Jesus Died For Your Donuts

"Let's take some words from the Bible into some dough, and then put it in the Wonder Oven, and see what happens, okay?!"

And don't miss the 2 Corinthians 5:17 song!

John Boehner and the Public Option

Americans United For Change have started running a new ad in Ohio making fun of Boehner's claim that he has yet to meet an American who supports a public option...The ad politely points out that a majority of Ohioans support a health care reform package with a strong public option:

George Bush and the 2016 Chicago Olympics

Republicans are celebrating the fact today that the Olympics are not coming to America, even after President Obama, his wife, and Oprah went to make their case directly to the Olympic Committee members.

But President Obama isn't the only one who had a desire to see the Olympics come to Chicago. In January, President Bush flew out to Chicago and expressed his eagerness to see the Olympics come back to America:

They say that the Olympics will come to Chicago if we're fortunate enough to be selected, but really it's coming to America, and I can't think of a better city to represent the United States than Chicago.

This is a well thought out venue. There will be -- the athletes will be taken care of. People who will be coming from around the world will find this good city has got fantastic accommodations, great restaurants. It will be safe.

And so I -- this country supports your bid, strongly. And our hope is that the judges will take a good look at Chicago and select Chicago for the 2016 Olympics.

When President Bush made his case to the Olympic Committee for the New York 2012 Olympics, and then subsequently lost, Democrats did not rejoice in his failure. Why? Cuz it's scummy.

Conservatives Rooting Against America

There's something tremendously bizarre afoot within the Republican Party these days. Sure, they don't like those dirty hippies that call themselves Democrats. And of course they don't like the Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama whose diet consists entirely of the freedoms of good Americans.

But it now seems that their hatred of hippies and Kenyans are surpassing their love for this country. Some seem so eager to see bad things happen to Obama that they don't seem to mind if it's also bad for this nation. Rush Limbaugh, on his broadcast today, said as much:

For those of you on the other side of the aisle listening in who are upset that I sound gleeful -- I am. I don't deny it. I'm happy. Anything that gets in the way of Barack Obama accomplishing his domestic agenda is fine with me.

Limbaugh's hardly alone in his celebrating the loss of billions of dollars...The right wing nutosphere has exploded in celebratory posts, but some have been watered down since their original posting, as Think Progress reports. From the conservative The Weekly Standard blog:

After initially writing that as the news was reported that Chicago was eliminated, "Cheer erupt at WEEKLY STANDARD world headquarters," the blog has since been scrubbed. Media Matters highlights other celebrations at America's failure including Lou "The immigrants are coming!" Dobbs, and of course the always nutty Glenn Beck.

While many conservatives are rejoicing that America was defeated on the international stage because they are more concerned with partisanship than America's interests, some Republicans are making an effort to directly undermine our foreign policy.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) is traveling to Honduras, according to his staffers, to "encourage Mr. Micheletti and his supporters to resist" pressure from the American government to end the military coup and return control of the country to the democratically elected president.

Steve Clemons of The Washington Note explains it quite well:

In other words, Jim DeMint is acting on behalf of, in cahoots with, and against the foreign policy of the United States of America in encouraging post-coup Honduran government officials defy the United States. He is encouraging a political leadership which has no legitimacy and which not recognized by other democracies in the region -- while the ousted President makes cell phone UN General Assembly statements from a couch-bed in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Republicans: Don't Get Sick. If sick, die fast.

Representative Alan Grayson, a no-name Democrat from Florida, was momentarily subject to the national spotlight because of a little rant he went on while on the floor of the House of Representatives.



He didn't say anything particularly outrageous, but that doesn't stop the GOP from freaking out. His initial claim is that the Republicans don't have a plan, so as a result, their strategy for health care is two-fold:

1. Don't get sick.
2. If you fail at step one, die quickly to lower costs for the rest of us.

GOP opposition to ANY reform seems to indicate that 46 million people being without insurance is not a priority. Their failure to enact any solution when they had the White House and majorities in both Houses would seem to indicate that, as well.

By failing to put forth any meaningful effort to expand access to affordable insurance, the Republican message to millions of Americans is adequately expressed in Representative Grayson's summary: Don't get sick.

If you're too weak to stay healthy, Republicans certainly don't want people just going to the emergency room because that's going to raise prices for everyone else when they can't pay. As Senator Barasso, Republican from Wyoming, said:

“When I talk to high school groups about this, I kind of refer to it as just like a store where there’s a lot of shoplifting. The owner of the store has to raise the prices for people who pay their own bills, or pay their own way, to make up for what they lose in shoplifting.”

“Now, these folks in the emergency rooms aren’t shoplifting in terms of stealing things, but they are using services and getting bandages and casts and all sorts of different things. And they’re not paying for it.”

While Republicans are throwing a tantrum over Representative Grayson's comments, his assertions do seem to be in line with Republican opposition to any meaningful change in increasing access to health care.

I take no issue with Grayson's comment in the above clip, the next day, he did draw a comparison to the Holocaust. Just as with the Bush/Nazi and Abortion/Holocaust comparisons, I don't feel like it does anything other than distract from the debate. But since Republicans were up in arms demanding an apology before he brought in the Holocaust, it stands to reason that's not what they are taking offense to.

However, I do applaud his refusal to apologize to Republicans for his initial comments. Additionally, I wholeheartedly agree with Nancy Pelosi when she pointed out that Republicans who were spreading lies about pulling the plug on grandma should not be trying to hold Democrats to an entirely different standard.

After years of Democrats immediately bowing to the tantrums thrown by Republicans, it's great to see one grow a pair and actually stand his ground.

If you're up for it, you can donate to his 2010 campaign here.

Alan Grayson also put in a great performance on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. I think his refusal to apologize might have a bigger effect on the Democrats than his original comments did:

Power Lines Makes the Best Bridges

Over on the Boston Globe's AMAZING photo blog, The Big Picture, they have some very intense photographs of the havoc caused in the Philippines by Typhoon Ketsana last week, including this stressful photo:



I'm not sure how desperate I would have to be to decide to use power lines as a bridge...

Jon Stewart "Schools" Sean Hannity About Fish

In what may be one of Jon Stewart's most beautiful smack downs yet, he mocks Hannity for his apparent belief that small animals, like "this little two-inch" fish, serve no purpose.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Where the Riled Things Are
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Extra dose of hilarity? The fact that this land is arable only because of a "stimulus package" that was passed in the 30's. "The government should stop meddling in the business of farmers, who would actually still be living in the desert if not for government meddling."