It was getting a little crazy updating the original thread so here's the latest:

Several upscale hotels (frequented by westerners), a hospital, a train station and a police station were attacked in a coordinated effort that has been going on for about 4 hours and is continuing at the moment.

The cities top anti-terrorist cop is dead and several of his top officers are have either been killed or wounded.

Broadcast reports say 80 are dead and 200 900 wounded but that's likely to increase.

National anti-terror troops have moved into the area, including at least one of the hotels where hostages are being held.

Americans and British were targeted and thought to be among the hostages.

Benson provided a link to an Indian broadcast network that is live streaming their coverage.

"Large blast" reported at Hotel Oberoi. The terrorists were thought to have had a large amount of explosives and the army was on the scene. Not sure what it means yet.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:55 AM | Comments (233)
Post contains 173 words, total size 1 kb.

Or, rather, be acknowledged by the counters as having won the recount, which is always the more difficult part for Republicans. Somehow, in close races, Democrats always find more votes than we do.

Maybe not this time -- Coleman's still ahead by 172 votes with 74% of the recount complete, and Franken partisans' attempt to expand the "recount" to reconsidering already-disqualified ballots has been rejected.

Coleman has occasionally earned the RINO label. Anyone want to trade a RINO for Al Franken? What we actually need is more conservatives, not fewer moderates. We need greater numbers in absolute terms of both -- let's not just attempt to change the ratio between them of a dwindling absolute number.

So says Jim DeMint:

Now, there are some people who believe we need to purge certain parts of the Republican Party -- say, moderates or social conservatives. Is that something we should consider?

....No, I think a lot of Republicans we call moderates believe in the same principles we do, but their constituencies are a little different and sometimes the way our policies are presented by Republicans who are conservative like me are seen as "single issue" or things that don't relate to their part of the country.

What we do need to do is recruit the best candidates we can for positions. We need to equip our candidates with the core principles of the Republican Party that they can translate for their constituents in a way that inspires them.

So, I am not trying to divide the party between moderates and conservatives. But, ...those of us who believe in these core principles do need to talk to our colleagues, talk to a national audience, and show some of the folks here who are not voting like I am that these are winning ideas. If we take them boldly to the American people, they will send us back to office.

More: Almost 200 votes with 80% in-- Franken's numbers are not going the right way.

But check out this ominous twist:

Perhaps the most intriguing wrinkle to consider when looking at possible litigation is the makeup of the canvassing board. Minnesota Supreme Court justices Eric Magnuson and G. Barry Anderson are both serving on the panel. This means that they would need to recuse themselves from any litigation related to the senate recount that comes before the state’s top court. Given that both were GOP appointees, this would seem to be an unwelcome development for the Coleman campaign. “It gets two potentially partisan Republicans off, although I don’t think they’re that partisan myself,” Schultz says.

Posted by: Ace at 11:03 AM | Comments (39)
Post contains 441 words, total size 3 kb.

55 Back to 80 dead and 200 wounded seem to be the most common figures at the moment (3:10 eastern) but it seems likely both will go up.

Top anti-terrorist cops have been wounded or killed. The army and navy have been put on alert to help the overwhelmed local cops and national anti-terrorist troops are moving in.

Heartbreaking...Indian news is showing the city's top anti-terror squad cop gearing up to go in. Minutes later he was dead. All too reminiscent of the photos of NYC cops and firefighters going to their duty and save others only to be killed by sub-human terrorists.

Awful, just awful.

Indian Network News Stream (thanks to Benson)

The reporter at the IBL stream (India TV network) just said that gunmen at one of the hotels attacked specifically demanded room numbers of Americans and that Americans are being held hostage.

It's 1:30 in the morning there and this has been going on for hours. It's obviously a chaotic situation and lots of information may not pan out but that's what they are reporting now.

Westerners definitely are targets.

Two terrorists carrying guns tonight took 15 people, half of them foreigners, hostage on the roof of the luxury Taj Hotel, one of the
hostages who managed to escape said.

...Replying to a question, Patel said the terrorists wanted to know if any one of the hostages was carrying American and British passports.

They clearly wanted foreigners, he added.

The hostage situation at one or more of the hotels is on going.

Original post:
There's been a series of terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai.

Terror struck the country's financial capital late on Wednesday night as coordinate serial explosions and indiscriminate firing rocked
eight areas across Mumbai including the crowded CST railway station, two five star hotels--Oberoi and Taj-- leaving 16 persons dead and 50 injured. ( Watch )

Armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, a couple of terrorists entered the passenger hall of CST and opened fire and threw grenades, Mumbai General Railway Police Commissioner A K Sharma said.

The terror strike which began at 10:33 PM at Chhatrapathi Shivaji Terminus(CST), formerly known as the Victoria Terminus(VT), claimed 10 lives in the premises of the station alone, police said.

Three persons were killed in a bomb explosion in a taxi on Mazegaon dockyard road and an equal number were gunned down at Taj Hotel. The victims in the hotel were its employees.

The lobby of the Oberoi hotel was on fire and the hotel evacuated, eyewitnesses said.

Maharashtra DGP A N Roy said tonight's attack in "at least seven places" is a "terror strike."

Posted by: DrewM at 09:54 AM | Comments (139)
Post contains 644 words, total size 5 kb.

It's a ridiculously slow day, so here's one of those damn lists to discuss.

Most shows don't really have theme songs like they used, apparently they take up time that can be better spent fast forwarding my DVR on commercials.

Of course the list is all wrong. Below the fold are three that are on the list but should be at the top.

Thanks to Dirty Harry's Place where I originally found it. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 09:13 AM | Comments (89)
Post contains 102 words, total size 2 kb.

The focus is on subways and trains.

Law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com, the plot involved a "Madrid-like attack," a reference to the synchronized bombing of the commuter rail system in Spain in March 2004 that killed 191 people.

Following the public release of the warning by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, officials in Washington made efforts to dampen public concern.

"There is nothing concrete to suggest this plot ever went beyond the aspirational or talking stage," said a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence that led to the warning.

Law enforcement officials told ABCNews.com the information was based on an FBI source who has proved "reliable and knowledgeable in the past."

Officials told ABCNews.com unspecified new information in the last 48 hours led to the public warning "out of an abundance of caution."

If you're heading to the city, expect to see lots of cops.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:29 AM | Comments (50)
Post contains 164 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:50 AM | Comments (52)
Post contains 8 words, total size 1 kb.

A provision prohibits any Representative or Senator from taking an executive job whose "emoluments" (salary, most importantly) were raised during her term.

The last Congress improved cabinet pay. Ergo, Clinton cannot serve, nor any other Senator.

The thing is, this has happened before, during Nixon's term; but in that case his Senator-turned-AG took the previous salary so that he didn't receive any additional "emolument." But constitutional scholars think that's a nonsense evasion, and defies the letter of the constitution (which prohibits anyone from taking a position whose salary they've increased, not from merely receiving that salary).

No lesser constitutional light than Senator-Kleagle Robert Byrd said so in the seventies.

Posted by: Ace at 10:33 PM | Comments (69)
Post contains 135 words, total size 1 kb.

I've often wondered, what exactly is the criteria for breaking into the upper echelons of corporate America?

Shrewd business sense?

Superior people skills?

Given the past decade of perplexing business moves by so many large corporations, I can't say for sure if those are important. Apparently, what is important is the ability to take a glaringly obvious statement and refashion it into a more wordy glaringly obvious statement.

Take for instance the following declarative: "We screwed the pooch."

more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 10:00 PM | Comments (25)
Post contains 321 words, total size 2 kb.

Justice Richard Sanders of the Washington Supreme Court heckled AG Mukasey, yelling, "Tyrant, you are a tyrant" minutes before Mukasey collapsed (there is no connection between the heckling and the collapse, BTW). Sanders is a libertarian member of the Federalist Society.

Something tells me we're not dealing with the sharpest legal mind. This is from his non-apology:

The program provided no opportunity for questions or response, and I felt compelled to speak out. I stood up, and said, “tyrant,” and then left the meeting. No one else said anything. I believe we must speak our conscience in moments that demand it, even if we are but one voice.

I hope those who know my jurisprudence will agree that to truly love the Constitution is to uphold it, to speak out for it, not just in times of peace and prosperity, but also in times of chaos and crisis.

Social maladjustment. Impulse control issues. Self-serving recharacterization of facts. And a tautology: "to truly love the Constitution is to uphold it." You are a credit to your kind, Judge Sanders. Commenters may decide whether I'm referring to judges, libertarians, or both.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:06 PM | Comments (80)
Post contains 209 words, total size 1 kb.

Precautionary, negative tests so far.

The lady is 83 years old. Said she'd had some "pain" for about a week.

I think maybe I complain too much.

Best wishes.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:38 PM | Comments (24)
Post contains 35 words, total size 1 kb.