A lot of scenarios have been conjured up for how Mitt Romney loses the GOP nomination. Too many of them have been based on swings in national polls of GOP voters. If we have learned nothing, I hope we have learned that national polls are virtually meaningless in presidential primaries and results in Iowa and New Hampshire, because they are first in the nation, have outsized importance (corn ethanol in your gasoline did not happen by accident.)

With these central political horserace handicapping tenets in mind, whenever I see a writeup about swings in the GOP presidential race, my first question is always "what does it mean in Iowa?" My second question is "What does it mean in New Hampshire?" So now the news is Newt Gingrich is "surging" and my questions remain the same. Bloomberg has an Ann Selzer poll answering the question for Iowa:

Secure Communities is not just about Homeland Security, ICE and immgrants. It's also about the FBI and you.

The latest information revealed in documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Benjamin Cardozo Immigrant Justice Clinic: The FBI “views massive biometric information collection as a goal in itself” as a part of the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system."

The NGI system aims to collect fingerprints, palm prints, iris scans, identifying marks, scars, tattoos, facial characteristics and voice recognition. These are not necessarily collected from arrested suspects but also from mobile biometric scanning devices and fingerprints left anywhere and everywhere.

[More...]

Jerry Sandusky was interviewed on the telephone by Bob Costas of NBC News. He says he's not a pedophile and he's innocent of criminal conduct. Asked if there is anything he did wrong, he said:

"I shouldn't have showered with those kids."

Did Costas catch him off-guard or was it a planned interview? The interview will air tonight on NBC's Rock Center, at 10 pm ET. This is the same show the Chelsea Clinton has been hired on. It's a new show hosted by Brian Williams that began airing around two weeks ago.

Four great job opportunities at The Innocence Project in New York: Two for lawyers, one for an online communications director and one for a field organizer.

Did anyone catch Jeopardy last week when this question was asked?

Rick Perry must be rubbing his hands in delight. He's got company as Herman Cain shows once again he's not ready for prime time. Watch Cain draw a blank on Obama's position on Libya. [More...]

Chelsea Clinton to NBC:

NBC announced Monday that it has hired Chelsea Clinton to become a full-time special correspondent for NBC News.

Now I 'm thinking Hillary Clinton is definitely hanging up the political spurs. This looks bad, and not just for Hillary.

I don't know Chelsea Clinton, but I always understood her image to be something better than this Russertism. Guess I was wrong.

Speaking for me only

Question presented - Is a professional sports league a single entity under Section 1 of the Sherman Act?

For more on the single entity question, see American Needle v. NFL. See also this post.

NYTimes:

While previously a small number of felons were able to reclaim their gun rights, the process became commonplace in many states in the late 1980s, after Congress started allowing state laws to dictate these reinstatements — part of an overhaul of federal gun laws orchestrated by the National Rifle Association. The restoration movement has gathered force in recent years, as gun rights advocates have sought to capitalize on the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms.

Atrios points to Booman about, as Atrios puts it, "David Brooks s[itting] down and th[inking] to himself, "how can I blame liberals for what happened at Penn State, but in a subtle way." On MTP, Brooks said:

MR. BROOKS: I don't think it was just a Penn State problem. You know, you spend 30 or 40 years muddying the moral waters here. We have lost our clear sense of what evil is, what sin is; and so, when people see things like that, they don't have categories to put it into. They vaguely know it's wrong, but they've been raised in a morality that says, "If it feels all right for you, it's probably OK."

While Brooks' entire thought process is repulsive, I was struck by the "30 or 40 years" line. Obviously Brooks was trying to allude to the 60s I think. That was confirmed by Brooks; discussing the "bystander effect:"

Showtime's Homeland is getting really intense. The Good Wife has an episode on the death penalty. For lighter fare, there's Pan Am and The Next Iron Chef.

In the real world, Mexico says the helicopter crash that killed Interior Minister Francisco Blake Mora and others was likely an accident. No signs of engine failure or mechanical problems, no explosion. Here's the transcript of today's press conference (in Spanish, but you can use google translater.) That hasn't stopped suspicions from running high.

A new scandal on Congress and insider information is brewing.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

CBS News has a new report on the U.S. detention program at Bagram in Afghanistan:

Today, there are more than 3,000 detainees at Bagram, or five times the number (around 600) when President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. There are currently 18 times as many detainees at Bagram than at the U.S. military prison at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base, whose prisoner population has dwindled from a peak of 780 to 170.

The military has changed the name of the facility to the Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP).

DOD is now reviewing bids from contractors to expand the facility to house up to 5,500 detainees. The project is expected to cost another $25 to $100 million when it is completed by the end of 2012.

In May, 2011, Human Rights First published this report on Bagram, Detained and Denied in Afghanistan. At that time, their were 1,700 detainees at Bagram. "The Department of Defense won't release the names of its Bagram detainees or its reasons for holding them indefinitely."

Atrios:

I'm not one to get on people for being impure in their failure to boycott all the evil institutions in the world, if for no other reason than it's pretty much impossible. But I admit I'm a bit puzzled about the number of self-admitted really hardcore college sports fans who admit the entire enterprise is completely abusive and corrupt.

Regular readers know that I am a hardcore fan of college athletics, particularly college football. I do believe it is "corrupt" (in the sense that the major players in the sport regularly violate the rules and the BCS is a slush fund for a privileged few that deprives the "less well off" in the system of needed funds - see Junker, John) and I believe that players should be paid. I'm not sure what Atrios means by "abusive." Football is a violent sport, but I feel positive that most of the participants are playing because they want to, not because they are forced to. I played football and very few things in life gave me more satisfaction. I loved it. I do not see how recognizing the terrible flaws in the system requires foregoing enjoying the sport. FTR, I also love boxing but also accept that it probably should be banned. Also too, concussions in the NFL.

Atrios' comment perplexes me.

Open Thread.