“A 37-year-old man shot and killed five individuals as well as injured four others in a mass shooting at a Southeast Albuquerque business late Monday morning, according to police… The shooter had a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” [KRQE]

Monica Lewinsky went to college in Portland. Al Gore allegedly demanded sexual favors and made “unwanted sexual contact” on a masseuse in his Portland hotel room in 2006.

Coincidence? What’s in the water in the Willamette River?

Where the National Enquirer went yesterday, the Washington Post and New York Times follow today.

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“Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, has joined the advisory council of GOProud, the gay Republican group that recently — and unfortunately — drew attention when it was alternately derided and defended from the stage of CPAC.” [Weigel]

Looks like the pick for the Supreme Court slot is coming in.  Tomorrow’s Headlines Today — Meet the Press head goon D. Gregory asked Atty. Gen. Holder about the pick, and he said, “soon, baby.”  And then Gregory asked Holder specifically about Elena Kagan — but nobody else, before moving on, quickly, to the shithead who tried to blow up his SUV in Times Square.

If you’re a degenerate gambler and near a bookie who takes bets on Supreme Court picks, if the odds are any better than even money, I’d put a fiver on her.  Just a guess.

ADD: Politico (via TPM) basically have the same thing, as of yesterdayish.  So this is one of two things — (1) Gregory parroting what Politico said, or (2) an actual, honest to God “thing.”  The way Holder responded tells me it’s quite possibly a real-thing.  He didn’t throw out the obligatory “if she’s the nominee” until after giving a spiel about who wonderful she is.  Also.

Oh, Gordon Brown.  Dude’s rumored to have a bit of a temper.  But the pain, the shame of saying what you really think with a live microphone still attached to your shirt:

Here’s what happened. Brown was in Rochdale doing a television interview about the deficit. As he was speaking, a woman called Gillian Duffy, a 65-year-old Labour voter, heckled him about the subject.He engaged her in conversation and they had a rather awkward chat that was filmed live on TV. It was a bit excruciating – mainly because she seemed to be criticising him for everything – but eventually she said local schools were getting better.

Brown tried to joke about her wearing the right colour, red, but that did not seem to go down well. He was still trying to speak to her as she was walking away. That was all I saw. It struck me as a fairly typical “politician meets grumpy voters” moment.

But Brown then got into his car, still wearing the television microphone. Apparently, he was recorded saying that the encounter had been a disaster and that she was a “bigoted woman”. Short of doing a Prescott and punching someone [in re John Prescott, a Labour minister that actually did such a thing once], that’s about as bad as it gets.

Brown is on Radio 2 now. The “bigoted woman” remark has not been mentioned yet. But he sounds extraordinarily tetchy.

One: “Tetchy?”  God help us.

Two: I’m sure that some candidate after a campaign stop in — say — Arizona might be wont to say something just like that, out of principle.  But to do it a week before the polls?  YIKES.

This is running up every flagpole on (what used to be) Fleet Street, which is deeming it at the moment as an earthshaking disaster.  The Guardian liveblog (here) has more.  So far?  A posting of the Channel 4 tape (complete with the hot microphone), a non-apology apology on BBC Radio 2, followed by a call to the woman to actually apologize, and then a DRIVE BACK TO HER PLACE to apologize in person.  But also: opposition parties cautiously trying to retain their glee, followed by a suggestion that the woman may be — OH DEAR — the Brit’s version of Joe the Plumber.

Black Eagle, during the Easter Egg Roll, said this:

President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, even in self defense.

[snippety snip]

…The United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack.  Those threats, he argued, could be deterred with “a series of graded options” — a combination of old and newly designed conventional weapons.  “I’m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure,” Mr. Obama said during the interview in the Oval Office.

Well. 

Haven’t looked at The Corner yet, but I’m guessing they’d be somewhat lukewarm to the idea.

More once it stops rocking…

USGS Report:

A strong earthquake occurred at 3:40:39 PM (PDT) on Sunday, April 4, 2010.

The magnitude 6.9 event occurred 26 km (16 miles) SSW of Guadalupe Victoria, Baja California, Mexico.

The hypocentral depth is 32 km (20 miles).

(It’s now been upgraded to 7.2; depth 6.2 miles.)

Updates after the break.

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