Reason Morning Links

- U.S. Senators to micromanage GM, Chrysler plans to close dealerships.

- Obama embarks on Middle East tour, plans outreach to Islamic countries.

- Dana Milbank: Sotomayor begins important meetings with senators'"important in the sense that it allows senators to show how important they are.

- China shuts down social networking sites ahead of Tiananmen Square anniversary.

- Cheney personally oversaw CIA briefings of Congress on torture techniques.

Comments

[Xeones]

Yo, Cheney on torture is a known quantity.

Is anyone else getting inured to the horribly depressing effects of Balko posts? Is it resignation, or just the Zoloft kicking in?

[Mad Max]

I would love to have a wise Latina woman on the Supreme Court. Obama should nominate one, but instead he seems to be going for just two out of three.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Yo Xeones,

I'm a big fan of Seanbaby.

[The Angry Optimist]

That Dana Milibank article is gold:

Further, Reid said to her, "you've been an underdog many times in your life but always the top dog."

[Xeones]

Art, Seanbaby kicks ass. I followed his site for a while back in the early '00s, but then he stopped updating it until Cracked hired him a few weeks ago. His articles on homemade fireworks are an inspiration to any anti-nanny-statist.

[R C Dean]

Cheney personally oversaw CIA briefings of Congress on torture techniques.

So, can we safely conclude that the Machiavellian Dick Cheney ensured that the White House's ass was covered, that Congress was indeed sufficiently briefed that it can't claim ignorance later?

Whatever became of the Pelosi/CIA kerfuffle, anyway? Last I checked, she was accusing them of falsifying their notes on the meetings she attended. Given a choice between Pelosi in ass-covering mode and the CIA in ass-covering mode, I will admit its hard to find any credibility.

[Art-P.O.G.]

I'm glad Seanbaby started updating his website again. I also recently rediscovered it. Urkobold and Seanbaby are definitely two of the funniest places on the web (cheap pop).

[Minion of URKOBOLD]

SILLY MORTAL. THAT WILL NOT SAVE YOUR TAINT FROM A WITHERING.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Damn, I guess there is no avoiding it. :::drops trou

[J sub D]

? U.S. Senators to micromanage GM, Chrysler plans to close dealerships.

Did I not predict that congresscritters would be interfering in the running of Government Motors? One needed only look at military procurement and base closings to see what would transpire when the government starting running a huge corporation who's decisions have huge economic impact on communities.

? Obama embarks on Middle East tour, plans outreach to Islamic countries.

Good luck with that. He won't be as bad as Bush the Lesser, but his more rabid supporters on the far left are surely going to be disappointed when he is polite and diplomatic while dealing with tyrants.

? Dana Milbank: Sotomayor begins important meetings with senators-important in the sense that it allows senators to show how important they are.

Dammit! This is a perfect goddam example of why capaign finance restrictions, despite their Pollyannaish good intentions, tilt the playing field overwhelmingly in favor of incumbents.

? China shuts down social networking sites ahead of Tiananmen Square anniversary.

Ho hum. Is anybody surprised that the oligarchy in China is using ham handed censorship?

[Xeones]

I'm glad Seanbaby started updating his website again.

Well... he changed the layout, but the only new content is links to his Cracked articles. Still, his takedown of Carlos Mencia's twitter feed was hysterical.

[P Brooks]

GM has 535 more people on their Board of Directors, now? Who could have anticipated this?

[James Ard]

Obama embarks on Middle East tour, plans outreach to Islamic countries.
It will be interesting to hear what Israel has to say in it's Egypt speech tomorrow.

[Art-P.O.G.]

, his takedown of Carlos Mencia's twitter feed was hysterical.

Yeah, I read that one. I laughed pretty hard.

[P Brooks]

Here's a shocker: Bernanke just told a Congressional committee only strong action on the part of the American government prevented a worldwide global financial meltdown.

Sometimes, when he gets that little quaver in his voice as he testifies before Congress, I can't help thinking he's desperately trying not to laugh out loud.

[R C Dean]

Obama embarks on Middle East tour, plans outreach to Islamic countries.

I find Obama's statement that "And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world" to be puzzling.

It is, of course, factually wrong. We're way down the list. The puzzling thing is why he said it.

Does he actually believe it? If so, what kind of information is he getting? What kind of bubble does he live in that he wouldn't question such a facially fantastical claim?

Or does he not believe it, and he's just lying?

[R C Dean]

This is a perfect goddam example of why capaign finance restrictions, despite their Pollyannaish good intentions,

I've never believed for one second that campaign finance restrictions have good intentions. They have been incumbency protection from day one.

[Tulpa]

RC,

Looks like living in Indonesia as a child -- the actually largest Muslim country in the world -- didn't help his awareness on that subject at all. How disappointing.

Strangely, the media and the political satire shows aren't picking up on that, as they always did with Bush's stupid comments.

[highnumber]

We would likely be in the top 30 worldwide, the 6th largest of nations with a non Muslim majority, the largest Muslim population in the western world, if someone made an accurate count of Muslims in the US.

But I guess you could see his statement as puzzling if it suits your purposes.

[Enough About Palin]

"This is a perfect goddam example of why capaign finance restrictions, despite their Pollyannaish good intentions, tilt the playing field overwhelmingly in favor of incumbents."

I just saw the film "Pollyanna" on TCM this weekend. There were some pretty creepy undertones.