And Now, Let's Link

Time to get some things out of the inventory:

• I agree that it's beyond time to get rid of Rumsfeld, and it's probably good politics to call for this no-confidence vote, as Democrats are doing, but ultimately Matthew Yglesias is right, Rumsfeld's policies and Bush's policies are one and the same, so it won't change anything. However, indicting Rumsfeld then necessarily indicts the policies of the Bush era, which makes sense to do.

UPDATE: Looks like the GOP will hold strong defending America's Worst Secretary of Defense (tm). I imagine that's the desired effect.

• Some Republicans must be getting polls that giving the President wide latitude to break the law isn't playing well. A lot of splintering over the illegal warrantless wiretapping program, with four competing bills in the Judiciary Committee. Republicans are divided, Democrats would be smart to unite.

• Felipe Calderon declared President in Mexico, but Lopez Obrador refuses to give up the fight. His party prevented current President Vicente Fox from delivering the State of the Nation message last week. This story continues.

• When comparing Democrats to Nazi appeasers isn't crass enough, Condi Rice obliges by comparing them to white slavers.

• I don't believe the President is anti-Semitic, but I do think that he believes Jews are going to hell as a plain fact. It's part of the worldview of evangelicals who think you can only go to Heaven if you accept Jesus Christ. This really isn't that hard to figure.

• A while back Scott Winship at The Democratic Strategist wrote this interesting article on "The Uninformed Bloc." Anyone who thinks rationality informs political decisions must look at the other decisions people make every day. They've done studies. People are crazy. We in the reality-based community have to hope that we can cajole people into being less crazy.

• How many times have news organizations agreed to these Rove rules?

The White House said that Mr. Rove would consider an interview for this article if it were conducted off the record, with the provision that quotations could be put on the record with White House approval, a condition it said was set for other interviews with Mr. Rove. The New York Times declined.

• The world is now safe for Hummers and greenhouse gases as news emerges of a big oil discovery off the Gulf of Mexico. Anything that boosts US reserves and adds to energy independence is a good thing in the short-term (although this find would reach gas stations for five years), but the long-term goal of alternative energy diversification must continue.