The Stuff I Didn't Get To -- 9/1/09

Crowd shot of average teabagger protest

-Headline of the day-
"Protester holds up a copy of the 'U.S.S. Constitution' to prove that Congress can't regulate health care."

Teabaggers are dumber than stumps.

"Right here. I got a book here called the U.S.S. Constitution," says a genius at a town hall protest in San Diego. "I’m sure everybody's seen this before. And you know what? I've read this book three times now, and I've referenced it dozens of times and I can't find one little paragraph in here that says the government has the right to take over our health care."

Let me help you out there, Thomas Paineful.

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States..."

That's from Article I, section 8 of the US Constitution. The USS Constitution's a freakin' battleship, you moron.

Now go home and shut up. For your own sake. You're making a fucking ass of yourself. (Think Progress, with video)


-Glenn Beck finds someone crazier than Glenn Beck-
In an apparent attempt to make himself seem saner by comparison, FOX News' Glenn Beck interviewed Dallas-area pastor Stephen Broden, a black preacher who believes that abortion is a plot to wipe out black people in America.

Turns out that healthcare reform is also a plot by whites to commit a "black genocide." I'm not really sure how that works -- maybe healthier people are more likely to die or something. Anyway, Barack Obama -- who's half-white, remember -- is totally in on it. Because he's a commie and commies hate black people. Yeah, that's not so historically accurate, but this is Glenn Beck's Lobotomy Slumber Party we're talking about here.

"I believe what we’re seeing is an orchestrated attempt to radically change this country from what the founders had in mind," Broden said. "There is a deliberate attempt on the part of Marxsist, socialist and... Darwin atheists who are changing this country."

You know, what "the founders had in mind" was a human-rights abusing nation with institutional racism in the form of actual slavery. I'm not sure what the founders had in mind is the best thing for blacks to pine for. But again, history and fact have no place within 100 yards of Glenn Beck -- I think he took out a restraining order on reality.

You've got to wonder, though; does this mean that Barack Obama's no longer a guy "who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture?" Because this blowhard punditry would seem to contradict your other blowhard punditry, Glenn.

I guess this just goes to show that there's plenty of crazy to go around. Glenn Beck only seems to have the market cornered. (Raw Story, with video)


-Quote of the day-
"This cannot pass. What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't pass."
-Rep. Michele Bachmann on healthcare reform.

Oh, it get's better. Steve Benen puts the comment in context:

After talking up the slitting conservatives' wrists, Bachmann said reform has the capacity to "destroy this country forever," because reform proposals are "nothing more than slavery."

She added, "Something is way crazy out there."

You'd be the expert on that, Shelly. Still, this sounds like the best idea anyone ever had in the history of people having ideas.

Just put down a dropcloth first. (Political Animal)

CBS News (Inadvertently) Admits They're Doing a Lousy Job

You've really got to hand it to CBS News. It takes a lot of guts for a news organization -- i.e., an information disseminating service -- to release and report on a poll that shows that a vast majority consider themselves poorly informed.

Most Americans find the health care reforms being discussed in Congress confusing and say President Obama has not clearly explained his plans to overhaul the system, according to a CBS News poll released Tuesday.

Two in three Americans call the health care reforms being debated by lawmakers confusing; only 31 percent said they have a clear understanding of the proposed changes. Sixty-seven percent of those questioned said the reform ideas were confusing.

This evaluation cuts across party lines, with majorities of both Republicans (69 percent) and Democrats (58 percent) saying the current proposals are confusing.

You know what might help? If the media bothered to put things into two categories labeled "fact" and "insane bullshit." It's a long-standing complaint of mine that television news -- network or cable -- always goes out of their way to report "both sides of the story," but never bothers to tell viewers which side is true. As a result, they've got people confused about everything from evolution to global warming. And now healthcare reform.

The idea that Obama hasn't explained it well enough is ridiculous. It's when you get some right wing spinmeister saying that everything the president said isn't true that's the cause of the confusion. And the news media always treats these fools as if anything they say is worth a damn.

There is truth and there are lies. Treating every dispute as merely a difference of opinion destroys that distinction. As a result, people turn off their TVs and find out they're just as ignorant as they were before they turned it on. They heard two wildly different takes on an issue and there was no referee to call foul on the lies. No wonder they're confused.

The irony of a news gathering organization reporting that most people are confused by the news is apparently lost on CBS. It shouldn't be lost on you.

Griper Blade: Let Them Eat Dust

Live in America's breadbasket? I've got bad news for you. Don't live in America's breadbasket? I've still got bad news for you. In fact, if you eat, I've got bad news for you.

USA Today:

The Midwest will see the most dramatic temperature rise in upcoming decades due to global warming, according to a new analysis of U.S. climate data released Thursday by the Nature Conservancy.

In just the next 40 years, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at their current rate, average temperatures are expected to rise by more than 5 degrees across much of the USA, with the greatest temperature increases expected in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois.

"The surprise was that the biggest changes were in the Heartland and the Great Plains," says Jonathan Hoekstra, director of climate change for the Nature Conservancy. So far, he said the western USA has been the area that has seen the most warming.

The changes will be even more dramatic by the end of the century. "In many states across the country, the weather and landscapes could be nearly unrecognizable in 100 years," he adds. By 2100, states such as Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota could see average temperature increases of more than 10 degrees.

The United States produces roughly 10% of the world's wheat, on average. Most of that comes from the midwest. Global warming is about more than just being hot, it's about your belly... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]