Trump cancels debate, mercilessly baits America’s Late-Night Comedians: “It is very important to me that the right Republican candidate be chosen to defeat the failed and very destructive Obama Administration, but if that Republican, in my opinion, is not the right candidate, I am not willing to give up my right to run as an Independent candidate.” [USA Today, via Political Wire]

“The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Palin and Burnett are pitching another reality series, this one more focused on Palin’s husband Todd and his career as a championship snowmobile racer. But for now, TLC owner Discovery Communications has passed, say sources. And A&E Networks, which entered into a bidding war with Discovery for Sarah Palin’s Alaska, also is not interested.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Al Jaffee.

[via Comics Alliance]

Those were the words directed to Mittens this morning after he told a gay Vietnam vet in New Hampshire that he didn’t think the same-sex spouses of veterans should receive survivors’ benefits. 

Oh, if you were wondering, Mittens spent the late ’60s/early ’70s at Stanford, BYU, Harvard Business School, and tootling around France trying to convert cheese-eating surrender monkeys to the Mormon church.  Two deferments. Must have been nice.

Video after the jump. At least his hair looks good, though a little Mayor McDreamy slick for my taste.

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Newt Gingrich, making a strong case for Stinque Asshole of the Year and a Crystal Douchebag for Lifetime Achievement, signed the Iowa Bigotry Pledge today. And while everyone’s noticing that it includes a promise to stand by Mrs. Newt III when Future Mrs. Newt IV tempts him, this part of his response caught our attention:

Defending Religious Liberty. As President, I will vigorously defend the First Amendment’s rights of religious liberty and freedom of speech against anyone who would try to stifle the free expression of believers.

Oh, you know where we’re going with this. So let’s go there:

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“A conservative Christian politician has a secret life as a sperm donor for lesbian couples — even though he has campaigned against gay marriage. American politician Bill Johnson has spent most of this year in Christchurch helping run the earthquake recovery, all the while using the online persona ‘chchbill’ to meet women who want help to get pregnant.” [New Zealand Herald]

With the economy as weak as it is, and few signs of an imminent pickup, there is a reasonable chance that Barack Obama might not be re-elected to the Presidency in 2012. Yet as frightening as the prospects of a (probable) Gingrich presidency might seem (and we should all fear the asenscion to the Presidency of a man who advocates firing school janitors and replacing them with middle_school students) it is the manner in which he might be elected that should concern Americans the most. That is because in state legislatures around the nation the party that represents the interests of a small minority of wealthy Americans is mounting a full throated offensive against the principle of universal suffrage. Whether through laws that shorten the period during which a citizen can actually go to the polls and cast his ballot (remember, in this nation voting is always held on a work day and no law mandates that workers be given time off to cast their ballot) or laws that specifically target certain demographics for disenfranchisement, Republicans seem determined to win the Presidency at any cost and with little regard for the doubt these measures tend to cast on the very legitimacy of elections themselves. According to USA Today, early voting has been a made a target because, traditionally, more Democrats than Republicans vote early:
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