Welcome to The Now

Got this today at noon . Would it trouble them to send this like a week early?

Disney bought Marvel . The Bad: Every Marvel TV show and movie will have Walt Disney's signature slapped on it, like they did with Doug and Recess. A "Disnefied" Punisher and Blade. " Hulk smash Goofy ." Emma Frost, Electra, and Psylocke will have to wear clothes now. The Good: This is almost like pumping Paris Hilton's trust fund into the movie "Sling Blade." Disney's marketing + Marvel's creativity = ? Games like Random Heart have just upped in awesome. (also mentioned in OW's link): A Pixar-made Marvel movie? *Drool....* The characters from Gargolyes can now become a Marvel comic. Yay! This draws boy to Disney. Marvel artists doing Disney stuff.

Your "liberal = fascist" garbage is now part of conservative Republican philosophy . What people like Goldberg, in responding to this point, have always claimed is that there's nothing particularly right wing about the kookery of people like the Aryan Nations or the Posse Comitatus -- they're just kooks, plain and simple. So when James von Brunn shot up the Holocaust Museum this summer, Goldberg disingenuously went on Beck's program and tried to persuade us that Von Brunn wasn't a right-wing extremist -- just a garden-variety kook. Just like Dr. George Tiller's assassin, Scott Roeder. But this is palpable nonsense. What makes these people right-wing extremists is that they not only adopt right-wing political positions, they take them to their most extreme logical (if that's the word for it) outcome: They not only oppose abortion, they believe abortion providers should be killed. They not only believe that liberal elites control the media and fi...

The Democratic Plan for Health Care reform is failing because Obama isn't leading. But if he and the Democrats in Congress kiss the GOP ring, everything will be super .

"... and the quarterback is toast ." Blazin '. Taking it on the road . Blame the French . The Big Payback ?

We were outsourcing everything to shady organizations . WASHINGTON – When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA. With Blackwater's lucrative government security work and contacts arrayed in hot spots around the world, company officials offered the services of foreigners supposedly skilled at tracking terrorists in lawless regions and countries where the CIA had no working relationships with the government. Blackwater told the CIA that it "could put people on the ground to provide the surveillance and support — all of the things you need to conduct an operation," a former senior CIA official familiar with the secret program told The Associated Press. But the CIA's use of the private contractor as part of its now-abandoned plan to dispatch death squads skirted concerns now re-emerging with recent disclosures ab...

Nice . BAGHDAD – An Iraqi journalist imprisoned for hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior , his lawyer said Saturday. Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act of protest during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, as his case became a rallying point for critics who resented the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation.

How desperate are smokers ? DU's hatemail is always a good read. Make you wonder how some of these people ever figured how to turn a computer on, log in and open up a browser. ... and you thought your boss sucked . Don't really get this quasi-rivalry between TSG and TMZ , considering they both technically work for the same company. If you want to know if they love you so: it's in their kiss . I have to keep reminding myself that she was on the Cosby Show once . Blockers . When people talk about FoxNews' ratings, they aren't referring to the Business Channel . Get a room .

But it's no longer backwards compatible (always a catch). So basically, Sony's going the Nintendo route.

... meaning: "Senators who not only know the facts, but know how to deal with people trying to distort them ", we'd have our health care, among other things.

It's not over yet . WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators on Friday shut down banks in California, Maryland and Minnesota, pushing to 84 the number of bank failures this year amid the soured economy and rising loan defaults. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the three banks: Affinity Bank, based in Ventura, Calif., with about $1 billion in assets and $922 million in deposits; Baltimore-based Bradford Bank, with $452 million in assets and $383 million in deposits; and Mainstreet Bank, based in Forest Lake, Minn., with assets of $459 million and deposits of $434 million. Pacific Western Bank, based in San Diego, agreed to assume the deposits and assets of Affinity Bank. In addition, the FDIC and Pacific Western agreed to share losses on about $934 million of the failed bank's loans and other assets. Affinity Bank's branches in San Francisco and San Mateo will reopen Saturday as offices of Pacific Western Bank; the remaining branches will reopen Monday, the FDI...

.... where HCR is the (not there yet) fetus that must be aborted before it becomes a fetus , or something. It must be cool to not only blurt out whatever you want on the public airwaves and get paid for it.

Congrats , Roxanne!

USC's first freshman QB . Good luck, kid.

And he's stupid . UPDATE : He finally gets his spellcheck updated . Nevertheless, if you're going to make a crazy conspiracy theory, at least make sure you rehearsed and edited it properly.

How can people "not forgive" Sen. Ted Kennedy for ( as JP observed ) murder, yet completely overlook the countless number of people who dies under President Bush? Can someone do a number comparison: the lives lost due to Kennedy's policies versus those lost under Bush's policies? Foreign, domestic, and both? I'm curious.

But it looks like Gov. Richardson is in the clear .

And this one's in the top five.

A lion , true indeed. OW has pics . TPM's take ... and that speech . From the Boston Globe ...

Oy . FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- A registered sex offender allegedly tried to snatch a boy from a restroom inside a Fairfax County store, according to authorities. Steven Liggon , 47, approached a 9-year-old boy in the bathroom at the Dick's Sporting Goods store on Columbia Pike in Falls Church Saturday afternoon, investigators said. The boy told his father that a man tried to trap him in the bathroom. Investigators identified Liggon with store surveillance cameras, police said.

You hear it from the Senate : In a memo that was drafted and circulated on background in April, Senate Democrats made the case that using a budget reconciliation bill to pass health care reforms is perfectly within their rights, given the Republicans' promiscuous use of the same tactic when they were in power. Excerpts of the memo were published by various news outlets back in the spring, but the memo doesn't appear to have been previously been published in its entirety until now . And now, with Democrats ramping up the threat that they'll invoke the process in the fall, they're rehashing those same arguments. " [S]hould Republicans choose not to cooperate [on health care reform], the inclusion of reconciliation instructions [in the budget] provides a backup option which could be used to prevent a filibuster and approve legislation by a majority vote," the memo reads. "[T]here is nothing unprecedented or unusual about the use of reconciliation." An...

Better late than never : WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended reversing the Bush administration and reopening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases, potentially exposing Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors to prosecution for brutal treatment of terrorism suspects, according to a person officially briefed on the matter. The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility , presented to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in recent weeks, comes as the Justice Department is about to disclose on Monday voluminous details on prisoner abuse that were gathered in 2004 by the C.I.A.’s inspector general but have never been released. Will this distract the anti-Obama crowd long enough for the President (and Congress) to pass some effective health care reform? Doubt it, but no one ever said politics was easy.

I always wondered about the pyramid eyeball . Acne Facts . Investment tips from Eliot Spitzer and Warren Buffett . Jennifer Aniston just can't win .

Sorry; couldn't resist .

If I say that the Black Eye Peas is this generation's Fugees, would that get the Fugees back together and make another Score-like kick-ass album?

I disagreed with like, 99.99% of what he said , and still believe he should have been in jail, but to say that he wasn't influential would be a lie.

90% of it is laced with cocaine . Go figure.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy Excellent question.

Ladies: you can't go wrong wearing any of these four colors . One reason why writing science fiction is easy. White House health care facts . Co-workers to avoid . I agree, for the most part . “If this cultural group could get at the same table with black America, you could rechange populist American politics. Because they have so much in common in terms of what they need out of government.” Amen. Interesting pet facts .

... this is definitely a good take on how "town hall rage" may backfire on the GOP. 1oo years or so from now, when we're all enjoying affordable health care, people will look back on moments like this, shake their head, and wonder what we were thinking.

Some aren't that sure .

And that tells me everything I need to know about the latest anti-health care protester celebrity. Lawrence O'Donnell was subbing in for Chris Matthews, and he asked the young lady about the root of her concern (not wanting to become a socialist country), whether she supported medicare (she hedged, then said no, then said there are many programs that should go) how she organizes her life (she lets her husband take care of most of the financial stuff) and why she didn't get involved in politics say, 8 years ago (hence the title). I do sympathize with her on one point: as careful as O'Donnell was in his questions, I think he should have had her name programs she didn't like on her own instead of asking her specifically about Medicare. It's clear from the clip below that (1) she takes what she sees on TV as gospel (2) politics isn't really an interest for her and (3) she doesn't really understand what Medicare is or how it's funded. Visit msnbc.com for Brea...

I think the more pertinent question is what would happen if he didn't interject himself . Thank the Lord Jesus if this was true . You have to wonder which policy was the back-breaker, though. I AM THE LAW . Rhode Island's definition of " spa treatment ." ... and knowing is half the battle .

What does that even mean? Did I miss the part where we turned over the entire country over to non-patriotic, government-hating, democracy-loathing saboteurs? If I remember correctly, we had an election . One between two candidates, an old white male for the Republicans and a young black male for the Democrats. The majority of American voters choose the Democrat. But looking at the cable news, you'd think we never had an election. you'd think that the Democratic President, the black guy, was part of a 48-year plot to infiltrate American politics and turn America into Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany or the Matrix or something. As I've posted here before (either personally or through links) it seems apparent that for some people, this whole "I Want My Country Back!" shouting refers to either political ideology, party affiliation or race. Barack Obama is a left-leaning Democrat who happens to be African American; to many Americans, he doesn't represent them. I under...

...the Party (and their operatives) quit on you. How else to explain this reaction from FOX News?

Good news for people with spinal conditions. Well deserved . America leaves Iraq, Iraq still facing attacks, but now their leaders call for restraint . Imagine that. Life after being layed off . Matlock's not coming through that door . Sorry Mr. President, but it looks like "silly season" never really ended .

Well, well, well ... The dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in December 2006 followed extensive communication among lawyers and political aides in the White House who hashed over complaints about his work on public corruption cases against Democrats, according to newly released e-mails and transcripts of closed-door House testimony by former Bush counsel Harriet Miers and political chief Karl Rove. A campaign to oust Iglesias intensified after state party officials and GOP members of the congressional delegation apparently concluded he was not pursuing the cases against Democrats in a way that would help then- Rep. Heather Wilson in a tight reelection race, according to interviews and Bush White House e-mails released Tuesday by congressional investigators. The documents place the genesis of Iglesias's dismissal earlier than previously known.

From The Root, of all places : Teams and fan bases are all lathered up, especially in New York where New York magazine has taken to calling 2010 the Summer of LeBron, and both the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets (a team that hopes to move to Brooklyn in the near future) have based most of their personnel moves on their ability to lure free agents a year from now. The Los Angeles Clippers and Atlanta Hawks have made this summer’s free agent signings dependent on having sufficient cap room to attract James or another big-name player. This is all a bunch of hot air, however; cornerstone players rarely change teams and even fewer move through free agency. The league salary rules encourage this kind of stability. A player’s original team can offer a player a larger total package—one more year at a maximum salary—than a new team. While standout role players such as Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu occasionally change teams, superstars rarely do, especially not in their prime. Of the le...

Dogs being thrown into dumpsters in DC ; crazy cats in Annapolis; killer dogs in Leesburg...what's going on here?

"I will be pressing very hard for not just assistance to help those who are being abused and mistreated, and particularly the women who are turned into weapons of war through the rape that they experience , but also looking for ways to try to end this conflict." “ This is definitely a very big change in our thinking , because it really does mean now there is an opportunity to really work with this as a way to burn off energy.’’ "She set out to change the world and to change us, and she did that and more. She founded the movement that became Special Olympics, the largest movement for acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities in the history of the world. Her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, and they in turn are her living legacy ." “I saw three or four bodies piled up over each other. Body parts were scattered all over . It was awful.” "I heard a scream, and that was it then . They were all de...

NOTE: possible spoliers below. What do you get when you take a comic book/cartoon that was based off toys, the director behind The Mummy and Van Helsing, and a smidgen of James Bond ? You get a well-paced, action-pacted, decent cast summer movie. Fans of the 80's cartoon and the various comic books beware: this ain't exactly to script. some notable differences: Love Triangles. In the (Larry Hama) comic, Scarlett and Snake Eyes were a couple. In the cartoon, it was Scarlett and Duke. Here, Duke and Baroness were an item, and Ripcord has a thing for Scarlett. Family Tree. In the comic, Cobra Commander had a son name Billy and the Baroness had a brother who was (indirectly) killed by Snake Eyes. In the cartoon, Duke was related to Falcon (who isn't in the movie) and Destro was distantly related to Lady Jay (who isn't in the movie. Here: let's just say that the Cobra Senior Staff Meetings can also double as Family Reunions. Villian Origins: In the comic, Snake Eyes (hi...

Strange, considering that Conan is way funnier than Leno. Tropic Thunder . Oink, oink . Iraq's still an issue , BTW. Happy 70th , Tiger! Boston's upset about being in 2nd place .

Proof that songs weren't super clean back in the day. Ruh-roh . Tonight: a very special episode of ... Democrats share some of the blame . Because Married...With Children was one of the best shows around, that's why . One busy actress . How will America end? Let me count the ways ... I wouldn't be surprised . Fighting back against the Dreadnoks .

Word . Now the question is: can he make up for lost time and salvage this thing? What it all boils down to is two things: he didn't rely on enough people to help him, and most of the people he did rely on have their own agenda (which doesn't necessarily involve helping him). Personally I think he needs to call Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, Elizabeth Edwards and Bill Richardson and beg them to help with a cross-country Health-Care Reform Tour. He needs likable, recognizable point people who support him. It ain't the Blue Dogs and it won't ever be a significant number of Congressional Republicans.

5 Reasons Why GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra Will Suck . I have to admit, the whole "let's dress all Joes the same" thing irks me. Of course, unlike movies like X-Men and Superman which have been around for decades and have tons of source material, Transformers and GI Joe started off as action figures and later became comics and cartoons. In other words, their purpose was to sell toys, not tell a worthwhile story. As a result, directors get to muck around with the story, regardless of which version the fans hold as gospel. Don't believe me? Let Hollywood try to make a Superman movie with no cape, or a Spider-Man movie where that deals with clones, and watch what happens.

Casualty of a scandal . COLUMBIA, S.C. - The wife of philandering South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is moving out of the official governor's residence with their four sons for the school year. First lady Jenny Sanford and several other woman moved clothing and boxes from the mansion in Columbia on Friday. In a statement, Sanford said she is moving to the family home on Sullivan's Island, some 120 miles east, but will continue working on her marriage. Personally, I hope their marriage can be healed.

Symbol of Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims . As to the "why:" Aid workers struggle to explain the sudden spike in male rape cases. The best answer, they say, is that the sexual violence against men is yet another way for armed groups to humiliate and demoralize Congolese communities into submission . It's sad that this is happening, and even sadder that people weren't paying attention when it was women being raped.

Example : By now, you've probably also heard that health reform will cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. Another lie. First of all, that's not a trillion every year, as most people assume -- it's a trillion over 10 years, which is the silly way that people in Washington talk about federal budgets. On an annual basis, that translates to about $140 billion, when things are up and running. When one party (Democrats) refuse to believe that another party (Republicans) genuinely want them to fail, and that party (Republicans) genuinely does want the first party (Democrats) to fail, you get things like this.

Oh boy . SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean hypnotist has been fined for stealing a kiss on a blind date with a woman he thought he had put in a trance, according to news reports Thursday. The 32-year-old man suggested hypnotizing his 27-year-old date during a meeting arranged by a matchmaking agency in August last year, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper and Yonhap news agency reported. Guess she was fortunate that a kiss was all he tried to do.

Screech was always my least favorite character , BTW. We have to have stricter draft rules . They'll be making a movie out of this one . Slow and steady . Not so fast . ...and he's fighting more than fires now : View more news videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/video .

Hollywood has lost an icon. I'll let MC break it down : "I was a fan of both his work and a fan of him as a person," Culkin said. "The world has lost not only a quintessential filmmaker whose influence will be felt for generations, but a great and decent man." R.I.P.; John Hughes.

Finally . Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation Thursday afternoon as the nation's 111th Supreme Court justice and the first Hispanic on the court, a historic moment for the nation's fastest-growing minority group. FYI: this doesn't really change the makeup of the Court. Sotomayor is essentially a moderate-minded judge who occasionally leans left. If Obama gets another pick and it's to replace a conservative, he'll have a real fight on his hands.

Dr. Maddow reports: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy

" Such attacks against civilians by terrorists show obvious hostility toward this land's people. The culprits can never block the Afghan nation's will for prosperity and development of their country." “I didn’t think of it! When you’re buying stuff, you’re so used to it .’’ "Today marks the passing of a generation, and of a man who dedicated his final years to spreading the message of peace and reconciliation ." "Braces and boobs. I got both of them ." "We are in the preliminary stage of the process , the systematic development of options has not taken place, and no decisions have been made." "It would be a shame for a beat writer to get beaten on a story by a 12-year-old in the stands who is allowed to blog ." "There's been no significant finding against her. There's been no public uprising against her. I do not believe that the Constitution tells me that I should refuse to support her merely because I disagree wit...

( H/t ).

At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot? RedStates' Erik Erikson , predicting all that has come to pass .

...And you can't afford to make your own fake document from scratch, there's always the Kenyan Birth Certificate Generator .

The real victim of health care reform? The insurers, of course ! ( hopefully ) Here comes the judge. Seriously? The Black Death ? What's next: a Jack The Ripper copycat? Sure, it's only the largest growing demographic , that's all.

Courtesy Rachel Maddow. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy

As explained by Jon Stewart. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Master Rebators - The Crank Cycle http://www.thedailyshow.com/ Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Actually read the comic; don't just drool over the pics .

Hulk... dance ? Why not just have a downloadable file for their iPod? Bill Clinton to the rescue . Getting ready for the flu . Smaller , but still a jerk.

If anyone can answer that question, it's Josh Marshall .

"This whole team revolves around Gilbert Arenas. Everybody knows it. Nobody wants to say it, but I'm going to say it," Stevenson said. "I've been on this team four years -- it depends on Gilbert Arenas. We can make as many trades as we want to. When he's healthy and he's playing, we're a dangerous team. When we don't have him, it makes it harder to move the ball; it's hard to get things easy. That's my point of view. If Gilbert is 70 percent, we're going win a lot of games. If Gilbert is 80 percent, we're going be No. 1 in the East. If he's 100 percent, we might win a championship." "If he's 70 percent, we're still going to be good. But we need him on the court. It's all on Gilbert. I don't want to put pressure on him, because that's my boy. I look at him as a best friend, brother. But it's not pressure to him, because I know what he can do. If he's healthy, it doesn't matter what tea...

Don't jinx it . Sweet Jesus . Call me crazy, but I think one side is lying more than the other . Maybe someone should cut out the middleman . LOL, only not . Got milk? Seriously, we need some ...

Reggie & Kim / Joe & Camilla ; no more. Why you don't hear stories about Ice-T cheating . Interviews gone wrong . Maybe Rogen should get his boy Apatow to back him up . Blame it on the alcohol ...and parenting. If you're looking for love, you may have to move . The Jay-Z Doctrine . Marlon Wayans talks about his latest role . Who says Forbes doesn't support entrepreneurs ?

Certainly not the Wizards, according to FoxSports . I mean, all Washington has going for it are better shooters, a deeper bench, a more experienced core of young players, a coach with a history of playoff success and the return of their star player (after a two-year injury-related absence).