Congressman Blasts iPad

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

A Bad Apple

Illinois Democratic Congressman Jesse Jackson Junior might be suffering from buyer's remorse over his iPad. Jackson took to the House floor Friday to claim Apple's tablet computer is killing jobs:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JESSE JACKSON JUNIOR, D-ILL.: This new device which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs. Now Borders is closing stores just because why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes and Noble? Just buy an iPad and download your book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

A tech blog called Jackson's speech -- quote -- "a technophobic rant to rival all technophobic rants that have come before it."

But just last month, Jackson praised the iPad and suggested the federal government should provide one for every student in the nation. Jackson's office is not commenting on these newest remarks.

Catchphrase

Prospective Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is distancing himself from his own campaign slogan.

"Fighting to Make America America Again" appears on a number of Santorum's websites. But it is very similar to "Let America Be America Again" from a pro-union, pro-racial justice poem written by Harlem renaissance poet Langston Hughes.

Santorum says -- quote -- "I had nothing to do with that so... The folks who worked on that slogan for me didn't inform me that that's where it came from, if in fact it came from that."

Magic Touch

And finally, North Korea celebrated the birth of its late founder Kim il Sung with an extravagant magic show performed in the capital.

It featured a floating bus and a dancing bear. The performance was designed by the so-called David Copperfield of North Korea. The star is a beefy showman wearing a white sequined suit and gold lame cape.

Current leader Kim Jong Il is said to have inherited his father's love of the circus and magic.