* Barack Obama's first nominee for the federal bench turns out to be a doozy. It is the far-left David Hamilton, a former fund-raiser for the radical activist outfit ACORN...a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the ACLU...a federal district judge who recently invalidated a law requiring the registration of sex offenders...and who also prevented enforcement of an Indiana law that required information and a waiting period before an abortion. Paul Mirengoff, who alerted Power Line readers to this awful choice, concludes, "Not to worry, though, the New York Times calls Hamilton a 'moderate.'"* Oops! Maybe Barack Obama shouldn't get too angry over those AIG bonuses. After all, there might be someone in the MSM (Are you listening, Katie?) who might dare to report that Obama himself (when still a junior Senator) received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions. Indeed, the two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the AIG are two of the cats acting most aggrieved about others getting them: Chris Dodd and Barack Obama. As John Malek said in the note which alerted me to this Right Side Politics story, "This just drips of irony and hypocrisy."
* And while we're on the subject of those AIG bonuses, note this -- Julie Hirschfeld Davis, reporter for the Associated Press no less, writes "Cue the outrage. For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn't until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back."
* Ilan Berman in the American Spectator describes the "rookie mistake" made by Barack Obama by sending a secret letter to Dmitry Medvedev, one in which Obama cravenly backpedaled (without getting anything in return) from the Bush administration plans to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe. A dumb move. A dangerous move. And, not surprisingly, the Russians have already begun to exploit it.
* The Obama administration, almost giddy in the way it seeks out ways to run counter to the policies of President Bush, announced that Obama will endorse a United Nations declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.
* My, my. When the New York Times' Maureen Dowd starts taking aim at a Democrat, that spells trouble. Just ask Bill Clinton and Al Gore. But yet here she is, Dowd laughing at the way "Team Obama" has mishandled the AIG bonus matter. The gal even starts off with a shot at the President's increasingly-problematic dependence on the TelePrompter.
* And speaking of the TelePrompter, check out this Fox News report (it's getting a bit of play from the MSM too) about how the thing malfunctioned during a joint appearance of the Great Orator and the Irish Prime Minister. Another diplomatic coup for our amateur president
