Gail Collins
David Ignatius
Health Care
Bob Cesca
Andrew Weil
"We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. " - Barack Obama
"You lie!" - Joe Wilson
"One of President Obama’s goals in his speech Wednesday night – unacknowledged, perhaps, but central – must have been to make the intransigient Republican opposition to health-care reform look rude, petty, disingenuous, counterproductive and fundamentally dishonest." - Eugene Robinson
Here is the link to the transcript of President Obama's speech before Congress.
As everyone knows by now, Rep Joe Wilson, thinking that he was actually a member of the British Parliament, shouted "You Lie!" in response to a line about a part of the health reform not pertaining to illegal immigrants. In his apology afterwards that was not an apology, Rep Wilson went on and on about his illegal immigrant hang-ups, continuing to tell lies, making up refernces to mythical provisions that only he can see and read... Isn't that special? He was rewarded by the website Redstate, who proclaimed him a Great American Hero, and visited by groups such as Alabama Tea Party Patriots, yet remains an embarrassment to the rest of us.
There is a “generic non-discrimination clause” that prohibits insurers from denying coverage based on personal characteristics, and it says nothing about immigration status, which is what Joe's clones consider to be the basis for their argument.
My sister responded to her husband when she witnessed the incident last night, saying that she thought that Southern Gentlemen were brought up to be more polite. Her husband reminded her that South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union (I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it sounds good), and that they have a reputation for hot under-the collar white crackerism... and it's such a pretty state. President Obama has accepted the apology and House Speaker Pelosi will not punish Wilson in any way, saying its time to move along...
Former GOP conservative and family values proclaimer, Orange County Assemblyman Mike Duvall had to resign over a videotape containing comments he made, bragging about his sexual conquests with a prostitute hired as a lobbyist for an oil company, among others. From the LA Times: "In the video, the married family-values crusader talks in graphic detail about women he said he slept with -- at least one of whom appeared to be a lobbyist with business before the utilities committee on which Duvall sat as vice chairman.
The sudden scandal was one more bruise for Sacramento as it lurches toward Friday, the end of a particularly unproductive legislative year, with unfinished work on such major issues as the prison crisis and the state's wobbly water infrastructure.
And the speed with which Duvall was pushed out the door was small comfort to Capitol watchers who say the case shows the persistence of anything-goes behavior in the Legislature. "The use of sexual favors is just one more example of the tactics that energy companies and lobbyists have used to win favorable laws from lawmakers," said Kathay Feng, president of California Common Cause."
On his website, Mr Duvall admits no guilt, but the media has yet to hear from his wife. The first comment to the Times story calls him a Rat Bastard, one of my sister's favorite phrases... "I want to make it clear that my decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs. My offense was engaging in inappropriate story-telling and I regret my language and choice of words." Its looking more and more that any politician who loudly says he believes in family values is actually trying to bring back polygamy, those Rat Bastards... but the legislature moved quickly in CYA mode, hoping to avoid any more investigations into their behavior. Good thing for them papers like the LA Times are in such shaky financial condition that they probably can't afford to assign reporters; will any intrepid blogger fill in the muckraking gap?
Apparently, Glenn Beck is on a roll, drunk with the success of getting Van Jones fired from the Obama administration. He has targeted another person and they have been asked to resign, from the Huffington Post: "Glenn Beck has struck again...Yosi Sergant, who recently popped up on Beck's radar for his involvement in a conference call on national service, has been asked to resign as communications director by the National Endowment for the Arts, sources familiar with the move tell the Huffington Post.
At issue was an August conference call in which the NEA encouraged select artists to participate in an administration project dubbed "United We Serve" and led by the first lady.
Beck attacked Sergant and the NEA on his Fox News talk show, accusing the agency of propaganda efforts similar to those used by Nazi Germany. And now Sergant has been tossed overboard, making him Beck's second victim in his campaign to rid the administration of perceived radicals, socialists, communists, fascists, anarchists and all other manner of nefarious influences." Tune in on Fox, the only tv station that didn't air the President's speech last night, for the thrilling next chapter. Glenn is trying to offset the leaving of some commercial sponsors of his show, who protested after he called Obama a racist, mimicking what he heard on Rush Limbaugh's show. He has a list and he's not afraid to use it.
late night jokes:
"Earlier today, President Obama delivered a speech to America's schoolchildren. And he encouraged them to work hard and study hard. Yeah, then he said if that doesn't work, grab the seat next to the Asian kid." --Conan O'Brien
"President Obama told them, this is a quote, 'Be careful what you post on Facebook.' That's what he said. Obama then told them about bad things that could happen, like the time he accidentally friended Joe Biden." --Conan O'Brien
"Obama said if he could have dinner with anyone in history -- he was asked this -- he said if he could have dinner with anyone in history he would pick Gandhi. That's right, yeah. Yeah, yeah, very good answer. Yeah. Yeah, Obama says he picked Gandhi because he'd get to eat two entrees." --Conan O'Brien
"President Obama addressed the United States schoolchildren. He had like a speech and it went right to the classes and the kids. Then I thought, wait a minute. He might be trying a little too hard. You know what I'm talking about? At the end he invited all the kids to the White House for a beer." --David Letterman
"A lot of people were upset. They said that Obama was going to get in there in the schoolrooms and start brainwashing the kids. At first I was skeptical. But I was talking to my son after he came home from school today. Honest to God, he said, 'Must have socialized medicine.'" --David Letterman
"Obama told the kids to work hard and listen to their teachers. Ladies and gentlemen, what a load of socialist propaganda. Work hard and listen to your teachers? I don't think so." --David Letterman
"The President also told the kids that sleep is very important because it helps the development of the brain. Sleep very important. That's what the President said. He told the kids sleep is so important that they should go to bed right after Jay." --David Letterman
"Labor Day is the great American holiday where we honor American workers by going out and buying products made in China." --David Letterman
"Former President Bush learned a great deal, a lot of things from Tony Blair. Cheeky. He learned about cheeky. He learned the word fortnight. Learned bangers and mash. And Blair learned some things from George W. Bush. Oops. Uh-oh. Dang." --David Letterman
"There's rumors that Dick Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney, may run for president in 2012. 2012. No, no. That's his cholesterol." --David Letterman
"They said to Dick Cheney, really, seriously, why would you think about after eight years as Vice President, why would you think about running for president? Cheney said, 'Well, I still get a kick out of starting wars.'" --David Letterman
"I remember when the Obamas first moved in and the Bush girls were giving the Obama girls a tour of the White House. And the little girls got scared because they heard the organ music coming from Dick Cheney's underground dungeon." --David Letterman
"During his speech to American school children earlier today, President Obama said that what you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. But no pressure." --Jimmy Fallon
"The President also said that kids -- he told them if they study hard, the United States will continue to prosper. Then he added, 'But just to be safe, bone up on your Chinese.'" --Jimmy Fallon
"Some Republicans were so mad about Obama's speech to schoolchildren, they had Dick Cheney give a rebuttal. He showed kids the proper way to stuff a geek into a locker." --Craig Ferguson
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