Republicans are getting worried that corporations might have to admit that they give money to Republicans. Much like the Chamber of Commerce is worried that corporations might have to admit that they give money to the Chamber of Commerce. They are all just very ashamed of themselves, I guess. So they’re trying to stop the Obama Administration from delivering an executive order that would force government contractors to disclose their political donations.

So, like all good conservatives looking for a legal patina for their theories, they’ve turned to John Yoo.

A higher inflation target would, according to the experts, mean more jobs and a stronger recovery. I think people would live with higher oil prices if it meant they had a job. But Bernanke won’t do that.

As you can see in this helpful chart from the Kaiser Family Foundation, America pays much more for health care than any other first-world country.

There are a lot of false ideas or very minor explanations that are overstated to try to justify why we pay so much.

The violence continues unabated in Syria. Dead bodies lie in the streets of Deraa, site of the initial protests. Snipers are stationed on the roof, where they’ve continued shooting, and mortar shells are falling around the city. Deraa feels like Misurata, Libya. Tanks have rolled into other cities, and in one border town near Lebanon, thousands of refugees crossed over after shooting there.

Despite all this, the UN Security Council could not agree on a resolution to even condemn violence in Syria that has taken as many as 500 lives.

The ease with which the Army decided to put Manning in medium security, and out of almost a year of solitary confinement, makes the unending excuses out of the Pentagon pathetic.

I’m feeling pretty guilty. I hadn’t known I was causing billionaires so much suffering. The former co-chair of President Obama’s deficit (a.k.a. catfood) commission just asked me during a public event to stop going after rich people. Then he came up to me after the event to make sure I’d gotten the point.

Senior Administration officials praised Panetta’s ability in running large agencies and managing large budgets, but there wasn’t any hint that he would somehow become this obsessive budget-cutter at Defense. I would ask the question: just how much did the CIA budget decrease over the past couple years?

It’s the hippies’ fault, apparently, and not that of the traditional press (or even the cable news channels) themselves.

The endgame of the deficit fight is going to be so brutal and so predictable I can barely bring myself to watch it. Republicans will say “we won’t raise the debt limit” even though they’ve privately assured Wall Street and the President they will. Democrats will say “this is irresponsible” even though they’ll attach something just as irresponsible to what ultimately passes. And the compromise reform will end up as something the White House wanted anyway.

President Obama announces the already leaked shuffle of his naitonal seucrity team. DCI Leon Panetta replaces Bob Gates as Secretary of Defence; Gen. David Patraeus replaces Panetta as head of the CIA. Gen. John Allen will take over for Patraeus in Afghanistan.