"The Obama administration appears to have abandoned plans to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four co-conspirators on trial in Lower Manhattan, according to administration sources."

It looks as though the GOP noise machine won again. Until Dems find a way to go on offense, such losses will continue?

Everyone should enjoy the clip of obama today and have a little drink with benen, this is the finest stuff he has!

I.P.? Are those pseudonymous initials?

(And yeah, thanks, I.P., from all of us.)

"Right-wing activist James O'Keefe comments for the first time since his arrest on his extremely odd Louisiana scheme."

According to O'Keefe, both Senator Landreau and MSNBC are at fault for the felony that he committed (or as O'Keefe would characterize it, not being sensitive to people's concerns about security).

I think Roeder needs as part of his sentence to follow women who have felt pressured or shamed into having babies they were not ready or willing or able to accommodate or care for..follow their lives..interview them and their children for the next 20 years.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Dahlia Lithwick asks an excellent question: "Why is KBR so afraid of letting Jamie Leigh Jones have her day in court?"

Since the Republican Supreme Court has declared that corporations have all the rights as human beings, maybe KBR officials is afraid that the entire corporation will be locked up for rape.

Can we find a way that a corporation can get the equivalent of jail time -- loss of freedom, inability to move, limited contact with the outside world, etc.?

That Brooker clip was genius. Thanks!

Despite the dwindling line-up for the Tea Party convention a week from tomorrow, former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is still scheduled to deliver the keynote.

No choice, actually. She already went to Bloomies and blew the hundred grand on new glad rags.

I'm so glad that Obama stood his ground today..this is GROUNDBREAKING..I really think he gets it that the Rethugs are NOT behind him and he's really willing now to call them on the carpet..

I applaud him for this..

This is audacity for change.

* Scott Roeder, guilty. -- Steve Benen

Will wonders never cease? I never would have thought that there was something right with Kansas, too.

Insanity, @17:46. There'd be no one for Roeder *to* follow; the kind of abortions Tiller performed were of the last resort, emergency type. If they hadn't been done, those women would, in all likelihood, be found only in the cemeteries, not in the streets. The prosecution says they'll push for "hard 50" -- 50 years w/o parole. I'd settle for 35; given his age, that should be enough to keep the SOB off the streets (and away from churches) for life.

* Colleges appear to be warming up to the idea of direct lending. -- Steve Benen

You'd have thought it would be a no-brainer. Of course the banks would screech, but, colleges? The only thing they'll lose is the kickbacks from the banks. But, they'll probably recoup that and more if more students come, due to the loans not being as crippling (is a crippling student loan a preexisting condition?)

"Sending FEMA trailers to Haiti may not be the best idea."-Benen

Don't we still have some small pox blankets left from the Indian wars to send them with the trailers. Same perspective huh?

"...Sarah Palin (R) is still scheduled to deliver the keynote."-Benen

Of course. She would demand it if she could...it's a $100,000 gig to her. She would be the first to abandon it if there were no fee being paid. Miss "can't make enough money being governor but thanks McCain for opening the money train door" Palin is the hypocritic misinformation symbol for the wall street teabaggers. The beauty pageant mentality and political soap opera star does nothing for free.

Man, except for civil liberties and his Rahm Eamnuelism, I am so proud that Obama is president...he is absolutely brilliant in his thinking...not just as an orator and the proof is in his responses to the Questions from the republicans in Baltimore. Called them not only on their lies but on their motivations for lying. He really makes me proud to have voted for him for he is at least capable of honest discussion. Glad the vd got posted...well worth watching. Gives great faith in his ability to make rational decisions.

* Sending FEMA trailers to Haiti may not be the best idea. -- Steve Benen

Perhaps that's why Haiti has requested *tents*? FEMA trailers are as salubrious as the post-Katrina cars which our Guv, Robo-Bob McDonnell has now invited into our fair state, while increasing the amount of the water damage which can be kept secret from the potential buyer...

"Right-wing activist James O'Keefe comments for the first time since his arrest on his extremely odd Louisiana scheme."

Another really odd thing about O'Keefe's little scheme just struck me. Supposedly the most plausible/least insane explanation for their actions is that they had been told that Landrieu's office was ignoring calls from teabaggers, and they proceeded on the premise that since it's a right-wing conspiracy accusation, it must be true and requires no further evidence. (I mean, someone who styles himself as an "investigative journalist" didn't even thing to call posing as a teabagger to test the accusation first?) So they went to covertly film the embarrassing spectacle of staff ignoring teabaggers.

So the thing that just occurred to me -- how many of us who have had Republican senators or congressmen who never answered phone calls from anyone? And yet in wingnut land, they were absolutely certain that not paying attention to the wingnuts would be terribly damaging.

Magical thinking is such weird stuff.

While watching the coverage last night of Obama's meeting with the GOP I learned something that I had not known before. According to Chris Matthews the jerk from Utah (I think) with the black hair that asked Obama a question was one of three rethugs who pushed through a bill in September last year to stop the body imaging machines at airports that could have detected the underwear bomber. The other two to co sponsor the bill were Bachman and Joe Wildson, wonder why no one has mentioned this before.