Blake Edwards, director of many screwball comedies, died today* of pneumonia.  His movies included Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther, and Victor/Victoria, starring his wife, Julie Andrews.

Enjoy “The Pink Flea” and some Henry Mancini.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36JbQcZkYMQ

*Update/Clarification thanks to the LA Times: Early today for the East Coast, he actually died last night (10:30 PST) in Santa Monica. Damn Gray Lady and her East Coast centrism.

[NYT]

In October, Fox News launched “Fox News Latino,” a site dedicated to attracting Latino readers. And within two months, they managed to find a way to insult their audience in an article about Spanish actress  Penélope Cruz’s announcement that she will have her baby in Los Angeles with an article entitled “Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem Are Having an Anchor Baby.”

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This is the plea of thousands of bloggers, pundits, and late night comedians to Michael Steele. Politico reports that Steele said he’s going to make some sort of announcement tomorrow with regards to the chairmanship of the RNC, but nobody knows if he’s going to step down or announce his run for reelection.

Besides, if he steps down, what excuse would I have to run this photo?

A San Francisco transgendered woman has filed a damages claim against the California DMV after a clerk at my local office told her when she was trying to change her name and gender on her driver’s license in October that she was going to go to hell for her acts of homosexuality.

Oh, and then he sent a threatening letter to her home four days later begging her not to change her gender, and gave her address to a wackadoodle church that sent her DVDs warning of eternal damnation for homosexuality.

The punchline? He’s been suspended with pay since October.

The second punchline? This is the second time he’s done this in two years.

[SF Chronicle: DMV Clerk Suspended for Sex Change Admonition]

Bat-shit crazy anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, which pickets the funerals of U.S. soldiers, announced today it will be protesting at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.

She supported same-sex marriage long before it was popular to do so, and was an advocate of universal health care and social justice.

That’s what mom said when I “nearly” won the 200 sprint race in high school, or nearly got an A in a class. Or nearly got in to Harvard. The list goes on. You get the point.

Needless to say a Pavlovian reflex triggered when I saw the Gray Lady’s headline: Tax Package Will Aid Nearly All, Especially Highest Earners

Who are these “Nearly” People?

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Are you ready to rumble? C-SPAN is airing the battle in San Francisco, beginning at 10 am PST.

Three judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments this morning on whether Prop. 8 is constitutional.

The first hurdle will be for the proponents of the ballot measure to explain to the court how they even have standing to appeal district judge Vaughn Walker’s August 4 decision striking down Prop. 8, seeing as how the named defendant, the Guvernator, and AG/soon to be Governor Moonbeam refused to appeal the decision.

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