The American Revolution II
Rachel led off with the joyous breaking news that the Obama administration says that it will no longer use the “enemy combatant designation, which the Bush administration used to justify imprisoning people indefinitely without trial. Hooray! Justice! America!

Maybe he’s trying to illustrate the importance of health care reform by giving us all debilitating mood swings.

Rachel Nerds Out Harder Than She’s Ever Nerded
Rachel recognized the Congressional recognition of Pi Day, noting that one of the votes against was due to the reasoning that pi should go on forever.

Sensing that a geek gauntlet had been thrown (it looks a lot like an electrician’s glove), Rachel upped the ante and calculated when Pi Second would be.

Ms. Maddow, I usually have great respect for you and your show, but all this talk about pi is just shameless ratings grabbing. If I see one word about Avogadro Salad Days, I will be forced to consider other networks.

Still Going
After her exhilarating pi rush, Rachel further strengthened her powers by running the MSNBC Election Theme. Did you see her eyes? I’m pretty sure that if she’d tried just as the last note played, she could have broken a brick with her forehead.

Anyway, things are still enjoyably nuts in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Lawyers for Norm Coleman and Al Franken have given their final arguments, and any day now we’ll know who gets to be the second Senator for Minnesota and who gets thrown to the Ice Monsters so that spring may come.

As you may know, Coleman’s campaign had been soliciting heavily for donors to keep the court battle going. Select donors were rewarded with a public acknowledgement of their gifts, complete with their personal information and credit card numbers.

Coleman has made a few dark hints about evil hackers trying to do him political harm, but the supercool Adria Richards of butyoureagirl.com came on the show to simultaneously defuse that rumor and make that one nerve in your cheek start twitching by pointing out that your personal information is in convenient, easy-to-reach places all over the ‘Net.

Ms. Information
Freshman Florida Congressman Bill Posey is a “Birther”. Which sounds like the same thing as a breeder, but really only is about 98.3% of the time.

Birthers don’t believe that President Obama was actually born in the United States, because nobody has ever seen his birth certificate! Except for the part where the State of Hawaii released it online! But that can’t possibly be real, because… Actually, I’m not up on why Birthers don’t think it’s real. A lack of telltale poi stains? Or is it just what the Lectroids from Planet 10 told them, and theirs is not to question why?

Rachel responded with a one-two punch of a genius hyphenate and a Lyndon LaRouche reference. I told you the election theme made her stronger!

She talked about the Jim Cramer–Jon Stewart fight, which she enjoyed as much as you did. No, I don’t mind if you click over there and watch it again.

This Way Out
Rachel knows that nothing fires up your Friday night clubbing like some sobering perspective on the situation in Afghanistan.

Leslie Gelb of the New York Times joined Rachel to make damn sure that you stayed in and listened to that Top 100 Dirges playlist on your iPod instead.

Persian Grapplers
The U.S. participated in a 10-nation wrestling tournament in Iran and I cannot believe that Rachel did not take the chance to mention our disappointed badminton team, who had to fly home with their shuttlecocks in their hands.

Iran won more matches, but they also wrestle under some crazy rules where you can’t jump off of anything or throw chairs.

Hope Floats
Shepard Fairey stopped by! He chatted with Rachel about being brought up on graffiti charges, which sucks in the short-term because he doesn’t seem to have done it, but in the long run probably cements his place in the Outlaw Artist pantheon.

They also talked about the fight over the AP photo by Manny Garcia which, yeah, does look juuuuuust a bit like the Hope poster. I can see both sides of that argument, and it’s making my default Defend the Creative Guy circuits melt.

Cocktail Moment
The Web is 20 years old! Only 25 more years until it starts being mildly less interested in nudity and guys getting racked while trying to skateboard down railings!