Oh, Rush Limbaugh, I'm just encouraging you, I realize, but someone has to mention the stupid stuff you're saying every day, right? Apparently, since Michelle Obama has encouraged people to consider what they're feeding their children and convinced Walmart to make their prepacked food healthier and lower the prices of fruit and vegetables, she can't ever eat ribs. Also, she's not fit to be a swimsuit model, so I guess she's a hypocrite. I have no idea.

[Wonkette]

Glenn Greenwald from Salon puts the pieces together from the increasing strange story of Raymond Davis, imprisoned in Pakistan for shooting two Pakistanis, and how the New York Times apparently agreed to deceive their readers on behalf of the CIA:

Yesterday, as I noted earlier, The Guardian reported that Davis — despite Obama's description of him as "our diplomat in Pakistan" — actually works for the CIA, and further noted that Pakistani officials believe he worked with Blackwater. When reporting that, The Guardian noted that many American media outlets had learned of this fact but deliberately concealed it — because the U.S. Government told them to: "A number of US media outlets learned about Davis's CIA role but have kept it under wraps at the request of the Obama administration."

[...]

In other words, the NYT knew about Davis' work for the CIA (and Blackwater) but concealed it because the U.S. Government told it to. Now that The Guardian and other foreign papers reported it, the U.S. Government gave permission to the NYT to report this, so now that they have government license, they do so — only after it's already been reported by other newspapers which don't take orders from the U.S. Government.

It's one thing for a newspaper to withhold information because they believe its disclosure would endanger lives. But here, the U.S. Government has spent weeks making public statements that were misleading in the extreme — Obama's calling Davis "our diplomat in Pakistan" — while the NYT deliberately concealed facts undermining those government claims because government officials told them to do so. That's called being an active enabler of government propaganda. While working for the CIA doesn't preclude holding "diplomatic immunity," it's certainly relevant to the dispute between the two countries and the picture being painted by Obama officials. Moreover, since there is no declared war in Pakistan, this incident — as the NYT puts it today — "inadvertently pulled back the curtain on a web of covert American operations inside Pakistan, part of a secret war run by the C.I.A. " That alone makes Davis' work not just newsworthy, but crucial.

[Salon]

The Fox station (Channel 10) in Phoenix aired a little story about taking Sheriff Joe out to lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant.

Taking Joe to lunch could be a real hoot, not just because its fun watching him pop chips and salsa into his mouth, but also because the piece may make it seem like he isn't so bad. In fact, he seems so normal that he could be our next U.S. senator.

Imagine that.

If this Fox affiliate continues these kinds of features, why not give it a special title like Political Ass Makeover? Just a thought.

Here's the description from the Fox website:

Friday, FOX 10's John Hook and the sheriff sat down to lunch. Hook was told the sheriff hadn't eaten Mexican food in years because he was afraid someone would spit in it—but that's just where they went.

Hook and Arpaio met at Juan's Authentic Mexican at 16th St and Thomas. The family that runs it doesn't support Sheriff Arpaio's controversial stance on illegal immigration, but they allowed them to dine there anyway.

They told FOX 10, "We want to set an example for the sheriff: that we open our doors and welcome everyone."

During their conversation, they talked plans for higher office, his policies, and the polarity of his supporters and opponents.

Sheriff Joe Gets Mexican Food: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Community Radio station 91.3 KXCI will be broadcasting the 14th Annual Homelessness Marathon from Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. to Thursday, Feb. 24 at 5 a.m.

The Homelessness Marathon is a nationally syndicated radio event, broadcast overnight. The Homelessness Marathon features call-ins from homeless people across the nation who share their stories of hardship and hope.

Every year, the broadcast brings to light some of the common issues surrounding homelessness.

This year's host city will be Kansas City, Missouri.

For those who may wish to participate, there are two call-in numbers:

Anyone may call 877-NOBODY-8 (877-662-6398), while people who are homeless, formerly homeless or afraid they're about to be homeless may also call 866-LEFT-OUT (866-533-8688).

For more information about the marathon, visit the website.

Wow. This is terrible.

On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a "60 Minutes" story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.

[CBS News]

Congressman Raul Grijalva responds to the GOP's call to eliminate federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting:

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today questioned why Republican leaders have offered a budget resolution that completely eliminates funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The measure, formally titled a continuing resolution, slashes funding for government operations for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 and eliminates many programs entirely.

“PBS and NPR aren’t luxury items or disposable toys to be thrown in the garbage,” Grijalva said. “They’re a fundamental and very permanent reminder of what makes free speech and independent media so valuable. I can’t help but wonder why Republicans are so eagerly cutting jobs and locking up company doors even as they talk about an economic recovery.”

If Republicans “are really willing to end ‘Sesame Street,’ they’re no more committed to education than they are to job creation,” Grijalva said. “They support continued subsidies for oil and mining companies with record profits but think children’s and public affairs programming deserve to be eliminated. The record speaks for itself.”

A vote on the resolution is expected by the end of the week.

From a SB Nation interview with Irina Shayk:

SBN: I read that you were a fan of the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, right?

IS: Yes! I love him. You know what I love about his books? He's so easy to read. You get three pages in and you have to finish the whole thing.

In case you were wondering, this is the cover featuring Ms. Shayk:

From Groupon's blog:

When we think about commercials that offend us, we think of those that glorify antisocial behavior — like the scores of Super Bowl ads that are built around the crass objectification of women. Unlike those ads, no one walks away from our commercials taking the causes we highlighted less seriously. Not a single person watched our ad and concluded that it’s cool to kill whales. In fact — and this is part of the reason we ran them — they have the opposite effect.

The firm that conceived the ad, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, strives to draw attention to the cultural tensions created by brands. When they created this Hulu ad, they highlighted the idea that TV rots your brain, making fun of Hulu. Our ads highlight the often trivial nature of stuff on Groupon when juxtaposed against bigger world issues, making fun of Groupon. Why make fun of ourselves? Because it’s different — ads are traditionally about shameless self promotion, and we’ve always strived to have a more honest and respectful conversation with our customers. We would never have run these ads if we thought they trivialized the causes — even if we didn’t take them as seriously as we do, what type of company would go out of their way to be so antagonistic?

We took this approach knowing that, if anything, they would bring more funding and support to the highlighted causes. That’s why organizations like Greenpeace, BuildOn, the Tibet Fund, and the Rainforest Action Network all decided to throw their support behind the campaign (read Greenpeace’s blog post here). In fact, the feedback led us to make changes to the end of our ads that further encourage our fundraising. To that point, if the ads affected you, we hope you’ll head over to SaveTheMoney.org and make a donation (which we’ll match) — we’re hoping to raise a lot of money.

The last thing we wanted was to offend our customers — it’s bad business and it’s not where our hearts are.

From ESPN:

While it looks like New Mexico is the outlier right now in not assigning the Black Eyed Peas a failing grade for their halftime show at the Super Bowl, it's currently a tie between "D" and "F" at 29% there.

In Arizona, the vote is 15% "A", 17% "B", 17% "C", 18% "D", and 34% "F" with 792 votes cast.