You don’t mess around with the American auto industry without encountering some flak. Two former Chrysler dealers are challenging the federal government’s authority to restructure them out of business. It’s a complicated case, regarding the reach of the TARP program and whether it applies to manufacturers.

Oh, and this:

As part of the demand for information about the authority used, [attorney Leo] Donofrio confirmed, there will be questions about Obama’s eligibility to be president. Donofrio contends that since by Obama’s own admission his father never was a U.S. citizen, Obama was born a dual citizen. The framers of the Constitution, he argues, did not consider a dual citizen to be a “natural born citizen” as required for the presidency.

We hope the dealers bought the extended warranty from their lawyers. Because as things stand, this case will likely break down five minutes after they drive it off the lot.

Closed Chrysler dealers to drive Obama’s eligibility [WND]

Sometime over the summer, it was suggested that the Democrats should aim for decent health-insurance reform, since the Public Option (itself a pre-compromise of Single Payer or Medicare for All) was likely to get twisted out of recognition, if not existence.

Tuesday night’s developments — regarding the Gang of Ten senators, selected by Harry Reid to conjure a 60-vote solution to the healthcare bill, which is on the Senate floor and still needs to survive a filibuster to reach an actual vote, after which it will go to a conference committee to iron out differences with the House bill, and then…

THUMP.

Er, sorry. Could somebody help carry that reader out of the room? Thank you.

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Oh, please. We don’t normally play in the Blogger Softball League, but since Memeorandum won’t retire this dude to the bench, we’re taking the prerogative of sharing our frustration with you:

Why I’m Not a Liberal Anymore

Maybe the initial illuminating moment came when I learned that Tom Hayden, the anti-Vietnam war activist, had removed the Obama bumper sticker from his car. All I know is that I can hardly stand reading the Huffington Post these days… I think the straw that broke this camel’s back was an horrendously ugly and smearing essay Christian Parenti wrote last week, which was published on the Huffington Post after Obama’s Afghanistan speech.

Dude: Tom Hayden? HuffPo? Really? Those are your standard-bearers of American Liberalism? If either puts you off, you’re out the fucking door? Arianna or Joan Walsh bloviating on cable news wasn’t enough? Markos reciting talking points like a freshman congressman wasn’t sufficient? You had to wait for Jane’s Ex to make an empty gesture, or some unknown to shoot his mouth off? Are you that dim?

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We’re not sure whether NPR’s Mara Liasson has started her Clockwork Orange marathon yet, but the good folks at Fox News are already threading the projector for her.

Let’s start with this wonderful poll graphic that ran last Friday on Fox & Friends, showing that Americans are, um, 120 percent against global-warming lies. That’s the kind of can-do spirit that built this great nation, and will soon send it over a cliff.

How did Fox’s cup runneth over? Media Matters explains:

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We were listening to the commentary for Funny People the other night (yes, we’re one of those people), and Judd Apatow mentioned the practice of “writing a joke on the back of someone’s head.”

No, it doesn’t involve Sharpies or razors. Instead, when you’re editing a film, you take the opportunity of someone’s head turned away from the camera to dub in a line you didn’t think of before. Movies are won or lost in the editing suite.

Which is why we enjoyed the news that the ACORN videos — “undercover” shots of employees giving tax advice to a pimp — also took advantage of modern cinema technology:

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We don’t normally buy into conspiracy theories, but a story breaking Monday is making us reconsider our position:

A safety scare involving the holiday season’s hottest toy cooled off Monday after federal safety regulators quickly put to rest claims that one model of the best-selling Zhu Zhu Pets contained high levels of antimony…

Last week, consumer website GoodGuide said its testing had shown that Mr. Squiggles, one of the Zhu Zhu robotic hamsters that have been selling out at stores nationwide, contained levels of antimony above what the federal government considers acceptable.

For the record, the Nojo Hamster meets all quality standards of the Consumer Blogging Safety Commission. Reports of the Nojo Hamster containing excessive levels of antagonism are unfounded, especially compared to the Michael Moore Bobblehead, which has been known to explode when handled improperly.

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It’s been a long time since we’ve listened to NPR — Cokie was still respectable, to give you a clue — but we still recognize Mara Liasson, and we’re sorry to hear that she’s been slumming at Fox News in a role only has-been Carter pollster Pat Caddell is fit to serve:

Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network’s top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network’s political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said.

According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR’s executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network’s supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox’s programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network.

You reach a point, if you’re a Daily Blogger, when you’ve exhausted all the go-to imagery. But then you realize: Fuck it. It works.

NPR reporter pressured over Fox role [Politico]