Thursday Links

• Republican Senator Jim DeMint (SC) on Tuesday blamed Democratic “wimps” in Congress for American casualties in Iraq, and cited Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for special censure. This is beyond anything that even Bush and Cheney have ever dared to go. There's a special place in hell for people like DeMint, who, by the way, has never served in the military himself.

• Twenty months after its depleted ranks of soldiers and airmen were pressed into service for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Louisiana National Guard still lacks hundreds of military troop trucks that can handle high water as it faces a new storm season that begins Friday.

• A NYT editorial: The Supreme Court struck a blow for discrimination this week by stripping a key civil rights law of much of its potency. The majority opinion, by Justice Samuel Alito, forced an unreasonable reading on the law, and tossed aside longstanding precedents to rule in favor of an Alabama employer that had underpaid a female employee for years.

• Nike said on Thursday it would improve conditions for its 800,000 workers in factories that make its products by eliminating excess overtime by 2011.