In an editorial yesterday extolling Judge Vinson's decision striking down the health bill, the Wall Street Journal wrote:

Judge Vinson introduces ObamaCare to Madison and Marshall.

[. . .] Federal Judge Roger Vinson opens his decision declaring ObamaCare unconstitutional with that citation from Federalist No. 51, written by James Madison in 1788. His exhaustive and erudite opinion is an important moment for American liberty, and yesterday may well stand as the moment the political branches were obliged to return to the government of limited and enumerated powers that the framers envisioned.

Perhaps the Wall Street Journal needs an introduction to James Madison. From Federalist 44:

In an unintentionally revealing piece regarding the NYTimes' relationship with Wikileaks, NYTimes editor Bill Keller demonstrates his arrogance and obliviousness. While Keller implies that Julian Assange is an unbalanced paranoid because "Assange was openly contemptuous of the American government and certain that he was a hunted man[,]" Keller writes:

From consultations with our lawyers, we were confident that reporting on the secret documents could be done within the law, but we speculated about what the government — or some other government — might do to impede our work or exact recriminations.

(Emphasis supplied.) Paranoid much Keller? OF course, Keller's fears were not unreasonable. Nor were Assange's fears. Even paranoids have enemies.

What is most striking to me about Keller's article is the condescending superiority he demonstrates. For a newspaper who had a pretty lousy decade, Keller sure has a high opinion of himself and his newspaper. His contempt for Assange and Wikileaks is not hidden. Keller refers to the Times as part of the "establishment media" without irony and with pride. It sums up the viewpoint of the article and of Keller and the NYTimes in this area. Quite revealing.

Speaking for me only

Either Bristol Palin think she's a lawyer now(I guess she read some things on the Internets) or she has a lawyer giving her really bad advice in real life.

Bristol has moved to Arizona and loves it there, has a new house and a new boyfriend. So what's her next plan? She's asking Levi to terminate his parental rights to his child.

Bristol admitted she's asked her ex-boyfriend Levi Johnston to sign away his parental rights to their 2-year-old son. "Have I asked him to change Tripp's last name? Of course," she quipped. "I've asked him to do that many times. Just sign over your (parental) rights. He just doesn't want to sign them over because it looks bad on paper."

That's unlikely to be the reason. Levi has complained publicly for months that Bristol restricts his visiting to almost nothing. So when Bristol says he's only seen their son three times in the past several months, did Bristol stop to count how many other times he asked and she said no? Let's count up those times.

Bristol wants to move with the child to AZ, and Levi wants to stay in Alaska, So instead of doing what millions of other people do, retain counsel to work out an agreement where the non-parenting spouse gets a big block of time say, in the summer (when there's no school) and more vacation time, Bristol decides to go the selfish route and ask for a termination of Levi's parental rights. If he agrees, Levi will no longer have a child. [More...]

Donald Rumsfeld is back. He's embarking on a round of media appearances to promote his new book, Known and Unknown, which reportedly is filled with something called "Rumsfeld's Rules."

[H]e says "Known and Unknown" will take on the most sensitive subjects, from the detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

"I brought in people who were involved and outside advisers to discuss the legal decisions that were made. And in the book, I present them in a direct way," he says.

Here's a media event in D.C. that's taking invitations.

Kevin Drum writes:

If, right now, you were to offer corporations and the rich a choice between (a) passage of EFCA or (b) a return to Clinton-era tax rates on high incomes, they wouldn't even blink. If you put a gun to their head and they had to choose between one or the other, they'd pay the higher taxes without a peep.

Lucky for corporations and the rich, they did not have to choose as the "most progressive Administration and Congress in a generation" did not pass EFCA and extended the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

Imagine that.

With the Comcast-NBC Merger, there's been talk of NBC beefing up its Versus channel as a competitor to ESPN.

Long story short: NBC Sports and Dick Ebersol will take control of Versus (as well as Comcast's Golf Channel). They'll change the name to a more recognizable NBC brand, use more NBC talent and most importantly, they'll pump money into the network that will allow it to challenge ESPN for television rights deals.

A commenter in our thread on Olbermann's abrupt departure from MSNBC says that's probably where he's headed. Make sense?

Also, Reuters says Keith has two years left on his contract ("The New York Times said he signed a $30 million four-year contract extension in 2008" )and TMZ says he'll continue to be paid his salary (around $7 million a year.)

NBC announced today Keith Olbermann is leaving the network and tonight would be his last show.

Lawrence O'Donnell will move into his time slot.

Good move or disaster for MSNBC? Where do you think Olbermann will wind up? My suggestion: CNN should dump Spitzer/Parker and sign Olbermann.

If you missed American Idol last night, "The Road to Hollywood" continues tonight. Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez are both good additions, but last night, it was Tyler who stole the show. It's worth watching tonight just to hear what will come out of his mouth next.

"Well, hellfire, save matches, f--- a duck, and see what hatches!"

When a female contestant opened her blouse to show huge metallic cardboard stars pasted onto her breasts, Steven asked her: "What's with the jujubees on your ooh-ooh-bees?"

The news headlines today point out that ratings last night were down in the coveted categories. The show still pulled in 26 million viewers, more than the other networks, and 2 million more viewers than last May's finale. And its overall viewership still beats Dancing With the Stars by 20%. [More...]

Can Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez save American Idol? The new season begins tonight. (Update: The answer is yes, they are terrific and an improvement over past seasons. I thought I'd miss Simon but I don't. I'd much rather watch Steven, and JLo is way more "real" than I expected. Their personalities just shine.)

Jared Loughner has been indicted on three counts. The feds are calling it a "preliminary indictment." You can read it here.

The counts allege the attempted murder of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her staff members who were federal employees, Ronald Barber and Pamela Simon. The feds did not charge Loughner with the murder of Judge John Roll. Will they add it later, or did they decide to let Arizona charge Loughner with Judge Roll's murder in state court, as a capital crime?

The House has voted to repeal the Health Care Act.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Submitted for your consideration.

I think the answer is no. Pretty sure Fred Hiatt answers in the affirmative.

Open Thread.

Freddie DeBoer writes:

[T]he nominal left of the blogosphere is almost exclusively neoliberal. Ask for a prominent left-wing blogger and people are likely to respond with the names of Matt Yglesias, Jon Chait, Kevin Drum...

Yglesias and Drum respond. My personal view, expressed previously, is that the Establishment Bloggers in many (probably most) respects tout views I hold, but they clearly are not Left. They are, like I am, largely Centrists. And in some respects, they embrace the orthodoxy of the DC Dem Party. My objections to them are how they have allowed themselves, and in some cases (Ezra Klein! cough!), encouraged, the labelling of themselves as "the Left." More . . .

Christian Bale wins the first award of the night for The Fighter.

Katey Sagal wins Best Actress for Sons of Anarchy, beating out Julianna Margulies, Kyra Sedgwick,Piper Perabo (Covert Affairs) and a Mad Men's Elizabeth Moss. Was that an upset? This may be Mad Men's last season, as the creator's contract expired today. No word of renewal. [More...]