While everyone gets excited about today’s dueling national-security speeches from Barry and the Dark Lord, we’re left bewildered by a (fleetingly) secret meeting Barry held yesterday with leaders of law-and-order groups.

And by “law and order,” we mean the usual suspects: human rights and civil liberties organizations.

You know, folks devoted to the ideals and traditions of the Constitution and the rule of law. Or, as they’re known in today’s political environment: left-wing extremists.

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Michael Patrick Leahy:

Stephanie of Teablogging is being sued by teabagging Less Creepy Bill Whittle for going through public records and discovering that the erstwhile teabagger doesn’t like to pay his taxes until legal actions are taken against him.

Stephanie’s wonderful blog is here. You can read the first page of Leahy’s complaint here – I have no idea why you can’t see the rest of it. Here’s the whole complaint.

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I heard this morning that Beck was on, and I knew the video would be good. But not this good:

[ Media Matters Flash video not available. ]

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In the late 18th century, at the height of the European intellectual, scientific, cultural and political, transformation that historians refer to as the Enlightenment, a group of radical French philosophers led by Denis Diderot sought to create a vast catalog that would represent a compendium of all human knowledge.  “All things,” they explained,  “must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings.” Thus was born the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métier.

It was a noble goal, to be sure, but one that critics then and now have insisted could never possibly be fulfilled. The vastness of human knowledge is so great that no work could possibly encompass and present it all.

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As long as it doesn’t land, we figure we’re safe.

Tuesday Joyride! [Cynics Party]

We’re fascinated by this exchange from a press conference today, where Harry Reid, Senator from the Great State of Lost Wages, cashes out on Guantanamo:

REID: I’m saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear.

QUESTION: No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States.

REID: Can’t put them in prison unless you release them.

QUESTION: Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit? …

REID: I can’t make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.

For cowardice in the face of transparent bluffing — for folding ’em when he should be holding ’em — Harry wins our inaugural Kenny Rogers Award.

Reid: Guantanamo Detainees Should Not Be Held In U.S. Prisons [Think Progress]

One of my co-workers just tapped me on the shoulder and told me something Michael Steele supposedly had just said. I did not believe him.  I was wrong:

STEELE: Those of you who live outside of Washington know what I’m talking about. Those of you who actually attend Lincoln Day dinners and county party events. Those of you who toll in the vineyards, spending time in communities in diners, barbershops, and coffee shops, where real, everyday, hardworking Americans can be found. You know it’s real. You can see it, and you can feel it. This change, my friends, is being delivered in a tea bag. And that’s a wonderful thing.

I love this guy.  I hope he’s RNC chair forEVAR.

And there’s video.

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