PRELUDE TO THE APOCALYPSE: Ha ha, your editor told New York magazine how he would have a quiet vacation after the election, “far from any possible action” in Santa Barbara, and right now there’s a flag-waving fatigues-clad lunatic with a gun holding the entire 101 freeway hostage, in Santa Barbara. Jesus fucking christ. [KNX via Nurple]

Well, we’ve come to this moment finally, my friends, where an attendee of a Sarah Palin rally shouts that Obama is a “nigger.” We found this on the Daily Kos so of course the video maker decides to flash the word “NIGGER” several million times, in case you miss it. MORE »

But what do the psychotic racists do when they get home from Sarah Palin klan rallies? They plot a race war, which starts with the robbery of a gun store, and then a massacre at a school in a black neighborhood in Tennessee, where 88 black people would be shot to death, and 14 would be decapitated. “The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community,” the Associated Press says. Uh, sure. MORE »

John McCain’s campaign in Pennsylvania pushed the most absurd, unproven version of Ashley Todd’s dingbat Obama-Mugger fantasy to the Pittsburgh media — including the “backwards B means Barack!” nonsense that so thrilled the racists for a few hours last night. Just so we’re clear, let’s say it again: John McCain’s presidential campaign pushed the most incendiary, racially-charged anti-Obama made-up “details” from this crazy GOP gal’s black-assault fever dreams to the Pittsburgh media, which just happened to be the same DRUDGE SIREN MUTILATION talking points delivered to and disseminated by the Drudge Report late Thursday. [Talking Points Memo]

Ever since its founding by George Washington in 17-whatever-something, the District of Columbia has never heard the thrilling ring of gunfire. Finally, after more than two centuries of firearm-free boredom, Washington will get its very first guns, this month! MORE »

* Outside the beltway naiveté rears its cute little non-partisan head as most Americans respond, “I don’t know,” when asked who they want for President in ‘08. [The Swamp]
* It’d be nice if for once we didn’t have to say it — Robert Gates is richer than you. [TPM Muckraker]
* The blog-commenter race wars continue as some feriners stank ass forces a plane to make an emergency landing. [TalkLeft]
* Rudy Giuliani: America’s “hyper-authoritarian narcissist with a lust for overkill verging on the sociopathic” Mayor. [Salon]
* William Jefferson is still running for Congress and from the FBI. [Election Central]
* Christopher Hitchens outs himself. [Echidne of the Snakes]
* Happy birthday, Booze! [Hit & Run]

What happens when some twee accordion-indie band from Portland, Oregon, plays a NW bar on a dead Monday night before Thanksgiving? Nothing, really, but the group in question (Norfolk & Western) were unhappy enough to share their story on some Internet board. And then it ended up on DCist. And then 7,000 people left comments either dismissing Washington as a dangerous Third World crimeland filled with dangerous black people or dismissing the haters as racists who should all move to the Pacific Northwest where everybody is white and plays in a twee accordion-indie band.

We’ve collected a few highlights, which you’ll find after the jump.

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