Disaster struck me last week (I'll calculate the details for you later.) But today is a new day. Much more reliant on Sagarin, the picks:

Kansas State +5 over Oklahoma, Hawaii +9 over Nevada, Clemson +15 over Florida State (2 units), Fresno State +6½ over Tulsa, Arizona +23 over Oregon (5 units), Vanderbilt +16 over Georgia, Missouri +11 over South Carolina, Notre Dame -5 over Michigan (5 units), LSU -21 over Auburn, California +16 over USC, Oregon State +7½ over UCLA, Temple +7½ over Penn State, Colorado +20 over Washington State, Miami (Florida) +14 over Georgia Tech (2 units), Wisconsin -17½ over Texas-El Paso, Army +7 over Wake Forest,Mississippi -19 over Tulane, Bowling Green +17 over Virginia Tech (3 units), Maryland +25½ over West Virginia , Western Michigan +1 over Connecticut, TCU -18 over Virginia, Kentucky +23 over Florida, Iowa -14 over Central Michigan (2 units).

For the season, 6 games under .500. Minus 14 units.

Open Thread.

Really busy day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

More stars are born...Will Jones and Jeffrey Alan Gutt on the X Factor.

So far this season, I'm liking the X Factor better than The Voice.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

What will they think of next? Via ABC News (no video)

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has cracked down on drivers smiling in their driver's license photos because their smiles could interfere with new facial recognition software.

Maybe next year they will come up with a tooth recognition system and made smiling mandatory.

A new Wall St. Journal/NBC/Marist poll is out today.

President Barack Obama has opened an eight percentage-point lead in Iowa and maintains a five-point edge in Colorado and Wisconsin, according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist Poll surveys of the three presidential battlegrounds.

The WSJ says Romney is counting on these states for his electoral college votes, especially since he's been slipping in Ohio and Virginia.

I'll be flying solo on Daily Kos Radio from 11 to noon Eastern today.

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Open Thread.

The Office of Inspector General released a 451 page report today on Fast and Furious. It specifically clears Attorney General Eric Holder of wrongdoing.

We determined that Attorney General Holder did not learn about Operation Fast and Furious until late January or early February 2011 and was not aware of allegations of “gun walking” in the investigation until February. We found no evidence that Department or ATF staff informed the Attorney General about Operation Wide Receiver or Operation Fast and Furious prior to 2011. We concluded that the Attorney General’s Deputy Chief of Staff, the Acting Deputy Attorney General, and the leadership of the Criminal Division failed to alert the Attorney General to significant information about or flaws in those investigations.

Holder's public statement on the report is here.

Some others didn't fare so well. [More....]

The state released some of its 6th and 7th round of discovery in the George Zimmerman case to the media today. The material was released about a month ago to the defense. Not everything released to the defense is included.

Of interest to those following the timeline of events the night of the shooting is the release of the event reports with times of the 911 calls. The primary one is here.

The conclusions in the DNA reports of the gun, holster, trigger and slide are pretty much a retread of previously released reports. Contrary to what some news outlets are reporting, they don't hurt Zimmerman's case since Zimmerman never said Trayvon Martin grabbed or even touched his holster or gun. He said he sensed or felt Trayvon reaching towards his gun after it became exposed while they were struggling on the ground, and that he grabbed Trayvon's hand to prevent him from getting to his gun. Obviously, Martin's DNA would not be on the holster or gun if Zimmerman stopped his hand from reaching them. [More...]

I'll be flying solo on Daily Kos Radio from 11 to noon Eastern today. Discussing this post and I will be doing a review of the state of the race from the Electoral College perspective, with a discussion of the RV (registered voter) vs. LV (likely voter) issue.

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Open Thread.

In the wake of the public airing of Mitt Romney's remarks on the "moochers," Romney is arguing that the problem remains too much government, especially for the 47%. Things like Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits. Romney said to his wealthy friends:

There are 47 percent of the people who [...] are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. [...] My job is is not to worry about those people.

A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”

Dan Brown proven effing right! In all seriousness, pretty interesting. Though I had to ignore this admonition:

Dr. King said she wants nothing to do with the Code or its author: “At least, don’t say this proves Dan Brown was right.”

Sorry, I could not resist.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the Commonwealth Court which refused an injunction against the Voter ID law. The opinion is here.

[W]e agree with Appellants’ essential position that if a statute violates constitutional norms in the short term, a facial challenge may be sustainable even though the statute might validly be enforced at some time in the future. Indeed, the most judicious remedy, in such a circumstance, is the entry of a preliminary injunction, which may moot further controversy as the constitutional impediments dissipate.

[More...]