When is he moving to Alabama?

He sounds well-qualified for Republican primaries.

An Italian court has accused the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his lawyers of tampering with evidence by paying off witnesses in a trial related to his notorious "bunga bunga" parties and has asked prosecutors to investigate the possible corruption of a judicial process.

The accusation in the court's ruling could lead to a new legal headache for Berlusconi, who this week was kicked out of parliament for at least six years because of another, unrelated problem: a tax fraud conviction.

The court suggested Berlusconi paid off the would-be showgirls who attended his dinner parties so they would play down the sexually charged nature of the evenings when they testified. He did so, the judges asserted, because he was facing related charges in another case involving accusations that he paid for sex with an underage prostitute who was also a "bunga bunga" guest.

Citing testimony and telephone wiretaps, the Milan court said Berlusconi convened about a dozen young women at his Milan mansion on 15 January 2011 to meet his lawyers after the women's homes were searched as part of a police investigation into the parties.

From then on, the judges wrote, the women each received €2,500 (£2,000) every month from Berlusconi and subsequently offered unusually identical testimony in court, denying the parties had sexual overtones.

Making this famously fake video more accurate than ever.

So close...

Looks like Comet Ison will not end up being a spectacular show as it emerges its solar encounter quite damaged. Stupid Sun...giver of all life...but destroyer of cool comets.

Bill Kristol just came out for invading it. Have at it Bill, get working on that rocket there and take care of it.

Forget taking the Lions and the Points

It's Thanksgiving, you have another more personal spread to work on. And remember at least you are not Mike Huckabee's tailor. But you could be his radio network programmer.

Mike Huckabee's radio show is coming to an end. “The Mike Huckabee Show on radio, which was heard 3 hours a day on over 200 radio stations across the country since April of 2012 will conclude its run at the end of the final show on Thursday, December 12,” Huckabee wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. Hr thanked the affiliate stations who aired his show, his listeners and Cumulus Media, adding that he and the company "mutually agreed to conclude" to end the show.

Just like today Mike and his wife will mutually agree that four servings of mashed potatoes is enough. Hard to believe a show with such trenchant analysis as this, is unable to survive.

Mike Huckabee labels Lara Logan a ‘hero journalist’ for discredited Benghazi report

But as you are not Mike Huckabee, have a great Thanksgiving...and if you want nostalgia, you might consider recreating the Thanksgivings of your youth. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Every classic Thanksgiving rolled into one...

This is brilliant and deadly accurate.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Way to slander 'em when they're down fellas

While the Catholic Church actually talked about the poor like you might expect a humanitarian organization to do...another more usually reliable group decided not to pay much attention.

The World Health Organisation has been forced to retract claims that crisis-hit Greeks are intentionally injecting themselves with the HIV virus to collect state benefits almost two months after the shocking allegation was revealed in a report that triggered global media coverage. Blaming the mistake on an "editing error", the Geneva-based body issued an unreserved apology on Tuesday, saying it had been wrong to claim that "about half" of the debt-stricken country's new HIV infections had been self-inflicted.

Two months? Way to get on that folks. Beaten even by a 60 Minutes producer.

Of course, corrections are only for some folks -- better to perpetuate lies that keep you employed as a pundit.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Two days to Perihelion!

Will Comet Ison survive and give us an awesome sight to see at sunset (or will it be sunrise)in December? Or is it gonna disintegrate (it comes without 3/4 of a million miles of the Sun...and relatively that's damn close)? Until then, here is is as it appeared recently just before sunrise (captured in the Canary Islands).

The most modern 'Murican story EVER!

Amazingly, it happened in my home state, not Texas.

Centerville Police have made an arrest in connection with the gun shot fired inside of the Walmart Supercenter in Centerville Sunday afternoon. Christopher William Strube, 50 of Centerville, was arrested and charged with discharging a weapon within the city limits of Centerville. Police made the arrest at approximately 9 a.m. Monday morning. According to a press release from the Centerville Police Department late Monday morning, Strube said he was carrying a .45-caliber gun in his pants pocket. He stated that a bottle that he was carrying hit the handgun and caused it to fire one round. The press release continues to say that Strube advised that after the gun went off he paid for his items and left the store.

A bottle of what? I think it would be irresponsible not to speculate. Note that AFTER his gun went off, he continued shopping. You don't even do that at an adult bookstore. *rim shot*

Cinema Veritank

Hard to believe a movie produced by the fertile mind of Rick Santorum would be a critical and commercial flop.

The power of prayer has failed to save The Christmas Candle, the new release from Rick Santorum's faith based film studio, EchoLight.

The Christmas Candle, set in the fictional English village of Gladbury and billed as "a timeless holiday film for the entire family", attracted widespread critical scorn as well as dismal box-office results, having grossed just over $1.6m (£988,000) after two weeks on release.

Yes, nothing spells box-office like Dickens without the, uh, Dickens but all the schmaltz as well as a ton of preachiness.

By now it's pretty clear that your openly religious movies make money only when they come with a heavy dose of torture-porn.

If there's a silver lining...okay an additional silver lining...it's that Ted Cruz's "Life with Father" is going to be a very very limited direct-to-video release.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Bibi the Bozo

Gawker found that Netanyahu, or as he is more commonly known among American Conservatives, "the Secretary of State" seems to think a LOT of things are "historic mistakes":

12. This weekend's groundbreaking multilateral agreement with Iran to shut down that nation's nascent nuclear weapons development program

11. Israel's 2005 agreement to withdraw from its occupation of the Gaza Strip

10. Israel's landmark Oslo Peace Accords between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat

9. Israel's landmark 1949 Armistice Agreement

8. Israel's landmark 1967 Six-Day War Agreement

7. Not bombing Iran in 2012

6. Not making the red line in his bomb diagram bigger

5. Making this gesture and this one

4. His first marriage

3. His second marriage

2. His third marriage

1. The whole doge meme

Just like "Jeopardy"

Wolf Blitzer, genius -- full-stop.

Flagrente Derangedio

Well, as you all know, after five years that clever President Obama finally engaged in 12-dimensional chess -- but not enough to fool John Cornyn.

Nope, Cornyn was on to the attempt of Barack Obama -- and five other nations in addition to Iran -- to agree to a deal JUST TO SAVE "Obamacare".

Thus two long-time wishes of conservatives everywhere have come to fruition.

1. They get to bemoan the continued existence of the underwhelming medical reform legislation they always dreamed of passing, until Democrats passed it.

2. They get to continue to bemoan "appeasing" things like not war via bombing brown people in the name of peace without actually having to do so.

This will not stand, well it may stand, but the dream of bombing the Iranians until the rubble bounces is such a long-standing right-wing wet dream it will not be given up so easily.

And naturally, the conservatives designee as Secretary of State (they consider him more American than the current American President) comes through for them...so to speak.

And, of course, the Democrats have their own enablers.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh C'mon!

Obviously this is all because of gay marriage.

Charles Manson may be getting married -- or at least, that's what one of his biggest fans claims.

"I'll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married," the supposed fiancee, known only as "Star," told Rolling Stone. "I take it very seriously. Charlie is my husband. Charlie told me to tell you this."...

... "Charlie," however, has a different story. "That's a bunch of garbage ... That's trash," Manson told Rolling Stone. "We're just playing that for public consumption."

When Charles Manson is the SANE half of the couple, that's not a good sign.

The more things never change, the more they stay the same

Fresh as yesterday's third page of the business section headlines:

Chiquita Brands International Inc.’s bid to stop the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from releasing documents on payments to Colombian terrorist groups was thrown out of court. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington rejected the company’s argument that the damage it would suffer from disclosure of the records, in a case in Florida connected to the Colombian payments, should bar their release to a public- interest group under the Freedom of Information Act.

Chiquita used to operate as United Fruit Company, one can wonder what could be so worrisome with a glorious history like this?

The Banana Massacre.

Being responsible for the term "Banana Republic".

Pretty much being responsible for the invasion and overthrow of governments who were not sufficiently servile enough to "big Banana".

After a century of this, well, bullshit, they are afraid of what documents may show? Isn't it enough that they can do all this and the story still ends up buried in the business section?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I heartily approve of this ironic turn of events

Oh dear...oh dear, dear, dear.  

Craig Cobb, the self-described white supremacist who seeks to turn Leith, N.D. into an Aryan enclave, got a taste of his own medicine after DNA test results revealed on daytime television that he's part-African.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that a fellow white supremacist targeted Cobb with racially charged graffiti after his appearance on the "Trisha Goddard" show, where a DNA test revealed that he was genetically "14 percent sub-Saharan African." 

I wonder if it was Clayton Bigsby?

You did not truly known boredom until you

Know that this exists...

Million-Dollar Hobby: Inside the World of Big-Money Bridge

And you guessed it...Wall Street Money is behind this.

The International We broke it, you bought it proviso

Yeah, can anyone really blame them?

Representatives of most of the world's poor countries have walked out of increasingly fractious climate negotiations after the EU, Australia, the US and other developed countries insisted that the question of who should pay compensation for extreme climate events be discussed only after 2015.

Sure they are ironically led by China, the world's newest mass polluter, but otherwise, why should the countries who have been most screwed economically by the countries that have done their best to ruin the planet for everyone not expect some form of justice?

Of course, when Europe, the US and Australia say "only after 2015" they really mean "never".

So again, who can really blame them?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Don't worry, FoxNews tells me he'll be even more dangerous armed with Skittles!!!

Just over a week until Turkey Day

And already it will be the best Thanksgiving in years... Even if you are alone.

Oh, and here is the ultimate site for those of you who wish you could see every episode online.

That certainly isn't tea

Glad to see there's no hypocrisy there. Congressman Trey Radel, a tea party freshman lawmaker from Fort Myers, was arrested on Oct. 29 for cocaine possession in Washington, D.C, Politico reported. And to think, just a hooker away from the rock-star lifestyle.

It will be forthcoming...in oblivion

One could say better late than never. One hundred and fifty years ago, give or take a few days, Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address. A local Pennsylvania paper was not impressed.

We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of

As they never said then, "whoopsy!" This week the same paper finally got around to a retraction. In the same vein, we can look forward to about the Spring of 2153 when the remnant of the Washington Post, which no longer is publish in the District of Columbia --as its under water, has Zombie Fred Hiatt do the same for supporting the invasion of Iraq. In between editorials about the need to cut Social Security and Medicare and supporting the latest possible war. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

A little real life salute to Mellonville Mayor Tommy Shanks!

Rob Ford, does his best SCTV impression, with a little extra Johnny LaRue tossed in.

Rob Ford, the embattled mayor of Toronto, was stripped of many of his powers on Monday after a heated city council debate during which he knocked over a woman councillor and heckled members of the public.

In a series of votes, the council voted to cut his office budget by 60%, and allow members of his staff to transfer to the deputy mayor. He will no longer be able to chair the council's executive committee, retaining only his ceremonial powers.

Wonder which part he says is at fault?

As opposed to just general assholery?

Craig Cobb, a white supremacist who recently found out he's part black, was arrested on Saturday according to a report from The Bismark Tribune.

Cobb and fellow neo-Nazi Kynan Dutton were taken into custody after Leith, N.D., residents called 911 to tell police that the men had confronted them with a rifle and a shotgun. The sheriff told the Tribune that the men will be charged with three counts of terrorizing.

Well that seems like Florida justice

Obviously George Zimmerman had to be arrested because this woman apparently was not armed with skittles...and was white.

Well at least reality isn't bothering them

It's a good thing that aside from the occasional report about unemployment and the monthly jobs report ALL economic reporting is based on one thing, and one thing only.

Stocks broke new ground today with the Dow moving past the 16,000-point threshold during intraday trading, before pulling back to finish at 15,975.

Because the economy is so awesomely healthy!

There were nearly 700,000 fewer middle-income households since the began than during the economic crisis, according to new Census Bureau data. The economy has grown more top- and bottom-heavy in 2010 through 2012 as compared to 2007-2009, the data show. Most of the erosion came at the bottom end of the middle-income range. At the same time, the ranks of both upper- and lower-income people swelled by hundreds of thousands

But speaking about such things is simply impolite...no matter which country you are in. The real victims are, as always, the poor oppressed rich.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has told people to stop “bashing” the super-rich, comparing them to hard-pressed minorities like the homeless, Irish travellers or ex-gang members.

The guy with the discount Trump toupee (who isn't actually Trump) is clearly a serious person! [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It's happening! It's happening!

Maybe it won't fizzle out into a giant dud.

A one in a lifetime galactic fireworks display appears to have begun after astronomers confirmed that Comet Ison, dubbed the “comet of the century”, has entered the Earth’s orbit. The comet has dramatically brightened with an outburst of gases in recent days as it draws ever closer to the sun, the Times reported, and if it survives it could be the greatest celestial display in more the 300 years. It is now visible to the naked eye and is expected to continue brightening over the next few weeks until it outshines the moon.

Well, we'll see about that last part...but if you live out in the country you can probably see it in the early morning near Mercury...so aim for 4 a.m. or so.

But most importantly, the checks are still clearing

FIFA, the governing body of international football is one of the the most corrupt sports organization in the world, which is saying something with the International Olympic Committee's having as its secret motto: Higher, Boozier, Unmarked Bills Only. So unsurprisingly this statement...

Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, met the country's emir and declared Qatar was "on the right track" in dealing with workers' rights

Was followed days later by this report:

[Amnesty International's] report, based on two recent investigations in Qatar and scores of interviews, found workers living in squalid, overcrowded accommodation exposed to sewage and sometimes without running water. It found that many workers, faced with mounting debts and unable to return home, have suffered "severe psychological distress", with some driven to the brink of suicide. Discrimination is common, according to the report, which says that one manager referred to workers as "the animals".

But at the end of the day, what do human beings matter, really? The money was placed in the right hands (not the morally right ones, of course). [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I know less about Cricket

Than I know about string-theory in physics...and I know very little about that.  But I love stories like this.

A deafening roar greeted Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday at his home ground in Mumbai as India's favourite son walked out to bat in his farewell Test to a guard of honour from his opponents.

Tendulkar's 200th Test, against West Indies, at the Wankhede Stadium will also be his last, as the Little Master brings the curtain down on a glittering 24-year career at the age of 40.

Only 20 million tried to see his last performance in a stadium the held less than 40,000.

Thank goodness we're on top of this!

Well, this is the opposite of comforting:

"The coldest years now are warmer than the hottest years before 1998." Those are the words of World Meteorological Organization secretary-general Michel Jarraud at the presentation of their latest report.

The WMO report says that, looking at the data from January to September, 2013 will be the seventh warmest year in recorded climate history.

But fortunately we've got just the people you want to handle this kind of problem.

Over 56 percent — 131 members — of the current Republican caucus in the House of Representatives deny the basic tenets of climate science. 65 percent (30 members) of the Senate Republican caucus also deny climate change. What this means is that they have made public statements indicating that they question or reject that climate change is real, is happening, and is caused by human consumption of fossil fuels.

That's really, uh, not awesome, is there an even more depressing kicker?

Congressman Interrupts Climate Hearing To Ask Whether EPA Chief Enrolled In Obamacare

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

America 2013

Officially beyond parody:

According to television station WXII, an employee at a Wilkesboro, N.C. store was talking about guns and the Second Amendment with a customer on Tuesday night. The customer pulled out his handgun, which "accidentally discharged and the shot went through a printer," according to the employee's account to police. The customer fled the store after firing the shot. Police are looking for the male suspect, who is looking at a charge of discharging a firearm within city limits, according to WXII.

How dare they!

Giving your employees Thanksgiving off? Why it's Un'murikan.

“Our employees work especially hard during the holiday season, and we simply believe that they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families,” Paul Latham, the company’s vice president for membership and marketing, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “Nothing more complicated than that.”

Republicans in Congress are going to start demanding Costco be forced to celebrate Thanksgiving in October, like those commie-Canadians.

Land of the Thousands to never be free

Yesterday I wrote about the faux outrage of the membership of certain countries to the rather fauxesque "United Nations Humans Rights Council", noting that the Americans who always need a another reason to vent, just manufactured another, while ignoring their own nation's drone program.

But maybe while we pat ourselves on the back about how "human rightsy" we are, we could look at a few ugly truths at home too.

At about 12.40pm on 2 January 1996, Timothy Jackson took a jacket from the Maison Blanche department store in New Orleans, draped it over his arm, and walked out of the store without paying for it. When he was accosted by a security guard, Jackson said: “I just needed another jacket, man.”

A few months later Jackson was convicted of shoplifting and sent to Angola prison in Louisiana. That was 16 years ago. Today he is still incarcerated in Angola, and will stay there for the rest of his natural life having been condemned to die in jail. All for the theft of a jacket, worth $159.

Jackson, 53, is one of 3,281 prisoners in America serving life sentences with no chance of parole for non-violent crimes. Some, like him, were given the most extreme punishment short of execution for shoplifting; one was condemned to die in prison for siphoning petrol from a truck; another for stealing tools from a tool shed; yet another for attempting to cash a stolen cheque.

Sadly, no one will be surprised to find out the overwhelming majority of these individuals -- the perfect example of individuals deprived of a basic human right, forever -- are non-whites.

But hey, we have every self-justified right to criticize everyone else.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Yeah, and they're sending black helicopters to take your guns

The all-powerful UN is ready to generate those right-wing blog commentaries...like they need a reason:

China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba and Algeria won seats Tuesday on the U.N. Human Rights Council, riling independent human rights groups who said their election undermined the rights watchdog's credibility.

Yeah, how dare those states get seats on a committee whose every word is the opposite of law. That sort of stuff should be reserved ONLY for those states respecting human rights...and who do so by having drones operating over other nations at all times ready to reign fiery death upon random weddings and funerals. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Trolliest Concern Troll that ever Concerned!

OH.

MY.

GAWD-AWFUL!

Well, as long as you guys don't look like assholes...

Hey look...white guys!

And then they went home and touched their small, small, small penises.

"Hey, who cares, we don't represent them!"

The sounds of someone defending hypothetical "small business"* is in the air.

With momentum building at the federal and state level to increase hourly base pay, more than three-quarters of Americans (76%) say they would vote for raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour (it is currently $7.25) in a hypothetical national referendum, a five-percentage-point increase since March. About one-fifth (22%) would vote against this.

That includes 3 out of every 5 Republicans. So you know this is NOT going to be allowed to happen.

*Small Business is defined as Koch Industries.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I'm tellin' ya'

Effective 2004, you can get away with murder if:

A. You are a celebrity; and

B. The Kerning checks out.

The Frightening Shape of things to come

There have been hurricanes throughout recorded history, but their scale seems to be getting greater...better not do something about it. Meanwhile the size of the recent disaster in the Philippines is truly staggering.

As many as 10,000 people are believed dead in one Philippine city alone after one of the worst storms ever recorded unleashed ferocious winds and giant waves that washed away homes and schools. Corpses hung from tree branches and were scattered along sidewalks and among flattened buildings, while looters raided grocery stores and gas stations in search of food, fuel and water.

In...one...city...alone. Here are some places to go to help. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

But the "kerning" is fantastic!

Oh dear, dear, dear, this would never have happened if Morley Safer was a zombie.

CBS' "60 Minutes" announced Thursday night that it's reviewing a controversial Oct. 27 report on the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, to determine if its eyewitness, security officer Dylan Davies, "misled" the network. "60 Minutes" said it had "learned of new information that undercuts" the harrowing account given on air. 

The New York Times reported Thursday that Davies previously told the FBI that he was not at the U.S. compound on the night of Sept. 11, 2012 -- an account that directly contradicts his "eyewitness" statements on air.

Quick, there's a possiblity that peace may break out

You cannot boogie without a boogieman.

A senior Iranian official has claimed a significant step forward at nuclear talks in Geneva, saying Tehran's proposed plan for resolving the decade-long impasse over its atomic programme has been accepted. Abbas Araqchi, the deputy foreign minister, said the six world powers at the talks had "accepted the framework of Iran's proposal". "The aim of both sides is to sign the agreement," he told Iranian journalists after the first session of talks.

We cannot have that!

John Bolton is reiterating his calls for Israel to unleash a military strike against Iran, saying he doesn't "think Israel has much time" to make that "fateful decision" and that ultimately it should "have done this years ago."...

Bolton slammed the Obama administration's policies towards what he called "Iran's nuclear weapons program" as "utterly feckless," and criticized the negotiations the U.S. has undertaken with Iran because they "will lead to a diplomatic victory for Iran."

Yes, a world where ANYTHING that avoids Iran being bombed, is a victory for Iran and hence a loss for Bolton.

With that kind of sober, rational analysis it's no wonder that...

In 2016, the most interesting wild card is former UN Ambassador John Bolton. Bolton's plain spoken "no surrender" approach to America's role in the world has particular resonance with Republicans who will have watched eight years of President Obama's "apology tour" with dismay and distress. Bolton's brand has grown since leaving the Bush administration as Fox News has given him a national audience.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh, I remember the 80s

When you could find a stripmall Typewriter store next to the Blockbuster.

America's Concern Troll

Comes to a dramatic conclusion, 150 years after it was relevant.

Shorter Richard Cohen.

"Slavery bad"

Way to go out on a limb there Chief.

All part of the plan...

How could this end, any other way

Than this?

A Sasquatch hunting expedition in Oklahoma ended in tragedy this weekend when one hunter accidentally shot another in the back. A subsequent investigation led to three arrests: the trigger-happy hunter, the trigger-happy hunter's father, and the trigger-happy hunter's wife.

The incident took place Saturday afternoon in Rogers County. According to Sheriff Scott Walton, two men claim they were hunting the mythical apelike creature when a “barking noise” caused one of the men, 21-year-old Omar Pineda, to turn and fire his weapon. Unfortunately for everyone, Pineda's friend happened to be standing in between the noise and Pineda, and was shot. The friend, while seriously injured, is expected to survive.

Okay, first of all, Oklahoma?  Second of all, the myth continues...the myth of an intelligent person who searches for Bigfoot.

This reminds me of the great "Noah's Ark massacre of aught-six" in Idaho.

Election rigor, er, post-mortum

Well it appears that despite the best efforts of America's most racist newspaper Bill de Blasio has been elected General Secretary of the Peoples Republic of New York, by the kind of margin a Party Congress usually provided. Unleash the workers paradise.

Why do I have a feeling the above will pretty much be the New York Post's lede the next four years, between ghoulish race-baiting, while those voting for de Blasio spend the same period disappointed it isn't more accurate? Perhaps because that's the way it always goes.

Meanwhile, in Virginia the last desperate effort of Ayatolla Cuccinelli was made.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) has been getting a last-minute boost in his bid for governor, with a number of robocalls accusing his Democratic opponent of profiting off a dying man and favoring "abortion on demand."

Ooh, Virginia remains for incompetent lovers -- a slight bit of good news for Kenny the Cooch. Kenny asked God for a miracle, and apparently the Almighty said, "meh, not with Santorum involved".

On the other hand, no American Pol came out and admitted they were, in fact, smoking crack, but ONLY because they were as usually rip-roaring drunk. So, uh, Freedom?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The "outreach" continues

Go ahead and click on the link and look at the picture of this moron. Could not be more of a cartoon, right down to the hideous tie...and his family looks full of both "happy pills" and loathing.

A Republican congressional candidate from Alabama with a history of combating homosexuality said on the campaign trail in 2002 that gays should return to California or Vermont or "wherever they came from." Mother Jones on Monday surfaced a Associated Press interview from 2002 with real estate developer Dean Young, who is vying for the Republican nomination in a runoff election Tuesday for Alabama's first congressional district, in which the candidate suggested gays must have moved to Alabama from other areas since they're not native to the state.

Yeah, gay people, they're just like pelicans or okra.

"Aha! Here's my chance!"

Sincerely, Brett Favre, and Brett Favre's camera-phone.

Voters, we can't have too many of those

Well it's another off-year election day, and what better day than for people who do not actually want voters to, y'know vote. Behold Virginia, where self-annointed as God's proxy Ken Cuccinelli and his Republican handlers have announced the secret to their victory:

...only Republicans are actively hoping that moderate floating voters stay home this time. “If turnout is in the 30s, the low 30s, we’re gonna win,” Virginia Republican party chairman Pat Mullins was reported to have told supporters this weekend. “If it gets higher up in Fairfax [in Democratic-leaning northern Virginia], say, like, 40, it’s likely we won’t. I don’t think it’s going to hit 40 anywhere. I’m looking at 32.”

If only their Party had a systemic plan to effectuate this dream? [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

American Nutrition: The latest example of "we just gave up"

*Sigh*

Sometimes you really need something salty and something sweet come dessert time. But it’s just so much work to combine those two mouth experiences. For those lazy snackers among us, Lay’s is rolling out chocolate-covered potato chips this week. The offering is a limited-time deal, meaning if you want to get yours hands on Lay’s Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate, you won’t have an eternity to get your hands on some. Each five-ounce bag goes for $3.49 and will be sold only at Target stores through the holidays.

There's a second video?

Apparently Rob Ford isn't just in a video smoking crack...he apparently is in another one. Perhaps he was doing the Whitman's Drug Sampler (available only in Canada I guess).

Broken Clock still one up on her...

Still, undoubtedly a hilarious scene involving Michele Bachmann last year after she bit the dust in the Iowa Caucus.

Sitting in her campaign bus, in the same seat where she cried with joy in August, she now sobbed over her drubbing. “God, I’m a loser,” Bachmann said.

The operative question on the NSA remains...

Who have they not spied upon?

Israel has been the target of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency and also collaborates on intelligence gathering with the United States, The New York Times reported.

Of course, the U.S. and Israel spying on each other is a long-standing tradition, ask Jonathan Pollard. But the answer to the question is, probably everyone except the people they should probably actually be spying on. This information comes through information provided by Russia's No. 1 IT hire, Edward Snowden. Meanwhile, as noticed by Digby, contributing as always to the self-parody that is the perpetual defense of the police state, Diane Feinstein actually stated: "...if Snowden had been a true whistle-blower, he could have reported it to her committee privately." Yeah, because there's been no lesser proponent of the privacy of American citizens and proponent of excusing spying excesses than good ol' DiFi. I'm sure Snowden considered that about a millisecond. [Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It was 'The Lone Ranger' wasn't it?

Vanessa Paradis Breaks Silence About Johnny Depp Split

Still living but brain dead for a long, long time

With each passing year, the right-wings mouthpieces -- who are somehow still talked to -- become even worse.

In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plaque on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.” 

“Remember, it’s the Statue of Liberty, not the Statue of Immigration,” she concludes.

Yeah, it's never come to have that value at all, other than every speech every politician ever made there.

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly is sick and tired of people invoking the Statue of Liberty to advocate for fixing our immigration laws.
In a radio commentary today Schlafly – who previously argued that the Bible’s mandate for “compassion” doesn’t apply to immigrants – commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by declaring that the statue “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Instead, she argued, “people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/schlafly-its-statue-liberty-not-statue-immigration#sthash.G2b9MqDx.22TZnmH2.dpuf

Oh no, how will they survive?

Better prepare another round of targeted tax cuts.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s quarterly profit fell 18% from last year, but the oil and gas giant still made nearly $8 billion... It was Exxon's second-smallest quarterly profit since mid-2010, beating only this year's second-quarter earnings of $6.86 billion. Still, the results exceeded expectations.

But in these austere times, where will we find the money to help a poor multinational out? Oh, yeah.

...the food-stamp program is now set to downsize in the weeks ahead. There's a big automatic cut scheduled for Nov. 1, as a temporary boost from the 2009 stimulus bill expires. That change will trim about $5 billion from federal food-stamp spending over the coming year.

Funny how Exxon Mobil could pick up the tab on that and still have $3 billion in profit, yet I'm pretty sure we're going to find a way to give them even more. 

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]