Wednesday link dump: Democrats ruined fried chicken

What KFC can teach us about politics, presidential vacations, Paterson vs. Giuliani, and "leaving" Afghanistan

By Alex Pareene

This is my favorite kind of Corner post: The ones that incoherently blame some private company or industry’s (exaggerated or even imagined) idiocies on, somehow, liberals, political correctness, the gub’mint, etc.
“The president is taking too many vacations!!!” stories are usually bullshit, but for the record, Obama is way behind Bush in terms of vacation days taken so far.
David Petraeus explains his July 2011 Afghanistan “thinning out” strategy.
Kent Conrad will not throw you a party, just send him a damn check anyway.
David Paterson: significantly less of a corrupt asshole than Rudy Giuliani.
Conor Friedersdorf writes a good post on the subject of conservative “elites” celebrating lying propagandists because they’re on their “side.” (And a followup on engaging with angry internet commenters.
Tea Party Republicans in Louisiana hate the constitution!
Matt Bai continues to write dispatches from a weird alternate world where analysts have to invent mystical reasons for the unpopularity of politicians at a time when 20% of the nation doesn’t have a goddamn job and wages have been stagnant for 30 years.
When it comes to the Ground Zero Mosque, I’m no bigot, I just think we should always do whatever 9/11 families want. Which means build the goddamn thing.