CommonDreams.org

About 200 of America's first women military pilots, for decades unacknowledged as veterans, were finally rewarded for their service at a ceremony today to receive Congressional Gold Medals. The surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, flew non-combat missions during World War Two - a long wait for recognition.

Poor insane Glenn Beck. Not only did he suffer through the incoherent train wreck of his interview with Eric Massa, but he's been abandoned by so many normal sponsors he's been reduced to running ads for a Survival Seed Bank "that can be buried to avoid confiscation" when the socialists come. The seeds are grown by "fiercely independent farmers...in remote plots far from the prying eyes of the big seed companies." And they're half-price - $149 - if you buy 'em now! Beans for the Apocalypse! Hurry!

"You don't have to be an Old Testament prophet to see what's going on all around us. A belligerent lower class demanding handouts. A rapidly diminishing middle class crippled by police state bureaucracy. An aloof, ruling elite that has introduced us to an emerging totalitarianism which seeks control over every aspect of our lives."

As the so-called Friends of the Israel Defense Forces held a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser at New York's Walfdorf-Astoria, hundreds of Palestine supporters silently marched outside to protest Israeli war crimes, the Gaza blockade and the occupation. The action was organized by Jews Say No! and about 20 other activist groups.

"Our idea is to show the totally atrocious contradiction of having a $1,000 a plate dinner for people who a year ago killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians." – Dorothy Zellner of Jews Say No!

Washington's new same-sex marriages will bring in over 700 jobs and $52 million to a city struggling with hard times, a new study finds. Thanks to ever-enterprising capitalism, the new law has already spawned gay-friendly  discounts, websites, cake toppers and ring designs.

"We're in the business of love," said Jonathan Mervis of Mervis Diamond Importers.

This Doesn't Look Good No Matter How You Spin It Dept: A Louisiana Walmart is selling black Barbies for half the price of white Barbies. Their explanation is all about inventory, but somehow it doesn't quite make it. 

The visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to southern Afghanistan's Now Zad, the scene of the first big military push after Obama's surge, was supposed to illustrate the success of U.S. policy, and many media reports dutifully reported it as such – the rebirth of a city, the Christmas miracle. But it doesn't take much reading between the lines, or down into the stories, to note the discrepancies.

Yet another excellent reason to pass health reform: Rush Limbaugh will leave the country. One possible problem: he says he'd go to Costa Rica, by all reports a peaceable, rational democracy (zero carbon footprint!) which would agree to let him in because...?

Rahm Emanuel inspects Congressman Eric Massa on a trip to upstate New York during Massa's run for Congress in 2006. Emanuel scolds Massa for appearing too angry before potential voters in the Renaud Brothers film Taking the Hill.

"My problem is I am who I am, I'm not very refineable."