Levi Johnston's Mother Arrested on Drug Charges, via Cajun Boy and Paula.

She could have made more money by just telling all to the National Enquirer.

While checking out activities for the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration week, I found this gem on the King Center's (pdf) list of activities:

THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ANNUAL COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE

Monday, January 19, 2009 - 10:00 A.M. Open to the public. (Limited seating)
Ebenezer Baptist Church - Horizon Sanctuary, 407 Auburn Ave., NE, Atlanta, GA
The Commemorative Service is the spiritual hallmark of the King Holiday Observance, and features tributes to the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from national and international leaders. Also included is a 12' x 19' JumboTron which will broadcast the Commemorative Service live. It will be positioned in front of the Martin Luther King Historic Site Rose Garden for visitors in the Historic District.

Keynote Speaker: Rick Warren, Pastor, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA.

For More Information Contact: Barbara Harrison at (404) 526-8911.

Looks like the great Reverend Rick is all down with the people. On Monday, he celebrates Dr. King's life and legacy and then on Tuesday he's doing the invocation for Obama.

My mind is confused about how Rev. Rick will talk about Dr. King's legacy of equal rights and then still preach about who is excluded from God's love.

Story here

Otherwise known as please don't sue us or hire an attorney. Bridges fall by themselves and that's all you need to think about it. I grant you that the contractors involved in this incident have had OSHA violations and deaths at their jobsites before, but don't worry about that. Workers Comp will pay your initial medical bills and for your flights back to wherever you are from. Have a good day!

Apparently the warm glow the homophobes of California must have gotten when Prop 8 passed didn't last too long - a lesbian woman living in the San Franscisco area is reported to have been gang raped by four men. To all our GLBT friends, I hope you are safe and warm somewhere, and please keep yourselves safe, ok?

Newspaper Shuns Web and Thrives, from NY Times:

"Why would I put anything on the Web?" asked Dan Jacobson, the publisher and owner of the newspaper. "I don't understand how putting content on the Web would do anything but help destroy our paper. Why should we give our readers any incentive whatsoever to not look at our content along with our advertisements, a large number of which are beautiful and cheap full-page ads?"

Related: The New Loaf, sorta same as the old one! Excerpts from a re-organization, from Atlanta Magazine.

Certainly not this.

Pumping fists and chanting "no justice, no peace," about 200 people marched through Cherry Tree Crossing housing development Monday in a demonstration against police brutality, led by shotgun-toting members of the New Black Panthers Party's Augusta chapter.

Yusuf Shalid, a family friend of Mr. Elmore who'd spoken at his funeral earlier, watched the march disapprovingly. When it ended, he tried to talk members of the crowd into going home.

He told them the Panthers shouldn't be carrying guns through a neighborhood where children live, nor should marchers be walking around with cups of beer and drinking from bottles in paper bags.

I give it one out of three hos.

This maybe a ongoing post title... I've been trying to come up with something like a "daily grumble" but that's been taken, or a daily gripe, but really aren't they all?

Anyway, you know how you walk by people's desks and over hear things you just can't believe - or in my case make up, well at 4 pm today, the post just named itself. I work in a rather unusual place, which I won't name, suffice to say we have "all kinds".

My co-worker, clearly speaking to a relative, was describing his uncle's funeral last week, when I heard this: "they did it up right, they took him to the graveside in a Harley Davidson three trike pulling a glass hearse". Now I'm pretty much a gal about town, but this stopped me cold. So I beat a hasty retreat to my desk and googled the puppy up... and low and behold, you too can be transported to your final resting place by the Tombstone Trike and Hearse Company. Dang I might have to reconsider my cremation arrangements now... That's like totally cool.

Anything good overheard in your cubicle land, farm, space smaller than a veal lives in?

States in South, West to gain seats in Congress

Southern and western states are poised to snatch more congressional seats from the rest of the country as Americans pursue open spaces and warmer climates.

Brace projects Arizona to add two seats, while Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Utah could add one each. States projected to lose single seats are Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Here's to a great holiday to all our writers, commenters, fans, critics. You all contribute to our success and we appreciate it.

Consider this your holiday open thread.

Ok, I know it's beyond bizarre to post this bizarre story on Christmas Eve, as NORAD tracks Santa (at this moment, he just visited Ambato, Ecuador), but I'm a bizarre dude. Thus I bring you news of a gross - and illegal - scheme by which a "doctor" in California used fat from liposuctions for biofuel. Thankfully there are no details about how this tour-de-nasty was accomplished, although it's worth noting that turning corn into ethanol is a lot more efficient if you remove the intermediate step of someone eating it and turning it into body fat.

And now, as Santa passes through Matthew Town, Bahamas, I wish a merry Christmas, and to all a good night.

Tick tock ... tick: Extra second added to 2008 | Reuters

The world's official timekeepers have added a "leap second" to the last day of the year on Wednesday, to help match clocks to the Earth's slowing spin on its axis, which takes place at ever-changing rates affected by tides and other factors.

Politics is like bad crack without a good rehab program. As exhaustive as the last election season was and as much as I have enjoyed uninterrupted sleep, David Broder writes a piece that pulls me back in.

In Broder's article "The GOP South" he writes:

The Southern domination of the congressional Republican Party has become more complete with each and every election. This year, Republicans suffered a net loss of two Senate and three House seats in the South, but they lost five Senate seats and 18 House seats in other sections. No Republican House members are left in New England, and they have become ever scarcer in New York and Pennsylvania and across the Midwest.

Georgia has been in this 6/7 congressional seat stalemate for too long, Icky Chambliss has been re-elected, and Johnny's seat is up in 2010.

So what are Georgia Dems going do to end this streak?

Consider this a Middle East Open Thread

BusinessWeek thinks so.

Of course, Ponzi schemes only collapse when the the plan cannot get enough new people in to offset the payments to the old, but social security requires enrollment, so if it is a Ponzi scheme, it's a perfect one.

Thoughts?

Anchorage Daily News:

Palin's daughter Bristol gave birth to the healthy 7-pound, 4-ounce baby in Palmer, the magazine reports on its Web site.

The full name: Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.

For once, Cynthia McKinney is the sympathetic character - the AJC reports that she was on a boat full of peace activists (and humanitarian supplies) bound for Gaza that came under attack by the lovable Israeli navy in international waters. (Apparently three Al Jazeera journalists were on the boat as well, so you can imagine that they're not amused by the incident.)

I guess when your dad is Billy McKinney, you can expect some rough treatment from Israel... although I have to ask, how much longer until Olmert is out of there? (Answer: some time in February, i.e. too long.)

I'm not on the party circuit tonight, since I've long called NYE amateur night and as we all know I'm a professional... One early party stop and home by 9 is my plan.

So what are your plans?

Will you be getting married?
Will you be hiding out in a motel room hunkered down with a loved one?
Will you be having a girlie sleepover?
Will you be making steaks for your family and celebrating the "East Coast NYE"?
Will you be making lists of resolutions?
Will you be watching bad movies from the 80's-my personal fav is Streets of Fire
Will you be watching the folks in Times Square freeze their butts off?

Do tell...

...for Atlanta City Council via DecaturGuy

Charles Stadtlander is running against Anne Fauver for City Council. As documented on Atlanta Public Affairs, Stadtlander doesn't like drag shows, or at least he didn't when he was in Missouri.

According to the River Front Times:

Charles Stadtlander, president of the political organization for gay, lesbian and bisexual Republicans, says he now has reason to believe that homosexual sex occurred after the show.

"Those actors wore revealing outfits, used inappropriate language and simulated sex acts," said Stadtlander. "Pretty inappropriate. But it pales in comparison to what they did later that night."

Stadtlander says he has learned that two of the show's participants had consensual sexual intercourse at a motel.

"Two dudes doing it is just — nasty," said Stadtlander.

Oh well, at least he actually lives in the district this time.