Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Six In The Morning by mishima
• Cartnoon by ek hornbeck

Featured Essays for May 28, 2011-

• Eric Cantor Blocks Tornado Relief by Jacob Freeze
• What’s Cooking: Grilled Marinated Sirloin Steak Tips by TheMomCat
• Congressional Game of Chicken: Presidential Recess Appointments by TheMomCat
• Feds issue new guidelines for Trans employees by Robyn
• My Little Town 20110525: Joyce by Translator

DocuDharma

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Suicide bomber kills Afghan police chief, German troops

by Gul Rahim, AFP

48 mins ago

I’m sorry, I’m just not as enthused about Monaco as everyone else.  It’s a short, twisty, narrow course without many opportunities for overtaking.

Those who do like it for reasons other than tradition and glamor, point out that these are just the qualities that make it a great equalizer where more horsepower and superior aerodynamics don’t count for as much to which my reply is- so you’re relying on sheer dumb luck then?

Partisans of McLaren are much encouraged by the tight finish at Catalunya.  People who root for Scuderia Marlboro UPC are encouraged by…

Not much actually.  Their best news is that the rumors flying around Hamilton last week are now swirling around Button.  Otherwise while their team chief is professionally optimistic, Alonso is entirely unhappy with their performance so far and is demanding a faster car.

Moving back to McLaren, the Marlboro Scuderia may be picking up damaged goods (assuming either McLaren driver is insane enough to switch).  Button had a near collision with a forklift as they were setting up their palatial compound and Hamilton is very, very, unhappy with Scuderia Toro Rosso (the Red Bull team with the less reliable and powerful Ferrari engines) and/or Mercedes depending on who you read.

In other off track news, despite Bernie’s naturally dictatorial nature it seems unlikely the Bahrain Grand Prix will be rescheduled.  This has less to do with the protests of human rights organizations or any sympathy for the serfs and is more about scheduling and transportation.  In a story straight out of the PR department, Formula One gets to claim to be environmentally friendly by transferring KERS technology from the Nissan Leaf.  Team Lotus gets to keep their name.

Oh, you want racing news.  Have I mentioned it’s all about the tires?  Pirelli is debuting new Super Softs this weekend which will be mixed with the softs to ensure pit stops and simulate excitement.  Vettel says the Super Softs are good for 23 laps though so who knows?

My prediction?  Yet another snooze fest made exciting by flaming chunks of twisted metal which will be made more numerous by the frequent appearance of the safety car.

As usual, surprising developments below.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Judge rules Mladic fit to face international justice

by Katarina Subasic, AFP

Fri May 27, 10:58 am ET

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Serbia arrests wartime military chief Mladic

by Stephanie van den Berg, AFP

2 hrs 38 mins ago

Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin Law Curbing Unions

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times

Published: May 26, 2011

Ruling that Republicans in the State Senate had violated the state’s open meetings law, a judge in Wisconsin dealt a blow to them and to Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday by granting a permanent injunction striking down a new law curbing collective bargaining rights for many state and local employees.

…

Republican senators asserted that they had enacted the collective bargaining law under emergency conditions, obviating the need to comply with the open meetings law. But Judge Sumi said she found no official evidence of emergency conditions or notice.

…

She (Judge Sumi) said the evidence demonstrated a failure to obey even the two-hour notice allowed for good cause if a 24-hour notice was impossible or impractical.

Perhaps temporarily-

“There’s still a much larger separation-of-powers issue: whether one Madison judge can stand in the way of the other two democratically elected branches of government,” he (Republican Scott Fitzgerald, Senate Majority Leader) said in a statement. “The Supreme Court is going to have the ultimate ruling.”

Even in Connecticut $400,000 a year is wealthy.

Deficit May Snap 12-Year Tax Winning Streak for Top-Earning Americans

By Margaret Collins, Bloomberg News

May 25, 2011 1:57 PM ET

For a married couple with two children in Connecticut, which has the third-highest state and local tax burden in the U.S., the increase in rates Obama has proposed, along with levies from health-care reform, mean their tax bill may jump to $142,160 in 2013 from $126,410 this year, or 12.5 percent, according to an analysis Fleming ran for Bloomberg News.

That’s based on $485,000 in earnings, $2,000 in interest on investments, $3,000 in dividend income and $10,000 in long-term capital gains, and the following deductions: $20,000 in mortgage interest and charitable donations of $10,000, said Fleming, who works for PwC’s private company services tax group in Boston and Hartford, Connecticut.

…

Under the tax-cut compromise passed in December, individuals generally may gift up to $5 million during their lifetime without paying tax. That threshold will revert to $1 million in 2013 unless Congress acts.

“Move that $5 million now to your children or grandchildren to lock that in if you’re afraid that will go away,” Beerman said. That way the appreciation on those assets is out of an estate, Beerman said.

…

The biggest federal tax breaks for individuals include those for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, state and local taxes, incentives for retirement savings and the exclusion for employer-provided health care, said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte Tax LLP in Washington. Each of them would be “politically pretty toxic” to eliminate or reduce, Stretch said.

Phasing out the mortgage interest deduction would increase federal revenue by $214.6 billion over the next 10 years, according to estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation in a March report by the CBO. Curtailing deductions for charitable giving would raise an estimated $219 billion over the next decade, the CBO study said.

Did I mention their $400,000 McMansion?

Never let it be said I’m above poking a little fun at my Viking relatives.

It seems that in addition to producing racist anti-Muslim cartoons, Denmark has decided to ban Marmite.

What you have to understand about this is that Marmite and it’s Australian cousin Vegamite are basically expended Brewer’s Yeast and they taste… well… let’s just say you have to acquire one.

Some will point out that it has high levels of umami and there are other foods that require a ‘willing suspension of disbelief‘ like natto and garum.

The reason they’re banning it is because it’s fortified with extra vitamins which, as with riding your dog like a small pony, IS FROWNED ON IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT!  Thank goodness I was able to hide this computer under my blanket so I can keep track of my blog accounts.

The advertising says you either love it or hate it, fans are up in arms ready to smuggle it in like Reservation cigarettes from Germany and Sweden and are calling for retaliatory bacon boycotts.

You’re wondering about the hat.  It’s what Vikings wear to keep the CIA mind control microwaves out.

• 10 things you didn’t know about Marmite

Now, if it were Spam-