Politics and other nightmares

I know I've read scarier paragraphs; I just can't remember when:

The spotlight on Trig Palin at the GOP convention, writes Michael Gerson, comes at a time when we need to have a civil-rights debate about those who are born "less than perfect." Of the cases of Down syndrome diagnosed by prenatal testing each year, about 90 percent are eliminated by abortion. And the American College of Obstetricians recently recommended universal early testing for Down syndrome, not just for older women. Some say increased screenings will reduce the number of Down syndrome births to fewer than 1,000 a year, compared to the 5,500 a year we now have:

Guess that silly "Is Sarah Palin experienced enough?" debate is over:

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who flirted with running for president as an independent, tells Newsmax that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is too inexperienced to serve as vice president.

“Now here she is, after not even having been there for two years, she's now going to be the VP!?” asked the 57-year-old actor and former pro wrestler.

No guarantee the the Supreme Court will revisit the spectacularly incompetent 5-4 decision in the Kennedy v. Louisiana case last term, but it has at least set up that possibility:

In a rare move, the Supreme Court said it might reconsider its June decision that struck down the death penalty for crimes that fall short of murder, after a law blog revealed that the government left out a fact that would have bolstered its argument that executions for such offenses are constitutional.

Dismaying evidence that those on the left are very unclear on the constitutional concept:

While 82% of voters who support McCain believe the justices should rule on what is in the Constitution, just 29% of Barack Obama's supporters agree. Just 11% of McCain supporters say judges should rule based on the judge's sense of fairness, while nearly half (49%) of Obama supporters agree.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has some good ideas for prodding our public universities to emphasize graduation instead of just trying to boost admission. We're 10th in the nation in the percentage of high school graduates who go right to college but only 27th in the percentage who graduate in four years. This, though, is perhaps the most interesting idea:

Let's just savor the moment:

In a moment of bipartisan unity, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama will come together at Ground Zero in New York City on Thursday to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The two campaigns issued a rare joint statement on Saturday announcing the plans of the Republican and Democratic rivals. They also will appear together at a forum later that day at Columbia University.

Poor Ralph Nader. Once, he mattered. Now, he's reduced to appearing at a Cracker Barrel in northwest Indiana:

These days, the 74-year-old champion for the people looks like just another old suit on a dusty hanger in the back of a long-forgotten closet, both figuratively and literally.

A representative of Gov. Mitch Daniels' office says Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson is making a "political attack," which is pretty hard to refute. Running for governor is a political act, isn't it?

Long Thompson is calling on the Governor to release travel records.  She claims the Governor has used state airplanes and other vehicles for personal and political use.

[. . .]

Stay calm, partisans. I'm linking to this New York Times article on Barack Obama not for any political reason but just because of an interesting word use:

FLINT, Mich.