Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread (MOT)
We're known as the MOTley Crew and you can find us here every morning at 6:30 Eastern. Feel free to volunteer to take a day - permanently or every now and again. With the auto-publish feature you can set it and forget it. Sometimes the diarist du jour shows up much later, that's the beauty of Open Thread...it carries on without you! Just let us know in the comments.
Welcome to Casual Friday where we wake you up with the overlooked news stories of the week. The offbeat, strange and sometimes downright weird news items that mainstream media tends to ignore, all wrapped up with a few funnies, all designed to get your face in smiling shape for the weekend.
Clint Eastwood's RNC chair gets a second life in Washington, D.C.
One of the most indelible images from 2012's Republican National Convention came during Clint Eastwood's speech, where he decided to address a chair as if it was President Obama. It became an immediate source of ridicule to some, and inspirational improv to others. But where do famous chairs go after taking their seat in the spotlight?
In this case, it turns out to the office of Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee. He told NBC's Luke Russert that he knew he had to have the chair "two minutes" after the speech began.
Now, six months after the convention, Priebus says the chair is the most popular item in his office, and visitors always ask to have a photo taken with the item.
Monopoly iron token to be removed from game, replaced by cat token
Scottie dog has a new nemesis in Monopoly after fans voted in an online contest to add a cat token to the property trading game, replacing the iron, toy maker Hasbro Inc. announced Wednesday.
The results were announced after the shoe, wheelbarrow and iron were neck and neck for elimination in the final hours of voting that sparked passionate efforts by fans to save their favorite tokens, and by businesses eager to capitalize on publicity surrounding pieces that represent their products.
The vote on Facebook closed just before midnight on Tuesday, marking the first time that fans have had a say on which of the eight tokens to add and which one to toss. The pieces identify the players and have changed quite a lot since Parker Brothers bought the game from its original designer in 1935.
Ex-member: Westboro Baptist prayed for people to die
Granddaughter of the founder of Westboro Baptist Church, Libby Phelps Alvarez spoke to "Today" on Wednesday about the church's practices and her decision to leave it.
"There was a point where we started praying for people to die," Alvarez told "Today." "I didn't actually do it, but I was around when they did it."
"They think that they're the only ones that are going to go heaven," Alvarez said in the interview. "I almost think I was brainwashed into thinking that I wasn’t brainwashed."
You can take action by signing this petition:
Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group
"The Dow hit 14,000. It hasn't been that high since 2007, heading toward an all-time high. Just think of how big it would be if Obama wasn't such a socialist." –Bill Maher
"Fox News has their lowest ratings in 10 years. But Fox says it's not a case of them losing credibility. They say it's not because they're now widely seen as a clearing house for discredited ideas. They say it's mostly because of old people misplacing the clicker." –Bill Maher
"Immigration is the big issue they're working on in Washington. They want to create a 'path to citizenship.' You have to pass a background check, you have to pay a fine, you have to pay back taxes, you have to learn English and you have to get that statue of the Virgin Mary off your front yard. Oh, and also the cable channels between 17 and 23 – gone." –Bill Maher
"This is the first day of Black History Month; or as Republicans call it, February." –Bill Maher
"Con men like Rush and Beck are one reason the Republicans are in such dire straits today. Because they don't care about winning elections. They care about separating rubes from their money. They've discovered there's a fortune to be made by keeping a small portion of America under the illusion that they are always under attack. From Mexicans, or ACORN, or Planned Parenthood, or gays, or takers, global warming hoaxers; it doesn't matter. They don't want a majority. They want a mailing list, a list of the kind of gullible Honey Boo Boos out there who think that there's a War on Christmas, and that the socialist policies of our Kenyan President have been so disastrous that the end of the world is coming." –Bill Maher
"Beyoncé finally admitted that she did lip sync the national anthem during the inauguration. Now Donald Trump is claiming that since she did lip sync, President Obama is not legally president. He said it invalidated the whole thing." –Jay Leno
"I love this story; the state of Washington is now looking for a marijuana consultant now that marijuana is legal up there. I think this is one of those green jobs President Obama is always talking about." –Jay Leno