News Roundup for 3/6/09

Federal employees open new health care office

-Headline of the day-
"Poll: Do Americans want government health care reform?."

Turns out that yeah, we do -- in overwhelming numbers. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll finds that 72% "favor increasing the federal government's influence over the country's health care system in an attempt to lower costs and provide health care coverage to more Americans."

Eek! Socialism! (because everything Republicans oppose is socialism these days).

Rep. Zach Wamp (I swear that's his name) defended the status quo against the will of the people yesterday by telling MSNBC "Listen, health care a privilege... I was just about to say, for some people it’s a right. But for everyone, frankly, it’s not necessarily a right."

It makes you wonder who Wamp thinks have a right to health care. I'm guessing he means people who get that sweet free government care, like members of congress. You or I can just go crawl in a hole someplace.

So who's right here? If you ask people like Wamp, it'd be the 27% who oppose health care reform -- a number which, oddly enough, is statistically identical to the percentage who still have a positive view of Republicans.

Imagine that. (CNN)


-Edjumacation expert-
South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint continues to earn the nickname "Jim DeMented" by making shit up about DC schools.

"If you send a kid to [public] school in DC, chances are that they will end up in a gang rather than graduating," DeMint said at a news conference. Obviously, that's not so much true. The graduation rate in the nation's capital matches the national average at around 70%.

However, DeMint's state has a graduation rate of 56% -- the fourth lowest of any state in the nation -- making Jim DeMented one of the worst people in the entire country to lecture anyone on what makes for good schoolin'.

In response to Demint's comments, the blog The New Teacher on the Block put up a post titled "You Sir, Are an Ignorant Ass."

That's uncalled for. There's no reason to call such an ignorant ass "sir." (Raw Story)


-Bonus HotD-
"Conservatives angry over Michelle Obama's trip to homeless shelter."

The problem; an AP photo shows some guy taking a picture of Michelle with his cell phone.

The LA Times Andrew Malcom freaked out, asking, "If this unidentified meal recipient is too poor to buy his own food, how does he afford a cellphone?"

Leading web-based nutjob Shelly Malkin joined in on the fun, breaking out her psychic powers and telling us all about the cellie photographer. "He spends all his (our) money on cellphones and, most likely, tattoos and drugs and booze and other crap, and has no money left for a home and food," she wrote. "And why should he bother? We pay for his shelter and food anyhow..."

"America has the wealthiest poor people in the world," wrote National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez.

Here's the thing. There's absolutely no evidence that the guy with the phone was staying at the shelter. Or that the phone wasn't prepaid. Or that the phone wasn't from the guy's job.

Nope, if you see a guy with a cell phone in a homeless shelter, he's obviously ripping off the system to get a free meal and a place to stay, because living in a homeless shelter is such a honey of a setup and all. He couldn't possibly work or volunteer there. (Salon)