unbridled, irrational rage directed at President Obama by the birthers and others. Gregory tried to change the subject, saying that this is “bigger than Obama”, that the charge that “the president is illegitimate” was also made against Clinton and Bush.

A long delayed report, a fine piece of investigative journalism and a recent scientific study have combined to seriously erode the credibility of arguments popularized by “24.” Its influence will long outlast the series, though. For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Afghanistan, health care, the economy — and then some await. Plus bmaz hosts Book Salon this afternoon, don’t miss it.

What’s Brewin’ Bruin? This Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon first debuted on February 28, 1948. What’s on your mind?

Seriously, Charles Krauthammer: Dick. I realize that this is not a particularly polite thing to say, and is certainly not Civil Discourse. But what the hell? What the hell is one supposed to say in response to this class of thing, except, you’re a dick? Among these crosscurrents, my thesis is simple: The question of [...]

President Fierce Advocate made a pretty speech at the Human Rights Campaign Saturday night.

Blowing shit up just to see what happens is pretty effing juvenile. And when it costs billions of dollars, it’s just damn stupid. I am all for science, for scientific research, but firing a huge rocket into the moon to make a big boom, exploding part of lovely Luna, our sweet Selene, was one of the most egregious acts of masturabtory hubris ever executed by this country under the guise of scientific research. And I say this as someone whose father was a test astronaut/human factor specialist for NASA.