• In March, Obama will be sending 13,000 more mostly non-combat troops—in addition to the original plan of 21,000 combat troops—to Afghanistan. This is the stuff of surges, people! [Washington Post]
• Big changes afoot at your local mall, as Disney will be looking to revamp its store there, I Thought That Closed. [New York Times]
• Russia admitted that while yes, diplomacy is important, not having sanctions with Iran is perhaps even more important, and therefore more diplomatic? In a way? Like dialectically maybe? [AP]
• Do not miss the crucial deadline of this Thursday if you have yet to tell the government about your illicit off-shore banking goings-on! [Los Angeles Times]
• Switzerland is rethinking its whole neutrality schtick. You see, being so relied on is so boring. [WSJ]

• Eric Holder and his famous Justice Department (Civil Rights Division) are going to be combating social injustices this fall, and there’s a whole new team of lawyers, qualified ones, who will start hanging around to help them do it. [New York Times]
• Everyone not in Afghanistan is now pretty open about the fact that Afghanistan’s elections were totally fraudulent. [Times Online]
• Tween home shopping network Disney is buying Marvel for $4 billion dollars. [Reuters]
• A third of all cocaine in the US is laced with some veterinary drug that tragically is not one of the cool ones. [AP]
• Popular electronics purveyor Sony will feature popular search engine Google’s unpopular browser, Chrome, on their computers. [Financial Times]
• Tomorrow Montana might decide that doctor-assisted suicide is a constitutional right. It would be the first state to do this. [New York Times]

Here is your daily dose of International Politics: one of those gals from one of those shows that all your kids watch on the cable TV, doing the world’s tamest lap dance for a fake Obama in Spain. Remember when Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday” to the president and the whole world got an erection? This is sort of the opposite. [The Frisky]

The techno-fascist wizards at Walt Disney’s cryogenic laboratories have designed an android Barack Obama “frighteningly evocative of the real one,” so that the global entertainment corporation can indoctrinate a generation of gullible summer-vacationing children in the ways of our Socialist African Demon King when they just wanted to see the Jonas Bros.-Hannah Montana robot fuck show. MORE »

The biggest news story in the world is, of course, about some little ‘tween girl from Disney TeeVee who was forced to pose for naked photographs by an old lesbian photographer for Vanity Fair. This is very shameful, how Conde Nast let its magazine be used for half-nekkid pictures of an entertainer who is a girl child. The little girl only made $100 million dollars for having to be the star of Hannah Montana, which is the story of “Achey Breaky Heart” sensation Billy Ray Cyrus and his secret daughter who wants to be on teevee. The question is, which presidential candidate was more of a lech to the innocent little child, Obama or McCain? MORE »

Whatever you may or may not think about The New York Times‘ Deborah Solomon and her Q&A magazine column, she certainly tries to pin down her subject. In last weekend’s column, she cornered former Disney honcho Michael Eisner and briefly drilled him on politics. The result? Eisner comes off looking like an ass-kissing, dodgy asshat. Or, in other words: mission accomplished! The exchange, after the jump. MORE »

But what was it like at Disneyland and Disney World on September 11, 2001? [Jim Hill]

Formerly beloved childhood icon Mickey Mouse has shown his true colors: he’s as reflexively anti-American as any other coked-out limousine liberal Hollywood star. MORE »

As we know from movie classics such as “Harvey” and “Donnie Darko,” a sure-fire sign of insanity is the appearance of an anthropomorphic giant rabbit. Laura’s got two!

Celebrate America’s precious pagan traditions, after the bunny jump.

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Sadly, this is the header image that currently greets visitors to Kimberly Williamson Butler’s campaign website. We don’t know if it was our constant, affectionate coverage, or the less affectionate threats of legal action, but Ms. Butler is no longer enjoying a summer day in the Magic Kingdom in her campaign portrait. MORE »

Above, Butler’s website image as it appeared last week. Below, the image today. In both: Wonderous power of imagination. MORE »

Ah, Kimberly Williamson Butler. In case you forgot, she’s the mayoral candidate in New Orleans whose website featured (jesus, still features) a picture of her grinning happily on a French Quarter street corner that, it seems, exists only in Disneyland. This despite her living in the actual New Orleans, of course. So we can all tell she’s a bit nuts. Unlike us, though, the Walt Disney Corporation is unamused: MORE »