I'm willing to accept that these folks are not a representative sample of the opposition to the healthcare bill, but I think it's also pretty clear that there are more of them out there than intelligent Republicans would like to admit.

God, these people.

As the House engaged in initial parliamentary maneuvering, hundreds of anti-reform protesters gathered on the south side of the Capitol between the building and the House office buildings across Independence Avenue, chanting and jeering Democrats and applauding House Republicans who egged them on.

“Nancy Pelosi you will burn in hell for this,” one woman intoned repeatedly through a bullhorn as members of the crowd rang bells, blew a bugle, waved a varied assortment of flags and chanted “Kill the bill.”

After racial slurs and other derogatory terms were hurled at Democrats by protesters on Saturday, numerous Democrats walked en masse from the House office buildings to the Capitol, running a gantlet of jeering and booing demonstrators. One was heard calling Representative Barney Frank, the openly gay Democrat from Massachusetts, a slur generally uttered against gays.

Emphasis mine. Do you think they go home at night and congratulate themselves for having contributed to public policy? How are Republicans not humiliated by these people?

“It is almost like the Salem witch trials,” Mr. Frank said. “The health bill has become their witch. It is a supernatural force and you get hysteria. There is an anger obviously that goes beyond anything connected to the bill.” Mr. Frank said he thinks the name-calling will backfire.

“I don’t think this is the way you win over the American people,” he said. “I think the average American says ‘No, I don’t like this anger, this bigotry.'"

Barney is so wise.

Do Republicans realize how ridiculous they sound when they rail against the healthcare bill on the floor of the House by using the phrases "Cornhusker Kickback," "Louisiana Purchase," "Gator Aid," and so forth, as if those were actual things? I don't think they do.

(Also, Chris Smith just helpfully explained that abortion is about "the exploitation of women." Good to know!)

Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann on reconciliation:

Neither party has been shy about using this process to avoid dilatory tactics in the Senate; Republicans have in fact been more willing to do so than Democrats.

The history is clear: While the use of reconciliation in this case — amending a bill that has already passed the Senate via cloture — is new, it is compatible with the law, Senate rules and the framers’ intent.

Boom, bitches.

I'm not generally a big Keith Olbermann fan (he veers into polemicism a bit too often for my taste), but I happened to see a fair-sized chunk of Countdown today (in between periods of the Canada/Russia game, for the most part), and the man was on fire.* There are two things in particular for which I must laud him:

Thing One
For showing, in its entirety, this absolutely magnificent Anthony Weiner meltdown ("Every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry!") on the floor of the House:



Thing Two
For this genuinely moving essay about his father's failing health:



Kudos, Keith.

* - Unlike some people.

Nick Kristof goes satire-mode to imagine what life might be like if the news industry were more like the healthcare industry:

By the way, columns such as this one about health care reform are out-of-network. Your insurance plan fully covers columns about many important topics, such as nephrology and Gregorian chant. But politics, health care, international affairs and anything that I might actually write about are all out-of-network.

Quite well done, overall (and significantly more entertaining than the last time I thought Nick Kristof was going satire-mode).

I was recently struggling to remember the wording of Nick Thune's awesome "two birds with one stone" bit, and found the Internet to be utterly unhelpful. Accordingly, in the theme of my Daily Show post from a few weeks ago, I've tracked down the video and transcribed it here, in order to help The Googles. Grateful kudos to Comedy Central, for posting it online, and to Nick Thune, for performing it.

Nick Thune - Two Birds

comedians.comedycentral.com

Thune:

Do you guys think birds ever say, "Hey, I know this sounds crazy, but hear me out. Tomorrow, I'm going to try and kill two people with one stone."

Like, the guy who actually wrote that saying, "killing two birds with one stone."

When in history was there an abundance of birds and a shortage of stones? Like, when was some guy just like, "Oh, you know what, guys? Can you just use one from now on? No, no... well, actually, we're trying to conserve rocks, but thanks for questioning the authority. You know what, though? Try and get two with that one. Yeah, there's a shitload of birds. I appreciate it. You know what? Remember that, and tell everyone, forever."

Unemployment: it's the new "employment"!

Every downturn pushes some people out of the middle class before the economy resumes expanding. Most recover. Many prosper. But some economists worry that this time could be different. An unusual constellation of forces — some embedded in the modern-day economy, others unique to this wrenching recession — might make it especially difficult for those out of work to find their way back to their middle-class lives.

Labor experts say the economy needs 100,000 new jobs a month just to absorb entrants to the labor force. With more than 15 million people officially jobless, even a vigorous recovery is likely to leave an enormous number out of work for years.

Why won't Barack Obama apologize for personally ruining the economy?

(It could be worse, though: I could have linked to this article, instead.)

I'm no expert, but I did take a few comparative religion classes in college, and I'm pretty sure that people who believe in karma have a word for this:

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Or, as Wonkette put it:

The same pasty biotch who did Andrew Breitbart’s bidding to entrap ACORN in some minor prank that would get Congress to immediately revoke its entire funding… which was completely successful… has been arrested by the FBI for TRYING TO WIRETAP A SENATOR’S OFFICE. Cannot wait to hear the conservative spin on this one. (Perhaps he is really a liberal? Let’s just call him a “liberal” from now on...)

I've seen this commercial several times, and it never fails to make me want to donate money. Way to be, Feeding America.



The song is Never Let Go, by Tom Waits.

The fire-breathing response to Citizens United from the authors of the bill that it decimated:

Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, called it "a terrible mistake." Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, said in a television interview on CNN that he was "disappointed."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Senator McCain! You're "disappointed"? Cool your jets, man! Back away from the ledge!

Okay, perhaps that's a little bit unfair. It's just a throwaway quote at the tail-end of a newspaper article; I'm sure it doesn't accurately reflect the full dismay with which he read the decision. Let's just head over to his website and check the language in the press release he issued (given his famous temper, I'm sure it's spectacular).

Let's see here... well, that's odd. It seems to be missing. It should be right here between "Senators encourage state attorney generals [sic] to expand investigation of Senate health care bill" and "Statement by John McCain regarding the sanctity of marriage." Surely a man like John McCain -- a man of legendary temper; a man on record with his disdain for "activist judges"; a man whom the venerable New York Times has described [incorrectly] as "a champion of public financing of campaign [sic] throughout his career"* -- surely such a man would at least issue a press release addressing the biggest Supreme Court decision on his "signature" issue in almost two decades. Hell, he made the time to issue a release reassuring his mouth-breathing constituents that he still hates The Gays! But nothing on Citizens United?

Color me shocked.

* - Except when he just ignores campaign finance law completely.

This is pretty wild:

[Inventor] Jim McCormick promised his ADE-651 wand could identify anything, including bombs, simply by waving it around with the right RFID card inside. Yeah, totally fake, and now he's in prison. Too bad Iraq already spent $85 million on them.

Worth a quick read. (Kind of blows our little "Jesus-themed gunsight" scandal right out of the water, doesn't it?)