Just kill me now:

An outspoken opponent of the so-called ground zero mosque in Manhattan is also taking on Islam in Chicago. 

Pamela Geller, leader of a movement called Stop the Islamization of America, asserts that Muslims are increasingly taking over schools, financial institutions and the workplace.

Geller’s latest campaign against “Islamization” has appeared in ads this summer on top of 25 Chicago cabs. Beside pictures of young women who were allegedly killed by their Muslim fathers for refusing an Islamic marriage, dating a non-Muslim or becoming “too Americanized” is the message: “Is your family threatening you?” and the Web address of LeaveIslamSafely.com. Though the placards appear to offer a haven for young women who want to leave Islam, critics contend the signs stoke fear among passengers and passers-by about the way an estimated half of the city’s taxi drivers worship, and seek to suppress the religious liberty on which the nation was founded.

What is it about Chicagocentric stories about cabbies in August?  Last August, Blackhawk star Patrick Kane punched out a cabbie in Buffalo over… twenty cents.   (It turns out that Kane had a decent year after that — silver in Vancouver, Cup-clinching goal against Philadelphia in June.)  Now: this crap.

If this Geller [REDACTED] has a tenth of the success that Kaner got…. Jesus.  I need a drink.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott, in run-up to today’s election over in Oz:

I am always very conscious of trying to avoid being a burden on the taxpayer and I would try not to do anything voluntarily that would add to the burdens on the taxpayer.

Mitt Romney.

[slamming down of cold oil can of Fosters, with appropriate sound effects]

Beer.

[Yeah, I tried really hard to come up with something funny.  Maybe it worked.  But it almost certainly didn’t.  Come on — I know jack squat about Aussie politicking.  Give me some credit for trying.]

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Remarks have been made elsewhere on this site this afternoon about the American Family Association’s stance in re mosques.  Which is: no mosques in the United States — anywhere.

Naturally, this is probably a “move-the-goalposts” moment — making a ban on a mosque in Lower Manhattan seem reasonable, etc.  But a commenter over at TPM came with this:

Every teabagging idiot that agrees with this fuckwit while whining about Obama “ignoring the Constitution” should get a copy of the First Amendment nailed to their forehead.

 Normally, the commentariat at mass-market sites have a shockingly high level of stupid.  (You can’t read a news story on CNN anymore without running into ten mouthbreathing morons.)  But this commenter parked it, like Mark McGuire in the bad-old days.

And so: we should run a special, teabagger-only poll….

Pick one, teabaggers — and death is not an option: (A) The Constitution. (B) Ban all mosques.

Push it on the right-wing blogs.  Cross-post on Free Republic.  The whole smash.  Time to call their bluff.

First, it was Jesse Ventura.  It must be said: for an ex-professional wrestler, he didn’t do too poorly.  In fact, the dude has some facets that make me like him somewhat.  (Of course, in twenty years, he’ll probably be cranky as hell and go to the right of where, say, Tom Tancredo is now.  Crankiness is a symptom when you catch a serious case of Old.  But, for right now… he and I are cool.)

Now: it’s Linda McMahon, who may just be the next senator from Connecticut.  Lots of ways you can go with that.  To be charitable, we can say that WWF/WWE is a business that was actually successful during her reign (or, honestly, her co-regency with her husband, Vince).  Compare this to, for example, HP.

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Yeah, you guys know this already, but it’s still a classic headline. 

From the Daily Telegraph: “Tory MP ‘too drunk to vote in Commons debate.'” Snips, including some nice turns of phrase, and a positively Pythonesque name on the offender:

Mark Reckless [Oh, dear. — Ed.] was one of a number of MPs accused of being “well-refreshed” and “convivial” during the late night sitting which finished at 2.48am on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old new MP for Rochester and Strood had been drinking alongside scores of MPs on the Commons Terrace and was not the only one said to be worse for wear.

John Randall, the deputy chief whip, was accused by Angela Eagle — the shadow Treasury minister — of having indulged in “rather a liquid evening”.

Stephen Pound, the Labour MP, said Miss Eagle could not be heard in the Commons “because of the well-refreshed ejaculations [Oh dear, cont’d.  — Ed., cont’d.] from the benches opposite.”

Mr Reckless, who became an MP at the general election in May, was understood to have had difficulty standing and has scant recollection of the night.

“I feel very embarrassed,” he said. “I’m terribly, terribly embarrassed. I apologise unreservedly and I don’t plan to drink again at Westminster. It was a mistake I will not be repeating. I have learned my lesson.”

No, Mr Reckless.  Booze it up.  Maybe Steve King (R-Dumb Half of Iowa) might take a lesson and give us all what would be some of the best legislative comedy EVER.

The good news is that the past involvement of Robert Byrd in the Ku Klux Klan was not papered over in most of the obits we saw today.  People stumble over themselves to not tell the bad with the good at times like these — it’s refreshing to see that shelved here, for it does tell part of the story that’s worth hearing. 

The bad news is that there wasn’t a loop of Byrd’s speeches from the October 2002 debate on the Iraq War resolution.  Not snippets here and there, but long-form, unedited.  Of course, he totally nailed it — and if there is a God, He’d whisper Byrd’s speeches in Cheney’s ear when he is breathing his last.

The worst news?  There wasn’t enough of this — which, to be truthful, is chock full o’AWESOME.

Safe travels, Senator.

“We don’t want the World Cup. We don’t like the World Cup. We don’t like soccer. We don’t want anything to do with it. You can package it any way. You can spend all kinds of money. You can force it on our television sets. We will not enjoy the World Cup.”

This might have been up the flagpole on a bunch of blogs run by dirty hippies, but it bears repeating.

Glenn Beck?  Have a big ol’ slice of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_2m4EH7-0g