The same Republicans who are making the most noise over the Bush-backed Solyndra loan guarantee (yeah, Diaper David Vitter, I’m looking at you) are being oddly quiet over Bush’s role in making it happen, just as they’re being oddly quiet over their own support of loan guarantees and outright grants (aka free taxpayer money, folks) for energy-related projects in their own Republican districts. And you won’t hear Darrell Issa talk much about the burgeoning San Bernardino Airport scandal that’s unfolding, complete with an FBI raid, in the home district of Issa’s fellow California Republican congressman, Jerry Lewis, the former head of the House Appropriations Committee and a big fan of the Berdoo Boondoggle

Do you have a fond memory of something a teacher did for you? I will never find a better teacher than my first grade one, Ms. Scott, who reassured me in a clannish atmosphere that I was new to. Yes, I may have had more gifted or harder working or more impressive ones. But the nice way she tried to help me wedge into an already bonded society is among my best memories of teachers.

Dizzy Gillespie and The Electric Mayhem — Swing Low Sweet Cadillac from episode 413 of The Muppet Show.

Whatever else it may be remembered for, last week will likely be noted in political circles as proof that populism, rather than patriotism, is the last refuge of… well, of “compromise”-loving Democrats whose poll numbers have taken a recent beating.

See if you can spot what explanations for slow employment AREN’T in this MSNBC story.

After seemingly sitting on the sidelines during the Eurozone crisis, and watching Tim Geithner rebuffed by his Euro colleagues, the Obama Administration is now publicly pressuring the Euro nations, specifically Germany and France. But the pressure is more of the “do something!” variety.

It’s a great development because, as we’ve seen with the pairing of David Boies and Ted Olson working together to make the conservative case for marriage equality in the courts, party affiliation should not matter on the legislative route.

The assistance provided to my via social safety net programs allows me to live a reasonably normal life and to live in a decent place. I’d probably have done okay anyway during decades past, but in this era, we need those safety net programs more than ever.

The Obama Administration released its plan for the future of No Child Left Behind. In the absence of new legislation to fix the the original bill’s demands, the Department of Education will issue waivers to public schools that meet a particular set of guidelines.

Elizabeth Warren has had a good launch to her Massachusetts Senate campaign. She generated a lot of energy in the state with her announcement tour and a viral video (below the fold) on class warfare admired by liberals throughout the country.  That was quickly followed by fabulous early polling, showing her slightly ahead of Scott [...]