And now, your moment of unintentional journalistic levity, courtesy of the New York Times front page this morning:

We’ve been reading WorldNetDaily for three years, ever since we became a blog thief Accredited Bloviator. And not once in those three years — not once — have we been shocked by their extremist buffoonery.

Until now.

And we mean shocked. Not “shocked”. Not hipster ironic airquote meta commentary on tabloid journalism “shocked”. Shocked. Jaw-dropping, put down the iPad and step outside for a smoke shocked.

Did we mention stomach-churning? Maybe that’s overdoing it.

Read more »

Okay, fine, let’s click the link…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to eliminate the “white potato” — defined as any variety but the sweet potato — from federally subsidized school breakfasts and to limit them sharply at lunch…

The proposed change is part of a push to make school meals healthier, with more nutrient-rich vegetables and fewer French fries. Under the USDA proposal, school cafeterias would have to limit starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas and lima beans to a total of one cup per week for lunch.

In case you’re wondering, there’s a “Minnesota Area II Potato Growers Research and Promotion Council”, so it makes sense for Bachmann to join the Spud Fight. And somebody from her state leads the National Potato Council.

But her angle? The Feds regulate school lunches because the Feds subsidize school lunches. So her argument must be that the subsidies are unconstitutional, and that kids would be better off with a starvation diet.

And farmers would be better off without that guaranteed market. Say, what other unconstitutional subsidies do they benefit from?

But let’s give her credit. She spelled “potatoes” right.

America’s Frothy Mixture of Lube and Fecal Matter says he can teach John McCain a thing or two about torture:

Hugh Hewitt: Now your former colleague, John McCain, said look, there’s no record, there’s no evidence here that these methods actually led to the capture or the killing of bin Laden. Do you disagree with that? Or do you think he’s got an argument?

Rick Santorum: I don’t, everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden.

Since Salon has done us the favor of reading a McCain memoir, we’ll let them provide the relevant passage:

Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron.

Thank God the Viet Cong never got to Francis Peay, Bill Lueck, Ken Bowman, Gale Gillingham, and Dick Himes — although since the Packers went 6-8 in 1970, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

Santorum: What does McCain know about torture? [Salon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G2vovE12tk

We present this clip, not because a Random Voter saying impolite things to a Random Candidate is news, but when the Random Candidate is Newt Gingrich, and the Random Channel is Fox News, well, that’s news.

Enjoy your ride under the bus, Newt.

GOP to Newt: Leave Paul Ryan Alone! [TPM]

Video: ThinkProgress

We’re not familiar with David Link, described as “an attorney and a writer who has been working on gay rights in California since 1985”, who lives in Sacramento, and some of whose work can be found in Reason magazine, if you Google past all the other David Links in this great land of ours. (But is there a Senator David Link of Utah? No. There’s common, and then there’s ridiculously common.)

All we can say for certain about David Link is that he’s capable of writing this:

Responsible, thoughtful and strategic members of the national GOP have a long-term interest in ridding the party of the toxic influence that Ronald Reagan first brought in, the first George Bush tolerated, and the second Bush encouraged in the most cynical and malignant way.

Yes, if only the GOP wasn’t burdened by the very people and policies that brought them successive successes over the past thirty years. Then they could go back to being the party of Nixon.

Read more »

Let’s not all rush to the IMDb quote pages at once:

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, separated after she learned he had fathered a child more than a decade ago — before his first run for office — with a longtime member of their household staff.

Shriver moved out of the family’s Brentwood mansion earlier this year, after Schwarzenegger acknowledged the paternity. The staff member worked for the family for 20 years, retiring in January.

We’ll open the bidding with Kindergarten Cop: “We’re going to play a wonderful game called ‘Who is my daddy and what does he do?'”

Schwarzenegger fathered a child with longtime member of household staff [LAT]