These congressional generic numbers are really starting to look bleak for the Dems. See full numbers here.

Welcome to the New York Dolls strip club, about a block from the proposed site of the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center.

See that and other scenes from the neighborhood in today’s TPM slideshow.

Guess who:

To some she is a self-made woman and a global superstar.

To critics she’s an “angry black woman” ashamed of her country.

Now she’s been called a modern-day Marie Antoinette.

Michelle Obama.

TPM Reader DE says the “Ground Zero Mosque” issue is just another replay of Republicans doing to Democrats what Lucy does to Charlie Brown with the football:

I can’t help but think that this whole mosque controversy is explicable in a lot simpler political terms than the explanations we have been seeing from pundits and commentators, i.e., that Republicans are promoting a clash of civilizations, shifting away from George W. Bush’s position on Islam, etc.

Republicans ALWAYS run on symbolic issues. Their substantive positions are not popular. People don’t like tax cuts for the rich, they don’t like endless military commitments, they don’t like corporatism, they don’t like lax regulations, etc. So Republicans always pick some symbolic, unimportant issue and make it sound like it’s the most important thing in the world. This is nothing more than the flag factory, the swift boats, and Reverend Wright all over again.

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Harry Reid spox says the senator is cool with the First Amendment and all that jazz, but the “Ground Zero Mosque” should be built some place else:

The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Sen. Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else. If the Republicans are being sincere, they would help us pass this long overdue bill to help the first responders whose health and livelihoods have been devastated because of their bravery on 911, rather than continuing to block this much-needed legislation.

An interesting chart showing how the number of record daily high temperatures in the U.S. now far exceeds the number of record daily lows
(via NYT): Read More

Would it be undemocratic simply to declare Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) the winner in his reelection bid and put an end to the Alvin Greene saga? It’s just too painful to watch. Seriously.

Photos of the site for the proposed Muslim community center and of the neighborhood in the general vicinity of the World Trade Center site:

Newt Gingrich plays the Nazi card: “You know, Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There’s no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.”

TPMmuckraker informs Orly Taitz of the Supreme Court’s rejection of her appeal and gets her reaction. Shorter Taitz: Mandela faced setbacks, too.