Somebody take this Senator Jim DeMint and give him a lifetime appointment, because he is a national treasure. He is a Poet of Words. And for every sane thing he says — he does say some sane things, occasionally! — he says something sort of astonishing. Witness his latest interview with a South Carolina newspaper. MORE »

Oh so is this what that woman was talking about at Obama’s Knife ‘n’ Gun Show yesterday? This one questioner, called upon specifically because she had “concerns,” made the excellent point that if you insure 46 million people who currently have no health coverage, then they might actually go to the doctor once in a while! This may create a “doctor shortage” of some sort that would be terribly inconvenient for those of us who currently enjoy immediate access to doctors of all sorts, due to the fact that we do not have to share them with a large percentage of our countrymen. MORE »

Think Progress has a pretty good roundup of angry wingnuts attempting to harass their elected legislators to death over healthcare, but this clip is particularly entertaining. What is it with these creeps and the Pledge of Allegiance? (Answer: it is the only piece of “poetry” they know besides the dosage directions on their diabeetus meds.) [Think Progress]

A number of understandably perplexed readers have forwarded us this weird, offensive e-mail from the notorious spammer “Mitch Stewart, BarackObama.com,” who wants us to donate money to the DNC — one dollar a day “until real health insurance reform is signed into law,” so as to “show the insurance companies and their allies in Congress that their delay tactics will only make our movement stronger.” Well that’s a great idea, pretend Obama organizing troupe at the DNC! But down here on Planet Earth, we’re going to tell you “no,” and also maybe to eat a bag of lightly salted poison rat dicks. MORE »

Aww, helpful orange minority leader John Boehner drew a pretty picture proving that health care in the United States is complicated. Others have already noted that if John Boehner cares about simplicity above all else, then he should throw his weight behind a single payer system. But Wonkette subtext operative “Kathleen” unearths the real scandal here: under the current draft of the House Health Plan, all doctors would be BLACK WOMEN, and all “consumers” would be AMERICAN (white), and the “health insurance exchange” would just be a Ponzi scheme to collect reparations cash. [Washington Monthly]

Oh sure he is an angry spittle-flecked chicken and all, but this doesn’t mean Chris Matthews is always wrong, for example this morning when he yelled at Joe and Mika for being pussyfooting sellouts on the healthcare issue. Joe’s all, “But I am concerned about costs,” and Chris does not actually filibuster that much (!), just keeps saying “Well do you want working class people to have healthcare or not?” and Mika is just so ANGRY that nobody will let her speak. (Which it’s true is pretty goddamn rude.) [Morning Joe]

It’s just past four o’clock, so get in your comfy chair because it’s time for your Wonkette Tuesday New Health Care Reform Proposals Update! Today we discuss the Max Baucus-favored “TRIGGER COMPROMISE,” in which a public health care option would only come into play when private insurance companies fail to meet certain coverage requirements. Let’s take a look at Washington’s latest hell-spawned Respectable Centrist ploy to ruin legitimate long-term reform! MORE »

Quick, stop selling your pitchforks on eBay — it’s time to stab people again! “WASHINGTON - Just months before the start of last year’s stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.” And then the stocks PLUNGED of course but who could have known! They were at all time highs! Buy high sell higher, RIGHT? MORE »

Oh, here’s John McCain in his yard, in Arizona, where he is personally pumping six gallons of crude per day to end our Dangerous Dependence on Arabs and Venezuelans. But it’s hard work, out in the sun, which is why McCain also spent the day shilling for one of his other corporate interests, Big Dermatology. MORE »

A lot of people think John McCain supports abortion rights and other things many ladies care about, even though he doesn’t support these things. One of those confused people is McCain’s potential lady running-mate Carly Fiorina. On Monday, she said, “There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth control medication. Those women would like a choice.” But of course John McCain voted twice against legislation that would require insurance companies to cover birth control. Because seriously gals, just keep it in your pants! MORE »

While we generally agree with the need for a national health plan like civilized countries tend to have, the following contest just announced on Michael Moore’s website sort of makes us want everybody in America to go ahead and get sick and die: MORE »