Rick Perry totally owns the Texas secessionist vote.

It’s certainly been a week of whack in the land of Conservatardia, and it’s only Monday. Yeesh.

There is still enough energy left in the wounded serpent that is the Southern Strategy to lash out in a furious flowering of poison to corrode our moral fiber. The question is whether the corporate interests that back this strategy in order to keep their taxes low (or non-existent) will finally forsake the oncological, selfish model of capitalism for the more civic-minded one that prevails in Europe and elsewhere.

Obviously, the large part we’ve played in driving and reporting on the health care debate, the dominant story of the latter half of the year, gives FDL a big leg up in any annual overview of the best of online reporting, but the other three stories on Sargent’s top five list were also, for lack of a better word, “ours.”

David Freddoso appeared on MSNBC Friday to discuss the birther controversy, set afire anew by a DailyKos’ Research 2000 poll that revealed fewer than ½ of Republicans believe Barack Obama was born in the United States and is Constitutionally eligible to serve as President.