Quote of the Day

"...the failure of the Republican Party to attract anyone but white (usually male) Christians into their coalition is the primary driver of our divisions today. There's nothing wrong with white men from a Christian background, but there is something wrong with a party that is made up almost exclusively of them. When you add to this insularity a tendency to reject the most basic and important theories in geology, biology, and climatology, you have a party that is incapable of being an honest partner in setting fair and sensible policies for our nation." - BooMan

Must Reads

Bob Cesca: Healthcare Reform Named After Ted Kennedy Must Not Suck

Rude Pundit: A Message on Ted Kennedy to Conservatives Who Hated Him (Mostly Profanity-Free for the Kiddies & Ted Kennedy: There Went a Man

Glenn Greenwald: The Washington Post's Cheney-ite defense of torture

James Wolcott: Even on Days of Mourning, the Jerk Store Remains Open & Even on Days of Mourning, the Jerk Store Remains Open (II)

Armadillo Joe recommends...

Digby: And That's The Way It Is

Bruce Watson: Rain or snow? No problem, but revenue shortfalls cripple the Postal Service

driftglass: Rising Late and Angry

BooMan: The GOP, Not the Senate, is Broken & Reflections on My Senate Diary

President Obama's Weekly Address - August 29, 2009

Lessons and Renewal Out of the Gulf Coast

Music Break! The Doors

The End

Cartoon of the Day

Courtesy of reader Virtual Kevin.

Why We Need The Public Option At A Minimum

Great little, no nonsense video.

The Real Death Panels

Yesterday I read an article of a husband and wife who endured a real life death panel, not one invented by Betsy McCaughey or dreamt up in Sarah Palin's feeble brain.

Froma Harrop's ex-Marine husband was denied the treatment they needed by United HealthCare for liver cancer, but always gave them the impression that help was just around the corner. The time they wasted waiting for the bean counters at their insurance company may or may not have made a difference, but we'll never know. They just waited out the clock for him to die.

Today, with the passing of Ted Kennedy, I can't help but compare the waiting game by insurance companies to the waiting game of certain members of the Senate. Ted Kennedy was a huge proponent of health care reform, and the cynical side of me feels that some were just waiting for him to expire from his brain cancer to knock off one more Democratic vote for reform. I had mentioned it to a relative a few weeks back and promptly dismissed it, but the memory flooded back as I heard of Senator Kennedy's death.

Now, I know that it's a pretty callous thing to think about. That such a thing could possibly be considered is pretty cold-hearted. And maybe I thought the same thing after comtemplating it. After all, this "august" body always boasts of friendships and respect. Then I saw Senator Tom Coburn (R-Hell) at his health care town hall meeting.



So Coburn says his office will help, but "the government is not the solution." Uh, does he know he is the government? And he suggests to look to your neighbors. Look to your neighbors to help your husband whose had a TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. I would suggest that Coburn is not the solution.

So with Ted Kennedy, there goes another humanitarian in the Senate; something that their chamber is solely lacking. Ted Kennedy had his problems, he had his scandals. But he also worked his tail off for decades for the common good of the people. I'd take one Kennedy over 50 Coburns any day.

"The work goes on,
the cause endures,
the hope still lives
and the dreams shall never die."

Ted Kennedy Dies at 77

NY TIMES: Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77.

Sound Familiar?

Right wing crazies have been with us long before President Obama or President Clinton. "Betraying the Constitution"? "Befriending our enemies"? "Caught in fantastic lies to the American people"? All accusations hurled at John F. Kennedy, who many now regard as an upper echelon President because of his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, his leadership for civil rights and his initiative to push the citizens of this country to be better and do better.

We have to be doubly vigilant and on our toes to stop this wingnut disease from spreading.

(H/T Stimulist)

Be Still My Beating Heart

Via Bob Cesca:

A total of 33 Fox advertisers, including Walmart, CVS Caremark, Clorox and Sprint, directed that their commercials not air on [Glenn] Beck's show, according to the companies and ColorofChange.org, a group that promotes political action among blacks and launched a campaign to get advertisers to abandon him. That's more than a dozen more than were identified a week ago.

As has been often said, under the 1st Amendment Beck can utter any vile thing he likes. The public has the right to voice their opposition to Beck's opinions and the free market corporations can also exercise its right to refuse to advertise during his show in order not to be associated with the hate speech. Freedom of speech does not equal freedom from accountability.

What Kind of Society Do You Want To Be Associated With?

Stephen Amidon: Why I love Britain's socialized healthcare system - As I learned when my newborn daughter was very sick, in U.K. hospitals, people take care of each other

...I was initially skeptical about the NHS. I’d grown up comfortably in suburban New Jersey; good private healthcare was always immediately available through my father’s insurance. When my English wife became pregnant soon after we settled in London, I was alarmed by the idea of having our first child born in a system I had been told was underfunded, overstressed and inefficient. After all, healthcare in the UK was free. How good could it be? Friends and relatives back in the States were spending thousands to have children. If you get what you pay for, I was about to get a whole lot of nothing.

...This, I learned, is what the NHS is about -- common decency. It is about the shared belief that all the people who live in the United Kingdom constitute a society, and a decent society provides certain necessities for its members. Freedom from hunger is one. Police protection is another. Free healthcare from the cradle to the grave is simply one more item on this list.