Some thoughts:

Liberals are determined to mock and ridicule the notion that Obama’s moving America in a European direction. But of course he is. Liberals have been — unapologetically — pushing America in that direction for generations.

Anyway, what I didn’t get into in the column is how this contrasts with the theocracy-panic of five minutes ago. Back then, the liberal consensus was that we need to be very, very, very scared that the bible thumpers were going to take over everything and turn us into a Handmaid’s Tale (itself a classic example of paranoid fiction). But back then, if I had suggested that America’s rich history of religious tolerance and pluralism could stand up to the Orwellian onslaught of Bush’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives, I would have been laughed off as ludicrously naive.

But when Obama is literally spending trillions of dollars to move us in a European direction, conservatives like Mark Steyn, Charles Murray, and others are supposedly daft for thinking this is anything worth worrying about.

It’s just the substitution of one religion for another — worship of the state.

…an echo chamber…an echo chamber…an echo chamber…an echo chamber…

[Late morning update]

More thoughts from Mickey, who is despairing of ever getting an invitation.

…and when did he not know it? And a bonus — “heckuva job, Timmy!”

I think I hear the bus starting to warm up its engine in preparation for its next victim.

By way of the AllahPundit we learn that TIME has been told that the Fed flagged the AIG bonuses to Treasury on Feb 28, ten days before word percolated to Geithner. What an operation – Geithner was at the NY Fed working with Hank Paulson on these bailouts, was brought to Treasury to provide continuity, and now has forgotten everything prior to Jan 20, 2009. Geithner needs to bring on some senior staffers so he can fire someone. Inshallah.

…FREUD IS EVERYWHERE: I know they are a bit down on Obama just now but this reflexive Bush-bashing from the Chi Trib blog is ridiculous:

This appears to be a case where the government’s right hand didn’t know what the left was doing. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner learned only last week about the bonuses, according to the Bush Administration.

Yes, we all miss Ari and Dana and what’s his name. But since this is the Obama Administration let me offer an editing suggestion: “This appears to be a case where the government’s left hand didn’t know what the far left hand was doing.” Just trying to help.

Maguire is a one-man wrecking crew on this story.

Somehow this seems appropriate:

A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party.

Well, who else should he have thanked? He is The One, after all.

And I agree with this:

Imagine if George W. Bush had such a crutch and pulled a monster gaffe like this. It would be played 24/7 on television until the end of time.

For some strange reason, the networks refuse to release video of this great moment in hilarity.

This reliance on his TelePrompter is just embarrassing.

Mr Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the “teleprompt president” over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech.

Who considers him a great orator other than his slobbering media sycophants? Any time the man has to utter more than two sentences off script he becomes The Wizard of Uhhhs.

We know that it would have been shown endlessly had it been George Bush.

I agree with the AIG execs — Congress should resign or commit sepuku:

“In all candor, I don’t know why they’re so exercised by some bonuses. These pathetic excuses for politicians cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars and, worst of all, they’re still in power.”

Of course, in order to do that, one must have some sense of shame. Or honor. I don’t see any evidence of that in the likes of Chris Dodd or Barney Frank.

I’m thinking that along about now Ezra Klein is wishing that he had invited Mickey:

We non-elite writers learn something just from watching the sausage get made. One thing we learn is it’s just sausage. Ezra Klein has taken a lot of what could be highly informative back and forth on the World Wide Web and privatized it, much as rich people in gated communities reclaim green space from the public sphere and wall it off behind guards and fences. It’s not an egalitarian or democratic impulse.

I for one, am unshocked. These folks have a much higher opinion of their democratic impulses than is justified by their actual behavior.

[Update a couple minutes later]

An Instapundit emailer has an amusing suggestion:

Funny, isn’t it, how during the Bush Administration, the New York Times and the “mainstream” news organizations spilled national security secrets on a whim, but Journolist is a sacrosanct temple of secrets. The CIA should run all secret programs from within a “tea party” protest, it will guarantee a media blackout.

And note, we’re discussing all this stuff, making the sausage, in public.

Gerard van der Leun isn’t:

The death of the P.I. and its “life in death” on the Web is only the second in a trend that will grow. And as the other papers fail into the Web we will hear, again and again, about the Internet, about Craigslist, about The Drudge Report, and a hundred other reasons these papers are dead. What we will never hear is that their editorial policies and news slanting were part and parcel of their demise. We will never hear about the willed insults, slights, and snubbing of fully half of their potential circulation pool. Journalists and editors write a lot about “taking personal responsibility” when it comes to others. You never hear them write that about themselves. There’s no mea culpa among liberal newspaper journalists these days. There’s only “The Internet ate my newspaper.”

It could apply to a lot of the corpses.