I have a feeling something very similar to this kind of bankrolling is the reason why many in Congress are opposing health care reform (i.e. could it be corporate/lobbyist $$$?):

Lawmakers who count pharmaceutical companies among their biggest contributors lead the opposition to a health care proposal that would cut costs by allowing generic drugs to compete sooner with pricey biotechnology drugs, campaign-finance records show.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has helped lead Senate efforts to give drug companies 12 years of exclusive rights to sell biotech drugs, rather than seven as proposed by President Obama. Hatch has received nearly $1.3 million from the employees and political action committees of drug and health products companies since 1989, making the industry his largest contributor, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

They're not interested in what's best for you, but rather what's best for them.

Battle of nonsensical and baseless ramblings: Palin vs. Limbaugh. Ding Ding.

Just when you think Republicans have hit rock bottom, they find a depth that's just a little deeper. The latest less-than-zero issue of substance: Obama's birth certificate.

John Cole sums this one up: "The reason Republicans in DC are running from some guy on the street asking them whether or not Obama is an American citizen is because they have spent the last thirty years cultivating a base of insane crazy people, and while they may escape a reporter from FDL, they can’t escape the base."

The nutzoid base make zombies look like characters in a Merchant Ivory flick.

According to Palin's logic, for new governor Sean Parnell to best serve the state of Alaska, it's about time for him to resign.

Just to chime in further regarding Kevin's post about "deliberate charlatan" George Will, when viewing this chart, it must be evident to even the most reason-challenged of Will's readership that this data set can be easily gamed to make a point. Over the last 100 years, one could've picked any high-temp year and then a few years later claimed the trend in temperature was down. Just look at 1910, a high-temp data blip, and by 1915 the temperature plummeted -- only to spike back up a few years later.

Obviously the primary line of importance is the red line, which is the 5-year moving average that takes out much of the intermittent noise and offers a truer picture of the overall trend. Focusing on the red line, does anyone see a downtrend more recently? And while the red line has dipped in the past, when you consider it's starting point in 1900 to now, the trend has been clearly in one direction: up!

But I'd also like to mention a point I believe gets lost in all of this climate change debate, a point I feel is equally important, and that is: the urgency should not strictly be about temperature. Much energy has been spent arguing about warming versus cooling, but the global warming / emissions debate is also about toxins, pollution, cancer, etc. What comes out of cars, trucks, smokestacks, etc. is not harmless steam, but rather by-product emissions that can kill over time. In this debate, CO2 gets most if not all the attention but it shouldn’t. Why is it children are advised to eat only one can of tuna fish per month, or that asthma rates have been increasing for years? CO2 is solely to blame?

Alternative energy solutions cut down on not just global warming but also pollution and resulting health maladies. Also, last time I checked there is no debate about the content of what comes out of smokestacks, tail pipes, etc.

Perhaps those framing this issue could shift the focus to emphasize that which is of much less dispute, as it would accomplish the same end-game goal.

The Party of Nix It, Not Fix It

Republicans are looking to work every angle to defeat health care reform. Their alternative? Notta, no solutions, just the status quo. Sounds about right.

I give you the lovely C Street abode, or aka Animal House.

Priceless. We endlessly debate and procrastinate regarding global warming and alternative energy, but once China (of all countries) plows forward in earnest, determined to become the dominant global player in green energy, then the U.S. cries foul!

The Anonymous Liberal has an excellent summary of the entire Sarah Palin embarrassment. And of course, there's always the now famous take-down of Palin from the right, ala Peggy Noonan.

Just remember, we always have 72-year old cancer survivor John McCain to thank for this, Mr. Country First. To think she would've been a heartbeat away from running things in the White House is a nightmare that still keeps me up some nights....

Classic. A constituent asks Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) how he can get the same health care coverage that the Senator has, understanding that it's cheaper and better. Grassley replies just go work for the government. See for yourself.

The only way we can get such terrific coverage is to work for the federal government, so says this top-ranking Republican. And yet the GOP is the party that decries big government -- but that doesn't stop Grassley from urging his constituents to join the government's payroll, effectively endorsing the idea of bigger government. Logic once again gets in the way of a Republican's point.

Another outrage is Congress has the public health care option, but they don't have to accept it. They can always refuse it and shop around for supposedly superior private health care insurance -- like the majority of us have to do.

Anyone aware of a Senator or Rep ever refusing their "public option" coverage?

We continue to learn more about the Dark Lord's patriotic decisions:

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.

Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.

Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful.

Efforts to reach Cheney were unsuccessful, quite a shocker. When he wants to spread propaganda and lies in his defense, he's everywhere, giving speeches, blathering on TV, but when it comes to little stuff like this, he's back hiding in the cave.

I'm sure his decision to conceal this program had everything to do with putting country first -- despite the fact that the same can be said for other countries where similar orders are given and carried out (hint: those countries are not democratic).

This video clip is great. Catch the deafening silence (and isn't it so adorable of Todd to go in the weeds!).

For how long, and how many times, have we heard the right inflame about judicial activism from the bench.... Well, we just observed it from -- wait for it -- the right wing of the Supreme Court. They recently legislated new law -- exactly what they fear from liberal justices.

And let's not forget the ultimate judicial activism from the right wing Supreme Court justices, the never-to-be-used-as-precedence ruling in favor of Bush over Gore.

To be conservative or right wing is to be for hypocrisy, plain and simple. Happy 4th!

It wasn't just Bush/Cheney in on the fix, Blair was complicit.

The rightwing disinformation campaign continues in full force (see here, here, and here).