Wonkette

* Tom Daschle will see if he’s got what it takes to sink the Obama campaign. [Political Wire]
* Walnuts! campaign too broke to have separate interns for coffee and donuts. [On Call]
* Even testimony from a “natural family planning” advocate gets a director’s cut. [My Left Nutmeg]
* British hostages in Iran subject to the torture of captivity without iPod. [thisislondon]
* University of Florida soon to have a Jeb Bush School For Kids Who Don’t Read Good. [alligator]
* Australian humor mostly lost on Hillary. [PrezVid]
* Google Maps-Darfur genocide mash-up — is there anything it can’t do? [Reuters

Blowhard Australian Prime Minister John Howard better watch out who he insults. There’s a super-secret new spy base currently under construction on the blighted western edge of the so-called “land down under.” The base will coordinate communications with spy satellites and such, and will make it “almost impossible for Australia to be fully neutral or stand back from any war in which the US was involved,” according to Philip Dorlin, a visiting fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy. MORE »

Aussie PM John Howard is so determined to see every Muslim (and many thousands of Americans) killed in Iraq that he endorsed Bush over Kerry in 2004. But his love for Dubya goes beyond mere words. MORE »

Aussie prime minister John Howard isn’t falling for that Iran stuff — he knows the actual leader of the Iraqi insurgency is Barack Obama. The Australian cretin chose the day after Obama’s announcement to make the asinine comments on TV.

“If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats,” said the mouth-breathing prime minister. Yes, keep drawing circles around “March 2008″ and we’ll go ahead and have our election in November.

Join us for crayons and calendars, after the jump.

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Today’s edition of “How Others See Us” features Senator-elect Jim Webb in his secret guise as a dangerous horned devil pig, giving a hearty back-kick to the Canadian Mountie George Allen … in front of a mosque in the desert somewhere. MORE »

• Sweet old lady hates Bush so much she works a room of children into a murderous rage. Grandma’s Militia now on terrorist watch list.
  [The Australian] MORE »

* Soledad O’Brien: Wednesday’s “Hump Day Hussy.” [Evil Discussor] MORE »

* “That motherfucker George Washington had like thirty god damn dicks.” [Drink at Work] MORE »

Yesterday we asked you for information about “The Australian Black Pearl,” the cryptically named dessert that was served at the recent White House dinner in honor of Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Thank you for all your tips. We now know more than we ever cared to know about this culinary creation with the sexy-sounding name. Apparently it has nothing to do with Pirates of the Caribbean.

This was the most helpful response we received, informed by firsthand knowledge of said dessert:

I have a detailed description of the dessert this morning from an attendee to last night’s dinner. The “pearl” was a round ball of chocolate ganache covered nougat ice cream, about the size of a duck pin bowling ball. It sat in a white chocolate giant clam set among dark chocolate stag coral and small white chocolate fish. The dessert also included fresh raspberries and oranges. One was created for each table. The guest thought the desert was the highlight of a wonderful dinner.

After the jump, additional tidbits about “The Australian Black Pearl.”

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So the jury is still out on what “The Australian Black Pearl” involves. But here are some additional observations about the official White House dinner in honor of Australian Prime Minister John Howard. MORE »

Slow afternoon around here. Going through our inbox, we came across an email forwarding us the menu from last night’s official dinner in honor of Australian prime minister John Howard.

Nothing earth-shattering, and much of it was mentioned in the Post. But this menu item jumped out at us:

Wow — sounds HOTT. What exactly is “The Australian Black Pearl”? Where does it get its name from, and why the scare-quotes? How does it taste? Is there a necklace involved?

The Post write-up is unhelpful — something to do with nougat ice cream — and our half-assed Google research didn’t reveal much either. If you can enlighten us, please drop us a line.

For those of you with culinary curiosity, the full dinner menu appears after the jump.

Bush and Howard: Best Mates [WP]

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