Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Anyone driving the twists of Highway 1 between San Francisco and Los Angeles recently may have glimpsed a Toyota Prius with a curious funnel-like cylinder on the roof.  Harder to notice was that the person at the wheel was not actually driving.

Oh, Dear: Blumenthal Does Know How To Create Jobs  —  And he's created them — through his lawsuits.  —  “Businesses welcome them.”  —  Linda McMahon, your next commercial is waiting.  —  Thanks to Laura “Shanty Trollop” W.  —  Add-on from lauraw: I recently saw Linda McMahon …

Rush Limbaugh says there will never be equality because “some people are just born to be slaves”  —  How dare you say there's racism in the Teabircher movement?  I'm so offended by that notion.  Isn't what Rush Limbaugh says just soooooo true? … He's absolutely correct because there were many people …

Che Guevara; Guerrilla Doofus and Murdering Coward  —  Forty three years ago this week, Ernesto “Che” Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine.  Without trial he was declared a murderer, stood against a wall and shot.  Historically speaking, justice has rarely been better served.

‘Professional left’ says Obama's needling strategy won't work  —  High-profile liberals say President Obama's attempts to badger Democrats into voting will not work this November.  —  Jane Hamsher, founder of the blog FireDogLake.com, told The Hill in an email Friday that the strategy …

Lured Into a Trap, Then Tortured for Being Gay  —  He was told there was a party at a brick house on Osborne Place, a quiet block set on a steep hill in the Bronx.  He showed up last Sunday night as instructed, with plenty of cans of malt liquor.  What he walked into was not a party at all …

Angle: Two American cities under Sharia law  —  (CNN) - Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle told a crowd of Tea Party rally-goers last week that two cities — Dearborn, Michigan and Frankford, Texas — are under Sharia law, the sacred law of Islam.  —  “We're talking about a militant …

Obama hits links for 52nd golf day  —  President Obama hit the golf course Saturday for what, by CBS News' Mark Knoller's calculation, was his 52nd such outing since taking office.  —  According to the White House pool report, Obama went golfing Saturday with his usual partners …

Democrat Bastions Besieged by GOP  —  Republican challengers are suddenly threatening once-safe Democrats in New England and the Northwest, expanding the terrain for potential GOP gains and raising the party's hopes for a significant victory in next month's elections.

The Other Jerry Brown Insult: Police Chiefs Don't Read  —  Jerry Brown was caught on audio agreeing with an aide who called Meg Whitman a “whore.”  (Audio below at 1:55)  —  Understandably, all the attention is focused on the “whore” comment.  But there was another Brown insult which has not received any attention.

Obama Casts Republicans as Slurpee Sippers  —  To hear President Obama tell it, Slurpees are the beverage of choice of obstructionist Republicans.  —  In each of 20 political speeches over the last two months, Mr. Obama has included a riff in which he portrays GOP leaders as sipping Slurpees …

Baby Snatching: It's Hilarious When We Just Don't Like Their Kind  —  A fascinating culture-war blog entry plus comments at Wonkette, well worth reading for people confused as hell as why Sarah Palin is able to succeed selling a sense of “they hate us but really we are more than OK” to lots of Americans.

Vilified or Not, Pelosi Insists She's Winning  —  SAN FRANCISCO — While polls were showing her to be among the country's most disliked politicians, Democrats were ducking her on the campaign trail and the Republican Party chairman was riding around in a “Fire Pelosi!” bus, the speaker of the House was checking out mattresses.

Iott's Nazi re-enactments gain national attention  —  Republican U.S. House candidate Rich Iott received national attention Friday night he didn't seek.  —  Mr. Iott appears dressed in a Nazi uniform, along with several other men, in a photo that accompanies the lead item on theatlantic.com.

The Marine Who Has Barney Frank Worried  —  In a district where Scott Brown won, Sean Bielat mounts a serious challenge.  —  Fall River, Mass.  —  'I don't consider myself a tea party candidate," Sean Bielat tells me over dinner. “  I don't know what it means.

China, Angered by Peace Prize, Blocks Celebration  —  BEIJING — The banquet organized Friday night to celebrate the news that the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had won the Nobel Peace Prize was over before it began.  —  While the two dozen bloggers, rights lawyers and academics …