One of the fond memories of our increasingly distant youth is of lovable reactionaries, folks so beyond the pale that they were barely worth a warm head-shaking Paul Harvey chuckle.

And either we’re regressing, or those days are returning.

We’ve often expressed our gratitude for WorldNetDaily, which boldly goes where Drudge fears to tread, and spares us the trouble of cruising dozens of wingnut websites. But lately we’ve noticed they’ve been letting us down, with hysterical stories not even remotely relevant to the issues of the day. (Trust us, Joe, the Fairness Doctrine is a non-starter.) It’s hard to play fearmonger when the nation is increasingly confident about itself.

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NBC is citing multiple sources saying David Souter will retire from the Supreme Court, following rumors that he wasn’t hiring clerks for the fall. Souter himself is not confirming.

(Update, 1 a.m.: Despite everyone running with the story, he’s still not confirming. No word yet whether TV crews are gathering on his lawn. But let’s give credit to Nina Totenberg for being first to click Send.)

Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire [NPR]

We already know the Senate is inherently undemocratic — Alaska gets the same two votes as California, after all.

We also know that in practice, the Senate is even more undemocratic — it takes 60 votes to shut down a filibuster.

But now that Al Franken is poised to claim that 60th vote for the Democrats (as well as claim another decade for himself), we got to wondering whether the Senate was still more undemocratic than we realized.

And guess what?

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I doubt that the Democratic majority, which was so eager to decry expansions of executive authority under President Bush, will still be as interested in the problem with a Democratic president in office. I will continue the fight whatever happens.

Arlen Specter, April 16, 2009.

The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs {NY Review]

Mere days ago, we expected tonight’s news conference to be The Great Torture Showdown: Whatever Barry said, someone, probably everyone, would be howling tomorrow.

And then we decided it was high time for a pandemic. And then Arlen decided it was high time to get the hell out of Dodge. But not until GM decided to get the hell out of Pontiac.

So we welcome you to our Open Thread/Adderall Festival, and challenge you to see how long you can last before your brain hurts. After the show, we’ll be sharing beautiful pictures of Air Force One over Manhattan.

The greatest war crime of all is the one that cannot be prosecuted: the war itself.

Fifteen minutes after a hijacked jet smashed into the Pentagon, the NSA intercepted a message tying the morning’s attacks to al Qaeda. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was told of the intercept just after noon. Yet by 2:40 p.m. he was demanding “Best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden].… Need to move swiftly.… Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”

We’ve long known what followed: An 18-month disinformation campaign to justify an illegal war in Iraq. We’ve known about cherry-picking intelligence. We’ve known about the blatant disregard of informed expert advice. We’ve known about the Orwellian abuse of language to hide the truth.

It should come as no surprise that the torture policy, crafted by the same men at the same time and for the same purpose, was no different.

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• Blossom Dearie, Ann-Margret, Bruno Kirby, Jay Leno and Saddam Hussein celebrated birthdays.
• Hugh Downs hosted the 181st episode of Concentration. It is not known how many clues got stuck while turning.
• Harry Truman delivered a lecture on “The Constitution” at Columbia. Somewhere in Wyoming, 18-year-old Dick Cheney chortled.
• Senator John F. Kennedy criticized a federal student-loan program that required loyalty oaths. “Few high school graduates today are members of the Communist Party,” he joked.

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