I’m writing for tomorrow. I have a grocery delivery then, so I’ll be tired from unpacking and putting them away. I doubt, however, that it will interfere with blogging.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:02 (average 4:39). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From TPM: Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), slammed the senator for his role in the government shutdown in a new web ad released Monday.
Go Alison Grimes!!! That’s the way to nail Bought Bitch Mitch!
From Think Progress: Last July, Senate Democrats backed off their plan to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” and abolish the filibuster on executive branch nominees — but only after their Republican counterparts caved and agreed to fill seven key government jobs they previously held open with filibusters. Since then, the two parties have maintained an uneasy détente in the confirmation wars. A small group of Republicans supplied the exact minimum number of votes required to break a filibuster on Secretary of Labor Tom Perez’s nomination, for example, even though many Republicans bitterly object to the steps Perez took to fight housing discrimination and to protect the right to vote.
That détente is likely to break down as soon as this week, however. A Senate Democratic leadership source confirms to ThinkProgress that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to call for a vote on three nominees to the second most powerful court in the country, with the first vote likely to come this week. This court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is currently a bastion of conservatism. Its conservative judges struck down crucial environmental regulations that would prevent literally tens of thousands of deaths. They issued an opinion that at one point threatened to shut down all of American labor law. And two of its judges even joined an opinion claiming that all business, workplace or Wall Street regulation is constitutionally suspect. For most of the Obama presidency, the D.C. Circuit’s been a place where progressive regulation goes to die — and Senate Republicans want to keep it that way.
The solution is simple: NUKE THE FILIBASTARDS!!
From Raw Story: Transatlantic tensions reached boiling point Monday as Washington sharply denied reports President Barack Obama knew US spies were tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but fresh allegations emerged of mass snooping in Spain.
As outrage over secret US surveillance of leaders and average citizens mounted with a tide of new reports, a delegation from the European Parliament was due in Washington to demand answers on the extent of the operations.
Given the rate at which Republican political appointees burrowed-in to permanent “nonpartisan” positions at the NSA, and given the fact that spying on world leaders to that extent was a Bush program, it’s easy for me to believe that such details “escaped” inclusion in the summaries passed up to Obama. The French Ambassador summed it up best that we all do it, but he is jealous and angry that America does it better than everyone else. I have a solution. Make the NSA and Healthcare.gov swap IT Departments.
Cartoon:
Last night, The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi 
