Required reading: August

It's good to be finished with the Missouri Bar Exam and back to the real world of practicing law. 

I have no doubt that, regardless of your place on the ideological spectrum, one or more of these links will aggravate you:

First things first: The Wall Street Journal criticizes the administration's capitulation to the far left in hiring special counsel to re-open investigations into allegations of CIA abuse.  I intended on addressing this in my next post, but the Opinion Journal's editorial board does this topic more justice than I'm able to. Frankly, this decision is more of the same from President Obama -- it's either a self-serving attempt to distract Americans from the current administration's failures, or it's just another incredibly stupid political maneuver. Post-partisanship indeed, Mr. President.

Without a doubt, Barney Frank is wrong at least 90% of the time. However, this exchange with one of the "Obama = Hitler" moonbats is brilliant. (Hat tip: The Pajama Pundit)

Additionally, should anyone else desire to equate any past, present or future administration with the Third Reich, I'd direct you to this thoughtful column by Newsweek's Jon Meacham.

Joe Scarborough unloads on Sarah Palin. (Hat tip: The Pajama Pundit) Flip to the 0:53 mark for the exchange between Scarborough and Pat Buchanan. And if we haven't shamelessly linked ourselves enough, my uproarious thoughts on the former governor can be found here.

Political analyst Charlie Cook has some interesting thoughts on the 2010 midterms, forecasting a potential Democrat loss of 20 seats in the House.

Speaking of 2010, early polling indicates that liberal stalwarts Harry Reid and Chris Dodd could be in big trouble ...

... and the Dems could be in danger of losing the president's former seat in Illinois.

RealClearPolitics' Jay Cost says the president blew his mandate.

George Will hits what he calls the administration's "statism."

In case you missed it, the most recent Gallup numbers put the president's approval rating at 51 percent. Check out the tracking graph.

And finally: How many other bands can pull off a 9 1/2-minute instrumental live?