The Dish

Mary Kate Cary, a former speechwriter for H.W. Bush, reflects on the riveting displays of courage during Ashura:

It's somewhat understandable that President Obama has stayed relatively quiet, as he did in June, so as not to give Ayatollah Khamenei the ability to say that the Great Satan is on the side of the people. But why would conservatives not be cheering on the brave men and women who are facing down his regime and the police who are refusing to fire into crowds of innocent citizens? It seems like only a matter of time before the security forces completely lose their nerve and the government collapses. Why not be on the side of freedom for these men and women who are clearly fighting tyranny? Isn't that what conservatives have always stood for?

Well, that's certainly why I've been cheering them on – because I remain a conservative whose deepest commitment is to individual liberty. But the right has become so Rovianized, so devoid of constructive thoughts about the world, so intent on playing news cycles to score points against opponents, that the Iranian regime could fall and they would be most worried about whether this will benefit Obama's poll ratings.

The Corner, for example. was too busy criticizing the president for not speaking up that it forgot to speak up. But it has been clear for a while now that the neocon right is far more obsessed with attacking Democrats than defending democracy.

(An Iranian opposition protester holds stones as he stands opposite security forces during clashes in Tehran on December 27, 2009. AFP/Getty Images)

Nate Silver calls Byron Dorgan (D-ND) the most valuable Democratic senator and news of his retirement "un-spinnably bad news for the Democrats." Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter are also out. Marc analyzes:

On balance, Republicans today gained a foothold in North Dakota, and Democrats increased their likelihood of keeping their Senate seat in Connecticut. Privately, senior White House officials have communicated to Dodd their belief that his position was untenable…Botton line: from a micro perspective, the GOP gains nothing from today. From a macro perspective, anytime three major Democratic party figures retire…ain't good for that party. 

Michael Yon discovers that he can be handcuffed by all-powerful TSA officials at an airport without being arrested. He should try entering the US as a non-citizen.

TNC examines what the two parties are interested in.

Obama strongly hints that those responsible for the mistakes that let a known Jihadist threat waltz onto an airplane with powder in his undies and virgins on his mind will be fired. The leaked private statement:

“This was a screw up that could have been disastrous. We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals, not because the system worked, and that is not acceptable.”

The sanitized public one:

The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack, but our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the no-fly list,” Obama said. “In other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had,” the president said. “The information was there, agencies and analysts who needed it had access to it, and our professionals were trained to look for it and to bring it all together.” Obama said he could accept the imperfect nature of intelligence work, “but it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully leveraged,” he said, adding: “That’s not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it.”

The Dish is delighted.

Take a moment for some perspective:

A reader from Juneau writes:

Too much is being made of Bristol Palin's business license. Alaska law requires a person to have a business license to accept money for regular provision of a service. The person buying the business license has to state what "line of business" he or she will be engaging in, and can only perform that line of work and only under the exact title of the business that appears on the license. Further, an NAICS code must be selected that more narrowly defines the work for which the applicant will be paid. There isn't always a perfectly named NAISC code for what you're doing. If Bristol is going to be paid as a spokesperson for an organization, and working from Alaska, she needs to have a business license. The public relations NAICS is probably the closest fit – it doesn't necessarily mean that she'll be going out and soliciting more clients or building a company. The LLC is probably an exercise in caution so she can't be personally sued. The Alaska NAICS codes are found here – 15 pages of them.

Here's a good test for a blue state Christian: think of reasons to admire and love Rush. Here are ten.

(Hat tip: TheHighDefinite)

Yglesias posits:

Air travel in this country is as safe as it’s ever been. Taking reasonable steps to make it safer would be nice, but cutting ourselves off from a huge swathe of the world and poisoning relations with 1.5 billion Muslims is going to be much worse than an exploding airplane.

I can see no reason for profiling people from Yemen but not from Britain.