Political Notes

bradhicks's analysis of the Libian incident (and related topics) is worth of note. The speculation about the motives of filmaker/fraudster/provacateur Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (aka "Sam Bacile") in this anonymous comment is also great:

What do you think of the theory that "Bacile"/Nakoula's motive was something a bit like the premise of the movie The Producers?

He persuades a bunch of fellow Coptic expatriates and miscellaneous Orange County wingnuts to invest money in what is supposed to be a movie to draw attention to the desperate plight of the Copts in post-Arab Spring Egypt. Spending as little of that money as humanly possible, he throws together a trailer that is so grossly offensive that it's guaranteed to provoke some obscure imam, somewhere in the world, sooner or later, to throw a shitfit and put a fatwa on his head. Then, because he "fears for his safety", not only is the release of the movie postponed indefinitely, but he is "forced" to go into hiding and cut off all contact with the investors whose money he still has.

In the movie, The Producers' con went pear-shaped when their made-to-offend play unexpectedly became a smash hit. Nakoula's con, likewise, went pear-shaped when he succeeded too well for his own good: the riot that he'd been trying to provoke for a year with his trailer finally occurred on the very same day and in the country next door to a terrorist attack that killed a United States Ambassador and three of his staff... thereby motivating a lot of very capable and determined people to uncover the true identity of "Sam Bacile".

Also of note: Barack Obama's Reddit AMA got a lot of attention, but the Gary Johnson AMA was even better (well looking into if you're interested in the Libertarian Party, fiscal conservativism, and/or candidates with more steady principles than a bag of potato chips). Jill Stein (the Green Party candidate) did one as well.