What Are You, 14?

On Sunday, June 20, Sarah Palin issued the following on Twitter:

RahmEmanuel= as shallow/narrowminded/political/irresponsible as they come,to falsely claim Barton's BP comment is "GOP philosophy"Rahm,u lie

And all I could think of is this:

Things Cindy McCain Likes

Destin Beach, Florida
She's very worried about the oil getting on it.

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Rewriting the Script of Joblessness

Not too long ago it seemed, everyone in Washington was all about job creation. Now it seems, it's not a lack of jobs it's a lack of motivation from the unemployed.

It's been a full three weeks since lawmakers failed to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits, to prevent a 21 percent pay cut to doctors who see Medicare patients and to provide states with $24 billion in Medicaid assistance. The House passed a bill at the end of May, but the Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day recess without acting. Since then, Senate Democrats have been unable muster the 60 vote supermajority needed to get the legislation done.
Meanwhile, 903,000 people jobless through no fault of their own have missed unemployment checks and doctors are getting shorted for taking care of old folks. It's been a full three weeks since lawmakers failed to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits, to prevent a 21 percent pay cut to doctors who see Medicare patients and to provide states with $24 billion in Medicaid assistance. The House passed a bill at the end of May, but the Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day recess without acting. Since then, Senate Democrats have been unable muster the 60 vote supermajority needed to get the legislation done.

Meanwhile, 903,000 people jobless through no fault of their own have missed unemployment checks and doctors are getting shorted for taking care of old folks.

Snowe said she would not insist that the unemployment benefits -- which will cost more than $30 billion -- be paid for. "I think the economy has not demonstrated the capacity to create jobs," she said, "so I think it's our burden to turn that around, not to foist that on those who are unemployed and dependent on unemployment benefits."

Some Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate have said they believe it is, in fact, time to foist that burden onto the unemployed, who they suspect aren't finding jobs because they'd rather collect benefits than look for work. GOP Senator Orrin Hatch takes it a step farther, with a plan to drug test people receiving unemployment benefits.

"A lot of people are saying, 'Hey, it's about time. Why do we keep giving money to people who are going to go use it on drugs instead of their families?'" Hatch said.

The Cost Benefit of Arts Support

Even in the middle of the Gulf Crisis, BP will continue it's arts sponsorship. Why? Cost benefit.

The benefits of arts patronage far outweighed its costs, philanthropy professionals said.

“If they were spending billions on it, then people might say that it was a waste of shareholders’ money, which should be spent on cleaning up beaches,” said Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts & Business, a nonprofit organization that links arts bodies with corporate and private donors. “Saving that money will not do anything to the coastline of America.”

“It’s a relatively small amount, but the impact they can have with it is far greater,” said Tweedy.

Things Cindy McCain Likes

Starbuck's Green Team Lemonade

Lots of Theater, Little Substance

Andrew Cohen from Politics Daily on the rote morality play that the Kagan confirmation hearings are destined to be:

Of the many ways to look at the case of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, the most neutral may be to see next week's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee as merely the latest chapter in a rote morality play that began in 2005 and that may not end for a few more years.

Cohen then hands Kagan her script:

She has to be patient. She has to be thoughtful. She has to be expressive without being adversarial. She has to seem to say a lot without really saying anything at all. In other words, she must do what you should be able to do with the sort of resume she has -- and what all sitting judges are able to do when they are questioned publicly about their legal views. She must talk and sound and look and act like a judge. It's not just going to be the constitutional standards she references, in other words, it is going to be the way she sounds when she references them.

Apparently, some Republicans are planning their own "rote morality play" with this - from Politico:

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, on Monday evening warned that Republicans may boycott the start of Elena Kagan's Supreme Court hearings if senators do not get to review scores of documents from the solicitor general's past.

If A Playwright Ran the NEA

This is an oldie, but a goody from the LA Times. Jon Robin Baitz on what he would do to the National Endowment for the Arts:

I would attempt to pass legislation on a special tax dedicated to the NEA for all artists who make over half a million dollars a year from their work.

I would create a new version of the Federal Arts Project of the 1930s and '40s, which would also be funded by this surtax from the artists who have succeeded.

Baitz, a playwright, has enjoyed much success as the creator of ABC's Brothers and Sisters.

Touch Down Jesus photos

BagNews has some stunning photos of pre-inferno "touch down Jesus."

I think it’s a sign of the end of the world,” said Paul Wright, 21, of Oxford. “If lightning is going to strike God, then there’s no hope.”
–from “Rebuilt Jesus statue will be fireproof, pastor says.” (Dayton Daily News)

Requiem for Sanity in the Gulf

Mac McClelland from Mother Jones, who has been doing some heavy-duty shoe-leather reporting from the Gulf, attended a Tea Party rally in Louisiana and came back with this:

But the sentiments expressed at this particular rally were, as it turns out, about 300 percent crazier even than I had feared.
...the rally was mostly two hours of yelling about how climate change is natural—"I've never seen CO2 in the air, have you ever seen CO2 in the air??"—how Barack Obama is simultaneously trying to enslave the American population and steal from it, and how welfare recipients should have to be regularly drug tested. One speaker gave the usual "We don't need the government" speech, followed immediately by, "If the government was doing its job making sure MMS did its job, we wouldn't be here. Why wasn't the government looking down their throats?" Another speaker pointed out that we're at two wars, one in Iran and one in Afghanistan, and that if we're not careful, the president of Israel, Ahmadinejad, is going to gain enough power to take over the world.

"Whose agenda is Obama pushing?" one speaker asked, and everyone yelled, "George Soros'!" Then we watched a video montage including footage of American soldiers, stills of Obama in Dark Knight Joker makeup, and the sun rising and setting on the Gulf of Mexico, set to Queen's "The Show Must Go On." Then we watched another video with clips of Rahm Emanuel and ACORN employees intercut with pictures of Chairman Mao, all over the superdramatic theme music from Requiem for a Dream.