This joke:

A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across, takes 11 cookies, looks at the tea partier, and says, “Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie.”

And having Russia Today [why, yes, the majority of funding is from the Russian government] report on the American media blackout of reporting on the protests of the Republican political assault on unionized labor in the US. When 100,000 people rally in a 15° snowstorm to protest, it’s news, especially when you are reporting on smaller protests all over the world.

I assume that they are afraid of losing all of the Koch’s toilet paper commercials if they start reporting the facts about Wisconsin.

I note that Time-Warner carries Russia Today on its cable system, but no one carries Al Jazeera in the US.

CNN blogs reports that Girl Scouts booted from cookie corner – founder’s historic house

It’s hard out there for a Girl Scout.

After someone complained about a Savannah, Georgia, troop selling cookies at a busy intersection in town, the city forced the girls to move away from the money-making location, according to the Savannah Morning News. The demand to move broke decades of tradition because that corner – Oglethorpe Avenue and Bull Street – is in front of the historic home of the founder of the Girl Scouts organization, Juliette Low.

Savannah zoning administrator Randolph Scott said the problem was that the girls were setting up their sale table on a public sidewalk, which violates a city ordinance, the Morning News reports. Scott tried to help, calling for a survey in the hopes that the property line near the home had private space. No such luck.

The Scouts are taking it on the chin elsewhere in Georgia and around the country. Recently in Villa Rica, Georgia – about 35 miles west of Atlanta – Girl Scouts were told they could no longer peddle their Thin Mints at a strip mall. (Watch how a cop nearly booted the Scouts from their favorite spot. “He was scaring us,” one of the girls said of the officer.)

This is what happens when you elect Republicans – they want to eliminate anything that looks like the real America and replace it with their fantasy version. Where were the Tea Partiers? What about free markets and free enterprise?

They’ve done their best to destroy Halloween, make Christmas a drag, and now they are going after Girl Scout cookies.

The CBC reports on the latest from the Berlin bunker the Libyan capital: Gadhafi defiant as rebels seize city

Moammar Gadhafi remained defiant Sunday, blaming outside forces for the uprising in Libya and promising to crush the opposition, Reuters is reporting.

Gadhafi told Serbian television in a phone interview that sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council won’t work.

In Tripoli, the capital, where Gadhafi is still in control, state banks began handing out the equivalent of $400 US in a bid to shore up public loyalty.

Gadhafi also said the opposition against him is small.

Reports on the ground painted a different picture, however. Forces opposed to Gadhafi have seized control of the key city of Zawiya, only 50 kilometres from Tripoli, the capital.

The flags are the official flag of Libya, which is now the flag of Tripoli, and the pre-Gadhafi flag of the Kingdom of Libya, which is the flag of choice for everyone outside of Tripoli.