Fifteen years ago, Herman Cain recorded an album of gospel tunes. You’ll have to visit Weigel to listen to them, because we just don’t have the nerve.

If you haven’t heard, Sarah Palin, um, graces the cover of the latest Newsweek, which is now run by Tina Brown, which explains the shamelessness.

And if, like us, you find yourself visiting the web version of the cover story, you’ll see the above photo, captioned “See more images from Sarah Palin’s cover shoot with photographer Emily Shur.”

And if, like us, you dawdle your mouse over that photo, you’ll see the alt-text “palin-newsweek-tease”.

Which is easily explained: In the biz, a “tease” is just a promo, an offer to click through for more detail. For the geeks running the Newsweek site, it’s merely a means of labeling one of the elements of the presentation, for easy reference.

We suspect, however, that like us, you don’t really care. For palin-newsweek-tease so perfectly captures the story, the person, the presentation, and the phenomenon, the only possible explanation is Divine Intervention by a mischievous deity who has an adorable weakness for shits & giggles.

Palin Plots Her Next Move [Newsweek]

So, are we having fun yet?

The Guardian:

Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account, his legal file as well as his family’s medical records.

Daily Mirror:

Desperate Rupert Murdoch yesterday flew to London to try to save his crumbling empire.

He arrived in a cowboy-style hat to be hit by claims News of the World reporters hacked the phones of 9/11 victims.

Read more »

You expect Michele Bachmann to sign a Bigotry Pledge, because Michele Bachmann is a bigot, and signing a Bigotry Pledge is just self-affirmation.

You expect Mitt Romney to pander, because Mitt Romney is a Pandroid (“Pander Bear” is too cuddly and warm-blooded), and pandering is just his programming.

And by now, you should probably expect Tim Pawlenty to be Michele & Mitt’s lovechild: A Bigoted Pandroid.

Or, because he’s so bad at it: A Special Needs Bigoted Pandroid Lovechild…

GREGORY: Is being gay a choice?

PAWLENTY: Well, the science in that regard is in dispute. I mean, scientists work on that and try to figure out if it’s behavioral or if it’s partly genetic—

GREGORY: What do you think?

PAWLENTY: Well, I defer to the scientists in that regard.

GREGORY: So you think it’s not a choice? That you are, as Lady Gaga says, you’re born that way.

PAWLENTY: There’s no scientific conclusion that it’s genetic. We don’t know that.

Well, of course we do, and Tim Pawlenty knows that, just as he knows that climate change isn’t happening all by itself, only he can’t say that either, not if he wants to be the Republican nominee for Preznit.

Read more »

Hugh Grant tackles a weasel on the Beeb and shows why grammar school boys (weasel) can never win when confronted with public school boys who were once jolly good at cricket (Grant).

The scandal is now off and running. Grant makes some very serious allegations. That noise you hear is the sound of pols distancing themselves from Murdoch.

The question remains: what will HRH now read over cornflakes of a Sunday?

Hugh Grant: How I exposed hacking [BBC]

Hugh Grant revisits his role in News of the World’s demise [LAT]

USA v Brazil from Dresden begins at 8:30 am PDT/11:30 am EDT

American goalie Hope Solo will have her hands full with Brazil’s delightful Marta, whose ball skills are compared to those of Lionel Messi.

Title: “Winners Never Cheat: Even in Difficult Times”

Author: Jon M. Huntsman (Senior)

Rank: 8,009

Blurb: “The man who revolutionized the world by giving it the plastic spoon, fork, knife and Styrofoam take-out food container will once again change how you live your life.” —Glenn Beck

Review: “One of my new found favorite quotes is ‘Values provide us with ethical water wings.'”

Customers Also Bought: “Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success”, by Wayne Rogers and Josh Young

Footnote: So Dad’s a self-made billionaire? That’s more interesting to us than Junior being Mitt’s Mormon understudy.

Winners Never Cheat [Fuck Amazon]