Today: Senator Amy Klobuchar looks at the health care bill and Rachel takes a look at Richard Nixon’s gap.
Ayes on the Prize
Rachel started us off with the news that we are perilously close to actually getting some health care reform.
Or at least to the Senate getting to vote on whether they can debate and then vote on health care reform, with maybe another vote or two thrown in for good measure.
(People from other lands who are following this process and are wondering why the hell we seem to be doing this again after we just did this, only with the other, more entertainingly wacky bunch of reps, I am sorry. This is how we’re set up to do things here. I know the process is slow and insane. But remember what happened when we had a President and Congress who liked to just ram stuff through? P.S. Sorry about that.)
The Conservadems are getting pretty much everything they threatened to hold their breath until they turned Republican over, including some reasonable stuff like making sure we don’t increase the deficit, and then some of the exact kind of dumb-ass stuff I was worrying about yesterday, like restoring funding for abstinence education when we all know full well that it doesn’t work.
If we’re going to fund stupid religion-based health care measures people would like to be true even though they don’t actually work, why don’t we just throw $800 billion into faith healing?
(NOT REALLY, CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN. Settle down.)
There’s also some water-down language that makes the public option nearly nonexistent and may ensure that the scraps that are there will have premiums that won’t really be cheaper than private insurance premiums, which was only the entire freaking point of health care reform.
So if you’ll excuse me, I have to go whack my head against the wall until my neighbor complains to my building manager again.
OK, I’m back. Ow.
A surprisingly optimistic Senator Amy Klobuchar (D — Minnesota) checked in to talk about the bill and whether the Conservadems will nard up and vote yes.
Did you hear that, lawmakers? It hurts Rachel’s feelings when you don’t call her back. Don’t make her do Sad Pundit puppy eyes.
Which Hunt
Oh, dear, I seem to have missed a memo from the Office of Good and Evil again. (Probably because the Office of Good and Evil closes at midnight and I’m usually too busy to wait in the garden out back.)
Anyway, Rachel reported that apparently it’s now Good to be a vicious bigot about Muslims again. Being completely uninformed except for your own paranoia and hatred is not only sensible and safety-conscious, it’s downright Christian. Who knew?
I can’t tell if political “leaders” have really allowed themselves to become frightened literally beyond all reason of if they’re just playing on the fears of the ignorant to score political points, but either way they should be ashamed of themselves.
Suhail Khan of the Institute for Global Engagement managed not to call Pat Robertson and Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R – Michigan) idiot racist sphincterheads, which makes him two up on me.
Man-Made Disaster
Rachel took us for a closer look at Wednesday’s district court ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers caused the New Orleans levees to fail and thus caused the flooding of the city.
Michael Grunwald of Time joined Rachel to talk about how Mother Nature will whomp you if you’re an idiot about these things.
Not that we seem to be applying any of those lessons in the rebuilding process.
Ms. Information
Rachel noted that Sarah Palin, always a stickler for accuracy, simply did not have the time to put the exhaustive index that she doubtless would have insisted on into her book.
Fortunately, people on the Interwebs will research and catalogue absolutely anything, and at this writing there were already five handy Going Rogue indices.
Rachel, naturally enough, pointed us to Goingrogueindex.com, but you should not click on that link unless you can deal with VERY LOUD music that will come tumbling into your world whether you want it or not, much like the former Governor herself.
Rachel also gave us an update on the vile merchandise that reminds people to pray for President Obama’s death. Gosh, that’s heelarious.
Online sales outlets have had crises of conscience with varying results. Zazzle.com found the merchandise threatening in intent, so it took it off the site, and Café Press took it down, decided it was intended as a joke, and put it back up.
If you go looking for this charming line of products, be warned that another thing that may not stay down is your breakfast.
Pardon the Interruption
Welcome to a Touch of Geek that the folks at TRMS were, according to the Twitter machine, jazzed about all afternoon. And rightly so.
The National Archives is starting a project of trying to reconstruct Nixon chief of staff H. R. Haldeman’s missing notes in an attempt to figure out what was “accidentally” erased in the famous 18 ½ minute gap in the Watergate tapes.
By way of introduction, you will get to see Rachel do the Rose Mary Woods stretch. Try it today!
