The Daily Grind

Mmm, Mmm, Mmm. No breast exams for mama.

"Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's a male Democrat genius. But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening. And President Obama's are sliding. Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40s."

"The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday."

Lagging the French: "A concern for not giving offense to Muslims would never prevent the French internal-security service, the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST), which deploys a large number of Muslim officers, from aggressively trying to pre-empt terrorism."

"There are 'many' Democratic senators who would vote against a Senate health bill lacking a strong public option, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asserted Monday."

SNL presents "Palin-Beck 2012," from the mind of Keith Olbermann.

NYT on GlobalWarmingGate: "'The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won't be posted here.' And they don't contain any obvious state military secrets as well, unlike say the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War or more recently, the secrets of War on Terror, or any of a number of other leaked documents the Times has cheerfully rushed to print."

Dear young people: Kiss your earning potential good-bye with health-care overhaul. Hopenchange!

NYT: "With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government's tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019." A TARP a year.

The politics of engagement: "Unlike during previous trips by US leaders, China made no goodwill gestures for Obama such as freeing dissidents despite appeals from the US Congress to free Liu and other prominent inmates. 'The Chinese government does not reciprocate when it is given things for free. It simply takes them and moves on,' Zhang and Jiang wrote."

Israel's targets: "The new strategy of creating proxy terrorist groups endowed with the potency and sophistication of armies, but with none of their restrictions or responsibilities, is racking up points. The goal is not to defeat Israel on the battlefield, but to wage a war of attrition that erodes its national confidence, challenges its moral clarity, and transforms it into a pariah among democratic peoples. Yet this model of warfare depends for its success on one important factor: Israel's willingness to fight on the battlefields that Iran and Syria have assigned to it."