Mitt Romney is an asshole

Russ, Audrey, hop in the family roadster.

Before beginning the drive, Mitt Romney put Seamus, the family's hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon's roof rack. He'd built a windshield for the carrier, to make the ride more comfortable for the dog.

The most amazing thing about this rimjob of a story is that when the Mittster pulled over to wash the car after 'ol Seamus shit all over the roof, he wasn't surrounded by cops and arrested for tying a dog to the roof of his car. Well, that and the fact the writers didn't let that derail their wholesome-a-thon. ("He'd built a windshield for the carrier, to make the ride more comfortable for the dog." Any chance that "windshield" he "built" was a piece of glass or plastic fastened to the door of the dog carrier?)

His kids called their white woody station wagon "the white whale." Could those bleach-toothed Mormon children have been familiar with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"?

By the way, I'm pretty sure the picture that accompanies the story is supposed to warm the hearts of the 26 percenters pining for the good old days of Ward, June, Wally and Beaver, but it kinda creeps me out.

Don't say Massachusetts, Mitt. Pretend you're a Texan or something. And try not to torture any animals on the campaign trail, asshole.

A new new new new new low

27 percent and counting.

UPDATE: 26.

'The greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people'

is being perpetrated on the European people too.

Last autumn-winter season was Europe's warmest for more than 700 years, researchers say.

The last time Europeans saw similar temperatures to the autumn and winter of 2006-07, they were eating strawberries at Christmas in 1289, according to Jürg Luterbacher at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and colleagues.

It is against this backdrop that the Republicans watered down the energy bill just passed by the Senate. Sure, automakers are required to make modest increases in fuel economy, but the GOP blocked even greater increases, as well as taxes on the oil industry (you know, the one that has been enjoying the biggest profits in American history over the last few years) to support renewable fuels, energy efficiency and clean energy programs.

And even this pale reflection of what the world desperately needs is likely to be vetoed by George Bush because it contains a price gouging provision "that make it unlawful to charge an 'unconscionably excessive' price for oil products, including gasoline. It also gives the federal government new authority to investigate oil industry market manipulation."

Apparently Bush favors price gouging and wants to protect Big Oil's ability to charge unconscionably excessive prices.

That's leadership, GOP style. When people say "conservatives can't govern," this is what they're talking about.

The security party

Life under the GOP.

A US importer is recalling 1.5 million "Thomas and Friends" wooden train toys made in China because of paint containing lead, the company and US government regulators said.

Wooden wagons and other train-set parts of the toy popular with young children were being voluntarily recalled by the importer, RC2 Corp based in Oak Brook, Illinois, in cooperation with US officials, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement.

"Consumers should take the recalled toys away from young children immediately and contact RC2 Corp for a replacement toy," said the US agency. Customers were advised to visit the company's website, www.recalls.rc2.com.

The toys were sold in the United States from January 2005 to June 2007 for between 10 and 70 dollars, it said.

"At this time, there have been no reports of illness or injury as a result of this issue," the company said on its website.

Lead is toxic and can pose a dangerous health risk to young children, causing brain and blood disorders.

The recall comes amid increasing concern over health risks posed by food and other tainted products from China, including toothpaste and pet food.

Think this has anything to do with toys with lead paint getting into the United States?

After the 9/11 attacks, Tommy Thompson, then Health and Human Services secretary, demanded that the food inspection force at the nation’s ports be improved, and 600 more inspectors were rapidly put in place to examine the burgeoning imports of food. Today, they are all gone, the victims of year-by-year budget cuts that cripple the agency’s ability to do even rudimentary screening of our food.

So where are we today? There are 13 million food imports this year, with FDA able to inspect only about 1 percent. The system is so weak that many FDA professionals fear the word is out in the international community you can send virtually anything, of any quality, regardless of risk, to the United States, because no one’s looking.

Remember: Taxes are bad.

N85VM

A shameful connection.

The part owner of a US baseball team has been cited as one of the prosecution witnesses in next month's trial of CIA and Italian spies for abducting an Egyptian cleric suspected of terror offences.

Prosecutors on Friday called Boston Red Sox minority owner Philip Morse as one of their witnesses in the 2003 abduction of Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr, then head of Milan's main mosque.

The prosecutors claim Morse's Gulfstream jet was used to whisk Nasr from a US air force base in Italy to one in Germany, from where he was allegedly flown for interrogation to Egypt.

Nasr, who is also known as Abu Omar, was released from an Egyptian jail earlier this year, saying he had been tortured and raped.

As for Morse, he already has confirmed that the CIA charters his plane.

Phillip H. Morse, a minority partner of the Boston Red Sox, confirmed yesterday that his private jet has been chartered to the CIA and said he was aware that it had been flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 terrorism suspects are held, as well as other overseas destinations.

''It's chartered a lot," Morse said by phone from his winter home in Jupiter, Fla. ''It just so happens one of our customers is the CIA.

"I was glad to have the business, actually. I hope it was all for a real good purpose."

Hope? I admit to knowing nothing about the process involved in chartering a private jet. But I know that when I rent a car, the agent wants to know if I'll be leaving the state. So it seems unlikely to me that the rental agent for a Gulfstream IV jet would ask fewer questions than a 20-something part-time Avis employee setting me up with a Chevy Aveo, even if it is the CIA we're talking about.

Mahlon Richards, co-owner of Richmor Aviation, the plane's charter agent, said in 2005 that he believes the plane was used to transport federal workers, adding that his company had no information that it was ever used to transport U.S. detainees. Is that becuause he was lied to, or because he never asked?

I understand as well as anyone the desire to do your part for the nation, especially in the aftermath of the horrible events of 9/11. But to simply turn over a private jet to the CIA with no idea what your plane is being used for? I think at the very least, I'd want to know what they plan to do with my plane that they can't do with one of their own.

Of course, it's not like the CIA is above lying or concealing its activities. Nearly three years after the Washington Post and Boston Globe mentioned it, does anyone really know anything about Premier Executive Transport Services?

If it turns out the agency was using the plane as part of the Bush administration's highly unethical extraordinary rendition program, and if Morse knew about it -- or should have but was too busy counting the $900,000 a week in taxpayer money the CIA paid to rent the jet to find out -- I think the Red Sox need to cut this tie to one of the darkest events in the history of this damaged nation as soon as possible. I hope someone in Fenway's owner's box is watching this.