I added some photos - Hens & Chicks, Trudy, more teeth.

I should have spent more time in the yard today. Instead, I came across an MSNBC documentary on prison life that had a segment on the importance of booty.  The Kentucky State Penitentiary inmate in this clip likes prison booty a lot. 

The list of prominent Tennessee Republicans repudiating their own state party continues to grow this evening. Yesterday, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) joined Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in explicitly rejecting the TN Republican party’s tactics in attacking Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Sen. Bob Corker have condemned the message from their own party spokesman, Bill Hobbs. Meanwhile,  Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey and Republican Minority Leader Jason Mumpower don’t see what the big fuss is all about and believe the state party is doing a great job representing their values.

The inappropriate press release titled “Anti-Semites for Obama” was issued by TN Republican Party Spokesman Bill Hobbs on Monday. It included an image of Obama wearing a turban, referred to him repeatedly as “Barack Hussein Obama” and charged that Obama surrounds himself with anti-Semitic supporters, including Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan. The release hammered a self-destructive wedge between Republican party moderates who support John McCain and the party’s bitter Christian conservative base, many of whom delivered Tennessee for Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary.

Sen. Alexander’s statement yesterday said Tennessee Republican Party Chair Robin Smith “is removing the release and the photo from the website.” Smith, however, spent the day defending the post in various media outlets and did not remove the release. Smith went so far as to refer reporters to Obama’s dead mother as to why Hobbs used Obama’s middle name.

WKRN blogger Adam Kleinheider gave Hobbs an extended opportunity today to explain why the press release was still on the state party website. Hobbs instead refuted Alexander’s statement claiming there was no agreement to remove the release. After seeking reaction from Sen. Alexander’s office, the release quickly disappeared from the state party website.

In a span of 24 hours, both Robin Smith and Bill Hobbs went from launching a widely condemned smear campaign against Barack Obama to bizarre backpedalling clarifications, open insubordination to senior party officials, and total message implosion under still more pressure from prominent state Republicans.

This isn’t the first online posting that has gotten Bill Hobbs into trouble. In 2006, Hobbs abruptly left his job at a Nashville-based Christian university after authoring an anti-Muslim post inviting readers to join him in denigrating Islam. Hobbs was then hired in October 2007 as the spokesman for the Tennessee Republican Party. Whether it was to continue waging a radically divisive agenda on behalf of state Republicans remains to be seen.

This match of Wii Tennis between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is a real nail-biter to the very end.
Vince plays Hillary. I play Barack.

The former leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, praised Barack Obama yesterday comparing him to Nation of Islam founder Fard Muhammad.

“A black man with a white mother became a savior to us,” Farrakhan said. ”A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.” Farrakhan told the 20,000 gathered for the Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day they should vote “their own self-interest.”

Here’s a chopped up video clip. If you find a better video clip, let me know.

UPDATE 3:39pm - I came across this interesting connection between Louis Farrakhan and Barack Obama. It makes me wonder what Obama thinks about Farrakhan.

Barack Obama is a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama’s spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said “truly epitomized greatness.” That man is Louis Farrakhan.
[Obama’s Farrakhan Test - WashingtonPost - 01-15-08]

UPDATE 3:48pm - Obama’s reaction to the paragraph above. Farrakhan has a much stronger relationship with Obama’s spiritual advisor than he does with Obama.

“I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan,” Obama said in the statement. ”I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.”
[Race, Anti-Semitism and a Campaign - MSNBC - 01-15-08]