Wonkette

Today, the National Assembly of South Korea showed the U.S. Congress how to throw down over impeachment. Screw quiet resolutions and votes and stupid gold braids on judges robes and shit - the Korea rabble-rousers stormed the podium like they were auditioning for LOTR or something, complete with body surfing, flying bodies, ear-pinching and an woman beating a man with a phone. Are you paying attention, Congressman Wexler? [Raw Story]

South Korea’s Commerce Ministry, obviously awash in tax revenues, announced yesterday its intention to build not one but two robot theme parks. The plan to allow people to “interact with robots and test new products,” and, presumably, to allow the threat of a vast robot army to scare the crap out of Kim Jong Il. This is how it starts, people. You’ve been warned. [Yahoo News]

North and South Korea are close to finally ending their 57-year-old war. Of course the US will refuse to sign the peace treaty until Kim Jong Il officially gives up all of his nuclear ambitions, a goal we’ve assigned China to take care of. Also, if possible, can a “winner” be declared? It’s kinda depressing when wars end in 50-year stalemates! [WP]

President Bush Junior screwed up even more than normal during brief remarks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Sydney. Foreign journalists were, as usual, horrified and amused by the bumbling and buffoonery. MORE »

• Jean Schmidt afraid that after losing her seat in the House, she’ll also be forced to relinquish the title of most moronic elected official from Ohio. [Talking Points Memo]

• For Dick Cheney, a day without waterboarding is like a day without air. [MoJo Blog]
• New Bob Corker campaign ad being “checked” by Tennessee television stations. The ad won’t be aired unless it meets a minimum threshold of racist content. [Wizbang Politics]
• White House spokesman freely admits Iraq policy is driven by political concerns, MSM finds it too obvious to report. [Media Matters]
• Iraqi Insurgents For Lamont to begin airing campaign ads. [The Carpetbagger Report]
• South Korean panic over North Korean nuclear ambitions being assuaged by copious amounts of life-affirming sex. [Outside the Beltway]
• Roll Call steals our idea, improves it by using research tools other than Google. [TPM Muckraker]
• The Swiss cheese memory of Dennis Hastert strikes again as he replaces “forgotten” facts with made up ones. [Think Progress]

• White House proposes that new, stricter sanctions on North Korea include weapons, Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter collection. [WP, NYT]

• “Axis of evil” still only 33% invaded. [WP]
• How the hell did they get that bomb anyway? [LAT]
• Papers publish polls. Probable voters pretty pissed at GOP. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• Democrats need to gain 15 seats to take control of the House, Republicans admit they plan to lose between 7 and 30. [WP]
• Hispanic population in US largely unregistered, those who do vote are open to pandering. [WSJ]
• South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to become new UN Secretary General. [NYT]
• Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion, a price that was buoyed by the cute cat videos you uploaded last week. [NYT]

• Katherine Harris pulls the crazy train into the station for maintenance. Get well soon Katy!

• Stop Tim Russert whilst he’s walking and he will cut your effin jacobs off!
• God pardons Ken Lay.
• Joe Lieberman’s not sure who he is anymore, but he’s running for something
• American competitiveness slips again. We’re losing ground to the Koreans in nattiness of street mobs. ‘Tis of thee.
• The president can’t get his mind off his trip to Graceland, Larry King can’t get his off marginally relevant World War II era anecdotes.
• Apparently, the sodomy squadron has been napping on the job, because they needed Vanity Fair to tell them the Watergategate parties were
  all about the ass-fucking.

All images: AP
So I guess there’s totally something up in Korea, because I saw all these protestors on TV. I didn’t really pay attention to what they were demonstrating about, though, because I kept getting distracted by their beautiful modernistic signs and their snappy protest outfits. They wear ties! They’re clean! And then I got sad because I started thinking about our dumpy ol’ protestors with their ugly Sharpie-scrawled signs, like that dowdy mother lady and all those Greenpeace interns, and, who knows, maybe even sign-wavers sporting “miniskirts, stiletto heels, low-cut spandex tops” and, God forbid, flip-flops like the Washington Times tried to warn us about the other day.

Let’s take a cue from our Korean friends and tighten-up a little, shall we? More good-looking signs and the people who wave (and burn) them after the jump.

MORE »

• Democrats threaten to filibuster against the extension of the Patriot Act. Feingold (D-Wis.): “This is worth the fight.” [NYT, WSJ, USAT]
• The CIA has secret Counterterrorist Intelligence Centers in more than two dozen countries; new emphasis on cooperation with intel agencies of other countries. [WP]
• 22 Republicans join Democrats to defeat GOP spending plan; “stunned” Republican leaders, left scrambling, pass “softened” bill hours later along party lines, 217 to 215. [WP, NYT, WSJ, LAT]
• Administration’s response to its critics stems from 2004 campaign tactics; Bush said to be “happy to be fighting back.” [WP, LAT]
• Who was Bob Woodward’s source? Executive editor of the Washington Post: “[I]f the information is found independent of our source relationship, sure we’ll print it.” [WSJ, NYT, NYT]
• Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.), a Vietnam veteran, tearfully calls for the immediate withdrawal of forces from Iraq; 13 service members from his district have died in Iraq. Murtha: “Our military has done everything that has been asked of them. It is time to bring them home.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, LAT, USAT]
• Bush, in South Korea, says a North Korea with nuclear weapons “will not be tolerated”; trip is overshadowed by criticism of Iraq war. [NYT, WSJ, USAT]
• Bush’s meeting with Putin “was choreographed to minimize the potential for another display of the tensions that now color their relationship.” [USAT]
• Advocacy ads about Alito hit the airwaves. [WP, NYT]
• Americans are feeling more isolationist, less unilateralist, according to Pew study. [NYT]
• Senate Indian Affairs Committee digs into friend of Jack Abramoff. [WP, LAT]