Patrick Smith, who writes the “Ask the Pilot” column on Salon, has a sign of the times.  And I feel an urge to put on my Citizen Kane DVD.

Today, in Operation Clusterfuck Response to WikiLeaks, PayPal has permanently suspended the organization’s account. Per the Gray Lady:

As the release of hundreds of thousands of United States diplomatic cables brings more attention to WikiLeaks, commercial entities on the Internet have come under increased scrutiny for their business relationships with the organization.

Meanwhile, read The Economist’s Democracy in America columnist’s take on the brouhaha.

UPDATE: The Swiss are refusing to bend to U.S. and French pressure to knock Wikileaks.ch off the tubez.  Cue up your Sound of Music soundtrack.

Man, this dude is a fucking tool. And scary as hell.

[NYT: The Tea Party’s Radical Constitutionalism]

As cool as the Ghostbusters mural in the South of Market area of Ess Eff is a new mural that was installed by a group of artists at the abandoned Harding Theatre on Divisadero Street, just two blocks away from SF’s iconic Painted Ladies.

Kittenzilla!

Close ups after the jump.

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While our fearless Stinque leader Nojo (who admits he seldom flies) says he can’t get excited about the electronic strip searches and probing pat downs conducted by TSA at airports, I am incredibly riled up about this blatant violation of 4th Amendment rights by our government.  And believe me, I’m someone who thinks about the 4th Amendment quite a bit.

As the worst day for travel approaches next week (Hi Mom! This Wednesday is why I never visit you at Thanksgiving!), more non-traveling regular US ‘Merikans and not just us frequent flyers are getting to experience the double bind of choosing between radiation exposure/virtual strip search, or a highly invasive pat-down.

So people are rightfully pissed off that House Speaker-Elect John Boehner (R-Fake Tan) was able to avoid the nekkid body scanner and the pat-down; and in fact he managed to avoid all security at Washington’s National Airport.  No doubt — no doubt — he has a lifetime’s worth of radiation exposure from the tanning bed.

Meanwhile, I decided to follow the money. Guess who’s making money off of this airport performance art?

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FOX News “journalists” shit all over Caribou Barbie during a commercial.

Whoops! The cameras were rolling.

And aren’t you glad to see that Judith Miller has found her true calling after printing WMD lies in the Times?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2hhtroS49I

ADD:
RML tips us off to a piece in AlterNet that says it was Fox News itself that originally posted this clip to YouTube. Discuss.

Speaking of pandering to the right wing and medals:  “President Obama will present the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to former president George H. W. Bush and 14 others.”

At least it isn’t going to W.

Yet.

[NYT Caucus]