So, I wrote a tiny jQuery extension that logs the current jQuery selection to the firebug console.

  jQuery.fn.log = function (msg) {
      console.log("%s: %o", msg, this);
      return this;
  };

Now, I can just stuff a call to .log() in the middle of what I’m doing to see what I’m currently addressing. e.g.

  $(root).find('li.source > input:checkbox').log("sources to uncheck").removeAttr("checked");

The nice thing about logging to firebug is that each node becomes clickable in the console, so you can immediately see the context.