R. Sargent Shriver dies; public servant founded Peace Corps [WaPo]

“Gov.-elect Robert Bentley in a speech at a Baptist church this afternoon said he plans to be the governor of all Alabamians and be color-blind, but he also said people who aren’t ‘saved’ Christians aren’t his brothers and sisters.” [Birmingham News]

Former Vice President Dick Cheney announced yesterday that he’s considering “going for” a heart transplant, making it sound like getting a new ticker is as quick and easy as popping in to $tarbuck$ and getting a cup of shitty coffee. The reality of heart transplants, however, is that there are usually thousands more people waiting for a heart than are available, and waits can take years.

Cheney, as a 69-year-old former government employee, will have his transplant paid for by the evil socialist health care program known as Medicare, with any unpaid amounts covered through his federal government pension and his Halliburton millions.

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“Blood libel obviously means being falsely accused of having blood on your hands. In this case, that’s exactly what was going on,” she said [to Sean Hannity], adding later, “Just two days before an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal had that term in its title. And that term has been used for eons.” [CNN]

They say dance with the one that brung ya, and if Mike Lee Model #710604 is the clone finally able to break through to national prominence (third-string network correspondents don’t count), we feel obligated to support the team.

But damn if he isn’t being a fucking idiot about it. Just look at this headline from ThinkProgress:

Sen. Mike Lee Calls Child Labor Laws Unconstitutional

Granted, it’s no Blood Libel, but it looks at first like a fine play by a Frosh Asshole coming off the bench, bringing to mind such delightful Dickensian follow-ups as Mike Lee Advocates Indentured Chimney-Sweeping for Kids, Mike Lee Calls for Harvesting Fuel from Baby Fat, and Mike Lee Sells His Children for Medical Experiments.

And then you listen to the source of his pronouncement — a YouTube lecture — and he fucking blows it.

No, we don’t mean all the Child Labor is Bad chatter before he pulls an obscure (and later overturned) Supreme Court decision out of his butt. Plausible deniability, dontcha know. Instead, the problem is that the decision doesn’t even prove what he says it does.

Fucking rookie. Bachmann would never say something so easily undermined by a mere fact-check.

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While we’re on the subject of Dead Kennedys — whoa, that cleared the room! — the Washington Post adds to the link-baiting legend of Tricky Jack:

JFK’s own dirty trick

…In one of the least-known chapters of 20th-century political history, Kennedy operatives secretly paid off an informant and set in motion a Watergate-like burglary that sabotaged Nixon’s campaign on the eve of the election.

Political Sabotage! Wheeeeee!!! American Democracy is just a kick in the nuts, ain’t it?

How did JFK’s campaign obtain this incriminating evidence? By paying the contemporary equivalent of $100,000 to a Los Angeles accountant named Phillip Reiner, one of the Hughes middlemen used to conceal Nixon’s role in the deal… Soon after, a break-in occurred at the accountant’s old office…

Hughes? Howard Hughes? Of the Vegas Penthouse Foot-Long Fingernails Peeing in Bottles Hugheses? Hey, this is fun!

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We woke up in 1968.

It’s not that we were asleep. Until then, we were busy being a kid. But shit went down that spring, shit even an eight-year-old couldn’t ignore.

We don’t remember Tet, although our babysitter had a Vietnam map on her livingroom wall. Her son was a cook in the Army. His current location was marked. Because of the Draft, Vietnam had a presence in American life that no subsequent war would match. You want to politicize a generation, put their asses on the line.

We don’t remember LBJ quitting, either. And because Eugene didn’t have a CBS station, we don’t remember Walter throwing in the towel.

But we do remember Bobby. And Martin. We remember the photos, now iconic, on the front page of the newspaper. We remember becoming aware of the world.

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