Okay, so who among us wants a Barackberry now?

(Me!)

Hee! I had the same thought, sumi.

I bet the BarackBerry has copy-paste...

Ha. I bet it doesn't, because what if you forgot what was in your copy buffer and pasted it into the WRONG EMAIL!@!? Woes.

Seriously, though, I need a BarackBerry. For reals.

Barb, I'm so sorry. Condolences to Lewis and the whole family.

There's a "baracker the berry" joke here, but I can't make it funny OR non-racist. It really should be at least one. Ah well.

Ah. Scandal fatigue continues to afflict me....

Former NSA Analyst: NSA ‘Monitored All Communications’ Of Americans, Targeted Journalists

Last night on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” former analyst for the National Security Agency Russell Tice revealed that the NSA had “monitored all communications” of Americans and specifically targeted journalists:

TICE: The National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications — faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications. And it didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made any foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications. […] But an organization that was collected on were U.S. news organizations and reporters and journalists.

OLBERMANN: To what purpose? I mean, is there a file somewhere full of every e-mail sent by all the reporters at the “New York Times?” Is there a recording somewhere of every conversation I had with my little nephew in upstate New York? Is it like that?

TICE: If it was involved in this specific avenue of collection, it would be everything. Yes. It would be everything.

That boggles my mind. The government has been monitoring all electronic communication of every American....

Obama's First Air Force One Trip: Comments On Pilot's Looks, Orders Dinner (VIDEO)

In this segment from National Geographic's upcoming TV series "On Board Air Force One," President Obama boards his first flight on Air Force One--from Chicago to Washington, D.C., when he was still president-elect. He greets the pilot and says "You're the pilot of Air Force One? I've got to say, you're out of central casting. You're exactly what I want the pilot of Air Force One to look like. You look like Sam Shepard in 'The Right Stuff'."

He's then offered his first Air Force One meal. After a quick glance at the menu, Obama says he wants "to see how you guys do a burger," cooked medium-well, with cheddar cheese, dijon mustard (or Grey Poupon--it's not entirely clear), with lettuce and tomato. He also requests some salad or vegetables. When the waiter asks, "No fries?" He replies, "Oh, I'll still take the fries."

Parrot banned from football ground for imitating referee's whistle

The seven-goal shoot-out between Hatfield Town and Hertford Heath turned to chaos when the bright green parrot began distracting players, causing the match to stop and start repeatedly.

The bird had turned heads before kick-off in Hertfordshire when a woman brought it to the match in a cage.

It behaved itself for the first-half of the quarter-final cup tie between the two non-league teams, watching play swing from end to end.

But 10 minutes into the second-half it began mimicking the referee's whistle, causing confusion on and off the pitch.

The match was halted and the woman and her parrot were told to leave the pitch-side.

Referee Gary Bailey said: "I've never known anything like it in my football career.

"It was a big game and there were quite a lot of people there.

"This woman was standing right by the touchline and suddenly unveiled a big cage with this big green parrot in it.

"I didn't mind at first. But then every time I blew my whistle the bird made exactly the same sound.

"The players all stopped so I had to ask her to move the parrot.

"It was bizarre. The crowd were all laughing.

"Looking back I should have made far more of it and got out my red card to show to the parrot."

Good thing no one ever brought a parrot to one of Obama's campaign speeches. It would have been distracting to have a parrot periodically call out, "Yes we can!"

Parrots are the most awesome pets ever.