Rep. Alan Grayson (D – Outraged) is not backing down. Not only does Congress’ most passionate promoter of health care reform refuse to apologize for calling out obstructionist Republicans who are standing in the way of meaningful reform, but yesterday the Florida Democrat held a “Roll Call of the Dead” to highlight the number of people who are expected to die in each GOP member’s disctrict next year as a direct consequence of a lack of affordable health insurance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD4rOkq9fUo

This is the sort of man the Democratic party, and yea… even America herself, needs right now.

(Via: Democratic Underground)

(Update: Huffington Post has the whole, three part speech)

According to the New York Times, the U.S. economy showed a 3.5% expansion in the 3rd quarter of this year, after more than a year of contraction. Read more »

The plan would be a diabolical one had it been planned this way all along: destroy the GOP by allowing it to destroy itself in a fit of self-destructive, ideological pique. With health care costs in these United States spiraling out of control, something clearly has to be done to protect average Americans who are coming face to face with the sad reality that, in America, losing your job means losing your health insurance, and that, in turn, often means losing everything you’ve work so hard your entire life to build. Read more »

When you think of communist leader Mao Tze Tung, who else is the first person to pop into your head? That’s right: Mother Teresa. And the converse, of course, is also true. When I think of Mother Teresa, images of Chairman Mao just naturally pop into my head.  The association between these two leaders is simply inescapable. So it’s more than understandable that when an Obama Administration official compared the two figures in a speech, the right-wing blogosphere and Fox News’ Glenn Beck went ballistic, correctly inferring that there was no irony intended by White House communications director Anita Dunn when she cited Mao and Mother Theresa to drive home a point about doing “things that have never been done before.” Read more »

Bono’s totally OK with Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize:

“We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.”

They’re not my words, they’re your president’s. If they’re not familiar, it’s because they didn’t make many headlines. But for me, these 36 words are why I believe Mr. Obama could well be a force for peace and prosperity — if the words signal action.

So chill, everybody. It’s cool.

(p.s. don’t delay your planned post on account of this, NOJO.)

I’m not sayin’…you know… I’m just sayin’.

Serolf Divad notices these things for a living.

When the CBO projections are useful to your hackery:

“CBO Tells Congress That Should Obamacare ‘Work’, It’ll Drive Up Costs”

-Red State Headline from Aug 13, 2009

When the CBO projections run counter to your ideology:

“CBO Stands for Cooked Books Office”

-Red State Headline from Oct 9, 2009

So which is it, boys: trusted, impartial source or partisan propagandists?

Serolf Divad does this sort of thing for fun.