NOW THAT the 'debt crisis' is over, the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne is in full spin mode again.

[Obama] believes his old speech declaring there is neither a red America nor a blue America, and he trusted his capacity to bring left and right together — an imprudent presumption, given the nature of the current GOP.

See? It's the Republicans' fault -- never mind that the President's approval rating is below 40%. Somehow I have a hard time wrapping my mind around Dionne's evident assertion that over 60% of the populace are theos evil Tea Party Republicans.

STARBUCKS CEO urges other CEOs to stop donating to U.S. political campaigns. What I find amusing is that "In 2000 Schultz donated $50,000 to the DNC, and since has donated thousands to Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, President Barack Obama, then presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards...."

NANNY STATE MADNESS: "When California’s elected officials come back from their month-long recess they face a mountain of proposed legislation (almost 900 bills are lined up and waiting), including a new law (SB432) that would require hotels to eliminate flat sheets. Not having fitted sheets on hotel beds would now be a crime in California. This is not a joke...."

FLAMEOUT: 'Car of the Future' crashes in the present.

THAT LITTLE? Study finds women gossip five hours a day.

THAT'S SOOO 2008. Paul Krugman: What this economy needs is a space alien invasion!

THE OBAMA BUS TOUR: "A Big Ol' Hunk of Nothing on Two Thick Slices of Nada."

ROBERT REICH: Obama's policies "are just not big enough to make much of a difference." I'm surprised -- Obama has policies?

HOW ABOUT A DEPARTMENT OF (MY) JOB?

STOP CODDLING THE SUPER-RICH. Warren, you and your fellow millionaires and billionaires can always write a check to the Treasury. Have you?

OBAMA EMBARKS on job-saving tour. Yeah, his job.

LET'S NOT REDUCE THE DEFICIT; let's redistribute it.

HOPE YOUR BACKYARD GARDEN IS DOING BETTER THAN MINE: CAFE standards for big rigs.

HARRY REID: Yep… That Tea Party’s Going Away Any Day Now....

Reid could speed up the process by 4 years by resigning now.

OBAMA IN WONDERLAND: It's a warship, stupid.

A LESSON FOR THE WILLFULLY IGNORANT: Corporations are people, too.

From the comments: "The Mittster meant that all corporations are made up of people: their employees and owners (who usually overlap substantially). People like to talk about corporations as if they’re some nefarious exogenous force from beyond the moon, but that’s just wrong. Romney’s correct; corporations aren’t just people: in the age of mass investing, corporations are us."

EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK ....

To any environmentally conscious American, building the Keystone XL oil pipeline doesn’t sound like a great deal: a new pipeline that would transport dirty tar sands crude from Canada, over the Great Plains and to the Gulf Coast. Why would America “double down” on Canadian oil, when it takes more water and energy — which means more pollution — to extract? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will decide before the end of the year whether to approve the project, has to answer that question.

Here’s what she should say: Even if the U.S. government adopts stringent policies to cut oil use, the United States will be dependent on crude for decades. Oil demand across the world, meanwhile, is rising, which applies upward pressure on prices — and makes it economical to extract oil from Canada’s tar sands. Canada will produce its oil. We will burn a lot of it, no matter what, because there’s still spare capacity in existing U.S.-Canada pipelines. But when Canada produces more oil than it can send south, the Canadians won’t just leave it in the ground; they will ship it elsewhere. And America won’t be kept from importing and refining more low-grade crude oil; the United States will just get it from the Middle East, the Energy Department has concluded.

Washington Post editorial, linked from Hot Air.

The Hot Air website also has a three part series on the Canadian oil sands, well worth reading.

WAS IT REALLY only 832 days ago?

Linked from the PJ Tatler.

THEIR PROJECTION IS ASTONISHING: "Much of the [Democrats'] criticism is focused on describing the [Republican presidential] candidates as lackeys to the Tea Party, which establishment Democrats have classified as right-wing zealots bent on destroying the U.S."

HEALTH TIP: Walk or bike to work. Right ... 29.6 miles (each way).