Flailing Opposition to Healthcare Reform

TheHill.com - Graham calls Dem tactics Rove, DeLay politicsThe elder generation of Republican leaders are apparently trying every Rovian tactic in memory to slow or derail the healthcare reform process, including using Rove's name as a negative. Instead of addressing the issues and offering alternatives, it seems talking points are all the opposition party can offer. In fact, it's starting to look like an almost generational divide. Witness longtime pol and healthcare critic Charles Grassley's latest.

"When we're restructuring 16 percent of our economy, that's what healthcare is, and we're affecting every person in this country, then we ought to have bipartisan support," Grassley said.

It does not, apparently, occur to Senator Grassley that his party had an excellent window of opportunity, about eight years in width, to create a bipartisan effort to address the problem.

Memo to Grassley - don't like the way things are going in Congress? Win a few elections.

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Faded Star Burns Out

Michael Jackson, the people's king of pop? | guardian.co.uk

Jackson's was not an unblemished life and this makes it tricky for the news channels and tweeting celebrities who long for nothing more than to bathe in the soapy, sudsy pleasure of hyperbolic adoration and eulogies. But anyone who watched the Martin Bashir 2003 documentary in which he talked about sharing a bed with 12-year-old cancer patient, Gavin Arvizo, is going to find this a little strange, if not dishonest.

The striking thing about media coverage of Michael Jackson's death is the careful emphasis on past accomplishments, not the truly bizarre events that dominated the last two decades of his life. I certainly do recognize his contributions to pop music, but, really, does a career that peaked with "Thriller" in 1982 merit the wall-to-wall coverage we're seeing today?

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Michelle Bachman Comic Launched

High profile Minnesota Republican wackaloon Michelle Bachman is now starring in her very own comic book. Talking Points Memo has a review. Sample:

It's now in print in Minnesota, and anybody can order it online. So how is it?

As both a comic book fan and a Bachmann fan, I quite enjoyed it, but my hope is that the first issue was really laying a foundation for more to come. This comic introduces us to Bachmann, but then doesn't so much focus on her as it does on the important information we need to truly understand her political prominence -- the nature of extreme right-wing culture that has bequeathed a politician such as her to our national dialogue.

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We Support Free Speech - Now STFU!

UPDATE: McAuliffe, LU Democrats hold call on club ban | Lynchburg News Advance

Liberty University has revoked its recognition of the campus Democratic Party club, saying “we are unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by” the university.

“It kind of happened out of nowhere,” said Brian Diaz, president of LU’s student Democratic Party organization, which LU formally recognized in October.

Diaz said he was notified of the school’s decision May 15 in an e-mail from Mark Hine, vice president of student affairs.

According to the e-mail, the club must stop using the university’s name, holding meetings on campus, or advertising events. Violators could incur one or more reprimands under the school’s Liberty Way conduct code, and anyone who accumulates 30 reprimands is subject to expulsion.

Hine said late Thursday that the university could not sanction an official club that supported Democratic candidates.

“We are in no way attempting to stifle free speech.”

Accidental Commentary

MyDD :: Cheney Speech: When Subliminal Messaging is Accurate

Mickey Mouse Silenced

Voice of Mickey Mouse Dies - The Daily Beast

Rush Limbaugh, however, remains on the air.

It's All in the Timing

When I last posted about the Carrie Prejean fiasco, my underlying theme was a lack of integrity, which was, I thought, reinforced by Donald Trump's completely arbitrary overuling of the pageant contract in order to allow this self-serving young woman to retain her tiara. By extension, I doubted the integrity of the pageant's officials in toto. It turns out that assumption was wrong by 1.

IndyStar.com | AP National | The Indianapolis Star

Former Miss USA Shanna Moakler resigned as co-executive director of the Miss California USA pageant on Wednesday, saying she no longer believes in the organization because of pageant owner Donald Trump's decision to let the state's controversial title holder keep her crown.

With this news, my initial assumption is now correct. And it's a damn shame, too.Technorati Tags: Miss California, Donald Trump, Weasels