Via Sentencing Law and Policy comes the story of Jordan Brown. Jordan is 12 years old. When he was 11, prosecutors say he took his shotgun and killed his pregnant stepmother while she was in bed, then left for school. The theory seems to be he was mad he lost his bedroom to make way for the new baby. He had no prior contact with the criminal justice system and had always been a polite, typical kid. Even today, the doctors say there is no sign of mental illness.

Jordan's father and family friends are standing by Jordan. They, and his lawyer, say Jordan is innocent.

A judge in Pittsburgh ruled this week that Jordan should be tried as an adult. If convicted, he will be the youngest person in the nation sentenced to life without parole. [More...]

The thought of doing my taxes today has me re-thinking not going to the Apple store. Even though I'm going to wait for the iPad with 3G and wi-fi that comes out at the end of the month, I think it would be fun to play with the iPad hands-on in the store and see how much of a scene the launch is causing.

Both Time and Newsweek have it on the cover this week. That doesn't happen often. I think it won't be the huge sensation this weekend many are expecting because lots of folks will want the 3G version and be waiting. But I am going to start saving pennies and see how much I can put together by the end of April to get the one I want. (Of course, I'd be delighted if one of our readers would buy it for me.)

It's going to be a slow news weekend because of the Easter holiday, so the iPad is as good a topic to write about as any.

Update: Thank you to the very generous, long time TalkLeft reader and commenter who ordered one for me. What a great surprise to wake up to.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

If you haven't seen Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution, it's pretty good and a new episode is on ABC tonight.

There's another right-wing group making threats today. New York's top appeals court limited the scope of searches today -- nor more getting a search warrant for a place and searching everyone in it. The changes in airline screening seem like a step in the right direction, but it would be better if the watch lists were scrubbed.

What's on your agenda this weekend? What are you finding interesting? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The line has already started at the Apple store in Manhattan for tomorrow's launch of the iPad. Who camps out for an iPad?

The news is filling up with stories about the latest applications -- There were announcements today from Amazon, Google, the Wall St. Journal and more.

I really, really want an iPad. I watched all 11 guided tour videos today. [More...]

Colleen LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane" and Jamie Paulin Ramirez were indicted yesterday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The indictment is here.

Both are charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country. LaRose is also charged with making false statements to federal officials and attempted identity theft. [More...]

I am traveling this evening and will be wrapped up in a PI hearing all next week. There won't be much of me to kick around until 2 Saturdays from today.

Before I go my Final Four picks - Butler (-1) over Michigan State and Duke (-3) over West Virginia. I like Duke in the final.

This is an Open Thread.

Good news:

The nation's economy posted its largest job gain in three years in March, while the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month. [. . .] The Labor Department said employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the most since the recession began but below analysts' expectations of 190,000. The total includes 48,000 temporary workers hired for the U.S. Census, also fewer than many economists forecast. Private employers added 123,000 jobs, the most since May 2007.

Sustainability is a question, but this is a good report.

Jon Chait on primarying Blanche Lincoln:

I don't quite get why Lincoln is facing a primary challenger at all. I understand the general principle of fielding primary challengers to force Democrats to accept some political risk for the sake of enacting progressive policies. I just don't get why Lincoln is the target.

Jon Chait on primarying Joe Lieberman:

Moulitsas and many of his allies insist that they just want Democrats to win. [. . .] Their technique of victory-via-purge is on display in Connecticut. [. . .] The whole anti-Lieberman blog campaign has a self-fulfilling quality [. . .]

But wait, I was wrong. there was one primarying idea Chait really liked - primarying Kucinich:

In reading tristero's post about his complex feelings about the Obama Presidency, I tried to think of a way to capture the inability of some to rationally consider Obama. Tristero writes:

My friends think Obama is doing a good to excellent job. Sure they don't like this decision, or that cave-in, but on the whole, they think highly of him. [. . . T]he conversation takes its usual course, with my friends excusing Obama and leaping to his defense, and me piling up the things he has done inexcusably wrong [. . .] Which made it all the more startling to me when I found myself on the opposite side the other day. A smart, highly knowledgeable, highly accomplished friend lit into Obama and pulled no punches. [. . .] I couldn't help but disagree but I don't understand exactly why. [. . .] I felt that the very real, very obvious distinctions between Obama and Bush were being minimized.

(Emphasis supplied.) In light of the "better than Bush" argument tristero highlights, I want to try it this way. Consider Bill Clinton. To a progressive, Bill Clinton should not have been a satisfying President. And yet, he was much better than Reagan. But I would not spend a minute defending Clinton by arguing that he was much better than Reagan. More . .

More thread.

Predictable:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – a key architect of upcoming Senate energy legislation – said Wednesday that lawmakers should widen President Obama’s newly announced expansion of offshore oil-and-gas drilling. Graham called the White House plan a “good first step” but added, “there is more that must be done to make this proposal meaningful and the game-changer we all want it to become.”

“Among the areas we still need to address – encouraging states to allow exploration by sharing a portion of the revenue raised from oil and gas drilling, opening even more areas of the Eastern Gulf to exploration, the inclusion of viable drilling sites in the Atlantic and Pacific, and expanding the list of areas we inventory for possible reservoirs of oil and gas,” Graham said.

We are choosing between center right and the extreme right on off shore drilling. For all I know, the center right or extreme right positions are the correct ones here. But it is clear that the progressive position is no longer on the table.

Speaking for me only

Booman just can not accept that he is endorsing triangulation. So he invents a new definition - triangulation is NOT what Barack Obama does, even though it is exactly like triangulation:

I am going to posit that triangulation is a pejorative. It is a political act that is contrary to the interests of principled people on either the right or the left. Its use puts the immediate needs of the president over the needs of his party. It weakens his party and harms the issues for which his party stands. It's possible to argue otherwise. Some might see triangulation as a savvy strategy that is appropriate in certain circumstances (e.g., a Democratic president faced with a Gingrich Congress). But, I believe we are correct to condemn triangulation, provided we are careful to be sure we know what we mean by the term. And we are not careful.

All of this is a prelude to Booman tying himself in knots to explain why Bill Clinton triangulated but Barack Obama is not triangulating. Silly stuff. I'll explain on the flip.