Crazier by the day

Maybe Americans should wake up and be concerned but not exactly in the way this loon thinks.

A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up.

The sign, completed Friday by artist David Lee, shows a grinning, cartoonish Obama and bears the words "PRESIDENT or JIHAD?"

Underneath the president's image is a big yellow square with the phrase, "BIRTH CERTIFICATE, PROVE IT!"

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Citi really does deserve to be broken apart

The stupidity at Citi never ends. Tolerating it though is hardly much better. Shouldn't the owner (the US government) do something about it?

For Citibank credit card holders, there is one way to escape the bank's rate hikes currently under way: Meet a monthly spending requirement.

Those who meet the spending minimum — in some cases $750 a month — will be able to get a rebate on their total financing charges for that month. The rebate could cover some or all of the interest rate hike. Customers also need to make payments on time to qualify for the rebate.

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Of course it's animal cruelty

The only surprise is that it's taken so long to come to this conclusion. California is on the right side, again. Cat friends of the world, unite.

Don’t have your cat declawed in San Francisco, or West Hollywood, or you could face fines up to $1,000 and six months in jail. This month, the city by the bay became the first major metro area in California to outlaw the veterinary procedure, and was soon joined by Santa Monica, Berkeley and Beverly Hills. Los Angeles is expected to enact the ban next week.

"It’s a form of animal cruelty," San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, a major supporter of the ban, tells PEOPLEPets.com. "It would be unconscionable to ignore that fact."

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The strange and often bungled Goldman Sachs PR campaign continues

Earlier this week Goldman was ripped for creating a $500 million fund to help small businesses. Many complained that this represented just a few percent of their profits. Now they are hyping 300 employees out of nearly 32,000 employees who will help feed the homeless on Thanksgiving. Not even one percent? Really? After having their asses saved by the American taxpayer? Their percentages are declining by the day, showing again, that they are all about greed, greed, greed. On the one hand it's nice that they have hired a high profile chef and catering company to feed people but you still have to wonder.

If they want to be flashy, why not feed more people instead of paying for flash? Oh that's right, we're talking about Goldman Sachs. Someone in Washington needs to tell this bunch to go Cheney themselves and tax them into extinction.

The Salvation Army plans to serve 10,000 free dinners across the city this Thanksgiving — meals planned by a star chef, cooked by one of New York's ritziest caterers and cleaned up by employees of one of Wall Street's most vilified financial firms.

The number of meals is 10 times as many as last year and come at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to put food on the table.

The turkey dinner will be prepared by Great Performances, a catering company that stages banquets for the grand ballroom of The Plaza. Leading the culinary team is star chef Marc Spooner, a winner of the Food Network's "Chopped" TV contest and the caterer's chef de cuisine.

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Gallup Poll: Obama's job approval drops below 50%

Dropping under 50% isn't the worst thing in the world to happen. The big change seems to be on the issue of the economy and the health care fight. It just goes to show you how much the defenders of the status quo hate change. Even the watered down Obama change is causing them to rise up. Imagine what they would do if the changes were substantial. The concern now will be whether or not this will push Obama even more to the center-right than he is already.

President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dropped below 50 percent in a second major poll in an indication he is suffering from the long healthcare debate and weakness in the economy, Gallup said on Friday.

Gallup said 49 percent of Americans approved of Obama's job performance. A survey by Quinnipiac University on Wednesday had a similar finding, putting him at 48 percent support.

It was the first time he had fallen below majority support in those two polls. He had been polling in the low 50s for months after taking office in January with an approval rating just under 70 percent.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

By now, Joe is soaking up the wonderful South African sunshine. Lucky guy and well deserved. John is wrapping up a conference in Barcelona which has pathetic internet connections, so it's going to be a bit light this weekend. With Thanksgiving coming up, everyone is probably preparing for the big day. Travel this year or stay at home? We're hoping to do Thanksgiving next weekend including a French Thanksgiving by a cousin. I don't really know what that means yet myself but it should be fun and a unique experience.

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The Strokes

There's a reason why The Strokes were at the top of the NME Top 50 list. Read the rest of this post...

No pumpkin for pumpkin pie?

Noooooooo! If you can find a fresh pumpkin, it's amazingly easy to prepare it for pie filling and it will taste better than the can. If anyone has any good recipes or links online, drop them in the comments. Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie.

Nestle -- which sells nearly all the canned pumpkin in the U.S. -- says poor weather hurt its harvest, creating a potential shortage of its Libby's pumpkin pie products through the holidays.

The company said heavy rains made it nearly impossible to pick its pumpkins during this year's harvest. The longer the pumpkins sit in the muddy fields, the more they deteriorate. As a result, the company announced this week that it would not pack any more pumpkins for the season -- which means it may be hard to find its canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie filling product until next year's harvest.

"Mother Nature had other plans for us," the company said in an open apology to customers online.

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