Sarah Palin on Fox: “Vote for Newt. Annoy a liberal. Vote Newt. Keep this vetting process going, keep the debate going.” [NRO, via Political Wire]

So, what’s happening today at the Washington Post?

Obama: The most polarizing president. Ever.

Wow. Ever. Like. Wow.

Now, before you trot out your favorite Blazing Saddles references, let’s have a look at the rumors behind the news:

For 2011, Obama’s third year in office, an average of 80 percent of Democrats approved of the job he was doing in Gallup tracking polls, as compared to 12 percent of Republicans who felt the same way. That’s a 68-point partisan gap, the highest for any president’s third year in office — ever.

Well, you can’t dispute the numb—

Wait. The highest for any president’s third year in office. Or, if you’d like that in bold, “The highest for any president’s third year in office.”

Can we break that down? Has Obama also set the polarization record for any president’s 857th day in office? Ever? Because that would be, y’know, historic.

Read more »

Being Our Age, one of the things we remember from Our Youth was the annual Bob Hope USO Show. Whatever you think of Bob Hope’s politics — we weren’t aware of them at the time — the USO Show was unabashedly a Good Thing, bringing entertainment to Our Beleaguered Boys in Vietnam, none of whom was Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney.

That war is long past, but the USO endures — not just with high-profile events like Stephen Colbert’s week in Baghdad, but visits to the troops from folks you’ve probably never of. Comedian Graham Elwood is one of those folks, and in a recent podcast chat with Chris Hardwick, Elwood describes the practicalities of doing stand-up in war zones. You don’t just work blue, for example — you go full on fucking indigo. But Elwood steers a wide berth from one subject:

“I’m fairly liberal in a lot my politics, but I was like, ‘They don’t need to hear this shit — they’re living it…’ They’re living the result of politics.”

Read more »

Title: “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America’s Border”

Author: Jan Brewer

Rank: 8

Blurb: “Jan Brewer became Arizona’s twenty-second governor in January 2009, upon the resignation of then-Governor Janet Napolitano, inheriting one of the worst fiscal crises in the country for any state. Born to a close-knit family during World War II, Governor Brewer aggressively confronts the trials of life and government with conservative common sense. Governor Brewer is now serving her second term, after winning a convincing 2010 election victory.”

Review: “While browsing I came across a blog about the tarmac incident… curious about the cause I bought the book.”

Customers Also Bought: “How I Got This Way” by Regis Philbin

Footnote: Next week, Jan Brewer crashes a White House State Dinner.

Scorpions for Breakfast [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

Even Jim Henson had to pay the rent, and in 1963 he helped keep the landlord at bay with this short film, produced for the Bell System to show at a data-communications seminar for business owners. If you’d like to try imagining the audience’s frame of mind, pretend that The Jetsons is a first-run prime-time cartoon.

1963 was more notable in Henson’s life — and everybody’s — for another reason: That was the year he hired Frank Oz.

[via Nerdist]

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“People close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.” [WaPo]