The Dish

“The [DOJ] and its officials traditionally have been held to a standard of independence and non-partisanship not expected at other federal agencies. While the president has the prerogative to set broad law enforcement policies, and occasionally to participate directly in those DOJ decisions that influence the nation’s direction and priorities, the president must never interject his personal or partisan political impulses into individual DOJ decisions. And it is one of the most important responsibilities of the attorney general to insist that the line between national policy and personal advantage never be crossed. Whenever that barrier has been breached in the past, whenever politics has permeated the decision-making or the atmosphere at the Department of Justice, as occurred in Watergate, the consequences for the nation have been grave,” – Ted Olson, in September 2000, in the American Spectator.

Public transport was never this cool. Sigourney Weaver should do the narration. (Hat tip: Wired.)

Ahead of the first weekend in May, an appreciation of Louisville, mint juleps and big hats.

Shhh. Don’t tell the Pope.

A non-intact male writes:

The ones who oppose circumcision — call them the ‘right to foreskin’ crowd — say that removing the foreskin is pretty much like extracting a tooth that is perfectly healthy. I think it is more like removing a cataract. And I think that what’s really bothering them is circumcision envy.

All we are saying is: give men a choice.

The chairman of British Petroleum is forced to resign over perjury about his boyfriend.

Some wobbling. My bet is that non-binding benchmarks get in the defense appropriations, and are then used to force an exit in September. And the real force behind this will be the Republican party. They will rightly be rattled by ads like this:

Lazier than rural ones, apparently. Amusing factoid: the Latin for blackbird is "Turdus merula".

There is, apparently, no environmentally-safe way to travel any more. So we should just stay very still. Dan Savage tries to look on the bright side of lefty-gloom. He subscribes to the Nation? Sheesh.