Wonkette

• Bob Corker’s new radio ad avoids confusion by playing an angelic chorus behind a reading of his bio and “jungle theme” tom tom drums during all mentions of Harold Ford. [Talk Left]

• Ohio gubernatorial race gets Kity Harris CrazyTM as Republican candidate accuses Democrat of covering up a NAMBLA conspiracy among his staff. [Political Wire]
• Harry Reid plans to spend election night in DC, already scouting backdrops for his “that’s right bitches, we won” speechifying. [Hotline on Call]
• Cardinals’ pitcher Jeff Suppan to spin curveballs and anti-stem cell propaganda during tonight’s World Series game. [Martini Republic]
• Gay guidos rejoice as New Jersey upholds civil-unions. [Above the Law]
• New blogger Chuck Norris wants everyone to know that he really loves Jesus, and shows that love the best way he knows how — by kicking fucking ass. [World Net Daily]

• Biologists can now harvest stem-cells without destroying an embryo; White House and members of Congress trying to think up new objections. [NYT, W$J]

• Bush no longer touting “unseen-progress” in Iraq; new slogan is “Hey, it could be worse.” [WP]
• Some Republicans angry over lack of CIA fear mongering regarding the Iranian threat. [NYT]
• George Allen calls to personally apologize for “macaca” remark, “from his heart.” [NYT, WP]
• Elizabeth Dole, however, sticking by Conrad Burns and his slurs. [AP]
• Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski losses badly in republican primary, blames “anti-incumbent mood.” [NYT, WP]
• Freed of his Democratic cloak, Lieberman wants everyone to know how much he loves the Iraq war. [NYT]

• “Three leading gay rights groups will spend $250,000 on ads promoting gay marriage. I’m a staunch supporter of gay marriage, but I think that this money could be better spent…like, oh, say promoting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would ban anti-gay job discrimination.” [Feministing]

• “Singapore just announced a doubling of its R&D budget, to $8.2 billion over the next five years, ‘making it a regional research hub, particularly in stem cells.’ Says a Singapore-based scientist who roams the globe recruiting researchers, ‘I go to the U.S., and I tell those scientists, Come to Singapore and finish your work.’” [MoJo]
• Video of Ali G style reporter hitting on “fag-hater” Fred Phelpsian. The reporter gets a nice rise from anti-gay protesters: “You’re a fag-assed pervert, step off!”
  [Stop The ACLU]

• In a nutshell, this is what’s wrong with The Huffington Post: “Help! I’m A Global Warming Refugee on Melrose. OK, I guess ‘refugee’ is laying it on a bit thick. I’m sitting in a trendy, air conditioned coffee shop on Melrose Avenue in LA, sipping an icy latte, surrounded by your tired, your poor, your tattooed screenwriters and slackers and pretty people yearning to breathe cool.” [HuffPo]

• Heat Wave in California takes out aging power transformers, “When these transformers were installed, you had neighborhoods that weren’t air-conditioned, homes without two computers and five television sets.” [LAT]

• Bill Clinton stumped for Lieberman in Waterbury yesterday, “Lieberman did not mention Iraq or his support for the war, and Clinton touched only lightly on what he referred to as ‘the pink elephant in the room.’” [WP]
• 105 men “shackled at the wrists and the ankles” deported from Virginia. [WP]
• Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.) and Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.) sponsor new immigration plan today. Plan expects illegal immigrants to “self-deport,” apply for a visa, quickly return to work legally in the US. [WP]
• Govs. Schwarzenegger and Blagojevich pony up state money for stem cell research. [NYT]

MORE »

• Bush has not changed his position on stem-cell research and will veto legislation pushed by Frist; bill has enough support to pass without a filibuster. [WSJ, LAT, USAT]
• Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd dies at 84; Crown Prince Abdullah pronounced monarch. [AP, Reuters]
• Bush receives bills to sign as lawmakers leave town. [WSJ]
• Bush consoles over 30,000 Boy Scouts after four troop leaders are electrocuted. [NYT, WT, AP]
• 50% have unfavorable view of Bush in Gallup Poll. [USAT]
• DLC would prefer that Hillary take on the left. Brownstein: “If Clinton succeeds [at unifying the party], she will consolidate her position as the Democratic frontrunner for 2008. But if she fails, she risks damaging her stature on both sides of the party’s divide.” [LAT]
• Santorum challenges Hillary to a debate on family values after describing her views as “radical.” [WT]
• Roberts played an active role in the creation and presentation of the Reagan administration’s positions on civil rights [WP]
• Roberts‘ opinions about capital punishment are largely unknown. [WP]
• Influence of the Federalist Society “is the source of ever-swelling myth, mystery, insinuation, denial and debate.” [NYT]

Sure, folks with Parkinsons might be cured someday, but the people happiest with Bill Frist’s reversal on stem cell research are those who are as of this morning no longer running against him in the Republican primary. We’re happy about it, too, even if it has us doubting his pedigree. Come on: Flip-flop? Pedantic assurance he knows better than us? Earnest moralizing? Shouldn’t he be a Democrat? MORE »