It ain't perfect, but it's better than the House bill (particularly with its odious Stupak amendment), something I never expected given the grotesqueries coming out of Baucus' committee.

Well done, Harry. You are a fine and dedicated lawmaker.

And now to get it passed. I'm on my phone now to the Blue Dogs, as you should be, to counter the wingnuts.

Hannity is a pig.

Can't read. Enlarge doesn't work. Zoom on Mac works, but JEEZ!

I'm probably the millionth person to say it, but I don't care. Harry needs to play hardball NOW with Mr. Insurance Company Slave, Joe "Droopy D" LIEberman.

Strip him of every committee leadership and seniority position,

Harry. Joe is NOT a Democrat. Treat him like the obstructionist Repuglican he so desparately wants to be.

That. Is. All.

If by "luster" he meant "diseased ordure" then I agree.

Seriously? Rumsfeld?

Now let's get cracking on the REAL bills, the ones with a public option.

Honestly, was her ONE vote worth all the kowtowing and obeisance to the insurance companies? A thousand times no.

>>It's doublespeak out of Nineteen Eighty-Four to maintain(and regardless of their intention!) that liberals' invocation of "dissent is unpatriotic" rhetoric amounts to "satire" of conservative discourse while conservatives' use of it amounts to intimidation and demagoguery.

Oh yes! I see it now. The bullied nerd who finally punches back is just as wrong as the bully who's been beating up students for lunch money for years. Swift should have written an impassioned plea for the rights and dignity of the poor instead of writing that disgusting article about eating babies. Thanks for clearing that up.

Here's homework for you.

* Who's been using this tactic for years to great effect?

* Why is the Colbert Report funny?

* Actually read the real _1984_ and not the "My Lil' Dystopia Reader" coloring book you apparently have.

>>You sound just like the Right does when they talk about it Torture: it's OK when we do it because we're Good.

It's NOT okay. But doing Evil Rhetorical Tactic A on the flip side of the political aisle, the "have a taste of your own medicine" gambit, is the key to getting rid of it altogether.

After all, years of Rovian "traitor" epithets flung poo-style by the GOP talking points hit squad were not stopped by earnest editorials by you or anyone else on the left wringing their hands and claiming it was unfair and oh so wrong. A bully takes that, laughs, and keeps flinging poo, some of which unfairly sticks. Or maybe you and the other editorialists were successful in stopping this, somehow, and we all missed it?

A bully who takes the same punch he'd been happily doling out thinks twice before winding up again. Their nose smarts, they have to get some tissues, and they can't really go to the principal to complain because of the hypocrisy of it all, plain to see. Just reflect a moment... how many of those being accused of being "traitors" on the right have responded to those attacks? The moment they do is the moment they can never use that out of their toolbox again. And if they do use it, the impact will be blunted, diminished as clearly schoolyard-style, ridiculous.

Even if Media Matters et al did not intend it (but I think they did!), it's the beauty and power of satire, which is at its most effective when it is done "all-in", totally seriously, with complete commitment-- or maybe you think Swift wanted England to kill and eat its destitute Irish babies. Maybe you can have a nice sit-down with the great Senator Al Franken and he can explain it to you.

And we have a SUPERMAJORITY.

A SUPERMAJORITY. And the majority of the American people want a robust public option!

What is WRONG with these people? The only conclusion I can make about these turncoat "Democrats" is that they are all lackeys of the insurance industry. And in that case, we need to vote these ***kers out.

Those miserable sons of bitches. I'm targeting them RIGHT NOW for real Democrats to challenge them in their next primary. They are cowards and traitors.

It's clear the GOP have no intention of doing anything reasonable. Kick them to the curb and get a good, solid bill out there with a robust public option. Screw them right in the ear! Obstructionist pricks!

Which is a lot more than most of the right wing garbage will ever do. Every time there is a new low, these scum sink even lower.

All that work doing the "wifely duties" of BJs and back door action, and this dude doesn't remember? At long last, where is chivalry?

As has been pointed out, its a scary thing when it's hard to discern hyperbolic satire like this as such, given how crazy the right wing loons have become.

But... what's even scarier is that some right wing loon is likely to take this article, post it as fact on their frothing blog, and the meme will metastasize throughout the loon-o-sphere, and end up as talking points on Hannity.

Nature may abhor a vacuum, but it appears not to abhor dirt-dumb assclowns.

But the Dems have no spine to do it, much less the boundless chutzpah that allows the GOP to spout as it routinely does.

...and you guys just had to blare a headline about Limblob's foreskin?

*huuuuulllrlp*

Thanks a LOT Salon.

Gotta give him some points for stick-to-it-iveness.