No, it really isn’t my birthday. It just feels that way, because Tony Sutton, the current chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota and its former treasurer, has pretty much begged the media to look into his financial dealings. By trying to get the local media to bite on the Most Pathetic Smear Attempt Ever, he’s made himself fair game. Oh, goody!

Welcome to the Grand Deck Porch overlooking the Christy Hardin Smith Memorial Cove here at the Lake. Pull up a chair and settle in for some imaginative fun. May I offer you a brisk cup of Wicked Wolf Coffee? Perhaps a nice English Breakfast Tea? Of course there is Coke or Pepsi for the cola-holics (I myself am in recovery).

The Muppet Jug Band featuring Steve Martin — Dueling Banjos, from The Muppet Show.

McMegan is taking a beat down from a gang of economists (Eastside Keynesians represent, yo) because she is intruding on their turf. And badly at that.

Rick Perry totally owns the Texas secessionist vote.

RJ Eskow reported yesterday on a rumored deal coming out of the deficit commission on Social Security. It sounds like a really bad version of progressive price indexing, where benefits are cut for the vast majority of beneficiaries while they are raised slightly for those at the lowest income. This will be pitched as “saving” Social Security by cutting it for almost everyone, and will turn it into more of a welfare program than a social insurance program into which everybody pays.

The new proposal would pit middle-class seniors against the elderly poor, forcing them to compete for a stripped-down pool of dollars. The end result would be the one that many Commission members have pursued for years: to cut the most stable and successful program in the Federal government’s history.

The report of the Afghanistan Study Group makes arguments that stand a good chance of moving the Washington debate towards ending the war.

The very serious liberals spending time on criticizing Markos Moulitsas for his impertinence in writing a book called “American Taliban” don’t seem to have spent any time taking a look at this member of the American Taliban. While the nutjob Koran-burner hadn’t threatened to kill anyone, this other guy sure did:

I’m about to go on a panel at the NORML convention in Portland, OR to discuss California’s Prop 19 and how it will affect the future of the marijuana legalization efforts. Joining me on the panel are: Paul Armentano, Deputy Director, NORML Ethan Nadelmann, Ph.D, Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance (invited) Matt Welch, Editor, Reason [...]

What a legitimate reporter would have asked is why the Treasury Department hasn’t named an acting director, which they can do without Senate confirmation.