Midday open thread

• Today's comic is Troy Davis, Inc., by Matt Bors:
  
• Ron Paul's campaign announced it raised over $5 million in the third quarter.
• Which is apparently more than Newt Gingrich:

  Los Angeles Times reporter Seema Mehta asked Gingrich how his fundraising numbers were shaping up as the quarter ends Sept. 30. "See, I knew you couldn't resist. I'm not going to answer you," he said after releasing his "21st Century Contract With America."

  "You should really go home and think about why you would even ask that today," he said.

• This should hack off the homophobe crowd:

  The Pentagon has decided that military chaplains may perform same-sex unions, whether on or off a military installation.

  The ruling announced Friday by the Pentagon's personnel chief follows the Sept. 20 repeal of a law that had prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

• And speaking of homophobes:

  As you know, the Blend broke the news that NC State Senator James Forrester has been falsely touting himself as a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine ...

  Matt Comer at QNotes has found that, well, it?s probably easier to state which of Forrester?s credentials are true, since others are now up in the air.

  Further reports have indicated that Forrester might also be fibbing on his association with the Aerospace Medical Association. Despite claims on his resume, Forrester?s name is not listed on a current list of group?s associate fellows.

  Questions now fall on Forrester?s claim of membership in the Christian Medical and Dental Association. He lists his current membership with the organization on his resume at his personal campaign site and at a web page on the Gaston County Republican Party?s website.

• Even for something as stupid as Muffingate, the media sucks:

  From Sept. 20 through Sept. 28, there were 223 stories that mentioned either "$16 muffins," "$16 per muffin," "sixteen dollar muffin" or "16 dollar muffin," according to a LexisNexis search. Of those, 178 reported the issue critically or didn't even mention the Hilton hotel's response. Thirty-seven stories offered an explanation for the cost of the muffins or attempted to correct the record.

• In case the 2012 GOP field needs more loonies, Sarah still might be interested:

  Sarah Palin told Fox News she would be making any decisions on a presidential run by her own self-imposed deadline by the end of September.

  Said Palin: "I hold my political cards close to my chest. I've certainly learned lessons along those lines, and I'm going to continue to do that until I'm ready to make an announcement. This is a serious decision, and I'm engaged in serious deliberations and within the next 24 hours, don't look for me to make a decision."

• School are saying no to the teabaggers version of the Constitution:

  Earlier this year, tea party groups sparked a bit of an uproar when they announced plans to pressure public schools into teaching their version of constitutional history during the federally mandated Constitution week that began September 17. Led by a large umbrella group, Tea Party Patriots, activists planned to pressure local school officials into using controversial curriculum developed by the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS). The NCCS was founded by Glen Beck's favorite pseudo-historian, W. Cleon Skousen, who argued in his book The 5,000 Year Leap that the creation of the US was a divine miracle. When the news got out, liberal legal groups expressed outrage and urged schools to reject the plan.

  As it turns out, many schools weren't that keen on having tea partiers in their midst. There have been only scattered reports of the Tea Party Patriots successfully getting their curriculum into schools, but there have also been a number of complaints from educators who say tea party activists have been trying to intimidate them.
  

• Of course, not everyone sees it this way:

  Anwar al-Aulaqi, a radical U.S.-born Muslim cleric and one of the most influential al-Qaeda leaders wanted by the United States, was killed Friday in a U.S. drone strike in northern Yemen, Yemeni and American authorities said, eliminating a prominent terrorist recruiter who inspired attacks on U.S. soil.

• Watch the trailer for a documentary on Netroots Nation: American Spring
• Best wishes for successful treatment and recovery:

  Landra Reid, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has been diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and is being treated in Washington, DC.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/V0XhGm-DLVs/-Midday-open-thread

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