Poor Michael Jackson. Must be that we, as a nation, are finally over the paralyzing grief that gripped us after his passing (how we got through this without Mort Mortenson, I’ll never know). I know this because the top story on the Weekend Today Show was that the octomom now says implanting 8 embryos was, perhaps, a mistake. Gee, ya think?
In other news, 3 American hikers are believed to have been captured by Iranian military forces. Far be it for me to blame the victims, but, really? Hiking in (or anywhere near) Iran? Are you people stupid or what? Were all the tours to North Korea booked? I think a little common sense is in order here. I mean, they aren’t that crazy about us in France, fer chrissakes, and you go to Iran? They haven’t published their identities yet, but if they’re named Goldfarb, Shapiro, and Wollowitz, these people are fucked.
Henry Louis Gates apparently sent flowers to Lucia Whalen, who made the 911 call that started the whole Harvard Professor v. Cambridge Police “brewhaha.” Oy, first being black and cranky in his own home, and now trying to pick up a white chick in Boston? He’s really gonna get his ass kicked now (he might as well go hiking in Iran).
Well, I reckon I’d better get busy, but I’ll leave you with this touching (yet a little bit creepy) story of woman whose nose was shot off and replaced by doctors who grew the replacement nose on her arm.
Honest.
Jefferson County, in Alabama, has run into a fiscal disaster that has it firing employees who provide essential services such as feeding kids in juvenile detention. The cause seems to be a .05 percent income tax that was repealed but continued to be collected until a judge ruled that illegal.
Then there is the sewer project, financed like a Madoff scheme and riddled with corruption.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/us/01alabama.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
This morning, Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior†at local town halls. For example, in one incident, right-wing protesters surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and forced police officers to have to escort him to his car for safety.
This growing phenomenon is often marked by violence and absurdity. Recently, right-wing demonstrators hung Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) in effigy outside of his office. Missing from the reporting of these stories is the fact that much of these protests are coordinated by public relations firms and lobbyists who have a stake in opposing President Obama’s reforms.
The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/31/recess-harassment-memo/
How to lobby when you haven’t got real support:
An employee of a Washington lobbying firm forged a letter from a Latino social-service group to Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), urging Perriello to make changes in a bill capping greenhouse-gas emissions, the Latino group said Friday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/31/AR2009073102587.html
A campaign on conservative talk radio, fueled by President Obama’s calls to control exorbitant medical bills, has sparked fear among senior citizens that the health-care bill moving through Congress will lead to end-of-life “rationing” and even “euthanasia.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/31/AR2009073103148.html
Wanna bet that the majority of folks who believe this are Rethugs? I recently read, but I can’t remember where, that McCain carried almost all of the districts with the least education and Obama did the same with districts with the most education. No Child Left Behind is trying to create more of those “least educated” places.
Michael Ware was on Maher last night doing some of the most in-depth and unique reporting on the “Clusterfuck-istahn” area but it was all lost when Joe Queenan, some rightwing author, completely steered the conversation off the road trying to pose as being concerned about women’s rights under a Taliban-Pakistan-India peace treaty. There was agreement by all, including Rachel Maddow, that women are f#@*ed, always will be f#@*ed no matter who’s in charge and the US will never have any influence over that sad state of affairs.
You’ve got to listen to Ware tell the story of his third kidnapping, lastly by the AlQueda. Only westerner not to be killed. 😯
August 1, 2009
Smells a little Rovian
Todd and Sarah Palin to divorce
Affairs on both sides
:omg:
That last link got screwed up. This one should be better , especially as the comments get added.
Smells a little Rovian
(I wish there was a Wegman’s here.)