Mighty Mouse — Goons From The Moon. This TerryToons cartoon was released on April 1, 1951 and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Ben Stein is so very sad. Sad Ben! Sad Stein! A few weeks ago, I bought a book of front pages of newspapers from World War II. I have been reading it avidly ever since. The news is terrifying and uplifting, of course. But it is the sense of Western resolve against the Axis powers [...]

Currently, 74 percent of Americans think the arcane Electoral College we use to elect our President should be abolished. That’s the finding of a poll by Penn Schoen Berland about what Americans think of the Constitution.

There are two pieces of good news in McClatchy’s story reporting that Carol Rosenberg, one of four journalists banned from Gitmo because she published the previously reported name of Omar Khadr’s first interrogator, Joshua Claus, will be allowed to return next week rather than after August 5, as they had previously decided.

Alan Greenspan addressed the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday, and Ezra Klein snagged some choice quotes. Greenspan remains committed to the idea that deficit reduction must occur now, in the midst of mass joblessness, even though all of the warning signs that would lead you to see deficit reduction as in the nation’s economic interest don’t exist at present.

During the past decade of wingnut control, a lot of laws have been slipped in that are only now beginning to take effect. In a recent event in N. Texas, we’ve discovered that in cases of a corporation making an error that costs you, you get to pay.

It’s possible to give two very different interpretations of the Obama presidency so far. The first is a relatively positive interpretation. Proponents of this view argue that even though Obama has faced a united GOP willing and able to use filibusters to thwart initiatives, and even though he has had opposition within his own party to progressive initiatives, he has still managed to rack up an impressive list of achievements. Take health care as an example. The health care legislation wasn’t all that progressives wanted, not by a long shot. But the legislation is an impressive start and, importantly, it leaves the door open to further change. Though people forget, programs such as Social Security or Medicare weren’t perfect at first, but were improved substantially over time.

Californians want to fight it out on marijuana legalization, ease up on budgeting procedure and stay strong on resisting climate change, according to Field Poll (PDF) results on some of the state’s ballot initiatives. Field surveyed on four of the 10 Propositions that will be on the ballot this November. Let’s take a look at the poll’s results.

The last time they tried to make something temporarily worse before they made it better, when they sliced the pipe to get a tighter fit on the current containment cap, it increased the flow rate so much it very nearly negated the effect of the capturing.

But uncertainty over the situation—and the administration’s plans to impose a new moratorium while it investigates the causes of the explosion that triggered the well blowout — are keeping the drilling rigs shut.