TRANSPARENT BIGOTRY.... Following up on an earlier item, at least one high-profile Republican senator announced he doesn't want to see President Obama nominate a gay American for the Supreme Court. … I don't expect much from Thune, but I have to wonder if he realizes how incredibly ridiculous this is.

Governor Signs LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom  —  AUGUSTA - Governor John E. Baldacci today signed into law LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom.  —  “I have followed closely the debate on this issue.

Meltdown: Specter stands alone  —  Arlen Specter infuriated Senate Republicans when he bolted from their party last week.  Now he's alienated just about everybody in the Senate Democratic caucus, too.  —  Since declaring himself a Democrat last Tuesday, Specter has defied Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid …

Colin Powell Bashes Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and GOP  —  Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has once again bashed conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh as well as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin while going a step further this time by piling on the GOP.

Poll: Don't investigate torture techniques  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new national poll indicates that most Americans don't want to see an investigation of Bush administration officials who authorized harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, even though most people think such procedures were forms of torture.

A Cheney Cover-Up?  —  Someone in the White House tried to deep-six Philip Zelikow's anti-torture memo.  Welcome to the latest Bush-era whodunit.  —  Post Comment  —  Who in the George W. Bush White House tried to shred a memo challenging the use of torture?

Obama's Brave Burger Run; Even Takes Biden Along (And You Know How Risky That Can Be)  —  All D.C. is a-twitter with yesterday's big burger run by the White House's answer to the Venture Bros.  —  President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden jaunted off to an Arlington …

House bypasses governor's veto to claim Oklahoma's sovereignty  —  Although Gov. Brad Henry vetoed similar legislation 10 days earlier, House members Monday again approved a resolution claiming Oklahoma's sovereignty.  —  Unlike House Joint Resolution 1003, House Concurrent Resolution 1028 does not need the governor's approval.

EXCLUSIVE: Secret U.S.-Israel nuclear accord in jeopardy  —  President Obama's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel's nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say.

Too Much, Magic Bus  —  PajamasTV hasn't really been in the news since it hired Sam “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher to report on the war in Gaza, but it's still kicking.  Some of its most popular content is coming from black conservative comic Alphonzo Rachel, who sometimes appears as “President Zobama.”

EXCLUSIVE AUDIO: Limbaugh Mocks Recession During Speech To Wealthy Right-Wing Donors  —  Last night, Rush Limbaugh came to Washington, D.C. to address the President's Club Dinner, a meeting of wealthy donors and supporters of the Heritage Foundation.  The audience included Supreme Court …

Eco-sailors rescued by oil tanker  —  An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth on a 5,000-mile carbon emission-free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker.  —  Raoul Surcouf, Richard Spink and skipper Ben Stoddart sent a mayday because they feared for their safety amid winds of 68mph (109km/h).

The Price of the King's Shilling  —  Apparently, the $34 billion figure is good news because BAC has all those preferreds at Treasury that can be converted to common stock, leaving Treasury with $34 billion of common and $11 billion of preferreds.  But Joe Weisenthal asks a good question:

Tortured Logic  —  Hit me Bybee, one more time.  —  Remember the Rule of Law?  In the late 1990s, it was all the rage in conservative circles.  Having maneuvered Bill Clinton into a position where he could either lie under oath or suffer massive personal and political embarrassment …

A Complicated Question  —  I had dinner once with John and Elizabeth Edwards, when he first burst onto the national scene.  —  Looking across the booth at her grinning, boyish husband, she told me that it was irritating to be married to someone so comely who looked so much younger.

Dalai Lama Prays for Senate, Sympathizes With Republicans  —  ALBANY—His Holiness the Dalai Lama is in town, and just offered the opening prayer over the State Senate chamber.  —  “Compassion will guide more of our activities in way that they become constructive,” the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso said.

EXCLUSIVE: Steele yields powers to foes in RNC  —  Accepts limits on spending  —  Capitulating to critics on the Republican National Committee, embattled Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele has signed a secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds …

The North Repopulates, Ctd.  —  Mark Steyn replies to Martin Walker:  —  Let's say you have 950,000 ethnic Europeans whose fertility rate is 1.3.  And 50,000 immigrants move in with a fertility rate of 3.5.  You'd have an overall fertility rate increase to 1.41, or almost 10 percent, entirely due to a tiny segment of the population.

The Confederate Legacy  —  Ed Kilgore has a very interesting post on a new trend sweeping conservative politics in Dixie—"sovereignty resolutions" that appear to assert states' rights to unilaterally invalidate federal action, a doctrine last seen in the hands of John C. Calhoun, the great antebellum theorist of white supremacy.