The Dish

The latest in Romney news.

His support skews young, and the young have many fewer landlines than the old. We now have actual evidence of the distortion in polling this can create. Josh Claybourne worries here. But, of course, the young have historically not turned up at the polls in large numbers either. I think that’s changing, though. One more thought: I wonder if libertarians are more likely to have cell-phones than others?

Brooklyn, New York, 9.50 am.

For a visual trip through many windows in New York City, click here.

Or why Americans are still happier than Europeans.

For the second time, the Rhode Island legislature has over-ruled the Republican governor’s veto of a medical marijuana law. This time the over-ride was even more overwhelming: 58-11 in the House and 29-4 in the Senate. There are now eleven free states which allow the sick to use the medicine they want. The decisive Rhode Island vote is encouraging for a looming congressional vote preventing the feds from interfering in state marijuana laws.

Not an encouraging story about the New Yorker star’s anonymously sourced reporting. Taguba was on the record, of course.

It’s one of my favorite German words and captures roughly how I feel going into any department store. No I never got the shopping gene. I have one aim entering any kind of shop: to get out as fast as possible. But online shopping can be just as overwhelming:

A few weeks ago, I decided to get a new pair of flip flops. I dutifully went to Zappos (free shipping!) and looked in the "casual sandals" section. There were 1590 options. Just for men. In my size. So then I searched for "casual sandals" that were between $39.99 and $69.99. I had narrowed down the list to 652 items. I did a wee bit more narrowing, scrolled through the pages, and, after a few minutes, decided to get the flip flops at my local shoe store. The endless number of online options was aversive.

And no he hadn’t stumbled onto Mitt Romney’s website by accident.

A nicotine addict resorts to an unlikely authority in defense of his habit.

A reader writes:

Actually, Taguba’s performance shows he is part of the problem, although in a mild way. He was given what appears to be an illegal order and either did not recognize it or do anything about it. That said, I can empathize with him because here is a poor guy from a disadvantaged minority who worked his way to a high level in bureaucratic system. He was rewarded by that system, while also overcoming some persecution, and he must have been very loyal to it, because he owed everything to it. The system gave him his status and identity as a successful human being – and an appreciation of this may be the reason why he was picked to do the investigation. Guys like him rarely go astray by telling inconvenient truths. (Powell’s presentation of the "justification" for attacking Iraq to Security Council of UN is a parallel case in point, I think.) Now after the fact, he is worried about the stain on his reputation. The lights eventually went on and Taguba, to his credit, did the right thing, with the exception of making an issue about confining to the investigation to make the MPs the fall guys and girls while he was still on active duty.

It looks to me like he was afraid to question "authority" until he understood he was about to be hung out to dry, and even so, the first time he only went public was AFTER he retired.

One final point, Taguba had a second chance … he could still should have come completely and forcefully clean when he testified to Congress, especially after  Rummy clearly lied under oath to Congress, which is clearly a felony, under the US Criminal Code, punishable with time in the slammer as well as a fine. (Actually, Rummy did not even have to be under oath for it to be a felony to lie to Congress.) But Taguba didn’t.

There aren’t many men of the caliber of Ian Fishback, are there?

(Photo: Stephen Jaffe/Getty.)

He’s now claiming he isn’t part of the executive branch. Yes, you read that right. Money quote:

Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted his office is not a part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information by government agencies, according to a new letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to Cheney.

Bill Leonard, head of the government’s Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), told Waxman’s staff that Cheney’s office has refused to provide his staff with details regarding classified documents or submit to a routine inspection as required by presidential order, according to Waxman.

In pointed letters released today by Waxman, ISOO’s Leonard twice questioned Cheney’s office on its assertion it was exempt from the rules. He received no reply, but the vice president later tried to get rid of Leonard’s office entirely, according to Waxman.

The idea of impeaching him really doesn’t seem so outrageous as the months go by, does it?