When I saw the headline over at Facing South, I had no idea that the nativist batsh*ttery has run off the rails into complete batsh*ttery.

The brains down in Louisiana have decided to throw a tantrum over the fact that the U.S. census attempts to count all people in the country, regardless of immigration status.

The failure of the Super Committee will not guarantee the protection of our social safety net. This is, by my count, at least President Obama’s fourth attempt to get a “grand bargain” to cut entitlements, so there is no reason to believe he will stop trying now. But the failure of the Super Committee would push any new attempts to get a bipartisan “grand bargain” into next year; and as the 2012 election gets closer, the possibility that both parties will agree on anything becomes even more remote.

Just as The Oregonian photographer captured the now-iconic photo of a Portland riot police officer directing a forceful spray of mace directly in the face of an #OccupyPortland demonstrator, Portland Police Bureau Chief and likely mayoral candidate Mike Reese claimed, during an interview with a reporter, that #OccupyPortland was interfering in police response for Portland citizens, citing a rape report that couldn’t be attended to for three hours. Shocking, and horrifying, if true:

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes broke some news this morning. He obtained a memo from a DC lobbying firm spelling out a strategy to undermine Occupy Wall Street.

With the U.S. economy stuck in a constant rut and Europe going into a tailspin, President Obama is looking to escape to the East. While the nations of the Asian Pacific rim face strains of their own, from massive inequality to climate change, their growth rates look positively zen compared to the stagnant economies that used to run the world.

So for the past several days President Obama has been charming Asia-Pacific officialdom, hoping these “emerging” economies can prop up the West’s sagging empires.

Each and every day some police action infuriates and breathes new life into this movement. Just when you think the movement might go stale and the message of “We are the 99%” will no longer pack the punch that it has had over the last two months, some picture or some video is released showing occupiers or, in this case, students peacefully standing their ground in the face of police violence.

Share your creature stories — animal, vegetable, or mineral.

We all have our traditions, many of which we are quite inflexible about (in our house, my father had to carve the turkey, there never was any turkey carving training for the young ones, this was serious work). And yet as I look back over the years, I’m surprised to find how many “traditions” are relatively new to our celebration, like the Mud Bowl football game, not watched but played. Or lately going over to the neighbors and meeting up with friends for a festive dessert potluck.

Sam The Eagle Interviews Spike Milligan from episode 317 of The Muppet Show.

As you’ve perhaps already heard, Cain today chose to tackle head-on the questions raised by his obvious brain freeze when asked about Libya earlier this week (see the video above: “OK… Libya… President Obama… supported the uprising, correct?”). Unfortunately, the results suggest that Cain’s damage-control strategies haven’t improved since the previous weeks’ allegations of sexual harassment.