The large shipment of glass bongs was sent from China to someone unnamed in L.A. County nearly a month ago.

“They’re very colorful and big,” Cristina Gamez, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement.

“Some of them are, like, two feet tall.”

No arrests have currently been made, but an investigation has been opened.  So far Santa is still in the clear.

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This year the AFA, as in years past, called for a Christmas boycott of all Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores, because the company’s ads have not used the word Christmas. But Gap did in fact, use the word Christmas in its holiday ad this year, but also mentioned, Hanukkah, Kwanza and Solstice. Oops! Now the AFA is accusing Gap stores, of being overrun with witches.

The AFA keeps a list on its website of companies that don’t use the word Christmas in holiday ad campaigns, which the conservative Christian group considers as censoring “Christmas.” When Gap’s new holiday ad came out this past week, the AFA immediately sent out an “action alert” condemning it as being condescending towards Christian Christmas traditions:

“Gap has responded to AFA’s call for a Christmas boycott of their Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores with a commercial that takes a cavalier approach towards Christmas.”

“The video entitled Ready for Holiday Cheer features a group of people dancing and chanting:

Two, Four, Six, Eight, now’s the time to liberate
Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, Go Kwanza, Go Solstice.
Go classic tree, go plastic tree, go plant a tree, go add a tree,
You 86 the rules, you do what feels just right.
Happy do whatever you wanukkah, and to all a cheery night.
Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, go whatever holiday you wanukkah.

Did you notice it? Gap compares Christmas to the pagan holiday called “Solstice.” Solstice is celebrated by Wiccans who practice witchcraft! Gap also encourages you to “86″ or “dismiss” traditions and “do what feels just right.”‘

The AFA then encourages its members to take a poll with the questions:

“Since Gap has now included the word “Christmas” in a television ad (in a dismissive manner), should AFA call off the boycott of their stores?
Yes. Any reference to Christmas is good enough to me.
No. Gap has taken a disrespectful attitude towards Christians with its ad.”

Watch the Gap witchcraft ad:

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The Lafayette County Republican website is just tickled-pink over the newest sign displaying extremist right-wing rhetoric along the state’s highways. “New billboard on I-70 replaces the nationally-and-highly publicized “Obamanation” billboard that quickly rose, in recent weeks, to statewide and national fame,” reads the website.

The giant billboard displays the message: “A Citizens Guide to Revolution of a corrupt government.” And then list actions for Americans to take:

“1. Starve the Beast.
2. Vote out incumbents.
3. If steps, 1 & 2 fail?
Prepare for War-Live Free or Die”

The new radical billboard replaces a previous one, which warned that the Socialist Obama was “coming for you.” The sign read: “How do You Like Your Change Now? Obama-Nation—They are coming for you! The Taxpayer—1st and 2nd amendments are in jeopardy. Live Free or Die.

The Lafayette County Republicans also hailed the Obama-Nation sign saying, it showed that “the great sleeping giant of American common-sense citizens is quite apparently awake!”

According to Think Progress, “It’s unclear who the owner of the billboard is, but the first one was the work of a “Missouri businessman.”

Breitbart together with conservative operatives James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, released another heavily edited ACORN tape this week, which seems to show an ACORN employee assisting the two with an illegal prostitution scheme.

Breitbart said, he was “forced” to release another tape due to the lack of a federal investigation into what he calls a “dangerous organization.”

“Congress didn’t come in to investigate them—obviously not the Attorney General’s office. And they’ve now realized— let’s get back into business, because they’ve realized that the dust settled and they were not being investigated. It was Hannah and James and me who were being investigated. That’s why we’ve been forced to offer this latest tape.”

Breitbart then issued his angry threat against Attorney General Holder and the Obama administration:

“And this message is to Attorney General Holder: I want you to know we have more tapes–its not just ACORN. And we’re going to hold out until the next election cycle — or else, if you want to do a clean investigation, we will give you the rest of what we have. We will comply with you. We will give you the documentation we have from countless ACORN whistleblowers who want to come forward, but are fearful of this organization and the retribution — that they fear that this is a dangerous organization.”

“So if you will get into an investigation, we will give you the tapes, and if you don’t give us the tapes [sic], we will revisit these tapes come election time.”

Quite a threatening statement made by a right-wing blogger to the United States Attorney General.

ACORN has refuted the video, saying, “The tapes are clearly doctored and highly edited and it is our hope this will be responsibly reported on should this become a news story… It is hard to respond to this tape. It is so heavily edited that it may be constructed to conceal the reality of the interaction… We are going to reserve judgment on the actions of the former employee (Stewart no longer works for ACORN) on this tape until we see the full, unedited version of this interaction.”

Breitbart, Giles and O’Keeefe are being sued by ACORN in Maryland alleging “illegal videotaping.” There is also an investigation in California launched by Attorney General Jerry Brown at the request of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which has infuriated Breitbart.

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For Mary Landrieu there is a provision in Reid’s health care reform bill providing $100 million in federal Medicaid aid to the suffering residents of the hurricane stricken state of Louisiana. The provision in the bill provides the expanded aid to states “that have suffered a natural disaster in the last seven years. Landrieu’s State of Louisiana is the only state that falls under that definition.

For Nelson, Reid left out of the bill, a measure to end the anti-trust exemptions for the insurance industry, despite Reid’s strong support for doing away with the exemptions. Nelson came out publicly in opposition to ending the anti-trust exemptions awarded years ago to health insurance companies.

According to Talking Points Memo, the next logical question: is what sweetener was added for Sen. Lincoln?

The historic vote on Reid’s health care reform bill to bring the legislation to the Senate floor for debate, is scheduled for Saturday at 8:PM.

The national poll was conducted by Public Policy Polling asking the question: “Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election last year, or do you think that ACORN stole it for him?”

Overall, 62 percent answered they believe Obama won legitimately, with 26 percent believing ACORN stole it. But among Republicans, the results were far different, with a whopping majority of 52 percent believing that the organization ACORN stole the election for Obama, with only 27 percent saying Obama won outright.

In comparison, 72 percent of Independent voters believe Obama won the election legitimately, with just 18 percent saying ACORN stole it. Among Democrats, 86 percent believe Obama won, with just 9 percent of those polled believing ACORN stole the election for Democrats.

What does this all mean? Well, if the results of this poll are to be believed, it shows what the emergence of the teapartiers have already proven; that the GOP base is paranoid, angry and scared over the election of our first black president. And their fear has been exploited by the likes of fear and hate mongers Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others.

Starting with the birther conspiracy, the claims that Obama is a secret Muslim and the “ACORN stole the election” conspiracy, Republicans have been trying to de-legitimize Obama’s presidency. And this latest poll shows that the constant ranting by Glenn Beck and others, promoting fringe New World Order conspiracy theories, have lent them credibility.

How far out is the belief by Republicans that ACORN stole the election? Obama won overwhelmingly, earning 70 million votes and 365 electoral votes, winning by a 9.5 million vote margin. This means that for ACORN to have stolen the vote, the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight,” which couldn’t determine that two conservative operatives dressed in cartoonish pimp and ho costumes were fake, would have had to somehow “steal” over 9 million votes.

PPP communications director Tom Jensen points out that the belief in the “ACORN did it conspiracy” ranks higher than the belief that Obama was not born in this country. “Belief in the ACORN conspiracy theory is even higher among GOP partisans than the birther one, which only 42% of Republicans expressed agreement with on our national survey in September,” said Jensen.

“I have never labeled myself as a politician, so I am not going to run for anything else,” he said this week.

The big question now is will Arnold return to his movie career, which he for the most part suspended since becoming  governor. Before one dismisses Arnold who is 62, as being too old for action movies, let’s see how he looks in Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, which also stars action heroes, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Bruce Willis and Terry Crews, due out August 2010.

Bustamante allegedly dug a grave a week before the murder, then waited until she had a day off of school before luring the nine-year-old into the wooded area.

Once there, she strangled the girl, then slit the throat postmortem, and stabbed the body several times.

When asked why she did it, she claimed that she had ‘wanted to know what it felt like’.

It is these words, and her obviously premeditated actions, that have led a judge to say she will be tried for the murder as an adult, rather than a juvenile.

“I would ask that they wait, that they listen to the facts as they come out and not judge quickly,” the teen’s attorney. Kurt Valentine, said.

“Learn about this person, learn about this child. You’re dealing with a child.”

Details have emerged about the teen which speak of a troubled past.

She attempted suicide in 2007, and her online writings speak of ‘pain’, ‘addiction’, and ‘killing people’ as a hobby.

Police say she has no prior criminal record.

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According to police, Jamar Pinkney Jr. had admitted to his mother to having inappropriate sexual contact with his toddler half-sister. The mother contacted his father, who showed up with a gun.

After pistol whipping the 15-year-old in his mother’s livingroom, Jamar Pinkney Sr. forced him to strip off his clothes, then drug him outside into a vacant lot.

Once there, as his son begged for his life and his mother watched on in horror, Pinkney allegedly shot his son in the head.

Though he is denying the claims, Pinkey’s lawyer has said that if it did happen, a mental illness must have been involved.

Pinkey has no past criminal history, or history of mental illness. He has worked for more than a decade for the U.S. Post Office.

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During the hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, the audit provision amendment passed 43-26. Paul’s measure would give the Government Accountability Office nearly full power to audit the operations of the Federal Reserve.

Paul believes the resulting transparency of a full audit would force reform of the country’s financial system. “If we get the audit and get the books open, make them answer the questions, I am convinced that the American people will be so outraged that then we will have reform of the monetary system,” Paul said.

The central bank has come under increasing criticism, as it refuses to disclose the identities of institutions receiving federal bailout funds and the terms of the loans. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will not disclose details of any loans made. And he strongly opposes Paul’s audit the Fed bill, claiming it would destroy the historically independent functions of the central bank and effectively put monetary policy in the hands of Congress.

Bernanke told Congress that Paul’s bill “would effectively be a takeover of policy by the Congress . . . [and] would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the dollar and our national economic situation.”

Reps. Paul and Grayson’s amendment still needs to survive through the House and the Senate.

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