Today’s New York Times:

In the beauty parlors that are among the social hubs for black women in the Carolinas, loyalties are being tested as voters here contemplate the first Democratic primary in the South.

Today’s Washington Post:

In S.C., Beauty Salons Are Also Political Soapboxes

Group-think journalism?  That’s just splitting hairs.

Shhhh, don’t tell Glenn Reynolds what’s in the Washington Post today.

The patron saint of bloggers last week endured a horrendous flying and airport experience. He chronicled it all at Instapundit with woeful posts like these:

• AIR TRAVEL SUCKS (CONT’D): Flight to Knoxville is currently showing a one-and-a-half hour delay.
• YES, WE’RE STILL STUCK AT LAGUARDIA: The Delta folks are now claiming that our 3:25 flight to Knoxville will depart at 6.
• FLIGHT CANCELLED. No more flights until tomorrow. No airport hotels available.
• Remind me not to fly again.
• … air travel can’t be counted on to get you where you need to go when you’re supposed to be there. It’s a dysfunctional industry, and needs major fixing.

Needs major fixing indeed.  Turns out, there’s an answer.  In fact, quite an easy answer.  Just join Congress.

Here’s what we learn in the Post today about a place where the skies are always friendly:

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) found bipartisan agreement on maintaining one special privilege. Together they put language into a defense appropriations bill that would keep legal the practice of some senators of booking several flights on days they return home, keeping the most convenient reservation and dumping the rest without paying cancellation fees — a practice some airlines say could violate the new law. …

Lawmakers for years have booked several flights for a day when they plan to leave town. When they finish work, they take the most convenient flight and cancel the rest without paying fees, a privilege denied others. But after the new law passed, some airlines stopped the practice, worried that it violates the gift ban.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) appealed to the Senate ethics committee to allow multiple bookings. Then Reid and McConnell added language to the defense bill that, if it passes, would extend the perk to staffers, too.

So you see, Glenn — next time just think creatively.  Your flying future is as simple  as working on Capitol Hill, and your probably get to keep your taxpayer-expenses frequent flyer miles.   And just think how close you’d be to Reagan National Airport.  Boom!  Problem solved.

Why would anyone write this in Politico?

Call it the Jack Bauer moment.

It’s the moment in nearly every presidential candidate debate when the moderator asks the question that would please Jack Bauer. That is, if the “24″ action hero would get off his cell phone long enough to pay attention to the campaign.

Find out by clicking here.

Interesting positioning by DNC chairman Howard Dean on the upcoming Democratic presidential primaries. On C-SPAN he calls it “incredibly unlikely” that Feb. 5th will lock up the Dem nomination.

Here’s Dean, appearing before a Denver University political science class taught by C-SPAN’s Steve Scully

Steve Scully: “Governor, you talked about 1976 and we’ve talked about it in this class when Jimmy Carter ran in January, Feb, and didn’t lock up the nomination until June of 1976. And now ostensibly by February 5th, this process will be completed. Is that good or bad?”

Howard Dean: “It is incredibly unlikely that it’ll be completed on February 5th. I think one of two things will happen; we have a pretty strong field this year, so either someone will sweep three or four of the first four, and they’ll have locked it up by January 29th or whenever it is. Or they’ll split the first four fairly evenly,in which case they’ll split the February 5th states and we won’t know who the nominee is –most likely– until sometime in March.

“If I could push a button and do anything I wanted, I’d move this whole thing back, but there’s been this tug of war over who’s going to go first for a long time. And in 2012, I think we’re going to have to do something fairly drastic to fix this. Because we can’t go on with this sort of disorder. We need real order in the primary process and we also need fairness and inclusiveness to every region in the country and every group of voters in the process.”

Lots to chew over on that one. Is Dean keeping the later states lip-serviced with presumed — but perhaps false — optimism? Is he doubting Hillary Clinton’s ability to quickly run the board?

Maybe the Democrats do need Al Gore in the race.

… or merchant of war and death?
Al Gore, from the  Oct. 3, 2000 presidential debate:

“I was one of only a few Democrats in the Senate to support the Persian Gulf War. “

Al Gore, from the Oct. 11, 2000 presidential debate:

“I was one of the few members of my political party to support former President Bush in the Persian Gulf War resolution, and at the end of that war, for whatever reason, it was not finished in a way that removed Saddam Hussein from power. I know there are all kinds of circumstances and explanations. But the fact is that that’s the situation that was left when I got there. And we have maintained the sanctions. Now I want to go further. I want to give robust support to the groups that are trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein.”

From the same debate:

“…we have to continue building up readiness and military strength.”

Al Gore, from the Oct. 17, 2000 presidential debate:

“I support the death penalty. … I think it is a deterrent. I know that’s a controversial view, but I do believe it’s a deterrent.”

OK you Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul fanatics.

You won’t want to miss Friday’s “Washington Journal” on C-SPAN.

It’s the big guy himself, Ron Paul.  From 9:30-10 a.m.

You got it.  No finer Friday cocktail: Heavy on the C-SPAN, with a dash of Ron Paul.

As they say on C-SPAN, please allow 30 days between calling for the U.S. to flee Iraq.

Here now is the next installment of our new regular series — the Joke Reality Check — in which we put jokes told on the campaign trail or in the media or in the general political discussion through a VIP check-up and washing.  We check whether jokes are stolen, poorly-premised, or poorly written or delivered.  And we offer strategic advice to improve the attempt.  Our first venture was reality checking a Mike Huckabee joke (click here to relieve that glory moment.)  Today, we check in with Mitt Romney.

During Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney used this line against Fred Thompson:

ROMNEY:  This is a lot like “Law and Order,” Senator. (Laughter.) It –
MATTHEWS: Okay, thank you.
ROMNEY: No, it has a huge cast, the series seems to go on forever –
MATTHEWS: Okay.  Senator –
ROMNEY: — and Fred Thompson shows up at the end. (Laughter, applause, cross talk.)
MATTHEWS: Senator –

Fred Thompson had a great spontaneous response:

And to think I thought I was going to be the best actor on the stage.

But there’s something wrong with Romney’s joke.  What is it?

The presentation.  He inverted it.  He gave away the punchline at the beginning.

Here’s how Joke Reality Check would’ve done it:

Get a load of this.  There’s a huge cast.  The series seems to go on forever.  And Fred Thompson shows up at the end.  That’s not a debate.  That’s “Law & Order.”

Ba-dum.

In our post yesterday on the depressing questions Maria Bartiromo asked at this week’s Republican presidential candidate debate, reader Richard had an illuminating comment.

Here’s one Bartiromo question:

In a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, two-thirds of the American people said that we are either in a recession or headed toward one. Do you agree with that?

And here’s Richard’s reaction:

Since being in a recession is a factual matter, not one of opinion, and since the nation is NOT in a recession, she was essentially asking if the candidates agree that they don’t know what they are talking about.

Good point.  I concur.  It’s like asking candidates whether they agree that water is frozen.  Either it’s 32 degrees, or it’s not.

Here’s the complete wording of that July poll question Bartiromo cited:

In terms of the country’s economic condition, which of the following statements comes closest to your point of view?

The country is currently in an economic recession and will come out of it in the next twelve months 11%
The country is currently in an economic recession and will continue to be in the next twelve months 35
The country is not currently in an economic recession but will be within the next twelve months 22
The country is not currently in an economic recession and will not be in the next twelve months 25
Not sure 7

There are other culprits. The American Research Group repeatedly polls this question:

Would you say that the national economy is in a recession or not?

You could ask whether you you expect a recession in the next year, or if the government is working to avoid a recession, or some similar formulation.  And the answers would be enlightening and instructive.   But a question on whether we are in a recession?  Leave that to the experts.

Here at the glass-enclosed nerve center of Extreme Mortman, we just received an odd comment to a long since forgotten post.

Here’s what we wrote on July 7 under the headline “Smell the Gore Glove“:

We learn that one of the bands performing in Al Gore’s Live Earth concert in DC is a funk-rock band from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada.  The band is called The Breaking Wind.  The Breaking Wind?  Clearly a cheap knock-off of these giants:

The payoff was a picture of Spinal Tap’s “Break Like the Wind” album.

Hardly our best effort at humor — until we got this comment yesterday from “Wes”:

what the hell does that even mean, and actually I am the lead singer for this band, we have never even heard of “break Like The Wind” what is it a movie poster or a Cd, or album if you will, but we are not “cheap Knock offs” if anything you are a cheap knock off of smoking gun, thats right, who are you to say anyway?  love Wes Martin.

Well, Wes.  Here’s some love back to you.  While you may have never heard of Spinal Tap, you also clearly have never heard of irony.

So without any irony, here’s a free plug for your band.  Love, Extreme Mortman.

Forgive my grumpiness and general depression this morning.   I still haven’t recovered from yesterday’s Republican debate.  That is, I haven’t recovered from the questions CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo asked during the debate.

A sample of the sadness that’s sweeping America, as indicated by her questions:

• “Two-thirds of the American people said that we are either in a recession or headed toward one. Do you agree with that?”
• “Senator, you painted a very nice picture. The Dow and the S&P 500 today at new highs — tonight — record numbers.  And, yet, two-thirds of the people surveyed said we are either in a recession or headed for one.  Why the angst?”
• “Here in Detroit, Michigan, alone, one in every 29 homes went into foreclosure in the first six months of the year.  Whose job is it to fix this problem? The government or private enterprise?”
• “Is London going to replace New York as the financial capital of the world?”
• “What is the greatest, long-term threat to the U.S. economy?”
• “Wall Street executives are making millions of dollars every year, paying tax rates of 15 percent, while the average guy out there is paying 30 percent in taxes.  Is this system fair?”

After hearing all that, I need something to make me feel better about what’s happening in America.  Maybe I’ll watch a film by Michael Moore.