Spring has finally sprung in southeastern Pennsylvania! And yesterday was Earth Day… so I took some new photos of our neighborhood. Things are really blooming now!

Sam the Eagle and Dr. Teeth — Mack The Knife, from episode 315 of The Muppet Show.

I feel compelled to apologize for the preceding post by my colleague Eli, who has the temerity to question the moral rectitude of the Ryan budget plan. Fortunately, the New York Times is here to let us know what a gentle, thoughtful saint Rep. Ryan truly is.

The Village’s definition of “courage” makes about as sense as its definition of “shared sacrifice.”

It looks like the possibility of a strong, state-based public option in Connecticut has been kiledl by the state’s top Democrats, lead by Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy.

The first thing to consider here is the standard of review the Circuit Court used in analyzing the appeal, because there were intermixing of factual and legal findings inherent in the Kastigar process, the court reviewed for clear error

The FEC is hopelessly broken at this stage, but the Senate Ethics Committee appears to have taken its role seriously, and they aren’t going to bury the report just because Ensign would rather run and hide than face up to his actions. They cannot fully disclose the materials gathered over the course of the investigation, but the public statement has the potential to be damning. And they could choose to make a referral to the Justice Department for criminal charges as well.

Immediately upon reading Michael Whitney’s post about President Barack Obama’s statement to Logan Price about Bradley — “we are a nation of laws…. he broke the law!” — I was reminded of Richard Nixon’s statement about Charles Manson in the midst of his trial. . . .

We knew that the Syrian security forces and protesters had prepared for battle today in major cities. And sure enough, after Friday prayers, tens of thousands of protesters piled onto the streets. And the Syrian security personnel responded.

I’m glad to see that Paul Krugman has attacked the absurd idea that health care patients should be treated as consumers, and Jonathan Cohn has chosen to echo Krugman’s argument. What I can’t understand is where was powerful denouncing of the absurd idea that we need more “consumer-driven” health care during the debate over the Affordable Care Act?