Update 8:30pm MT: Pictures via NYC Shopping Guide. They are for real, the LA Times and the NY Daily News have them too. Chelsea's dress is by Vera Wang, Hillary wore Oscar de la Renta.

Chelsea Clinton is married. Via the New York Times, [More...]

It's not easy finding a flattering picture of Hillary Clinton in the dress she wore last night to Chelsea Clinton's pre-wedding dinner. But she and Bill are definitely the proud parents today, and Congratulations, Chelsea and Marc. (Update: Found a better photo.)

As always, Bill Clinton draw a crowd:

[More...]

President Obama was given a pop culture test on The View this week. He knew Lindsay Lohan was in jail, but said he didn't know who Snooki was.

”Should Snooki run as mayor of Wasilla?” And he replied, “I’ve got to admit, I don’t know who Snooki is.”

But, at the White House Correspondents dinner, he knew who she was. In a quip about the new tax on tanning beds law, he said:

“This next provision (in the health care bill) is called the Jersey Shorah. It reads, ‘The following individuals shall be excluded from the indoor tanning tax within this bill: Snooki, JWOWW, The Situation and House minority leader John Boehner.”

Snooki meanwhile isn't thrilled about Obama either. On the season premiere of Jersey Shore Thursday night, she said she switched to spray tanning because of Obama and his tax. [More...]

The Multnomah County Oregon District Attorney's office says no charges will be filed against Al Gore as a result of the allegations of the masseuse who filed a complaint against him.

"Ms. Hagerty’s detailed statement however, is insufficient to support a criminal charge given other contradictory evidence, conflicting witness statements, credibility issues, lack of forensic evidence and denials by Mr. Gore."

Here's the DA's memo. The deficiencies in the case: [More...]

I'm hearing that the jury foreman in the trial of Rod Blagojevich and his brother Robert Blagojevich is #135, described by Time Magazine (which doesn't state he's the foreman) as:

Juror 135: Japanese-American male, senior citizen. He was born in California's Manzanar internment camp in 1944, where many Japanese Americans were imprisoned during WW II. The retired former videotape librarian served as a Marine in Okinawa and is a Vietnam veteran. His wife was a Chicago public-school teacher. He once served on a jury that reached a verdict. He said that he considers all that he's heard before the trial on the Blagojevich case — on both sides — to be hearsay.

Robert Blagojevich has a distinguished military background. Maybe, if the foreman doesn't like hearsay (and remember, the government didn't call Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, Jesse Jackson, Jr. or Rahm Emanuel) he won't credit what others said about them. Robert did testify, and by the accounts I've read, was very credible.

One thing I haven't seen much reporting on is how the individual jurors reacted to the testimony and closing arguments. That may be because so few reporters were in the actual courtroom, as opposed to the media overflow room, which just had audio. So it's too soon to say whether Juror #135 as foreman gives either brother a boost, but it could be a good sign, particularly for Robert.

Atrios:

Everything Liberal Activists Do Is Wrong And Destructive

That's the message I've been hearing from the Very Serious People ever since I started paying attention. I don't know the best way to get more liberal policies and more liberal people in office, but I also don't think the fortunes of Obama and Democrats depend much on how loudly I clap. More than that, if the volume of my clapping is that important then people should be spending a bit more time and money ensuring that I've got an adequate supply of hand lotion to keep my hands in peak clapping form.

(Emphasis supplied.) Show me the liberal hand lotion!

Speaking for me only

NYTimes:

The United States economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter, after expanding a revised 3.7 percent in the previous three months, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. [. . .] Growth in consumer spending, which is usually a leading indicator of a recovery in part because it accounts for such a large share of the economy, has been leveling off. It grew at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the second quarter, after an annual increase of 1.9 percent in the previous quarter.

The economy is in serious trouble. Will the Beltway wake up to this fact? The Fed seems to be waking up, but what about the President and the Congress? Can you spell double-dip?

Speaking for me only

Chris Bowers asks "Does anyone here think that working to stop GOP from destroying the filibuster in 2005 was still a good idea?"

The first problem with this question is that the GOP did not try to destroy the filibuster - they tried to destroy the judicial filibuster, arguing that it violated the Constitution. They would not have touched the legislative filibuster.

The second problem with this question is Bowers not imagining what a GOP President and GOP Congress would have achieved with the elimination of the filibuster. You thought the actual Bush tax cuts were bad? They would be TWICE as bad without the filibuster. And twice as hard to undo as they would have been passed in regular order, meaning that to undo them would require passage of new legislation.

You can be for eliminating the filibuster on principles of democracy, as Ezra Klein is. But you can not be against the filibuster, as Chris Bowers is, based on advantage to Democrats and progressives.

What goes around comes around.

Speaking for me only

Aspen does not allow undercover operations. As I've written before, Sheriff Candidate Joe DiSalvo would keep that policy.

At a debate last night between the three candidates vying for Pitkin County Sheriff, two said they would reverse the policy. Candidate Rick Magnuson, who as I've written before, would make a terrible Sheriff in my view, said:

He pinned the valley’s suicide rate, which is twice the state average, on lax enforcement of drug laws. Magnuson lamented the policy of DiSalvo’s law enforcement agency, which also does not permit undercover sting operations to bust drug dealers, saying it’s something he would like to change.

The third candidate, an ex-cop in Florida and New York, wants to bring in big city cops to Aspen.

DiSalvo is sticking to his guns, and the policies of outgoing Sheriff Bob Braudis [More...]:

Mr. Obama’s attempts to avoid confrontation have been counterproductive. His opponents remain filled with a passionate intensity, while his supporters, having received no respect, lack all conviction. And in a midterm election, where turnout is crucial, the “enthusiasm gap” between Republicans and Democrats could spell catastrophe for the Obama agenda.

Who could have predicted?

Speaking for me only

The jury now wants transcripts of the entire trial, and the judge has agreed, although they will have to ask for them by witness name.

Rod Blagojevich objected, Robert Blagojevich and the Government did not.

The Judge has also denied Rod Blagojevich's last motion for mistrial based on closing arguments. [More...]

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

-Louis D. Brandeis, Olmstead vs. United States, 1928

WaPo:

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval.

Matt Yglesias writes:

New York Times:

On Thursday, James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, warned that the Fed’s current policies were putting the American economy at risk of becoming “enmeshed in a Japanese-style deflationary outcome within the next several years.”

[. . .] Mr. Bullard had been viewed as a centrist and associated with the camp that sees inflation, the Fed’s traditional enemy, as a greater threat than deflation. But with inflation now very low, about half of the Fed’s unofficial target of 2 percent, and with the European debt crisis having roiled the markets, even self-described inflation hawks like Mr. Bullard have gotten worried that growth has slowed so much that the economy is at risk of a dangerous cycle of falling prices and wages.

It may be late, but if the Fed is prepared to understand the dire straits of the economy, that is welcome news. Now, if only the Congress and the President could join the battle to save the economy.

Speaking for me only

Here is a winning strategy, calling folks who are disappointed with the Democrats stupid:

The Stupidity of Liberal Apathy

Jonathan Cohn

This seems totally nuts, purely on the merits. Obama and the Democrats passed a major stimulus that cut taxes for the middle class and invested heavily in public works. They saved the auto industry, created a new regulatory framework for the financial industry, and enacted comprehensive health care reform. Compromises watered down each of these initiatives, to say nothing of the ideas (climate change!) that aren’t going to pass. And still this was the most productive liberal presidency in a generation or maybe two. But liberal ambivalence isn't just foolish substantively. It's also foolish strategically.

(Emphasis supplied.) You know what is foolish strategy? Calling people you are trying to persuade foolish. Leave aside for a moment Cohn's thesis that if you do not agree with him about the Dems, you are stupid. Think about the "strategery" of attacking people you are trying to persuade as stupid.

First rule for Dems, do not hire Jon Cohn as a political consultant. That whole "the beatings will continue until morale improves" thing does not work in democracies. See also Kevin Drum.

Speaking for me only

It's a busy day here, so I don't have time to blog about Chelsea Clinton's Saturday wedding (congrats, Chelsea), the no-fly zone over it or Obama not being invited, or tonight's premiere of Season Two of Jersey Shore (no, I won't be watching), whether Ali picked Chris or Roberto or no one (yes, I'm still following the spoilers), or the invitation I received by e-mail to Charlie Rangel's August 11 birthday celebration. (Here's the invite, it's for everyone, and yesterday Rangel tweeted it will be a "go" and there's no deal yet on his ethics charges.)

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.