So here they come again, spouting nonsense about race, intelligence (definition please?) and IQ (the measurement you can improve, prvoing just how innate it is.)

My preferred response echoes Atrios.

A more learned response from Brad DeLong.

Minnesota can say goodbye to U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose. She's being transferred to a job at Main Justice in D.C.

Now, how hard was that? Should have been done months ago. Background here.

It's about time Jeanine got rid of that guy.

After standing by her man as he served a federal prison sentence, admitted fathering a child with another woman and embarrassed her political campaign by telling the press she was not giving him enough attention, Jeanine F. Pirro is separating from her husband, a family spokesman said yesterday.

The split comes a year after Ms. Pirro lost her bid to become state attorney general, in a campaign that was hounded by personal concerns as the couple’s marriage troubles made headlines and Ms. Pirro acknowledged that she was under federal investigation for plotting to record her husband, Albert J. Pirro, to catch him in a suspected affair.

More...

Matt Yglesias writes:

It's worth considering that in January 2009, Americans will probably have a president elected on a platform of universal health care and robust action to curb carbon emissions, a House Speaker who backs both of those things, and a Senate Majority Leader who backs both of those things, and nevertheless the odds for either of those things happening aren't especially good and the reason is the filibuster.

In January 2005, Americans had as President a buffoon, who decided he was going to privatize Social Security. He had a House and Senate under GOP control. If not for the power of the filibuster, George Bush probably would have rammed through his plan to privatize significant parts of Social Security.

Funny how anti-filibuster folks on our side NEVER mention that.

Friends of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have started a trust fund to collect money for his legal fees. They say as a career service employee, he doesn't have the funds to pay his mounting legal fees himself for the ongoing investigating into whether he lied to Congress or obstructed justice about the U.S. Attorney firings.

Jason at Truthout has a new article today on the evidence collected against Gonzales by the fired AUSA's.

If the DOJ's inspector general investigation concludes further investigation into possible federal crimes is warranted and refers the case to the US attorney's office for the District of Columbia to probe the matter, McKay said a special prosecutor should be appointed instead because the US attorney in DC is Gonzales's former chief of staff.

He talks a good game.

"My job involves not only an oath, but also a pledge, which I now give you," Mukasey told the 110,000 Justice employees nationwide, some of whom watched on the department's internal TV system.

"And that is to use all of the strength of mind and body that I have to help you to continue to protect the freedom and the security of the people of this country, and their civil rights and liberties, through the neutral and evenhanded application of the Constitution and the laws enacted under it."

His announcement yesterday that security clearances were granted to continue the stalled OPR investigation into warrantless wiretapping was a good sign.

Mukasey has 14 months to repair the damage done to the Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales. While I don't think he'll be the President's errand boy, I'm also not getting my hopes up that he'll have the same definition of "civil rights and liberties" as the rest of us -- particularly when it comes to the "war on terror."

But, he's off to a good start.

Booman writes:

Which gets straight to the problem with so many Democratic nominees. Was Michael Dukakis a tough guy? Could you believe Bill Clinton? Which Al Gore was going to show up to which debate? Where did John Kerry stand on the war? As Terence Samuel notes, this is not the kind of image that we need in our next nominee. Hillary has worked hard to project an image of toughness, but she hasn't mastered it at all, the art of creating trust. . . . [S]he isn't really all that tough and, more importantly, she isn't trustworthy. She doesn't project trustworthiness. . . .

What nonsense. There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton is perceived as tough. Indeed, that is one thing the "castrating bitch" GOP meme has accomplished. But she has been attacked as untrustworthy. The funny thing is Booman notes that no Dem GE Presidential candidate seems to have figured out how to be viewed as trustworthy. But he thinks Clinton is the problem. What myopia! Bob Somerby has covered this extensively and it is amazing that Booman does not seem to know about it:

If you or I lie to the United States government, we get charged with a crime. If Boeing lies to the government about its ability to complete a contract to build spy satellites, it gets rewarded with a $430 million kill fee.

The New York Times has an article that lays out the risk very clearly, it is the EXPECTATION that more research in genetics will indeed prove innate differences in the races in physical and mental attributes. And if there is one thing we can know about the history of science, scientists will find what they look for. Consider this:

“Regardless of any such genetic variation, it is our moral duty to treat all as equal before God and before the law,” Perry Clark, 44, wrote on a New York Times blog. It is not necessary, argued Dr. Clark, a retired neonatologist in Leawood, Kan., who is white, to maintain the pretense that inborn racial differences do not exist.“When was the last time a nonblack sprinter won the Olympic 100 meters?” he asked. “To say that such differences aren’t real,” Dr. Clark later said in an interview, “is to stick your head in the sand and go blah blah blah blah blah until the band marches by.”

First, to answer the good doctor's question, Alan Welles of Scotland won the Olympic gold medal in 1980. Prior to that, Valery Borzov of the then-Soviet Union won the 100 meters in the 1972 Olympics. Prior to that, Armin Hary of Germany won the 100 meter dash in 1960. 1956? White American Bobby Joe Morrow. To wit, from 1956 to 1980, white men won 4 of 7 100 meter dash Olympic gold medals. Presumably, for the good doctor, all these genetic changes occurred since 1980. MORE.

The ugly side of "populism" is rearing its head in the Democratic Party. Kos writes about Rahmbo's enabling bigotry:

Is Rahm racist, or merely scared?

It's got to be one or the other, because Rahm Emanuel is behind efforts to build Democratic support for the Shuler/Tancredo "enforcement-only" bill currently winding its way through the House.

Think about it -- our House leadership is strong-arming Democrats into backing a bill which is the central agenda of the biggest racist xenophobe Tom Tancredo.

Sadly, as Jane Hamsher documents, Speaker Pelosi is backing these efforts:

Tensions between Hispanic Democrats and House leaders exploded Friday when a bloc of Hispanic lawmakers voted to derail a major tax bill, relenting only after an angry confrontation on the floor with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. The rebellion was a response to votes by 36 Democrats Thursday night in favor of a non-binding Republican motion Hispanic members called offensive. It instructed House conferees on an appropriations bill to accept a Senate-passed provision prohibiting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from suing employers over certain English-speaking requirements.

This is outrageous AND idiotic. More.

What will the true believer capitalists say about this?

Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged Congress today to take steps to ease the mounting mortgage crisis as renewed turbulence in global stock and currency markets continues driving down the value of the dollar and raising doubts about U.S. economic performance. . . . Bernanke said Congress should take steps to ensure that home foreclosures are kept to a minimum as aggressive adjustable mortgages reset to higher interest rates in coming months. . . . He suggested that Congress, for example, give final approval to a pending proposal to change Federal Housing Administration programs that help make mortgage loans available to people with middle to low incomes. . . .

Traditionally, a Fed Chairman does not involve himself in specific tax or spending issues. Alan Greenspan obliterated that when he endorsed President Bush's tax cuts. But Bernanke promised he would reverse that:

[Bernanke] said he would be nonpartisan as Fed chairman, offering general economic analysis but no specific recommendations on taxes or spending.

Of course in Washington, promises are made to be broken.

This is not about the Colorado Rockies.

It is about Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue pining for Bill Starbuck.

Perdue's office has begun sending out invitations to a prayer service for rain at the Capitol next week. . . . Perdue, whose son is a Baptist preacher, has had similar prayer services in the past. "Georgia needs rain. The issue at the heart of our drought problems is a lack of rain," [a [Perdue spokesman] said. "And there is nothing the government can do to make that happen. "The governor recognizes that the request has got to be made to a higher power."

Sounds like a job for Elmer Gantry to me. If I were Pat Robertson, I would be tempted to say that this is God's judgment on Georgia for voting for Bush. Luckily for me, I am not Pat Robertson.

h/t balloon juice.