However, his recent tango with the birthers movement made his ratings take a nose dive and, well, CNN showed him the door as a result.

So that’s why this interview with Jon Stewart isn’t necessarily puzzling, but it is a bit sad. Just 9 short months into this presidency and Dobbs actually thinks that Obama is continuing Bush’s policies? Sure, there are a few things he hasn’t changed, but it’s hard for me to believe that Dobbs doesn’t appreciate that these things aren’t simply going to happen overnight…especially with two wars and a massive economic crisis happening…especially since Dobbs himself says he’s an incrementalist. (ahem!)

In short, where is this paranoia (that must have fueled Dobbs’ birther flirtation) coming from?

In any event, take a gander…

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

I’ll ask the question that Stewart asks in the interview…do independents think that our country and our standing is that fragile? Because if Bush didn’t destroy it in the last 8 years, why do indies all of a sudden think that Obama’s going to do it by passing health care reform and rebuilding our infrastructure?

What say you?

Just watch…

Here’s the thing, the reason these folks can get away with nonsense like this is because congressional districts have been so gerrymandered as to be almost completely red or blue. And given that Rep. Foxx is from North Carolina’s 5th district (very safely Republican) she can keep on talking like this till she’s blue (or red) in the face. And it’ll get her famous, quick.

Just look at Michele Bachmann, a virtual nobody before she started talking crazy on shows like Hardball and Glenn Beck’s cavalcade of crazy. Now she’s being favorably profiled by George Will? And let’s not forget Foxx’s South Carolina cousin Rep Joe Wilson. He jumps so far over the line that even his fellow Republicans chide him, and yet he becomes a folk hero and raises $1M in donations online in short order.

And trust me, this isn’t limited to just Republicans. Dems have said their fair share of nonsense too. But why are these folks being applauded, promoted and revered? Why aren’t they seen as the sideshows they really are?

Yes, yes, I know I’m posting this video and so I’m part of the promotion of this meme, but I point this out to raise the broader topic question….How in the hell did we get here? And is there any way back?

And all they’re asking you to do is give them $30 so they can send all 50 state attorney generals a fax demanding Obama show his birth certificate.

Fun fact: this is actually running on a CBS affiliate in Texas and other locales across the country.

In related news, if you think Obama is the anti-christ, you’re much more likely to support Sarah Palin.

And scene!

Yes, he’s an alien.

Or a God.

Or a Hawaiian.

Take your pick. :-)

What’s weird is his reason for not answering the question. Basically, he says there’s no way he can define “white culture” without getting himself in trouble. And that begs the question…why make a statement that claims Obama has a deep seated hatred for it? I mean, if you’re defending white culture, why would there be any reason to not define it?

Check out this cringe inducing video…

Let me clue you in to what Beck means when he talks about white culture: money. Because by making these idiotic claims he can tap into a small, but dedicated base of folks who think that the white culture is under attack from all sides and they’ll buy his books, watch his TV show and listen to his radio screeds.

In the end, Beck’s certainly no dummy, but if he’s not smart enough to navigate a simple interview with Katie Couric, well, he’s probably not long for this media world.

( Editor’s note: If you come over here and start claiming things about Beck that aren’t true or defend Beck with a bunch of vulgar language and throw insults around, your comment will be deleted. Do us all a favor and just don’t comment. )

Well, now we’ve got an analog to that and it comes in the form of this shameful screed by one of MSNBC’s newest commentators…

The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather make money off your dead corpse! They kinda like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her…My God, Democrats, what’s wrong with you?! You can’t deal with these people, at all!

Isolated incident? Well, here’s more Ed unplugged a while back…

MSNBC is becoming unwatchable these days. I still like Hardball and Morning Joe, but good lord…what the hell is wrong with these people?

(h/t: NewsReal)

So, will the Baucus bill begin to get some traction in conservative circles?

More as it develop…

Republicans who don’t want health care reform to pass will be out in full force filling the airwaves with disinfo. That’s nothing new, but this time they’ll be desperate because this speech will be positioned as a game changer and they’ll most likely overreach in some embarrassingly stupid way.

I didn’t think it would happen during the speech, but Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina made it so…

Dems were understandably upset, but John McCain came out in force…

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) called Wilson’s outburst “embarrassing,” while McCain said it was “totally disrespectful” and that there was “no place for it in that setting or any other.”

McCain said Wilson “should apologize for it immediately.”

Wilson has since called the White House and apologized.

I don’t use the “I Told You So” category often, but there’s a time and a place for everything.

And so it goes…

Definitely worth a watch.

And here’s the text…

Mrs. Kennedy, Kara, Edward, Patrick, Curran, Caroline, members of the Kennedy family, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:

Today we say goodbye to the youngest child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy. The world will long remember their son Edward as the heir to a weighty legacy; a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the U.S. Senate – a man whose name graces nearly one thousand laws, and who penned more than three hundred himself.

But those of us who loved him, and ache with his passing, know Ted Kennedy by the other titles he held: Father. Brother. Husband. Uncle Teddy, or as he was often known to his younger nieces and nephews, “The Grand Fromage,” or “The Big Cheese.” I, like so many others in the city where he worked for nearly half a century, knew him as a colleague, a mentor, and above all, a friend.

Ted Kennedy was the baby of the family who became its patriarch; the restless dreamer who became its rock. He was the sunny, joyful child, who bore the brunt of his brothers’ teasing, but learned quickly how to brush it off. When they tossed him off a boat because he didn’t know what a jib was, six-year-old Teddy got back in and learned to sail. When a photographer asked the newly-elected Bobby to step back at a press conference because he was casting a shadow on his younger brother, Teddy quipped, “It’ll be the same in Washington.”

This spirit of resilience and good humor would see Ted Kennedy through more pain and tragedy than most of us will ever know. He lost two siblings by the age of sixteen. He saw two more taken violently from the country that loved them. He said goodbye to his beloved sister, Eunice, in the final days of his own life. He narrowly survived a plane crash, watched two children struggle with cancer, buried three nephews, and experienced personal failings and setbacks in the most public way possible.

It is a string of events that would have broken a lesser man. And it would have been easy for Teddy to let himself become bitter and hardened; to surrender to self-pity and regret; to retreat from public life and live out his years in peaceful quiet. No one would have blamed him for that.

But that was not Ted Kennedy. As he told us, “…[I]ndividual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in – and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves.” Indeed, Ted was the “Happy Warrior” that the poet William Wordsworth spoke of when he wrote:

As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.

Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and suffering of others – the sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier sent to battle without armor; the citizen denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or where she comes from. The landmark laws that he championed — the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children’s health care, the Family and Medical Leave Act -all have a running thread. Ted Kennedy’s life’s work was not to champion those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard; to add a rung to the ladder of opportunity; to make real the dream of our founding. He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow.

We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers’ rights or civil rights. And yet, while his causes became deeply personal, his disagreements never did. While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that is not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw him. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect – a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.

And that’s how Ted Kennedy became the greatest legislator of our time. He did it by hewing to principle, but also by seeking compromise and common cause – not through deal-making and horse-trading alone, but through friendship, and kindness, and humor. There was the time he courted Orrin Hatch’s support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program by having his Chief of Staff serenade the Senator with a song Orrin had written himself; the time he delivered shamrock cookies on a china plate to sweeten up a crusty Republican colleague; and the famous story of how he won the support of a Texas Committee Chairman on an immigration bill. Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the Chairman that it was filled with the Texan’s favorite cigars. When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the Chairman. When they weren’t, he would pull it back. Before long, the deal was done.

It was only a few years ago, on St. Patrick’s Day, when Teddy buttonholed me on the floor of the Senate for my support on a certain piece of legislation that was coming up for vote. I gave him my pledge, but expressed my skepticism that it would pass. But when the roll call was over, the bill garnered the votes it needed, and then some. I looked at Teddy with astonishment and asked how he had pulled it off. He just patted me on the back, and said “Luck of the Irish!”

Of course, luck had little to do with Ted Kennedy’s legislative success, and he knew that. A few years ago, his father-in-law told him that he and Daniel Webster just might be the two greatest senators of all time. Without missing a beat, Teddy replied, “What did Webster do?”

But though it is Ted Kennedy’s historic body of achievements we will remember, it is his giving heart that we will miss. It was the friend and colleague who was always the first to pick up the phone and say, “I’m sorry for your loss,” or “I hope you feel better,” or “What can I do to help?” It was the boss who was so adored by his staff that over five hundred spanning five decades showed up for his 75th birthday party. It was the man who sent birthday wishes and thank you notes and even his own paintings to so many who never imagined that a U.S. Senator would take the time to think about someone like them. I have one of those paintings in my private study – a Cape Cod seascape that was a gift to a freshman legislator who happened to admire it when Ted Kennedy welcomed him into his office the first week he arrived in Washington; by the way, that’s my second favorite gift from Teddy and Vicki after our dog Bo. And it seems like everyone has one of those stories – the ones that often start with “You wouldn’t believe who called me today.”

Ted Kennedy was the father who looked after not only his own three children, but John’s and Bobby’s as well. He took them camping and taught them to sail. He laughed and danced with them at birthdays and weddings; cried and mourned with them through hardship and tragedy; and passed on that same sense of service and selflessness that his parents had instilled in him. Shortly after Ted walked Caroline down the aisle and gave her away at the altar, he received a note from Jackie that read, “On you the carefree youngest brother fell a burden a hero would have begged to be spared. We are all going to make it because you were always there with your love.”

Not only did the Kennedy family make it because of Ted’s love – he made it because of theirs; and especially because of the love and the life he found in Vicki. After so much loss and so much sorrow, it could not have been easy for Ted Kennedy to risk his heart again. That he did is a testament to how deeply he loved this remarkable woman from Louisiana. And she didn’t just love him back. As Ted would often acknowledge, Vicki saved him. She gave him strength and purpose; joy and friendship; and stood by him always, especially in those last, hardest days.

We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know God’s plan for us.

What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of other human beings.

This is how Ted Kennedy lived. This is his legacy. He once said of his brother Bobby that he need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, and I imagine he would say the same about himself. The greatest expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy’s shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became. We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office. We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy – not for the sake of ambition or vanity; not for wealth or power; but only for the people and the country he loved.

In the days after September 11th, Teddy made it a point to personally call each one of the 177 families of this state who lost a loved one in the attack. But he didn’t stop there. He kept calling and checking up on them. He fought through red tape to get them assistance and grief counseling. He invited them sailing, played with their children, and would write each family a letter whenever the anniversary of that terrible day came along. To one widow, he wrote the following:

“As you know so well, the passage of time never really heals the tragic memory of such a great loss, but we carry on, because we have to, because our loved one would want us to, and because there is still light to guide us in the world from the love they gave us.”

We carry on.

Ted Kennedy has gone home now, guided by his faith and by the light of those he has loved and lost. At last he is with them once more, leaving those of us who grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good he did, the dream he kept alive, and a single, enduring image – the image of a man on a boat; white mane tousled; smiling broadly as he sails into the wind, ready for what storms may come, carrying on toward some new and wondrous place just beyond the horizon. May God Bless Ted Kennedy, and may he rest in eternal peace.

Rest in peace Teddy.

And yet this will become the highest rated show on cable television. Guaranteed.

*sigh*

Updated:
Some folks in the comment section have told me that he was just playing a joke, misspelled it on purpose, etc.

Yeah, that’s why in the first clip he spelled Oligarchy and in the second clip below he’s spelling Oligarch.

Yeah…right…what happened to that Y the next day?

Good times.

Still, to hear Republicans talk…reconciliation is this scary new thing that’s never been used.

Well, surprisingly, the folks over at Fox News put the lie to that…

Let’s repeat that Judd Gregg quote against for posterity…

Reconciliation is a rule of the senate that has been used before for purposes exactly like this on numerous occasions. Is there something wrong with majority rules? I don’t think so. The point, of course, is this…if you have 51 votes for your position you win.

51 wins. From one of the more moderate Republicans in the Senate. And he’s right. Majority rules in everything, especially elections. Why not here? Why do we have to get to 60 votes in order to pass anything without giving the other side the option to block it indefinitely with procedural stall tactics?

Long story short, Republicans set themselves up for this during Bush and if Dems decide to go the reconciliation route, well, tough.

MSNBC has put together a documentary of John, Bobby and Teddy and it’s set to air soon.

Here’s a preview of some of the interviews they got…

As I said, love them or hate them, if you’re a history geek like me you’ll be tuning in.

Yes folks, it’s all about co-ops. That will allow the moderate Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats enough cover to vote for this thing.

The only question now is will the left wing of the Democratic party accept this bill and give themselves the much needed win on health reform that they need?

More as it develops…

I’m not a huge fan of Congressman Frank. However, I will say that in this video he is exhibiting the best retort to a nutter that I’ve seen. Anyone who compares the President of the United States (any POTUS) to Adolf effing Hitler deserves to be verbally abused in this manner. Period.

If you don’t like the health care reform bill that is being proposed, fine. Argue your stance without invoking the mass genocide that took place in the 1940s. By using the Nazis as comparison for your political debate, you are cheapening the deaths six million Jews. Read Jon Meacham.

For the record, I’m not all-in for HR3200. I have some serious reservations about government health care (and other programs for that matter). However, I see absolutely no parallels to Nazi Germany (or Stalinist Russia, or any other scary ’socialist’ or ‘fascist’ simile) and to make such a gross comparison is being uninformed and irresponsible.

[cross-posted at ThePajamaPundit.com]

Yes, I realize these laws are meant to prevent repeat offenses, but either up the penalties for those offenses or just leave them be. Once somebody gets out of prison, that should be it. End of story. If they commit another crime it would be tragic, but we have gone WAY too far with these laws and who can honestly defend forcing people to live under a bridge?

Also, let’s not forget that there are plenty of really stupid sex offender laws out there too. People get locked up for doing some fairly innocent things.

The Economist takes a closer look…

In all, 674,000 Americans are on sex-offender registries—more than the population of Vermont, North Dakota or Wyoming. The number keeps growing partly because in several states registration is for life and partly because registries are not confined to the sort of murderer who ensnared Megan Kanka. According to Human Rights Watch, at least five states require registration for people who visit prostitutes, 29 require it for consensual sex between young teenagers and 32 require it for indecent exposure. Some prosecutors are now stretching the definition of “distributing child pornography” to include teens who text half-naked photos of themselves to their friends.

How dangerous are the people on the registries? A state review of one sample in Georgia found that two-thirds of them posed little risk. For example, Janet Allison was found guilty of being “party to the crime of child molestation” because she let her 15-year-old daughter have sex with a boyfriend. The young couple later married. But Ms Allison will spend the rest of her life publicly branded as a sex offender.

The problem is…these laws will only get harsher because what politician in their right mind will try and soften them? This guy in Florida who’s suing the state is certainly a brave guy, but let’s remember that this has been going on for 2 YEARS. That’s how long it took for this to become enough of an eyesore for somebody to make a case that it’s hurting the economy.

What do you think?

Well, now HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is continuing the meme that the public option isn’t necessary…and if that’s the case, well, it’s dead folks.

Here she is today, along with a clip of Obama…

If anything passes, and I bet it will, we’re looking at health care co-ops.

Count on it.

Shocking, I know.

Ed’s post is here — and it is indeed some very good writing.

Allahpundit responds:

For the rare distinction of having earned Olbermann’s blessing, let me be the first to say to Ed: You are the RINO king. Enjoy the throne of shame; if you need me, I’ll be at the bar adjusting to my new role as Hot Air’s “true conservative.”

Ed then chimes in, very graciously:

I’m sure people would like me to be a jerk about this, but I’ll say thank you to Keith instead for the kind words. We’ll be arguing again tomorrow, and for the … rest of eternity, probably, but I’d prefer to return graciousness with graciousness.

Look-ee-here! We’ve got no less than three fierce partisans talking about (to?) each other with some dignity and respect (and some humor).

If these three dudes can get along, maybe there is hope for the rest of us…

[cross-posted at ThePajamaPundit.com]

I’m becoming more and more convinced that Republicans in Washington simply don’t want any sort of health care reform. Because the way this “death panel” nonsense is picking up steam seems coordinated.

The latest is one of the Republicans working on health care legislation in the Senate, Chuck Grassley. Here he is talking in Iowa yesterday…

“Pull the plug on grandma?”

Seriously?

Folks, it’s literally getting to the point where I want to throw things. Because not only is this a massively dishonest, fear mongering meme that uses old people as victims, but it has been rebutted by one of the leading Republican voices on end-of-life issues, Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

This from an interview with him a few days ago…

I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin’s Web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You’re putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don’t know how that got so mixed up.

In other words, do you want somebody to be counseled on end-of-life issues while they still have the capacity to make those decisions or not? Apparently Republicans like Grassley don’t.

UPDATE:
This is amazing. The end-of-life provisions have been dropped from Finance Committee’s version of the bill because Grassley things could get confused. This after he purposefully confused the debate by saying what he said above.

From The Hill…

“On the Finance Committee, we are working very hard to avoid unintended consequences by methodically working through the complexities of all of these issues and policy options,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. “We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly.”

Implemented incorrectly? Misinterpreted? How is offering voluntary end-of-life counseling every 5 years going to either be implemented incorrectly or misinterpreted? Do they think there will be some rule put in place after the fact that will force doctors to tell their patients to end their life?

Folks, I don’t care what party you belong to, end-of-life counseling is nothing more than INFORMATION about what your options might be. Some may choose to do everything they can to stay alive, while others may sign a “do not resuscitate” order. But if people don’t have the facts, they can’t make informed decisions about what options are available, and it could force a family member to make a life or death choice.

Amazing.

“In LaCrosse, Wisc., the Gundersen Lutheran Hospital system is, according to the Dartmouth [Atlas of Health Care], the least expensive place in America for the last two years of life. They have an advanced directive program, and over 90 percent of their patients have an advanced directive. They have electronic health records, so everybody on the staff knows what the advanced directive is. They have a very strong palliative care program for using drugs to manage pain. They have a hospice program. The result is today, the last two years of your life in costs are about $13,600. The last two years of your life at UCLA are $58,000. Now, why should Medicare pay $58,000 for the same outcome if it could pay $13,600?”
- Newt Gingrich responding to a question from PBS

So, sounds like a pretty fair broker, right? After all, the biggest issue isn’t quality of care, it’s how we can contain costs so everybody can get in the system. And if the majority of costs are found in the last two years of your life, there are certain things you can do to make sure you have a say in those decisions.

However…

Compare that Newt with the Newt who was on This Week recently and was asked him about Sarah Palin’s death panel Facebook posting…

Okay folks…I realize that politicians sometimes feel obligated to defend their side, but why would Newt engage is such obvious mental gymnastics to defend something that’s clearly a lie. Especially when he purports to believe the exact opposite!

Consider me disappointed, but not surprised.