“An eastern Kentucky pastor wants Tennessee wildlife officials to return five venomous snakes confiscated in Knoxville. Gregory Coots, who is known as Jamie Coots, is pastor of at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro. Coots handles the snakes as part of worship services.” [AP, via jwmcsame]

Rubio’s awkward sip didn’t hurt him. If anything, he connected with Americans who fear such a public-speaking moment–aka everyone.

— Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) February 13, 2013

It’s time once again for our national celebration of Civic Calisthenics! Having endured dozens of them by now, that’s all we really remember about any of them — Aisle Hogs, Common Man Cameos, and Bouncy-Bouncy. (Well, plus the occasional Accusative from a Backbencher.) The ritual is so established, we swear you could set it to music.

“A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene…. The two main organizations identified in the UCSF Quarterback study are Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks. Both groups are now ‘supporting the tobacco companies’ political agenda by mobilizing local Tea Party opposition to tobacco taxes and smoke-free laws.'” [DeSmogBlog]

“CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin had signed on as a contributor to the Al Jazeera America news network. The blogger cited a report on the Daily Currant Web site as the basis for that information without realizing that the piece was satirical.” [WaPo]

“Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX) has announced that he would be bringing musician and conservative loudmouth Ted Nugent to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. ‘I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama,’ Stockman said on his congressional website on Monday.” [Think Progress]

[NEWSER] – “Conservative activists and Nate Silver haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, but they agree on one thing: Karl Rove’s new super PAC backing establishment Republican candidates over Tea Party challengers is a bad idea. Of course, Silver’s argument isn’t ideological, it’s mathematical. The problem, he points out in a New York Times post, is that money isn’t what’s holding establishment candidates back.”