While we were, um, contemplating the Circle of Life at the Stinque Remote Office yesterday, we noticed an unusual gift that the Plumbing Gods had bestowed on our meditations.

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“While launching into an attack on the right and the conservative funders/progressive bogeymen known as the Koch Brothers, [Howard] Dean first pronounced their name more like a famous part of ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s anatomy than the classic cola.” [TPM]

• PajamasMedia: “Hey Reuters, Anthony Weiner is a Democrat”
• Big Journalism: “Correction Request: Reuters IDs Weiner as ‘Republican'”
• Weasel Zippers: “Reuters Labels Weiner A ‘Republican’ After He Resigns”
• Reuters: “Amid scandal, U.S. Rep. Weiner set to resign”

Wait, what?

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Americans’ life expectancy may be 78 years, but a new report says only 69 of those years tend to be healthy ones. . .

Which is an argument for the death panels, I think, so that they can kill you at age 69, or sooner if you are fat. Either way, the administration is releasing it’s multi-agency plan for “disease prevention”, which is code for taking away our freedoms by telling obese people (Real Americans) not to eat and smokers (libertarians) not to smoke and diabetics (also Real Americans) not to fuck with sugar. Basically, Obama is telling us all how to live our lives, which you should only do if you are telling it to a woman, and what you are telling her is she can’t abort any babies.

The plan is also a going to build us more sidewalks, so we can walk more, like suckers.

WaPo wizwonk Ezra Klein, Thursday:

I wish we could all agree to stop jumping on things like Mitt Romney saying “I’m also unemployed.” It’s pretty clear from the context that he was making a joke. Jokes sometimes misfire, or read strangely when pulled out of context and printed in the paper. In the interest of having our candidates speak like something other than robots, we should cut them some slack.

Well, um, no.

We actually try to be somewhat fair in our mocking, so when we took up Mitt’s remark yesterday, we made sure to note that — as reported — his audience appreciated his joke as given.

And then we proceeded to provide Mitt a new orifice.

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We’re not sure we’ve heard something like this since Bush I:

Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop here on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.

“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”

The folks around the table joined Mitt in a hearty round of laughter, and then Mitt left to resume his life as a wealthy former leveraged-buyout mogul, while everyone else stayed behind and realized they were still screwed.

Romney: ‘I’m Also Unemployed’ [NYT]

Nine Republicans Myths
that Every Progressive Should Be Able to Counter:

U.C. Berkeley economist Brad DeLong has been daily bumping and updating a post on his blog that provides counter-arguments to a growing list of Republican talking points. He keeps the list so he won’t be caught off guard by an unexpected question the next time he’s asked to appear on TV alongside a conservative opponent. Personally, I think it’s a great idea that progressives be familiar with counter-arguments to common conservative talking points, and develop some talking points of our own. To that end, I am presenting a list of rebuttals to nine very common, but very misleading, or outright false, GOP talking points. Read more »