One of our elected “leaders” thought this piece in the Onion was for real — and posted about it on Facebook, as part of his campaign against Planned Parenthood. He seemed to believe that the agency actually is opening an $8 billion “abortionplex.”

I wonder what this guy is voting on today. (And shudder.)

I’m waiting for the little fat one to scream “Obaammmmaaaaaaaaa!”

Roseanne Barr is running for President.

(I don’t think Obama is sweating this.)

Courtesy of a friend visiting China.

During a recent debate in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich said the “Stop Online Piracy Act” was unnecessary because “We have a patent office, we have copyright law. If a company finds it has genuinely been infringed upon, it has the right to sue.”

So the composer of “Eye of the Tiger” has taken him at his word and is suing Gingrich for using his song without permission at campaign events.

Courtesy of Slate, here’s a look at Newt Gingrich’s doodles from years past. You may notice two things about them, as I did:

1. Gingrich is at the center of every visualization. You may recall that John Sununu called Mr. Gingrich a megalomaniac “whose own leadership kicked him out as Speaker because they got tired of the megalomania.” These doodles do nothing to dispel that characterization.
2. While ordinarily I wouldn’t hold one’s doodle fantasy against the artist (I myself seem to recall once drawing an image of a large knife dripping blood — and I wasn’t trying to lead Republicans), I would like clarification of this note, found in one: “If it’s not important enough to do right don’t do it.” The syntax makes the meaning difficult to decipher. Does he mean one must do something well, or not at all? Or, more ominously, does he mean that doing the right thing, the moral thing, is exigent only if it’s somehow (politically?) important? (And, if the latter, was this written before or after he greeted his cancer-stricken wife in the recovery room of the hospital with the news of his affair and his on-the-spot demand for a divorce?)

I have to say, I did find myself oddly cheery today when it was clear that the Toad of GOP Toad Hall was going to win today in South Carolina. I had been rooting for him out of hope that it would confuse the GOP race, even moreso than those of us outside that race are confused by it. In bed late at night the other evening, my wife and I were debating who is most loathsome among the main contenders. This makes for a fun party game. I think it’s Santorum, who seems oddly preoccupied by gay sex and all its permutations and who seeks to return women to a status unseen since the last Puritan died off; my wife finds Gingrich revolting in all ways. Mitt Romney seems like precisely the wrong person at the wrong time — a man who profiteered from laying off tens of thousands of people while claiming that he was somehow creating jobs — and given the state of the economy and unemployment, it seems the height of unreasonable arrogance to go around campaigning on that theme. Re Ron Paul, I actually respect and agree with some of his positions; but could he please refute that newsletter that puts him into Santorum country? It’s truly saying something when Herman Cain now seems like the hip candidate.

Whoever gets the GOP nomination — and unluckily for them and perhaps, fretfully, for us, it must be one of these candidates — he will be left to contend with a party of three tents:  Wall Street; the Tea Party; and Evangelicals. These three want very different things, and, so far, none of these candidates represents all three (or even two). I don’t think President Obama is a shoo-in for re-election; politics being what it is, 10 months is an eternity, and anything can happen. Moreover, Republican enmity toward Obama is so great that they would vote for my used handkerchief over him. But if the rest of  voters look at that GOP candidate and scratch their heads, as they must be doing today, then Gingrich and the rest will have plenty of time to do self-centered art projects at home.

As of this moment, Rick Perry has .7% of the vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary. I didn’t even run, and I’ve probably got .6%.

Successful people usually have their own way of working. Here are 10 Management Secrets of Kim Jong Il.

Patrick Meighan, a writer I know, and the husband of one of the most talented actresses I’ve ever worked with, describes what it was like to get arrested, and how it felt to stew in jail while a real menace to society goes unprosecuted. Now, more than ever, I regret having co-chaired a large fundraiser for Antonio Villaraigosa back in 2004.

One of the great pleasures of being a delegate to the state Democratic party is personally getting to see John Burton in action. John brings the drama; John brings the comedy. Here he is, unvarnished as usual, explaining to the Daily Show just why California is F$#&*!d.