AIRBRUSH: New York Times “De-Gays” Assassin.

JAMES TARANTO: Why the Left needs racism. “Baselessly accusing their political foes of racism is a way in which today’s liberals attempt to incite fear and loathing of ‘the other.’ As we argued last year, this serves a political purpose in that it helps persuade blacks not to consider voting Republican. But it serves a psychological purpose as well. It reinforces white liberals’ sense of their own superiority.” Yes, calling other white people racist is Stuff White People Like.

JERUSALEM IMAM: Obama Will Soon Hang For Killing Bin Laden. Okay, first, any talk of hanging is just plain racist. Stupid racist imam.

Second, what’s this about how dogs should not rejoice after killing a lion? If I were a dog, and I killed a lion, I’d damn sure rejoice.

But Osama was more of a jackal, you know? And if this dumbass keeps talking, people might get the idea that we’re at war with Islam or something. And trust me, your Imam-ness, you don’t want Americans to decide that.

TRAITOR: Somebody explain to Rashard Mendenhall that since Bush isn’t President any more, these sentiments are no longer acceptable. . . .

AN “HONOR KILLING” IN WARREN, MICHIGAN. “Every time he would call her, it would just seem like he had just like some sick obsession. It wasn’t just like a stepfather-daughter relationship. It was something else.” Not much “honor” to be seen. But if convicted the penalty should involve public humiliation, just to make that clear.

LEON PANETTA, NOT OBAMA, ORDERED HIT ON BIN LADEN? Let me just say that I find the sourcing on this not too believable. The story might be true, but I’ll need a lot more convincing. This is telling too many people what they want to hear. And I’ve been following “White House Insider” for a while, but, well, I’m not convinced — and I really hope he’s bogus, because if he’s for real, God help us.

THE SITUATION ROOM: The Shortest Route From Bin Laden to Lulz.

ACE: Seven Minutes vs. Sixteen Hours.

YA THINK? Van Houtte attorney says motion for mistrial is possible. So the prosecutor who put a guy in jail for sex with a minor was found to be providing the same minor with alcohol and engaging in an “inappropriate relationship” with her? It’s Illinois, of course . . . .

AT AMAZON, it’s the Office Electronics Outlet.

THOUGHTS ON JUSTICE AND REVENGE:

Contemplating a “balls[y]” liberal president confidently throwing his weight around in foreign affairs is a strange sensation for conservatives and liberals alike. But it’s an especially welcome sensation for liberals. Admit it, isn’t it a relief not having to come up with a tortuous explanation of how real patriotism is a matter of having the moral fortitude to preside intelligently over the country’s relative decline by “leading from behind.” Yet liberals should be self-conscious enough to admit that the rush of satisfaction they’re getting contemplating Obama’s newfound bellicosity is a guilty pleasure. . . .

Liberals can bask in their newfound admiration for Obama or uphold their vision of the international system. But it’s hard to see how, in good conscience, they can do both of those things.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I can’t believe the same crowd that wanted Abu Ghraib pictures endlessly published find a photo confirming Osama bin Laden’s demise to be possibly inflammatory.

After all the horrors we have had to witness. Unbelievable. Show us.

Indeed. Heck, even false Newsweek stories about Koran-flushing weren’t held back.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ron Radosh: The Left and the Liberals’ Hypocrisy over the Death of Osama Bin Laden.

SCOTT OTT, BILL WHITTLE, STEPHEN GREEN: Trifecta: Muslim Burial at Sea: How Obama Baptized Bin Laden Into the Religion We’re Not at War With.

FIRST THE QUEEN, NOW THIS: Bush declines Obama invite to Thursday’s Ground Zero event. “Only two possibilities. One: Bush recognizes that this is, more or less, an Obama campaign commercial and would rather not be part of it. Two: Bush doesn’t want to encroach on the singular role that Obama, as president, should rightly have in leading the ceremonies marking Bin Laden’s demise. Given how gracious Dubya has been in retirement, does anyone doubt that the second explanation is correct? Needless to say, it was also gracious of The One to invite him.”

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Maybe Bush didn’t want to be dissed in person, the way Obama sandbagged the Supremes last year and Ryan this year.”

IN TENNESSEE, A CIVIL RIGHTS DEFEAT: “A bill to allow faculty and staff of Tennessee colleges and universities to carry guns on campus was effectively killed for the year in a state House committee today.”

UH OH: Mississippi River flooding: After levee blast, threat shifts to Memphis.

WHAT? LIBYA? OH, RIGHT: Libyan refugees flee fighting by land and sea.

Also: Explosion Rocks Rebel Stronghold In Libya.

MESSAGE CONTROL: White House asked California paper to take out unflattering remark about first lady. The White House denies this. Paper says it happened.

NEW THREAT TO CORAL REEFS: Competition Among Sponges?

UPDATE: Reader Chuck Cobleigh writes: “I thought for a second that was another public-sector union story.”

TEST-DRIVING THE 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4.

OKAY, HELEN’S STILL ON HER RESERVE SUPPLY OF TIKOSYN, AND THE WALGREEN’S PHARMACIST HASN’T EVEN CALLED BACK AS PROMISED: You’d think that a business people rely on for drugs they need to live would be more reliable, wouldn’t you?

UPDATE: Reader Chris Link, M.D., writes: “For God’s sake, it’s for cardiac arrhythmia. No urgency there.” Yeah, what’s wrong with these people?

PJTV: Rep. Allen West: Obama’s Order to Kill Osama Bin Laden and What Did Pakistan Really Know?

THE OLD NARRATIVE IS NO LONGER OPERATIVE: Eric Holder is asked but won’t answer whether he’d have opposed a military trial for bin Laden if bin Laden had been taken alive. “So… was bin Laden shot because he resisted — the official story — or because a live, captured bin Laden would have torn the Obama administration apart?”

UPDATE: The Atlantic: The Slippery Story Of The Bin Laden Kill.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “They say that revenge is a dish that’s best served cold. We’ve been waiting a long time for this particular dish to cool, and now that I’ve eaten it, I’m surprised to find that it’s pretty tasteless and unsatisfying.”

BRAZIL: Rio de Janeiro’s Corruption-Fighting Blogger Is Gunned Down in Copacabana.

“DEMONSTRABLY FALSE” AND “THINKPROGRESS” — A species of redundancy? “Think Progress is pulling a bait and switch trying to claim that Andrew Breitbart is ‘pushing the theory that Bin Laden is not dead’. This is demonstrably false.” And note Breitbart’s fearless response.

Also note that whenever anyone is effective, the lefty apparatchiks try to spread the idea that it’s somehow impolite to associate with them, rather than attack them on substance. That’s been their MO forever, but it’s become quite obvious and thus far less effective lately.