After the White House’s initial screwups in misrepresenting what happened at the bin Laden compound — basic facts like whether bin Laden was armed or used human shields — you’d think the White House would carefully explain to staff how important it was not to be caught giving conflicting stories again. Nope.

And if I recall correctly, Card is the one who was responsible for ordering the codpiece.

Yet another bomb dropped on a Head of State we don’t like

Mike + The Mechanics – All I Need Is A Miracle

I won’t lie to you. Unless someone’s coming over, I tend to let things around the house go. Watching TV or playing Scrabble with Mr. A after dinner often takes precedence over doing the dishes immediately. I mean, the place isn’t filthy. We have pets, so we make sure to do maintenance regularly so the place doesn’t smell like We Have Pets, but I don’t always sort the mail or hang up my coat right away when I get in the door at night.

Are you a neat freak? A slob? Do you do spring cleaning?

A good deal of money earmarked for high speed rail was sacrificed in the 2011 appropriations deal. Billions of federal dollars will not go toward constructing a networked of high speed rail lines across the country.

However, the Transportation Department has been able to award willing states with grants, mainly because of money turned down from the initial stimulus package by states with Tea Party governors like Florida and Wisconsin. Today, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood took Florida’s $2 billion and gave it to 15 states and Amtrak.

The certification process for final Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell repeal — the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, along with the President, must certify to Congress that the United States military is trained and ready for open service — was always subject to tinkering by subsequent Congresses. Duncan Hunter, R-CA52, has obliged — with more sand in the gears. He will introduce an amendment that will require additional military leaders’ certifications before open service is permitted.

Bag It is an affable activist film that does its job: since watching it, I have been conscious of my own use of plastics, paying attention to reducing, reusing and recycling. Without being preachy, the film’s everyman, Jeb Berrier, sets out to discover what’s behind the plastic bag, and along the way shows us the world’s dangerous love affair with disposables. Over 100 billion one-use plastic bags in 2010 alone, plus 300 million paper coffee cups lined with plastic, and product packaging from the United States alone clog storm drains and stuff landfills. They are made to be thrown away. But where is away?

Normally, Marc Thiessen’s torture apologies aren’t worth my time. But seeing as how I didn’t whack any piñatas on Cinco de Mayo, why not Thiessen’s latest, in which he claims those who deny CIA interrogations played a part in nabbing bin Laden are the latest birthers?

Sen. Charles Schumer, in addition to smack-talking John Boehner on the debt limit, came out with two policy ideas over the weekend, one abominable and one that has quite a bit of merit. See if you can guess which one got more attention.