“A planned trip by Bush to speak at the Switzerland-based United Israel Appeal later this week has been canceled after several human rights groups called for Swiss authorities to arrest Bush and investigate him for authorizing torture. Bush has traveled widely since leaving office, but not to Europe, where there is a strong tradition of international prosecutions.” [Salon]

The Paper of Record, February 5, 2011:

But some scholars are already wondering how much damage, if any, a party-line ruling striking down the [healthcare] law would do to the court’s prestige, authority and legitimacy.

Is that a caterpillar on the ceiling, or did our eyebrows just fly off?

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“The Huffington Post, which began in 2005 with a meager $1 million investment and has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the country, is being acquired by AOL in a [$315 million] deal that creates an unlikely pairing of two online media giants.” [NYT]

“When I was a child, President Ronald Reagan was the nice man who gave us jelly beans when we visited the White House. I didn’t know then, but I know it now: The jelly beans were much more than a sweet treat that he gave out as gifts. They represented the uniqueness and greatness of America — each one different and special in its own way, but collectively they blended in harmony.” [Politico]

It’s no secret that the Huffington Post is really a celebrity-gossip site that dabbles in politics on the side. As Nick Denton didn’t say when he cut Wonkette loose, link-baiting political stories don’t pay the rent.

But we didn’t realize how insidious professional HuffPo editors were at their craft until this morning, when we read this breaking story about a pending Major Sporting Event:

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Title: “The Day After the Dollar Crashes: A Survival Guide for the Rise of the New World Order”

Author: Damon Vickers

Rank: 22

Blurb: “The U.S. government is having its regular auction of U.S. Treasury notes. Here we go again begging to the world with our tin cup. Only this time the world says, ‘No. We aren’t going to buy any more U.S. I.O.U.s.'”

Review: “I got Damon’s new book as a present recently from my grandpa and was totally put off because the topic is definitely one that had never interested me before.”

Obligatory Glenn Beck Endorsement: “This is the only person I have heard who seems to have the total picture and the guts or the insanity to actually say it out loud.”

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UKz3GVrHI8

Our guest columnist this evening is not allowed to use a fork.

A mysterious, pale green figure seen in televised news coverage of the Egyptian riots has prompted some viewers to ask, “Could this be the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?”

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