ACORN wins a preliminary injunction against the federal law cutting off funding for the group.

You’ve probably seen the stories about the five American Muslim men who were arrested in Pakistan this week after traveling to the country to join up with the jihad. But according to this article in the Wall Street Journal it was all pretty sad sack affair. The five tried to hook up with several Pakistani terrorist groups with at least loose ties to al Qaeda but were consistently rebuffed for either being too lame, too inept or simply for having poor terrorism references.

The first strike out foreshadowed the rest …

A Pakistani intelligence official said the men first tried to join a religious seminary in Karachi that has ties to Islamist militants. But they were turned away because they couldn’t speak Urdu, seemed to have a limited grasp of Islam and didn’t have any “references” from trusted sources, such as other militants or sympathetic imams, the official said.

Even the FBI won’t give them any respect. In an email to Congress, a Bureau representative wrote: “We currently have no information linking them to terrorist organizations and the FBI was looking for them solely because their families were concerned for their safety and sought our assistance” after the five went missing after Thanksgiving.

Joe Biden, at a fundraiser yesterday for Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT): “Chris is getting the living hell beat out of him, the living bejesus beat out of him.”

The one big event on President Obama’s calendar next week before he leaves for climate talks in Copenhagen Thursday is related to the economy.

Obama on Tuesday will speak at Home Depot to detail his pitch to create incentives for people making their homes more energy efficient.

Facebook becomes the new terrain for corporate astroturf campaigns. This time, health care insurers.

I wanted to address this question of what if any meaningful parallels there are between 1994 and the 2010 mid-term elections. The short answer is that I think the parallels are significantly overstated. That doesn’t mean that the Dems couldn’t lose one or both houses of Congress; they could. But if they do it will be for different reasons.

The main cause of the Dems 1994 rout was structural. And most of the other causes, tended to play off or feed off that one, big reason. Read More

I’ve heard other Dems suggest something similar. From TPM Reader JG …

Thought your post enlightening. My thought is that Obama and the Democrats need to rally around the cry, “I don’t want to go back!” Obviously, the economy, 2 wars, a fiscal budget and a general malaise makes it a difficult environment in 2010, and the healthcare and coming climate change debate have been a fiasco for Democrats. The shenanigans of Congress have been made even a cynic, more cynical, but the bottom line is that we need to rally folks around the point that we in some troubled times, but a return to Republican rule would result in even greater pain and problems.

The Italian prime minister was left with a bloodied face after apparently being punched by an unknown assailant following a political rally in Milan.

Blago lawyers want to see FBI interviews with Obama, Jarrett and Emanuel.