Apparently we have a military presence in Somalia? Why wasn't I notified?

Car loan delinquencies have hit a 17-year high . Will the auto industry going to have the same problems as the housing industry?

Happy May Day!

Sens. McCain and Clinton are supporting a gas tax moratorium, but will the moratorium actually lower prices ?

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine says he's open to taxing fast food in order to help raise money for area hospitals.

What else is interesting in the world of politics today?

Basketball playoffs are in full swing -- Lakers sweep Denver, Boston is having surprising trouble with the Hawks, and three teams look to move on tonight, with the must-watch game being Spurs-Suns at 9:30 ET. Open thread...

Happy Monday. Were our regular open threaders burning the candle at both ends over the weekend?

Have your say. Other Moderators may fill in stories at their leisure. I have none today...

Edit by Brendan: Indiana voter ID law gets the ok from SCOTUS, 6-3. I wrote about the background to this case when they agreed to consider it back in September.

In the short space of a few hours, my Google Reader has fed me two quick reactions to Larry Bartels' new book Unequal Democracy .

Both pieces I've read take very quick issue with an incredibly overused, abused and misleading stat: The income shares households in terms of population percentiles.

As Charles commented in the other thread, the verdict in the Bell shooting case is in -- all NYPD detectives acquitted of all charges. I guess firing 50 shots at the unarmed occupants of a car, even stopping to reload, killing one and wounding the other two, doesn't rise to the level of manslaughter if you're a NYC cop and you claim one of the victims "made a sudden move."

Both before and during the trial the victims were attacked, as if their pasts were somehow relevant to whether the police used unnecessary force. Wait, according to the judge they were : Justice Arthur Cooperman said he found problems with the prosecution's case. He said some prosecution witnesses contradicted themselves, and he cited prior convictions and incarcerations of witnesses. He also cited the demeanor of some witnesses on the stand.

Bloomberg's reaction:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement saying, "An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son. No verdict could ever end the grief that those who knew and loved Sean Bell suffer." However, he said, the legal system must be respected. "America is a nation of laws, and though not everyone will agree with the verdicts and opinions issued by the courts, we accept their authority."

Open thread.

N. Koreans taped at Syrian site? - wow, well that is one country that never negotiates in good faith. After so many promises they still behave like a... well Iran. Good job Israel for taking that place out.

Ford surprises with $100 million profit - is Ford starting a comeback? Wish I owned some of their shares in real life instead of just in the virtual :)

Have a great Thursday!

Convincing win for Hillary in PA gives her the momentum (and helps raise cash) but doesn't do much to cut into Obama's delegate lead. Focus now shifts to the May 6 contests in NC (expected Obama victory) and Indiana (competitive).

Petraeus will take over Fallon's job as chief of U.S. Central Command (pending Senate confirmation) and his second in command in Iraq will move up to take Petraeus' current position.

PETA is putting up a $1 million award to go to the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012."

update: more non-primary links from pico:

- Numbers from the Zimbabwe recount are coming in, and it's looking like they're in for a long and painful process. No changes so far in the original results, and if no party claims a decisive victory they may have a complete do-over.

- Bad news for airlines: the big dogs on their way to a merger (Delta and Northwest) are both posting major losses this quarter . They cite the price of fuel. I think it's just 'cause they suck.

- Director Paul Verhoeven ("best known for directing the famous Sharon Stone crotch scene in "Basic Instinct", as the article puts it) has been scandal-less for too long, so an upcoming biography of Jesus should remedy that.

- A Japanese tanker was attacked by Somalian pirates off the coast of Yemen on Monday. Outside of Halloween and Hollywood, pirates are not cool.

Open thread -- what's happening today?

What are you personally doing to make our Earth a better place to live on? Also it is the PA Primary day so please make your predictions. You can also separate your prediction from what you hope will happen today, extrapolating that into what will happen with the Dem race after today.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

We are almost at the PA Primary time! Clinton, Obama take blistering tone in Pa.

Carter: Hamas would accept Israel. But Islamic group casts doubt on his statement - How sweet - MSNBC refers to a terrorist group as a nice Islamic group. Carter achieved the impossible! He got Hamas to say for the thousandth time that if Israel does not surrender they will be pushed into the sea! Great work oh awesome conciliator.

Have a great Monday!

I'm sure there are many interesting things going on, but I have no time to link to any of them. Three more weeks left in the semester, then I will join in the conversation a bit more.

What's new with you?

from pico: I'll throw some fun links out to spark conversation...

Headline of the week: Drunk Russian sleeps off knifing :

A Russian man trying to sleep off a night of after-work drinking failed to notice a six-inch (15-cm) knife in his back - until his wife woke him up.

- A Florida anthropologist claims to reconstruct Neanderthal sounds : "part croaking frog, part burping human."

- Experts predict the world 50 years from now , and it's actually kinda boring.

- The world's oldest-known person turned 115 , and boy does she look sprightly! (If we're all living longer 50 years from now, I'm not all that thrilled unless we also combat the effects of aging.)

- The Congo is dotted with newly discovered villages . Difficult terrain had prevented thorough mapping of the region.

Why is Carter hobnobbing with the exiled terrorist (Hamas) leader ?

Here is a good opinion piece - Newsweek: Obama looking a lot like Kerry in '04 - Can't agree more. His patriotism and judgment are in question after the brilliantly conducted ABC debate :)

Have a great Friday!

A final exciting debate over - what is going to happen in the PA Primary? Is Hillary going to smack Obama down with a double digit win or is it practically all over?

Faithful arrive for Benedict's D.C. Mass - actually it should be interesting to see the Pope in NYC. He sounds like an ok guy, though a bit too frail and probably not long for this earth. Anyone coming out to see him?

Have a great Thursday!

Where to begin?

Let's see. How about Tom Shales at the Washington Post, who said Gibson and Stephanopoulos turned in "shoddy, despicable performances."

Sorry guys, the server was down! Well, Bush hosts pope for birthday party - so that's fun and exciting.

Also the moratorium on lethal injection death penalty is over as the Supreme Court rules that it is constitutional.

Have a great Wednesday!

Drugs are bad... but the drug war is worse.

Beautiful spring day outside, clear blue sky. What's happening?

Done your taxes? Have you seen this one yet? More humor here . Share your own favorites... open thread.

A Clinton campaign office in Indiana was destroyed by fire last night. Fortunately no one was injured.

Oil prices remain high (~$110/barrel) -- from the article, "crude oil's recent run above $100 a barrel has been largely attributed to the steadily depreciating greenback."

The Masters is underway , as Tiger looks to notch his first victory in what he would like to be a sweep of the majors. Open thread -- hope everyone is having a nice Friday.

And first prize is an all-expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world.

Where would you go?

I'd go to the Plain of Jars in the Xieng Khouang plain in the Laotian Highlands of Laos.

It's a place where thousands of giant stone jars are scattered throughout the landscape and no one knows for sure why.

Where would you go?