“To prepare for (s)pring inventory, a number of items are marked for clearance, ” spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said in an e-mail. “… Both are great dolls. The red price sticker indicates that this particular doll was on clearance when the photo was taken, and though both dolls were priced the same to start, one was marked down due to its lower sales to hopefully increase purchase from customers.”

With a bit more social consciousness, Walmart could have kept the dolls the same price, aware of the message different pricing would send.

“The implication of the lowering of the price is that’s devaluing the black doll,” said Thelma Dye, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development, a Harlem, N.Y. organization founded by pioneering psychologists and segregation researchers Kenneth B. Clark and Marnie Phipps Clark.

“While it’s clear that’s not what was intended, sometimes these things have collateral damage,” Dye said.

In similar fashion to Republicans’ intoxicating attraction to Sarah Palin’s physical charm, Senator Brown’s charisma has been controversially augmented by a 1982 model shoot where he posed nude in Cosmopolitan Magazine at the age of 22.  There is little doubt that the controversy and appeal of this senator will provide a solid marketing foundation for his upcoming memoir, regardless of his political views — fortunately or unfortunately.

The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act would apply to abortion “the same standards of nondiscrimination” that govern employment, education, government and housing, said Georgia state Rep. Barry Loudermilk (pictured), a Republican who introduced the bill last month with bipartisan support.

Of course, the real goal is to outlaw abortions, period, and they’re using blacks to advance that agenda.

The Radiance Foundation has been raising the issue of black abortion with billboards that say, “Black Children Are An Endangered Species” and “toomanyaborted.com.”

…

“The wording of the campaign is offensive … to many of us, it compares our children to exotic animals. Our children are not animals,” said Loretta Ross, national coordinator of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.

The bill would require doctors to ask women why they want abortions and to record their answers.

What’s really going on is a “test case” for national legislation to get abortions outlawed and to create divisions in the black community, Ms. Ross said.

It’s “absurd” to say that abortion providers target women of color, said Dr. Melissa Gilliam, an associate professor for obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Unplanned pregnancies, lack of access to health care and lack of income for contraception are all reasons for differences in abortion rates, she said.

Tonight on Larry King Live, Eric Massa refused to answer the CNN host’s question about his sexuality, instead side-stepping the issue by saying “It insults every gay American because it classifies people. Why would anyone even ask that question?”

While Sarah Palin has spent plenty of time denouncing Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as a dictator and called for energy independence, Todd Palin’s snowmobile team is sponsored by a division of CITGO, part of Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company.

Todd Palin’s Iron Dog snowmobile team competed this year under a sponsorship from Mystik Lubricants, which was founded in Texas in 1922 but now resides under the Citgo corporate banner.

“Mystik Lubricants is a proud sponsor of Scott Davis and Todd Palin, competitors in the 2010 Iron Dog,” the company said on its site. “Mystik is … a sponsor of Team #22 Scott Davis and Todd Palin — past Iron Dog Champions. Davis Racing team which includes Scott Davis, Todd Palin, Regina Daniels, Cory Davis and Carly Davis accepted Mystik Lubricants’ sponsorship offer.”

Sarah Palin did a promo for the Iditarod sled-dog race in front of the Mystik logo:

Former John Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife Cheri were ordered to spend up to 75 days in jail today over their handling of a purported sex tape allegedly made by the one-time presidential candidate and his mistress, according to ABC affiliate WTVD.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones said that he held the Youngs in contempt because he believes they are withholding other items from the court, including, WTVD says, additional copies of the tape.

“There were things told to the court under oath, in affidavits, in testimony that turned out to be inaccurate. Right now, part of me says they didn’t tell me the truth before in this court,” Jones said, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.

The Youngs were not placed in custody immediately, according to WTVD in Raleigh, N.C.

• Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura stops by to discuss his new book, American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies the Government Tells Us.

• Alan weighs in on the latest twists and turns in the Eric Massa saga.

The allegations surrounding the former lawmaker date back at least a year, and involve “a pattern of behavior and physical harassment,” according to one source. The new claims of alleged groping contradict statements by Massa, who resigned his office on Monday after it became public that he was the subject of a House ethics committee investigation for possible harassment.

Massa claimed the investigation was limited to his use of “salty language” with his staff.

According to two sources familiar with the probe, Massa’s former deputy chief of staff Ron Hikel provided the information about the staffers’ allegations to the House ethics committee three weeks ago. Hikel had earlier sought advice from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office about brewing internal complaints, the sources said, and had been urged to report the allegations to the committee.

Hikel, reached at his home Tuesday, declined to comment on the ethics investigation.

Cheney, who founded the group with Bill Kristol, referred to these attorneys as the al Qaeda Seven and has been rebuked by her own conservative brethren for doing so. Ken Starr went to an unlikely venue, MSNBC’s “Countdown,” and spoke with guest host Lawrence O’Donnell about how wrong it is to use this language against those who uphold our Constitution.

Starr explained the role of lawyers in the American justice system and why it’s considered appropriate for them to work in defense of an accused criminal. He drew both literary analogies, pointing out the judicial responsibilities felt by Atticus Finch, and historic comparisons, explaining how John Adams was once called upon to defend the British Redcoats in a court of law. As for the specific message being spread by Cheney and her organization, Keep America Safe, Starr did not mince words.

“This was very unwise, and really and out-of-bounds characterization and challenge to good, honorable lawyers.”

He’s spent only 431 days in Congress, has never seen any of his bills pass out of subcommittee and was best known for voting against major pieces of legislation because they weren’t liberal enough for him…

Democrats warn about embracing Massa too quickly.

“If the stories that are circulating are true about what really happened, the Republicans are going to hold up someone as the cause célèbre who harassed male members of his staff,” said a senior Democratic strategist. “Is that really where they want to be?”

Even right-winger Michelle Malkin is wary of Massa:

“He’s been a progressive zealot and political opportunist his entire career,” Malkin wrote Monday afternoon. “He’s claimed conspiracy before, is intimately bonded with the nutroots and climbed the political ladder with backing from the odious, anti-war-hoaxer-embracing Gen. Wesley Clark. What Massa dismissively calls his ‘salty old sailor’ talk should raise bright-red flags about possible long-standing predatory behavior.

A “progressive zealot”? Hahahahahahaha.