Title: “63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read”

Authors: Jesse Ventura and Dick Russell

Rank: 7

Blurb: “The official spin on numerous government programs is flat-out bullshit, according to Jesse Ventura. In this incredible collection of actual government documents, Ventura, the ultimate non-partisan truth-seeker, proves it beyond any doubt… Although these documents are now in the public domain, the powers that be would just as soon they stay under wraps.”

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Sidney Lumet dies at 86; prolific ‘actor’s director’ steered clear of Hollywood [LAT]

We’re not slow to criticize CNN as The Most Trusted Name in Abdicating News, so we were naturally curious about a Friday segment that TPM described as distressingly squishy:

CNN got in on the action Friday afternoon with a little segment that lets “you decide” whether Trump’s rants are valid or not, treating a point of fact as though it were theory.

“Donald Trump says Obama wasn’t born here,” CNN anchor Deborah Feyerick says, in a teaser for the segment. “We’ll show you the evidence, and let you decide.”

Well, we’ve watched the segment a couple of times, and it does a solid job of describing the Hawaii birth certificate and its legal status, as well as reviewing — and dismissing — the claim that Obama’s grandmother said he was born in Kenya. Maybe the teaser was ill-advised, but it looked like a decent fact-checking segment from here.

And really, CNN should be commended for the best one-line description we’ve seen of Donald Trump since Short-Fingered Vulgarian.

CNN Lets ‘You Decide’ About Trump’s ‘Birther’ Claims [TPM]

Brandenburg anyone?

[via]

Let’s get this over with…

Multiple-chin enthusiast Blake Farenthold defeated 28-year congressgritter Solomon Ortiz last fall in the Texas 27th. But not before Ortiz made merry with a photo of Farenthold in his jammies with Corpus Christi’s “Crush Girls”, who describe themselves as “ambassadors to the community [who] actively contribute as volunteers for nonprofit/charitable activities and events.”

The San Antonio Express-News called the play last October:

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[Hershey’s TV ad, seen Thursday night]