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It’s the centennial of the Indy 500, and guess who’s the guest of honor!

A groundswell of pressure is starting to build on Indianapolis 500 officials to dump Donald Trump as pace car driver at this month’s race.

A Facebook page has rallied more than 7,500 supporters who have placed calls or posted comments on social media sites of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, corporate sponsor IZOD and Chevrolet, sponsor of the pace car program.

They want Trump, well, fired.

The Indy organizers announced Trump a month ago. And there’s some grumbling that the anti-Trump forces are Lefty carpetbaggers. So we’ll see how this plays out.

Campaign grows to set early bump day for Trump [Indianapolis Star, via Political Wire]

Thursday update: Trump pulls out…

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We take immense satisfaction in knowing that Osama bin Laden met a violent demise at the hand of American commandos.

This, apparently, is a controversial statement. At least in some quarters.

Before we continue, let’s excuse a few folks from the room. People of deep faith or deep conscience, who object to the celebration of any death, no matter how damned the soul, may take their leave. People who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks, or in the wars that ill-advisedly followed, and who prefer not to mark the occasion of Bin Laden’s passing with brutal joy, may also go in peace.

Glenn Greenwald, however, may want to stick around:

It’s been a long time since Americans felt this good and strong about themselves — nothing like putting bullets in someone’s skull and dumping their corpse into an ocean to rejuvenate that can-do American sense of optimism.

Thanks, but we have plenty of other reasons to feel good and strong about ourself. And our long-held dark judgments about our fellow citizens remain unchanged.

But yes: Nothing like putting bullets in someone’s skull and dumping their corpse into an ocean. We’ll happily cop to that. And if you want to tack on something about the smell of napalm in the morning, we won’t duck.

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of OBL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdsQAXIyzzk

“After jettisoning controversial legislative language narrowing the definition of rape for the purposes of abortion law, House Republicans are attempting a backdoor maneuver to ensure that solely victims of ‘forcible rape’ are eligible for federal funding if they seek abortions.” Forcible rape doesn’t include statutory rape. Statutory rape includes incest. [Mother Jones, via Raw Story]

• Osama didn’t use his wife as a shield, nor was he armed. [Politico]
• While Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided an essential clue that eventually led to the raid, he didn’t cough it up while being waterboarded. [AP/Yahoo]
• Abbottabad is named after “Major James Abbott, a 19th century [British] colonial officer”. [Time]
• “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” No, not Twain. Clarence Darrow. [WiredPen]
• Osama Bin Laden is still dead.

The Great State of Montana corrals 989,415 souls within its borders, for which Our Great Nation bestows it two Senators and one Congresscritter. (The Great District of Columbia bats zero for three because its 601,723 souls don’t count.) And fittingly, for a state that doesn’t know how lucky it has it, that Congresscritter is Republican Denny Rehberg, who would like you to know he feels your pain:

REHBERG: I’m a small businessman. My wife is a small businessman. She hasn’t taken a salary in ten years as a result of business. We’re struggling like everyone else. With the ecnoomy.

CONSTITUENT: What’s your salary?

REHBERG: I’m land-rich and cash-poor. Like ranchers and farmers and small businessmen throughout Montana.

Cash-poor Denny Rehberg was worth $31 million in 2009, which puts him among the 422 poorest Congresscritters. But hey, like he says, his capital was tied up, so he only had his $174,000 salary to draw from. Which he’s been drawing since 2001.

Before which, small businessman Denny Rehberg drew what we’ll generously assume was a living wage as lieutenant governor of Montana from 1991 to 1997.

Not to mention the pay and per-diem he drew as a Montana House rat from 1985 to 1991.

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