The Administration should take the opportunity to dissolve the Department and move its parts into other federal bureaus, and blame Republicans for forcing his hand to boot.

So, for those who have gotten confused by DOD’s pushback: they are still taking away Manning’s very dangerous boxers at night (though they allow him to wear such dangerous items during the day). And then, in a bid to pretend they’re not trying to drive Manning crazy, they basically make him sleep in an uncomfortable duffel bag-like garment.

The US has urged “restraint” in Bahrain while sending emissaries like Mike Mullen and Robert Gates to show support for the ruling regime. They clearly want to hold the Fifth Fleet naval base, and will turn a blind eye to the horrific violence that has already occurred. But the sectarian component of this uprising brings up another point.

It only took America about two months to get sick of Republicans again.

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The American people are extremely less optimistic about “our system of government and how well it works” than at any time in the past several decades.

Everyone’s having a laugh about Randy Hopper’s wife joining the recall against him, thanks to his marital indiscretions. And that’s practically poetic. However, there are also serious implications. First of all, if Hopper isn’t living in the district and instead with his mistress in Madison, as his wife apparently alleged, that’s a violation of state law. Second, there is at least some speculation that Hopper could resign the seat before a recall election could take effect, giving a successor a better opportunity to retain the seat for Republicans.

So, while the situation doesn’t appear quite as dire as when Prime Minister Kan appeared on television, the mood of the country reflects, to put it mildly, total panic.

While it is axiomatic that we don’t have all the details at any given time this post is going to attempt to keep everyone updated. Last night Scarecrow, Lobster and Prof Foland in particular did a great job keeping everyone up to speed on the apparent rupture of the Unit 2 reactor at Daiichi Nuclear [...]

• Absolutely horror unfolding in Japan.
• Possible 20-mile radius of containment.
• The NYT condemns Bradley Manning abuse.
• Ditto the LAT.
• Stay classy, Republicans!