Souter, Specter, Swine, etc.

whoa!... David Souter to resign from Supreme Court. Something else to put on Obama's plate.

and now back to our previously scheduled programming:

Various public figures respond to Specter's switch. I enjoyed this bit from Republican Ed Rogers (who I assume I'm not related to), formerly of the Reagan and H.W. Bush admins:

Notice to Republicans: Arlen Specter changing parties is good for the Democrats and President Obama and bad for us. If you think otherwise, put down the Ann Coulter book and go get some fresh air.

Jonathan Cohn and Kos both say that Specter's switch isn't as significant as it sounds in terms of upcoming votes, but it will send a powerful message to the public about where the GOP is at right now.

In terms of Senate votes, Gail Collins makes the point best:

Everybody knows, of course, that even when Al Franken finally makes it to Washington, getting all 60 Democrats-and-fellow-travelers to vote together on something will be like herding … something really impossible. Not cats. Cats I could envision all going in one direction if there was a little herring-flavored incentive at the end of the line. Herding rabid guinea pigs in a thunderstorm, maybe.

The NYT interviews Obama

White House Photo/ Chuck Kennedy

Marc Ambinder describes his experience attending last night's press conference


Obama defined his idea of bipartisanship


Interesting... the President reads Sully. Here's the blog post (which describes Churchill refusing to torture German captives even in the darkest days of WWII) that Obama referred to last night.

an article worth revisiting?: a couple years ago Rolling Stone published a pretty shocking investigative report about factory hog farms...

now some are speculating that poor sanitary conditions at those industrial farms are responsible for the swine flu

(although others argue the evidence for that isn't in yet)

Matt Yglesias explains why torture is not useful.


interesting.... churchgoers more likely to approve of torture:

Thomas Frank says Congress won't investigate Wall Street, because to do so would reveal its own role in the deregulation that led to this mess

The Republicans are undertaking a "rebranding" effort, so some folks at DKos offered up a possible new logo:

showing how it might look in the context of a news report:

Finally, Sarah Palin is just the gift that keep on giving. Check out her chair that's made out of a bear: