News Roundup for 8/12/09

Now with more sanity!

-Headline of the day-
"More advertisers pull support for Glenn Beck."

Add Sargento Cheese to the growing number of advertisers who don't want anything to do with professional lunatic Glenn Beck. The Plymouth, Wisconsin company -- headquarters address One Persnickety Place, I swear -- pulled their ads from Beck's FOX News Presents: Living With Rabies. For those of you keeping score here, Sargento joins Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble, Progressive, and GEICO, in addition to two I didn't know about; S.C. Johnson, who makes shampoo you can put in baby's eyes, and Men's Warehouse, who I guess owns a string of apartment buildings for bachelors or something. (Raw Story)


-Quote of the day-
"In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life. You have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma."
-Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Proof positive that there's nothing so stupid, so insane, or so irresponsible that a top Republican won't repeat it. Congratulations, Chuck. You're officially a lying sack of shit. You must be so proud. (Think Progress)


-GOP Senator proposed death panel-
Note the lack of quotes there. I can't do better than to quote Greg Sargent here:


Okay, this is funny. As you know, GOP Senator Johnny Isakson said in an interview that Sarah Palin’s claim about the Obama "death panel" is "nuts."

Isakson, as you also know, is a longtime proponent of expanding end of life consultation programs similar to the House Dem proposal that conservatives claim will cause "government encouraged euthanasia."

But it gets better than this. It tuns out a measure along these lines Isakson co-sponsored would have arguably gone further in involving government in end of life questions than the House Dem bill, by creating an "End-Of-Life Care Advisory Board" to be run by... the government!


GOP Rep. Johnny Isakson wants to "pull the plug on grandma!" Call Chuck Grassley!

Of course, that's not at all what it's about. Putting the elderly on ice floes is just what people like Palin and Grassley want you to think it's about. Because, as we've already established, they're lying sacks of shit. Isakson's End-Of-Life-Care Advisory Board would've been "composed of 15 members representing consumers, the elderly, doctors, and hospitals," Sargent reports. "This board was to be run by the dreaded Health and Human Services, for the purposes of advising the HHS secretary on all matters relating to end of life care."

In related news, Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she was "offended" by Palin's BS. "Quite honestly, I'm so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn't (in the bill)," she said. "There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill."

No reason? Didn't you hear? Sarah Palin wants to run for president in 2012. Making Obama look like a psycho-killer is a good enough reason for her.

Why Grassley's repeating it is another question. I guess he's just stupid. (Plum Line)