Finally received my 10 free copies of my book! No word on the movie rights, though.

Here are some end-of-the-month-sale midday news/views treats:

* Senate invokes cloture on “clean” DHS bill by 68-31 margin; all Dems plus 20 Republicans voted “yea.”

* Obama approval rating has drifted down from mid-February, with Gallup ratio down from 48/48 to 43/51.

* Franklin Graham tells Fox viewers Washington has been “infiltrated by Muslims.” Jesus wept, and not at the Muslims.

* At CPAC, St. Joan of the Tundra says America can, too, kill all its enemies, because we killed all the Nazis. Seriously.

* At the Prospect, Paul Waldman points out that George W. Bush showed all the toughness Republicans are now calling for, and look where it got us.

And in non-political news:

* Aaargh. Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock, for non-Trekkies) dies at 83.

As we break for lunch, we just have to post the video (actually a segment from the variety show Malibu U, which explains the cavorting Beach Hobbits) for the most famous track from Nimoy’s second album, Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy: “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.”

YouTube video

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.