Mere days ago, we expected tonight’s news conference to be The Great Torture Showdown: Whatever Barry said, someone, probably everyone, would be howling tomorrow.

And then we decided it was high time for a pandemic. And then Arlen decided it was high time to get the hell out of Dodge. But not until GM decided to get the hell out of Pontiac.

So we welcome you to our Open Thread/Adderall Festival, and challenge you to see how long you can last before your brain hurts. After the show, we’ll be sharing beautiful pictures of Air Force One over Manhattan.

Hoot-Smalley:

Yglesias has more.

Bonus wankery after the jump.

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That 26% is still out there.

[ Daily Beast Flash video not available. ]

UPDATED below with Bonus GOP Gay-Hatin’ Video.

I thought of this when the whole Carrie Prejean thing went down, but did not post it.  CB’s comment jogged my memory.  Behold – a Bigoted Beauty Queen (let’s call then “BBQs”) from the distant past:

Alternet in 2004:

Remember Anita Bryant, the Miss America runner-up turned orange juice tout turned anti-gay campaigner? Though she long ago faded from public view, her legacy survives in Florida.

Bryant, who condemned homosexuality as immoral and “against God’s wishes,” is best known for her 1977 campaign to repeal a Miami ordinance banning anti-gay discrimination. Her organization, Save Our Children, claimed that gays — or “known practicing homosexuals,” in her lingo — were converting children to homosexuality. It was thus no surprise that after Bryant succeeded in her self-described crusade against the bias ordinance, she turned her sights on Florida’s adoption laws.

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The greatest war crime of all is the one that cannot be prosecuted: the war itself.

Fifteen minutes after a hijacked jet smashed into the Pentagon, the NSA intercepted a message tying the morning’s attacks to al Qaeda. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was told of the intercept just after noon. Yet by 2:40 p.m. he was demanding “Best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden].… Need to move swiftly.… Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”

We’ve long known what followed: An 18-month disinformation campaign to justify an illegal war in Iraq. We’ve known about cherry-picking intelligence. We’ve known about the blatant disregard of informed expert advice. We’ve known about the Orwellian abuse of language to hide the truth.

It should come as no surprise that the torture policy, crafted by the same men at the same time and for the same purpose, was no different.

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I don’t know what made me think of this guy, but I always laugh at his stuff.

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This is Wendy Wright.  She is the president of Concerned Women for America.  She is, as these things go, wingnut royalty. And she is completely insane.

The Obama administration’s actions to respond to the outbreak of swine flu, including its declaration of a public health emergency, smacks of an attempt to cover up this week’s Senate vote on the confirmation of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) as secretary of Health and Human Services, a prominent anti-abortion-rights activist told the Washington Independent.

“Some people think that declaring a state of emergency about the flu was a political thing to push the Sebelius nomination through,” Concerned Women for America President Wendy Wright told the website’s Dave Weigel.

Sociopaths, the homeschooled, and the clinically insane.  It’s all they have left.

Abortion Activist: Obama Actions Are Sebelius Coverup [The Hill]