Events

From the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn makes some good points about the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in his blog today: [S]ome of the drawings make a point in exactly the same way that any good editorial cartoon makes a point, and they have a grown-up, even sophisticated purpose: To challenge those who use intimidation to block free expression and those who find in their religious texts justification for mass murder. Specifically, Jyllands-Posten commissioned the cartoons to make a defiant statement after...

Charles Darwin was born 197 years ago this Sunday. In his honor, I proudly link to Garry Trudeau getting it just right.

First, House Majority Leader John Boehner is renting an apartment from a D.C. lobbyist: Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who was elected House majority leader last week, is renting his Capitol Hill apartment from a veteran lobbyist whose clients have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written and that he has overseen as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee. The relationship between Boehner, John D. Milne and Milne's wife, Debra R. Anderson, underscores how intertwined senior...

George Deutsch, the suit puppy who wanted to tell NASA scientists about science, has resigned: George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said. Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his...

There was a dust-up between Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) today, in which McCain mistook integrity for mere politics: "I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics, I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble," the Arizona Republican said in a letter to Obama. "Please be assured I won't make the same mistake again." In response, Obama sent a...

The Bush Administration (1077 days, 17 hours left) released its 2007 budget proposal today, which will cut or reduce 141 programs, including Medicare (down $36 billion), the drug-free schools initiative (axed), law-enforcement grants to help local jails house illegal immigrants after arrest (axed), Amtrak (down $300 million, or 25%), Employment and Training (down $648 million)...and on and on. Remember, the Administration wants to cut the Federal government down to the size at which they can "drown it...

There's a big flap up the street from Inner Drive Technology World HQ about Northwestern University engineering professor Art Butz, a holocaust denier. Seems Butz merrily burbled to an Iranian newspaper as part of the latter's reporting on the Iranian president's burbling on the same theme. The University's response was immediate and strong: Northwestern University President Henry Bienen said Monday that [Butz'] recent comments denying that the Holocaust happened are "a contemptible insult to all decent...

From the White House Office of Management and Budget 2007 defense budget fact sheet: Since 2001, the Administration: Liberated nearly 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan The Administration did this? You mean, all by itself? You mean, "liberated," as in "made free" (or—certainly not!—"made liberal")? They have no shame.

Two noteworthy stories in today's Washington Post. First, Boehner Opposes Sweeping Changes In Lobbyist Work. There's not a lot in the article we didn't already know, but I was thinking it might have been titled "Burglar Opposes Sweeping Changes to Door Locks" without too much irony. To repeat: lobbyists are only a symptom of the much larger problem of Republican corruption. Having the guys who broke the rules in the first place propose new rules insults our intelligence. Second, Handful of Races May Tip...