• What’s a reluctant union-buster to do? HRC pollster Mark Penn did not have labor relations with that firm: Penn said “he was avoiding a role in overseeing the part of the company’s practice that involved management-labor issues.” [LAT]
• Threat Level reports that the new FISA bill “gives the Bush Administration a six-month window to install possibly permanent back doors in the nation’s communication networks.” If that makes you angry, I’m sorry, it’s called the “Protect America Act,” and you’re not allowed to complain about things that protect America. Also, they’ll find you. [Threat Level]
• Obama in Iowa discovers that midwesterners don’t appreciate his nuanced view of attacking Pakistan: “Aren’t you really buying into the George Bush doctrine of fighting terrorism by attempting to hunt down and kill terorrists?” It’s okay, blame the reporters! [Ben Smith]
• The GOP field fears no snowman! [WT]
• “I can beez prezident?” [LoLRon]
• Romney’s views on abortion are so “evolved,” there’s a movement to ban them in Kansas. Marc Ambinder attempts to draw a familiy tree here, and hypothesizes that Code Pink has a whole generation or so to hang onto their uteri:
If South Dakota doesn’t endorse a complete abortion ban, I’d say that a national abortion ban is probably not politically tenable for the next thirty years or so. That’s thirty more years of abortions.
• Easily-misread headline of the day: “Papers Ignore Lewd Gestures, Taunts of Firemen Forced to March in Gay Pride Parade” [Newsbusters]
• It’s insanely hot here in the swamp, but you all can stop worrying about one thing: The pandas are safe. The National Zoo will provide “a round of fruit-filled ice treats for pandas and other languid quadrupeds.” [ReadExpress]
As for you languid bipeds, stay cool. I’ll be back tonight for yet another round of liveblogging, this time of the Dem’s second Chicago forum. How will it be different? Gravel-less and Olbermann-riffic.