Midday open thread

Published on: 6th October, 2009

• It’s that time of the year — the annual fundraiser to keep your equity stake in Bill in Portland Maine’s soul:
  

  One time contribution: click here
  $5 monthly contribution: click here
  $10 monthly contribution: click here
  $20 monthly contribution: click here

  To send a check via snail mail, the address is:
  Bill Harnsberger, 16 Pitt Street, Portland, ME, 04103.

  Kos likes to say that by supporting C&J you’re buying a piece of my soul. Actually, that’s impossible, mainly because science hasn’t invented a device yet that can split something that small into pieces. But the Big Mac lodged in my artery from 1992? Chip away.

  What started out as an experiment a few years ago — can the Daily Kos community support one of its most beloved writers — is still going strong, a testament to Bill’s skill, grace, humor, and stewardship of what is his own community within the larger Daily Kos community. Pretty amazing. Because really, does anyone actually think Bill’s soul is worth that much?

  Note, if you decide to give, consider doing a recurring contributions. They provide a more steady and predictable income stream for someone subsisting off the generosity of donors.

• Yup, GOP rooting against America.
• Don’t look now, but there is a civil war brewing between the conservative punditry.
  

  Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks describing Beck, Limbaugh, and radio talker Mark Levin as “loons” who are “harmful for America.”

  Former Bush and McCain adviser Mark McKinnon denouncing Levin’s “jaw-dropping hate language about the president.”

  MSNBC commentator and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough blasting Limbaugh’s cheers after Chicago lost its Olympic bid: “Republicans have gone off the deep end”

• Coburn decides he may testify against John Ensign after all before the Senate Ethics Committee.
• Rasmussen gets busted twisting its polls to erroneously show Gov. Tim Pawlenty more popular than Sen. Al Franken. The opposite is actually true.
• If you are on Twitter, make sure you friend the Daily Kos crew — @dailykos, @DKTV, @markos, @HunterDK, @Laura Clawson, @KagroX, @demfromCT @glogothetis, @Devilstower, @Scout_Finch, @jedlewison, @plutoniumpage, @jakemcintyre, @BarbinMD, and @joanmccarter
• Kind of ironic to see Glenn Beck use an international organization (the likes he builds conspiracy theories about) to try and circumvent the First Amendment to shut down a critic. The hypocrisy is layered on thick.
• There is very little distance between dogmatic Muslims and American conservatives.
  

  A French gay soccer team says its members were victims of homophobia when a team of Muslim players refused to play a match against them.

• Where do Republicans find these jokers?
  

  In an interview with the Washington Post yesterday, former Ron Paul economic adviser Peter Schiff, who is now running as a Republican for Connecticut’s U.S. Senate seat, feigned modesty when asked about his candidacy, saying that he wasn’t “heroic” for running for office. However, he then compared himself to the heroes who fought in World War II against Nazi Germany.

  The exact quote was: “I’m interrupting my career. It’s not like I want my new career in politics. But I’m willing to interrupt it the same way that somebody interrupted their career and joined World War II and went off to fight the Nazis.”

• Jindal:
  

  Reward healthy lifestyle choices: Providing premium rebates and other incentives to people who make healthy choices or participate in management of their chronic diseases has been shown to reduce costs and improve health.

  John Cole:

  Can you imagine the screams of fascism and nonsense that we would be subjected to if anyone to the left of Rush Limbaugh proposed this? The Reason folks alone would have the vapors and publish a seven part series on faceless bureaucrats trying to tell us all how to live and plaintive wails about central planning. Glenn Beck would be weeping about taking America back from the health care czars who want to run your life, and the teabaggers would plan a Million Meatball March to protest healthy lifestyles. Sarah Palin would have a facebook post up explaining that “management of chronic diseases” is code for getting a check for shooting your sick granny like Old Yeller.

  And then the best part would be on Sunday morning, when David Gregory or George Will or one of those jackasses would say “sure, the bill says nothing like that, but it is the Democrat’s fault for using ambiguous language. This really ws a bad stumble for the White House.”

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