Jerry Brown's stunt is unraveling. Before we get to the good stuff, here's what the immigration bar has to say about receiving a Social Security no-match letter:

[H]ad she gone ahead and fired Nicandra Diaz Santillan based on such a letter, she would have exposed herself to potential anti-discrimination violations, lawyers said.

Liao added that it is "very important that the employer does not take adverse action against the employee" merely based on a letter from Social Security.

"Not only is (accepting the documents) all the law required her to do, but there's a counterbalancing anti-discrimination law that keeps her from probing further or demanding different documents," said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington.

Social Security records are riddled with errors, especially on female Hispanic and Asian names that follow a different order from English names, or are changed after a marriage or divorce.

"There are a lot of reasons other than immigration status that a Social Security number could be wrong," Williams said.

Once Diaz announced that she was in the country illegally, it was Whitman's legal obligation to fire her, attorneys said.

In other words, Whitman did exactly the right thing.

Now, the good stuff. As MrScribbler put it in comments:

I've endured years of Greta's weird face and horrifyingly raspy voice for years in order to get the Big Payoff last night. She has redeemed herself after all those All-Van-Der-Sloot-All-the-Time shows.

Ouch.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:55 AM | Comments (232)
Post contains 267 words, total size 2 kb.

Steve in Florida:

Sanchez is one of those people whose success is a mystery. When he was a local reporter here in Miami, people made fun of him all the time because he clearly was not bright. He stood out, even among local news people, as unusually dense, and his ego problems were also hard to miss.

Go to Steve's site to see two hysterical clips of Sanchez gaudily flaunting his retardation. Laughed, cried, part o' me, etc.

Posted by: LauraW at 06:55 AM | Comments (61)
Post contains 88 words, total size 1 kb.

Oh man. Ok, I'll buck up Obama, even though UT got their asses handed to em last week, and today is lookin grim.

But I'll be strong.

The big game today gotta be Alabama (1) and Florida (7) tonight at 8pm. You morons mocked me last week when I called the upset, but even you diehard cousin humpers will have to admit, it was close.

Texas (21) and OU ( this afternoon in Dallas at 3:30. OU didn't look good against Cincinnati or Air Force, but on the other hand Texas didn't look good against anybody.

Wisconsin (11) and Mich. St. (24), also at 3:30pm. Stanford (9) and Oregon (4) tonight at 8, and Penn State (22) vs. Iowa (17) a little later.

It's a great weekend you goofballs. Hope you enjoy.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:18 AM | Comments (112)
Post contains 138 words, total size 1 kb.

The Empire Strikes Back is given the silent treatment.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:37 PM | Comments (170)
Post contains 19 words, total size 1 kb.

So much lame content, so little time...

Your Friday Night ONT '80's hair-metal band lead-in:

No...no need to thank me. I do this for all of you out there in Threadland. Though I'm not really sure that Fastway should be considered a "hair-metal" band given that it was made up of elements from Motorhead, UFO and Humble Pie. YMMV as always.

Some Balloonish Business to get out of the way: As a very smart balloon blog we would be remiss in not sending out our condolences to the families and friends of the two American balloonists who apparently perished in an accident during a race over the Adriatic Sea last Wednesday. It doesn't appear likely that either of the racers survived. Did you know that there's a Balloonist's Prayer? Me either. According to the link it was originally recited before launching but is now done so as a toast at the conclusion of the flight.

Happier times below the fold...

more...

Posted by: Genghis at 06:13 PM | Comments (682)
Post contains 473 words, total size 6 kb.

Earlier today, I blogged about Sanchez's attacks on Jon Stewart during a radio interview that degenerated into an attack on "people like Stewart" and other networks, aka The Jews.

Looks like it's Network Running Jews 1- Rick Sanchez 0.

CNN released this statement today:

“Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.“

They will broadcast CNN Newsroom from 3-5pm for the foreseeable future.

As always, the man Sanchez killed while Driving Under the Influence could not be reached for comment.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:37 PM | Comments (457)
Post contains 103 words, total size 1 kb.

The election is a month away.

Now it's tempting, with all the reports of a "wave", "tsunami", unprecedented poll numbers, etc. to think that the thing will just win itself. But, as CNN-controller Winston Wolf put it: let's not start eating each others' lox quite yet.

Remember, the other side cheats. Particularly where they are strong -- which is where much of the action this year is going to be -- they're going to use every trick they have to cling to the seats they can. On the flip side, this is a chance to end long-lived power bases, destroy their bench (yes, down-ticket races matter -- this is where the next bunch of federal and statewide candidates get groomed), and hear the lamentations of their women. A wave doesn't mean fewer close races, it means races that we would have lost easily are now close and winnable. And we want to win every single one of them. The close races? We need unstealable blowouts.

There are five weekends until Election Day. (Of course, in early voting states the polls may already have opened!) That's a lot of chances to help get out the vote. Whats and hows below the cut. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:16 PM | Comments (182)
Post contains 897 words, total size 5 kb.

There have been Top Headlines recently about the male body type women prefer, which type is better in the sack, and which dance moves women love the most. The debate is over. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) just published the results of a survey of the preferences of over 5,000 women. From their data, they were able to construct this composite of the ultimate man...

You can always rely on PNAS. Women prefer the lanky man with substantial paunch. The best of both worlds.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:32 AM | Comments (110)
Post contains 93 words, total size 1 kb.

I've been pimping this site, War News Updates, for a while now. It's basically an aggregator of headlines. It has lots of great stuff on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it also has stuff on just about every other part of the world. It's a great resource to keep up on what's going on around the world. I learn stuff every time I go there.

Unrelated, do any of you grunts ever remember doing the rucksack flop in the old days?

I would have gotten nuked back on the old days for flopping like that. You always rested either by taking a knee, or in the prone.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:31 AM | Comments (76)
Post contains 119 words, total size 1 kb.

Seriously, they were like handing out flu in bottles last night. Or sometimes they would mix the flu with soda and ice. It was sick. Should be a law against that.

Posted by: Ace at 11:17 AM | Comments (103)
Post contains 49 words, total size 1 kb.