President Leaky Pants

So, it turns out the prez may himself be a leaker of classified information. The pitch he'll make is as obvious as a high-arcing chicago-style softball: it wasn't classified once I leaked it because I have authority to de-classify material without review, without challenge. That may be so, but classification and de-classification are official acts, and as such require documentation. So, did the administration file the de-classification docs on the material the prez leaked? It's a simple question. If they didn't, it's still classified, and he broke the law. On a matter of war.

The Youngblood Rule of Politics

Big fat kudos to Russ Feingold for standing on the right side of an issue that scares the stones out of most politicians.

Personally, I couldn't think of an easier decision to make than, as a citizen, to support gay marriage. I do see the political downside (ie, America has lots of people who don't want to lose that warm fuzzy feeling of superiority they get from being in a miserable loveless marriage). However, Atrios gets it right when he says we're already the party of the gays, so we might as well start acting like it. I call it the Youngblood Rule of Politics: if you're going to be perceived as supporting a just cause, you might as well actually support it. The terms comes from a really terrible 80s movie starring Rob Lowe as a minor league hockey-player. The love story in a nutshell:

• Hockey Player meets Girl


• Girl turns out to be Coach's Daughter


• Hockey Player decides to keep it in his pants to avoid pissing off coach


• Coach sees HP talking to girl


• Coach benches HP


• Hockey Player decides that since he's being punished for it anyway, he might as well get some.

A Lobbyist is Born

Delay makes his move.

Easy Answers

George Will, ever willing to show a little conservative leg now and then, asks this surprisingly easily answered question:

Are we sure the consequences of climate change -- remember, a thick sheet of ice once covered the Midwest -- must be bad?

This is meant to seem like a tricky question, inspiring all sorts of trade-off considerations about longer summers and shorter winters and such. In fact, the answer is that climate change would be a catastrophic human tragedy, not because we prefer warmer or cooler climates, but because world population patterns are based largely on regional weather patterns. Any substantial shift in these patterns will disrupt whatever balance exists between climate and population, causing widespread human suffering.