Dumbass Tweet of the Day

People actually voted for this guy.

Chicago Loses Out On 2016 Olympics, GOP Cheers America's Loss - UPDATED

America-loving conservatives who were appalled that President Obama would take less than 24 hours out of his busy schedule to travel to Copenhagen and state his case to host the 2016 Olympic Games in Chicago will now probably take umbrage at the failed attempt, while snickering under their breath.

COPENHAGEN — The Olympics were awarded to a South American city for the first time, when the International Olympic Committee voted Rio de Janeiro as the host of the 2016 Games on Friday.

Rio de Janeiro was voted the winner over Madrid in the final round of voting, the I.O.C. having already delivered the an unexpectedly early knockout blow to Chicago, which was eliminated in the first round. Tokyo was ousted in the second.

...Chicago’s bid leaders had worked for nearly four years and spent close to $50 million to bring the Summer Olympics to the United States for the first time in 20 years. Chicago had been considered among Olympic insiders as a favorite to win the Games, along with Rio.

Instead, the I.O.C. delivered a crushing blow to American hopes for the second straight time. New York’s bid was eliminated in the second round of voting for the 2012 Olympics.

Now the President can get back to the task at hand and watch as Republican Senators try giving even more of our tax dollars to the insurance companies while crapping on the public option.

UPDATE (4:15pm): I rest my case. Why does Rush Limbaugh hate America?

Adding... It seems Rush had his widdle feewings hurt by David Brooks.

Is It Time For Grassley's Death Panel Yet?

Via Bob Cesca:

“It’s not about getting a lot of Republicans. It’s about getting a lot of Democrats and Republicans. We ought to be focusing on getting 80 votes.” —Chuck Grassley

And Enzi is saying the same thing. 80 votes? They are truly mad. They can think it makes them sound all bipartisan-y to try and fool their baseless base, but it just makes them sound craz-y.

Wingnut Health Care Hypocrisy (Glenn Beck Edition)

It never ceases to amaze me how often I find myself shaking my head in disbelief at people who are in constant denial about who they truly are. People who engage in class warfare but don't realize they are fighting on the wrong side.

For the last couple of weeks, I've watched as town hall "participants" have decided that it's best for them to interrupt, heckle and outright jeer elected officials instead of listening to what they have to say and try to get some real information about something very important: their health care. Or rather, their health care insurance. They are fighting on the side of the status quo for fear of change, completely oblivious to the fact that - if it hasn't already - the status quo will bankrupt them and the country in a very short time.

Take the example of Katy Abram, the lady at the Specter town hall who didn't want our country "to be like Russia." She said her current insurance policy has a $5,000 deductible, more than what her family would normally pay in a year for health care, but now her son is in need of surgery. She's relieved that her health care is finally about to kick in, and yet she "likes" the health care that she has now. Something that is doing her no good unless it's a catastrophic situation. I do hope someone keeps in touch with her to find out if her son's illness will all of a sudden be considered a "pre-existing condition" or that they find out it isn't covered and ask her again if she still "likes" her current insurance plan. I really hope that doesn't happen to her because it happens to too many people in the US, home of the "greatest health care in the world."

But how do people like Katy get so worked up in opposition to make the system better? Where do people like Katy and all the other loud noise makers at these town halls get their misinformation from? Of course, that's a rhetorical question.

Sometime last year, I remember watching an online video that had been going around. It was a home video of Glenn Beck, perhaps from his home, laying on his living room couch and explaining the horrors he had just gone through because of a botched surgery at a particular hospital. And yet, here we are just a year later and Beck has been doing his usual shtick on his clown show, extolling the virtues of the "greatest health care in the world" in an attempt to scare the pants off of the thirty percenters who watch his show.

Now, I don't watch Glenn Beck because I value my health and I try not to be a glutton for punishment. Luckily for me, people like Jon Stewart do this for a living and put things in perspective.

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It's because of cretins like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin and her "death panels" bullshit on Facebook no less, and moronic politicians in the early stages of dementia like Chuck Grassley feeding into complete and utter lies because he knows that it'll slow things to a crawl, fire up his base and keep the insurance lobby money in his pocket that will ultimately kill true reform or water it down enough to make it meaningless.

ADDING... Joan Walsh looks into Katy Abram and finds she's a leader in the Glenn Beck 9/12 group. Bingo.

While Abram told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell that she wasn't very sophisticated about politics, and claimed not to even know her family income, in fact she's a leader of the 9/12 group, setting up its networking site on Ning, greeting new members, inviting folks to events at her home and elsewhere – and last night, after her star turn, comparing her cause to that of Martin Luther King Jr...

... late yesterday she posted this to the site, comparing herself to Martin Luther King:

I just wanted to thank everyone for their support. These past few days have been trying on my family. But the good outweighs the bad right now. The amount of emails and phone calls I have received supporting me have been amazing. There are so many good people in this country. I have hope that we will overcome.

I have a dear friend whom I went to high school with. He told me today on the phone that Martin Luther King had been marching. Someone threw a brick at his head. and yet he kept walking...

that is what we need to do...keep walking. Let us not allow these people to knock us down. We will stand up taller and speak louder. We can accomplish great things...

Grassley "Not A Nail"

He's really working hard on that Twitter, isn't he? And that President of the United States has some nerve asking Congress for a viable public health care option instead of kowtowing to the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies and putting out the crappy legislation they are considering. Grassley may not be a nail but sometimes I'd still like to pound him.

(H/T Gottalaff)

Grassley Get His Harakiri On!

Holy shit.

Reuters: Senator Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, made the comments [regarding AIG executive bonuses] Monday in an interview with a radio station in his home state of Iowa.

"The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them (is) if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide," Grassley said.

"And in the case of the Japanese," he added, "they usually commit suicide before they make any apology."