The former chair of the Florida Republican Party admitted in a two day deposition taken in May and released last week that party officials met in December 2009 to discuss “voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting.”  Jim Greer is currently being prosecuted for public corruption, which he says is for retaliation for blowing the whistle on state Republican politicians who were “using party credit cards like drunken soldiers” and because he supported former Governor Charlie Crist’s  appointment of a black man to the Florida Supreme Court.

Greer denounced the “whack-a-do, right wing crazies” that he says have taken over the party. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating one of said whack-a-do’s, Gov. Rick Scott, and his efforts to purge voter rolls due to ostensible voter fraud. Purely coincidental that 87 percent of those purged are persons of color.

[Tampa Bay Times]

[Salon]

Pandaazzz! At the Sandy Eggo Zoo. The unwashed masses insist that Stinque Overlord Nojo make a day trip to the zoo (tax write-off, natch), to see how Butterstick 3.0 is doing. Besides, dear hamster, it will do you good to go outside for more than a cigarette and langostino burrito down the road. The fucking iPhone app will still be there waiting for you to program it when you come home.

Besides the drama over whether reporters would be allowed to the Sheldon Adelson fundraiser for Mittens in Jerusalem where he’s going to announce he “respects” going to war with Iran, the Mittster managed to step into a little pile of local politics poo, with the last minute cancellation of a meeting with the Labor Party leader after meeting with Netanyahu.

As far as we know, he has managed so far to not tell anyone in Israel that he helped baptize their grandmothers murdered in the Holocaust.

[Wikipedia: Golden Plates/Alt-text explanation]

[The Hill’s 50 Most Beautiful People]

HT for story and headline – Mellbell

When we last checked in with Talibunny spawn Bristol Palin, she was busy filming her reality show and opining about the dangers of gay marriage.  Here’s a new clip released by the producers of her show where she and her sister Willow just laugh and laugh when her toddler son calls Aunt Willow “faggot.”  Pity the child’s future kindergarten teacher.

[LGBTQ Nation: Where Did a Three-Year Old Learn ‘Faggot’?]

Utah GOP and Tea Party activist Greg Peterson has been accused of raping four different women, including raping two of them at his cabin/McMansion where he hosted multiple fundraisers and events for conservative politicians.  When he wasn’t hobnobing with the likes of Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, Peterson, 37, was busy serially date-raping women he met at church or online, according to charges filed by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

Peterson is a business owner who has organized several Rocky Mountain Conservative Conventions, which he said was “the CPAC of the West.”  Peterson has described himself as a “close personal friend of the Romney family” and was listed as a co-chairman of 2007 and 2011 fundraising events.  He said he befriended Tagg and Josh Romney at BYU, became friends with the rest of the Romney family during the 2002 Winter Olympics and had been in each of their homes.

Peterson is charged with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, three counts of rape, seven counts of object rape, and one count of forcible sexual abuse, all first-degree felonies (the rape and kidnapping charges carry sentences of up to life in prison); nine second-degree felony counts of forcible sexual abuse; one third-degree felony count of burglary; and one count each of assault and sexual battery, both misdemeanors.  His first court appearance is set for Monday.  Needless to say politicians are running in the opposite direction.

Yucky details after the jump. Read more »

“We discourage people from walking over hot coals,” San Jose Fire Department Capt. Reggie Williams told the San Jose Mercury-News, after more than 20 people had to go to the hospital with second and third-degree burns during a Tony Robbins event.

[Merc: 21 People Treated for Burns After Firewalk]