UPDATED: NY Times' Maureen Dowd Plagiarizes TPM's Josh Marshall  —  Maureen Dowd in today's NY Times: … TPM's Josh Marshall on Thurs: … All Dowd did was change “we were” to “the Bush crowd was”.  —  Now, I'm all for cutting & pasting.  As a blogger I do it all the time, but I always give credit.

Text of Obama's Notre Dame speech  — Text of President Barack Obama's commencement address Sunday as the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., as released before delivery by the White House.  The Rev. John Jenkins is the school's president.  The Rev. Theodore Hesburgh is Jenkins' predecessor.

‘I, Jerk’  —  ANALYSIS/OPINION:  —  In this day of polarized politics, it's incumbent on good citizens to be vigorously truthful.  Even in the heat of battle, partisans should own up to their mistakes.  Rectifying errors builds credibility.  Honest self-criticism ensures a healthy debate and a healthier democracy.

Green light for Cheney from GOP  —  Republican leaders on Sunday backed Dick Cheney's attacks on President Barack Obama, calling the former vice president a strong asset for the party.  —  “It doesn't hurt us, it helps us,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said on CNN's “State of the Union …

Some on left souring on Obama  —  When President Barack Obama speaks to the Notre Dame commencement Sunday afternoon, television cameras will search the sea of graduates, looking for turned backs and defaced mortar boards that abortion opponents will likely use to register their disagreement with the president.

Atheists: No God, no reason, just whining  —  Superstar atheists are motivated by anger — and boohoo victimhood.  —  Ican't stand atheists — but it's not because they don't believe in God.  It's because they're crashing bores.  —  Other people, most recently the British cultural critic Terry Eagleton …

When Democrats start to doubt  —  While researching a liberal blogger who declared that she could “possibly bring [herself] to link to Robert ‘McCrazy’ McCain” — and I'm only too happy to return the favor of non-linkage, Libby Spencer — I ended up on the Detroit News blog, where I encountered Robert Smith Jr.

Death From Above, Outrage Down Below  —  IN recent days, the Pentagon has made two major changes in its strategy to defeat the Taliban, Al Qaeda and their affiliates in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  First came the announcement that Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal would take over as the top United States commander in Afghanistan.

Sri Lankan Rebels Declare 25-Year War at ‘Bitter End’  —  NEW DELHI — The ethnic Tamil separatist rebels of Sri Lanka, one of the world's most feared and enduring guerrilla movements, acknowledged Sunday that their war of more than a quarter-century for a homeland had “reached its bitter end.”

Clinging to a dead biz model for dear life  —  For two lawyers who supposedly specialize in media and First Amendment law, these guys were so full of stupid I'm embarrassed for them.  You see, they have just the legislative solutions to the newspaper industry's ills!

Sympathy for the bad apples  —  Frank Rich is, for lack of a better word, shrill.  Exhibit Q: … It's funny that when torture was all the fault of poor, ugly hillbillies of the sort David Brooks writes about in his Adventure Stories for Young Aristocrats, we had to throw the book at the evil-doers.

Israel's Fears, Amalek's Arsenal  —  WHEN the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visits the White House on Monday for his first stage-setting visit, he will carry with him an agenda that clashes insistently with that of President Obama.  Mr. Obama wants Mr. Netanyahu to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state.