Open Thread

Here are some oldie but goodie negative cartoons about JFK. I love this kind of historical stuff, because it serves to remind us that, despite the popular notion that in the good old days Democrats and Republicans got along and did not hate each other, politics has always been nasty. In the election of 1884, charges of illegitimate children and affairs dogged Grover Cleveland. "Ma Ma Where's my Pa? Gone to the White House Ha Ha Ha."

Hawaii has verified that the President was born in Hawaii, and, perhaps simultaneously, Arizona's Secretary of State has backed away from his previous birther statement and apologized for embarrassing his own state with a conspiracy theory-fueled investigation into whether the president was really a natural born U.S. citizen.

Former Philadelphia Phillie and Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling in recent years became a very public champion of conservative "small-government" politics. How ironic is it that then that when he launched a video game production company that two years ago set up shop in Rhode Island thanks to $75 million in state guaranteed loans. The least Schilling could have done then was thank the government rather bloviate about how government was evil. Well, two years later, because Schilling sucks as a businesman, his business isn't going so well, and this month Schilling's company 38 Studios missed a $1.1 million payment to the state. He's now asking for more taxpayer help. Oh, the irony.

Is it me, or was this weekend a particularly boring weekend politically? I have been going through all the RSS feeds of all the blogs and news sites I read in my Google Reader and there really is nothing notable. Pelosi and Boehner traded jabs on the Sunday morning shows, sure. But that is nothing new. I can't even get excited about the Cory Booker boomlet. Suffice to say his days as a Obama campaign surrogate, and as a progressive Democrat, are over. He is just another of those DLC-third wayers who is cozing up to Wall Street to further his political ambitions. Hey Cory, Harold Ford already exists. Stop trying to be him.

Politico notes it took just 30 minutes for conservatives "to jump all over Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and his leadership team after the GOP's game plan for dealing with President Barack Obama's health care law leaked to the media." You see, Boehner wanted to somehow pass a bill that preserved the popular parts of the bill, like the bans on lifetime limits and yearly limits and the provisions bannings exclusions based on preexisting conditions, and the part of the bill allowing college students to stay on their parent's plan until the age of 25. Boehner and his likeminded Republicans are too stupid to realize that will send premiums skyrocketing 1,000% a year, because without the mandate of universal coverage, and without the provision that requires insurance companies to devote 80% of their profits to patient care, the insurance companies will pass on their costs to us. But the teabagger caucus wants to scrap everything.