If someone allegedly gave Manning encryption software that would help download documents to pass onto WikiLeaks, then presumably Manning deployed that in Iraq. And if someone from WikiLeaks allegedly gave Manning software that subsequently got loaded onto DOD computers in Iraq, then it might explain their current theory of prosecution for conspiracy to leak this information.

Rep. Chellie Pingree is absolutely right, and it would be worth it to back her up on this. I’m sure Republicans will try to laugh it off, but if everyone’s calling for civility and a change in how we conduct politics, it seems to me accusing the opponent of “killing” anything as a metaphor in legislation is a good place to start.

Thanks to a decision by the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice in siding with drug manufacturers, price discounts for drugs provided to government supported hospitals and clinics are now in jeopardy.

There have been a lot of attempts at false equivalencies (the last Republican Vice Presidential candidate of the United States is exactly the same as a random Daily Kos diarist) and a lot of attempts to explain away incendiary political rhetoric with a wave of the hand and something like “both sides do it.” But the responses above on their own refute this. They resort to the pretty common rhetoric of demonization to make their points. I have no interest in censoring their speech, but I sure want to highlight it.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, earlier convicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges in Texas, today was sentenced by Judge Pat Priest to three years in prison. The sentence was directly on the conspiracy charge; on money laundering, his five-year sentence was probated for 10 years, and so he will serve 10 years’ probation.

Jared Loughner is due to appear at a hearing today before a magistrate in Phoenix at 4pm ET.

Not only is Huckabee currently in a very good position to win the Republican primary, according to Tom Jensen of PPP, he is the most electable of the current top contenders, which also includes Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich.

Whether Loughner was merely a deranged kid who would latch onto whatever philosophy he could find, or whether he actively sought out far-right conspiracy theories, I don’t think you can deny the general milieu of anti-government rhetoric that just so happened to nestle in the very state where Loughner lived.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Putz says that people like Gabrielle Gifford’s husband Mark Kelly, in denouncing the “angry rhetoric” on the right — are dishonest and indecent.

Sarah Palin’s handling of the whole Tucson shooting situation has been so utterly self-involved and reckless from start to finish that it should disqualify her from ever occupying a position of political leadership in this country again.