Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a bone to pick with Stinque’s boneless Golden Vuvuzela champion:

The Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading “western propaganda and superstition.” Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.

“Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values,” he said.

Next week: Ahmadinejad decries the decrepit Western values of Punxsutawney Phil.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul [Telegraph UK]

[CNSNews]

Happy Birthday President Obama [via "Michelle Obama" email]

• “I think I would have raised an outcry if I had believed my eyes. But I didn’t believe them at first — the thing seemed so impossible. The fact is I was completely unnerved by a sheer blank fright, pure abstract terror, unconnected with any distinct shape of physical danger. What made this emotion so overpowering was — how shall I define it? — the moral shock I received, as if something altogether monstrous, intolerable to thought and odious to the soul, had been thrust upon me unexpectedly.”
• “He’s got to be drunk, I thought. I didn’t want to offend the president of France, but this was getting stupid. I kept thinking, surely, someone will pop up and say something like, ‘OK, the five minutes are up,’ but the call just went on and on and on.”

Read more »

So, we’ve done Zach, we’ve done Basil — who else in Tennessee would like some ink?

You, over there. You say you’re the lieutenant governor? Come on down!

Read more »

“On an audio tape obtained by The Denver Post, [GOP Senate candidate Ken] Buck was caught muttering ‘will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I’m on the camera?’ outside a June 11 event in Crowley… Buck has positioned himself as the Tea Party candidate.” [Denver Post]