Daybreak on Mars, at Gale Crater

Image Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory - click to enlarge

This image shows Mars between darkness and daylight, and includes a glimpse of the Gale Crater. Gale is the crater with a mound inside it near the center of the image. Gale Crater will be the landing site for Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory. The mission's rover will be placed on the ground in Gale Crater in August 2012.   Gale Crater is 96 miles in diameter with a mountain rising about 3 miles (higher than Mt. Rainier) above the crater floor. This image was captured from the Mars Orbiter.

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Rick Santorum's crappy problem with the Santorum neologism

By Jack Brummet, Pranks and Payback Editor
with research by Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
Illustrations by Jack Brummet

Only yesterday, Ex-Senator Rick Santorum publicly asked Google to fix his problem.  He said he KNEW they could suppress the sexual references to his name on the G.I.S. results if they wanted to.  He also implied that if he were a Democrat, they would have eliminated his problem long ago.  As Google pointed out, it's not like they're doing anything other than reporting the search results.  They didn't put up the definition of "santorum." 

Rick Santorum's Google problem started in 2003, not long after he told the Associated Press that "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."

Seattle sex advice columnist and best selling author Dan Savage was understandably P.O.'d and decided payback could be fun.  He asked readers for a definition of "Santorum.". The winner was  "Santorum: The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."  Savage created the website  Spreading Santorum", which soon became the top Santorum result in most search engines.  Years later,  in 2010, Savage offered  to take the website down if Santorum donated $5 million to Freedom to Marry, a group advocating legal recognition of same-sex marriages

And even now, to Santorum's enormous inconvenience, that definition is the top entry when you Google the word "Santorum."  [Ed's note:  We noticed today the definition has slid down six notches in the Google search results, but we're pretty sure it was pushed down in the results due to a lot of searching on Santorum asking Google, basically, to have mercy.  We think the definition will pop back up to the top right after this story dies down (and it will die fast.  No one cares.  ).]

A cranky Santorum appeared on right-wing Steve Malzberg's talk show to express his ire and frustration:

"It's just that. It's filth. It's, you know, this man has, has gone out there and tried to destroy my integrity. I mean, you've heard the whole issue of the Google issue. That's Dan Savage. You know, it's, it's the lowest, you know, debasement of public discourse. It's, it's offensive beyond, you know, anything that any public figure or anybody in America should tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it. They, they, they kid about it. They write about it. They say, 'Oh, Santorum's got a Google problem.'

Dan Savage responded on AMERICAblog Gay:

"And you have to love how Santorum is out there mewling about being the victim here and about civility-- this from the man who compared people in stable, loving same-sex relationships to dog fuckers and kiddie rapists, this from a man who would make gay and straight sodomy illegal, ban gay marriage and any other protections for same-sex couples, and prevent loving same-sex couples from adopting children who need homes. This from a man who would literally destroy my family if it were within in his power to do so. And the "Savage Love" gang? All we did was make a dirty joke at his expense. There has been no effort to strip Rick Santorum of his civil rights, no moves to nullify his marriage, no one has suggested that his children be taken out of his home, no one is trying to prevent him from having more children. No one has compared Rick Santorum to a dog fucker or a pedophile. Compared to Rick Santorum, my readers and I have been models of decorum and restraint."

"And don't think you're fooling us, Rick. Now that you're running for president -- eight years after we redefined 'santorum' -- you're whining to attract a little attention to your campaign and because your advisors think that maybe you'll get a little traction playing the pansy-assed victim card, à la Sarah Palin, and rake in a few bucks. Oh, look at that mean gay dude -- one of the guys I want to oppress -- he's picking on meeeeeeeeee."

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Let's Bake! (NSFW)

When we finally start our cooking blog, we're pretty sure this will be the image on the front page.

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Drawing: The Witch-doctor

Drawing by Jack Brummet

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Drawings: The Hook-up

Drawing by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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A flyover of earth, from the International Space Station

We have really been enjoying the photography coming out of the International Space Station as it orbits earth.  This time lapse video starts over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. 

You can see--in order--Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, various cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico, Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon.    You see earth's ionosphere (the thin yellow line), the starts of the Milky Way, and at :55 seconds, a satellite.

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Faces No. 252

Drawings by Jack Brummet

pencil on muslin, 2'x2'

click to enlarge

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Drawing: The Visitors deliver a throwback

Drawing by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Drawing: JC

Drawing by Jack Brummet

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Dead/Elvis (Elvis Costello plays and sings with Grateful Dead successors Furthur)

By Jack Brummet
Rock Editor

click to enlarge

On 3/27/11, at Radio City Music Hall, Elvis Costello and his wife Diane Krall, sat in with Furthur (the Dead) and sang “Tennessee Jed,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Ship of Fools” > “Must’ve Been the Roses” > “Ship of Fools.” In the same show, Larry Campbell sings The Band’s “Chest Fever” and plays guitar and violin on a number of tunes.



Diana Krall, sings “Ripple” to end the first set and in the second set sings (and plays piano on) “Chest Fever” in the encore. Campbell’s wife, Teresa Williams, sings “Sunrise” in a second set that also includes “Uncle John’s,” “St. Stephen,” “Unbroken Chain,” “Morning Dew” and, to end the evening, “Attics of My Life” (with Teresa and Elvis in the chorus).

You can stream or download an audience tape of this show here.     The show is not currently available for sale from Further or Dead.net.

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Faces No. 251 - The Oversight Committee

Drawings by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Sarah Palin: Quote of the Day

By Mona Goldwater, Tea Party Editor

Quote of the day:


"I knew that we'd be buddies when I met her when she said, 'Drill here, drill now.' And then I replied, 'Drill, baby, drill' and then we both said, 'You betcha!'"

- Sarah Palin, quoted by theWall Street Journal, recalling a previous meeting with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

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Another sweet photograph from the International Space Station

By Mona Goldwater
Aerospace Editor

The ISS Expedition Three crew captured the setting sun on a digital still camera, and the thin blue airglow line just at the Earth's horizon. Some of the station's equipment is in silhouette in the foreground. This image is from three days ago.  Click on the image to see a much larger one. . .

click to enlarge - image courtesy of NASA (your tax dollars at work)

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Teabagging For Jesus

thanks to jeff clinton...

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What Democrat will take on President Obama in the Presidential contests?

By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor

Unless something REALLY goes wrong, say, worse than it already has, in his last year in office, President Barack Obama will run for the White House for the Democrats, against, quite possibly, Governor Rick Perry or Ex-Governor Mitt Romney. . .and maybe an indie like Ron Paul.  Where is the opposition?

The big question, as Presidential Candidates.Org, wrote:

"Do we give President Obama his second term to reap the projected returns of his policies, or should we wipe the slate clean and bring the Republicans back into power again in the hope that this time, things will be different?"

Painting by Jack Brummet - click to enlarge

There seems to be a fair amount of support for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to throw her hat into the ring.  But Clinton told ABC News recently that the odds of her running are “. . .below zero. One of the great things about being Secretary of State is I am out of politics. I am not interested in being drawn back into it by anybody,” she said. (We get what she means, but it seems disingenuous to claim that the SoS is "out of politics.")

In recent weeks, there have been more and more calls by Democrats--including, predictably, Dennis Kucinich--for someone to step up and run against the President.  Congressman Kucinich, who ran for President in 2004 and 2008, told CNN that a challenge to BHO would “make him a better president.”

Representative Peter DeFazio from Oregon told The Hill that growing numbers of Democrats believe Obama needs a challenge. “It’s a common refrain, and it’s certainly common in my district among Democrats,” he said. “They want the guy back that they voted for.”

During the debt ceiling fiasco, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said , “It would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.

Democratic strategist James Carville in a CNN column last week asked the President to 'wake up' and 'panic' and to  clean house, and circle back to the "Democratic principles that got him elected."  Carville wrote "The time has come to demand a plan of action that requires a complete change from the direction you are headed."  And, finally, "Fire somebody. No — fire a lot of people."

Ralph Nader said earlier this year that if The President is challenged in some of the early primaries  “it is harder for him to say no.  His strategists can say, ‘Don’t fight it, Barack; use it, revel in it; you’re good on your feet.' ”

The problem with all this, as Newsmaxx pointed out last week, is "The re-election attempts of Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush were all undone by primary challenges, while Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all won second terms after avoiding any serious internal party fight."

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