In this animated holiday special Sarah Silverman recalls a pivotal thanksgiving in her childhood. Her father disagrees.

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Rick Perry decided to double down on his previous statement that Turkey "is being ruled by, what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists." When asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer if he stood by his remarks, Perry said yes and used honor killings to justify his remarks.

BLITZER: You caused a stir at the debate last night when you spoke about Turkey. And I'll play the clip for those who did not hear what you said about Turkey. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERRY: Well, obviously when you have a country that is being ruled by what many would perceived to be Islamic terrorists, when you start seeing that type of activity against their own citizens, then, yes, not only is it time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong in NATO, but it's time for the United States, when we look at their foreign aid, to go to zero with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement today. In part -- I'll read it to you -- they said, "Turkey became a member of NATO when the governor was just 2 years old. Turkey has been among the front line countries in the fight against terrorism. The United States has no time to lose with such candidates who do not even know America's allies."

Did you misspeak last night? Are you ready to revise your comments?

PERRY: Not at all. A country that allowed 140 to 160 honor killings in 2011, I will tell you that is not a country that America wants to be associating with. A country that referred to the Israel flotilla attack as an act of war, I mean, this is a country that's becoming more and more aggressive to a true American ally in that area, and that is Israel.

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Rick Perry continued his string of gaffes during this Monday night's Fox GOP primary debate when he suggested that Turkey "is being ruled by, what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists." Needless to say, Perry's remarks aren't sitting to well with the Turkish media.

Turkey responds to Perry remarks:

In a statement e-mailed to CNN, Selcuk Unal said presidential candidates should "be more informed about the world and be more careful their statements."

"The unfortunate views of Perry are not shared in any case by Republican party supporters, considering the weak support he has received in public polls and primary elections," Unal concluded.

Top Turkish government officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday, with many of them in Northern Cyprus for the funeral of veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas, but the country's largely-tabloid press wasted no time in responding to the comments on websites early Tuesday morning.

"The debate that the Republican candidate Rick Perry attended on American Fox TV turned into a scandal that contained very ugly statements about Turkey," announced TRT state television.

"Rick Perry: what an idiot," tweeted Mustafa Akyol, a columnist with the English-language Hurriyet Daily news. The Hurriyet newspaper also posted a video on its website of Perry drawing a blank in the middle of a prior debate, forgetting in mid-sentence which was the third of three government departments he would cut if elected president.

Perry's remarks came on the same day a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman announced that a new NATO radar station, manned by Turkish and American military personnel, went online this month in the Turkish province of Malatya. The radar station is part of a controversial U.S.-led missile defense shield that both Russia and Iran have publicly opposed.

For more than 50 years, Turkey has been the only Muslim member of the NATO military alliance. Read on...

As Steve Benen noted:

For the record, Turkey is a democracy, a key U.S. ally, and a member of NATO. The country is not run by terrorists.

When this guy drops out, it’ll be bad for comedy, but almost certainly good for democracy.

Full transcript below the fold.

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Light posting day here as we had a funeral to attend for my husband's dear uncle who passed away just before the holiday and we've got a birthday party to pop by for a while tonight. For anyone that didn't already see this post over at Cesca's place, here's one of my all time favorite episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati -- Season 1, Episode 7 - "Turkeys Away".

I remember watching this back when it first aired and I laughed so hard I almost cried.

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Israel needs someone to support them and surprise, surprise... their neocon chickenhawk defender John Bolton crawls back out of the woodwork and into the studios of Fox News.

AlterNet published an article on John Bolton back in 2005 which takes an extensive look at Bolton's career if anyone needs a reminder of how sleazy this guy's background is.

The Armageddon Man:

A comprehensive look at John Bolton's career reveals a man who champions extremism in the service of expediency.

When Irving Kristol regarded by many as the "godfather of neoconservatism" described a neoconservative as a "liberal who has been mugged by reality," he was not describing John Bolton. Unlike many of his supporters in the Bush administration, the U.N. ambassador-designate did not start out his political career on the center-left either as a liberal, social democrat, or socialist.

In the 1950s through the 1970s, the political forerunners who established neoconservatism as the defining trend within American conservatism went through a left-right transformation. In that political morphing, the neoconservatives have redefined U.S. politics from the Reagan administration through the current Bush administration.

Bolton shares much with the closely knit neoconservative political camp: their red-meat anticommunism, their obsession with China, their support of right-wing Zionism in Israel, and their glorification of U.S. power as the main force for good and against evil in our world. Bolton has also forged close links with neoconservatives while a scholar at the Manhattan Institute and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Although sharing most of the neoconservative ideology, Bolton is not himself a true-blue neocon.

It's not only his political origins that separates him from other middle-aged neoconservatives. Bolton also stands apart from the neoconservative camp because of his longtime association with moderate conservative James Baker and the close ties he had with Dixiecrat Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC). Unlike most neocons, who stay removed from electoral politics, Bolton has repeatedly immersed himself in the mundane and often dirty politics of ensuring Republican Party electoral victories.

One political label that certainly fits Bolton is that of "hawk" or militarist. Like most other Bush administration officials, Bolton is a militarist who has never gone to war which according to some detractors makes him a "chickenhawk." In his work in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations, Bolton has become known as the right's most effective and strident opponent of the United Nations and all forms of global governance and international law not controlled by the U.S. government. Read on...

Transcript below the fold via Lexis Nexis.

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From Countdown Nov. 20, 2008, David Shuster brings us Sarah Palin's extremely creepy turkey pardoning and post-pardoning interview from Wasilla, Alaska. The whole thing plays like something out of the Twilight Zone or the latter stages of Fargo. As a couple of my fellow C&L'ers pointed out after watching this, if Sarah Palin is a "friend to all creatures great and small" someone needs to let the wolves and polar bears know about that change of heart...lol. Images of Palin and "creatures" are more likely to be those of high powered rifles and helicopters than any sort of compassion in my book. And she does seem to use those family members selectively for what's politically convenient at the time doesn't she?