IS PATRICK FITZGERALD AVAILABLE? White House Counsel to Review Naming of CIA Chief in Kabul. “The event transpired Sunday, when as part of President Barack Obama’s surprise trip to visit with troops in Afghanistan, the Kabul ‘chief of station’ was included on a list of participants in a meeting distributed to the traveling press pool and subsequently sent to a broader list of reporters, as explained by The Washington Post.”

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: US to keep troops in Afghanistan.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Colleges Rattled As Obama Presses Rating System. They thought stuff like this would only be for their for-profit competitors, I guess. But:

Mr. Obama and his aides say colleges and universities that receive a total of $150 billion each year in federal loans and grants must prove they are worth it. The problem is acute, they insist: At too many schools, tuition is going up, graduation rates are going down, and students are leaving with enormous debt and little hope of high-paying jobs.

Obama, you magnificent bastard, you read my book.

GOVERNMENT: ‘Cooking the Books’: How VA Clinics Falsified Appointment Records.

HIGHER EDUCATION and inequality.

MICKEY KAUS: Will Virginia Republicans Be Fooled? “Now we know how embattled GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor plans to hold on to his seat against a primary challenger. A week after lobbyist Haley Barbour praised Cantor for his commitment to passing an immigration amnesty–and claimed that Republican voters support it – Cantor dropped a mailer into GOP voters’ boxes claiming that he’s … a fighter against amnesty!”

SOME THOUGHTS FROM TAM:

Looking around the internet, I can’t help but observe that the very same people that are screaming for better mental health screening and more proactive response from law enforcement today are the ones that were cutting checks to the ACLU to prevent stigmatization and loss of freedom because of ableist mental health discrimination last week.

Make up your ****ing mind, ya buncha ****ing hypocrites. Do you want the Department of Precrime dragging people off or not?

Good question.

RON FOURNIER: The Intellectual Dishonesty of Obama and Other False Purists.

ED DRISCOLL: Blue on Blue: Hollywood Versus Hornaday.

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY:

Scooter Libby got convicted when prosecutors compared his memory about Plame to the memory of journalists.

And now journalists can’t remember what Libby got convicted for.

And all those layers of editors and fact-checkers didn’t help.

JOHN HAYWARD: Justice Dept. chokes out ‘undesirable’ businesses. “Where do we go to vote against the Commissar of Undesirable Businesses, if we decide we disagree with his or her judgments… once we penetrate the veil of secrecy and discover those judgments have been rendered? No one’s even pretending DOJ had anything resembling the authority to do this. As we’ve seen time and again during the Obama years – and a few times before that – a government agency simply decided something was a good idea, and did it. It feels right, so it must be legal.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Professors Engage in Anti-Semitic Rhetoric on Secret Listserv; Professors for BDS slam ‘Zionist’ control of the media, academia.

Related: The BDS Bullies Take Over. Remember when universities claimed to represent the highest and best of our society?

WAIT, I THOUGHT THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT WAS DEAD AGAIN: Tea Party topples Texas Lt. Gov. “Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) has lost his GOP primary, ending more than a decade in office. The Associated Press has called the race for Texas state Sen. Dan Patrick (R), a hard-charging conservative who focused on illegal immigration. Patrick led Dewhurst by 64 percent to 36 percent with 9 percent of precincts reporting.”

ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY: The Science of Brain Mapping.

ADVICE TO WOMEN: Questions not to ask your man.

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THE FINALLY FALLIBLE SUPREME COURT: “Now, I am pretty sure that the justices have always been human, yet something new seems to be happening. I think it’s this: in small but meaningful ways, the Court is being forced to acknowledge its own fallibility.”

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: Crocodile injured by falling accountant during circus bus accident in Russia. “An official reprimand was issued to the accountant, and she was ‘advised to lose weight’ and ‘observe safety precautions’ by wearing her seatbelt in the future.”

SHOCKINGLY, LOTTERY WINNERS TURN OUT TO BE PRETTY DARN HAPPY ABOUT IT: “‘The story about the unhappy, squandering winner primarily functions as a cautionary tale,’ Dr. Hedenus says. ‘But this is not the common reaction to the lottery windfall.'”

But there is a downside: “Big jackpot winners say everyone they ever met comes out of the woodwork and asks for money.” So it’s kind of like attending the DNC.

MORE ON ELIMINATING INVASIVE SPECIES BY EATING THEM.

MEH. I WANT MY BACK-TO-THE-FUTURE-STYLE HOVERBOARD: The Electric Skateboard of the Future Has Finally Arrived.

PRESIDENT PRESIDENTIAL: Obama Berates Reporter at Science Fair; Lectures Female Reporter After She Asks About Syria. #WARONWOMEN #YESALLWOMEN

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RAND SIMBERG: The Reason We’re Dependent On The Russians In Space Is That We’re Chicken.

TED NUGENT HAD “STRANGLEHOLD,” Eric Holder has Operation Choke Point.