• Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is insistent that Charlie Crist stay in Florida’s Republican primary, a primary which Crist is definitely going to lose. Why is Mitch McConnell so racist to orange-skinned people? (Fox News)
• Oh hey, looks like Goldman Sachs knew that they were destroying the housing market and American and global economies but totally did not care because they were also making a shit-ton of money. Woooo capitalism! (MarketWatch)
• President Obama promised to improve mine safety in his eulogy for the 29 miners killed in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch Mine. Might I suggest starting with mine owner Massey Energy’s reckless disregard for mine safety standards? (Christian Science Monitory/BusinessInsider)
• Spanish doctors claim to have successfully completed the world’s first full-face transplant. Woohoo, faces for everyone! (BBC)
• Surprise! Looks like dark-skinned people in Arizona are not thrilled with the state’s new law which would require police to racially profile them. Who could have predicted? (CNN)

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies

There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean — a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.

Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides — whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

For all of these Americans, the failure to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf has real onsequences. It means that doctors and nurses do not always have the best information about patients’ medications and medical histories and that friends and certain family members are unable to serve as intermediaries to help communicate patients’ needs. It means that a stressful and at times terrifying experience for patients is senselessly compounded by indignity and unfairness. And it means that all too often, people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall.
…
By this memorandum, I request that you take the following steps:

1. Initiate appropriate rulemaking, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395x and other relevant provisions of law, to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors. It should be made clear that designated visitors, including individuals designated by legally valid advance directives (such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies), should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy. You should also provide that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The rulemaking should take into account the need for hospitals to restrict visitation in medically appropriate circumstances as well as the clinical decisions that medical professionals make about a patient’s care or treatment.

I wonder who will be the first wingnut to scream bloody murder about this new rule, the purpose of which is, among other reasons, to allow nuns to visit their sisters in the hospital.

Of course, this would require to Tea Party News Network to show some common sense.

Q What can we do about Obama and the birth certificate thing?

Cooch: It will get tested in my view when someone… when he signs a law, and someone is convicted of violating it and one of their defenses will be it is not a law because someone qualified to be President didn’t sign it.

Q: Is that something you can do as Attorney General? Can you do that or something?

Cooch: Well only if there is a conflict where we are suing the federal government for a law they’ve passed. So it’s possible.

Q: Because we are talking about the possibility that he was not born in America.

Cooch: Right. But at the same time under Rule 11, Federal Rule 11, we gotta have proof of it.

Q: How can we get proof?

Cooch: Well… that’s a good question. Not one I’ve thought a lot about because it hasn’t been part of my campaign. Someone is going to have to come forward with nailed down testimony that he was born in place B, wherever that is. You know, the speculation is Kenya. And that doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility.

Blah blah blah, he was born in Hawaii, for the millionth time. Maybe someone should ask the Cooch whether Obama’s birth will be his argument when he inevitably challenges healthcare reform.

• Barack Obama is so uppity for not graciously losing the 2008 election to John McCain, War Hero.

¹ Cf.

Chris Matthews is basically Walter Cronkite doubled, for his incredible journalism.

Wednesday’s speech should be interesting to watch.

• Drink every time President Obama tells a story about someone whose life was affected by not having health insurance. Drink more if the Senate healthcare bill won’t actually help that person
• Drink every time President Obama mentions Ted Kennedy. Drink more if the camera shows Scott Brown. Drink even more if the camera shows Harry Reid.
• Drink every time the camera pans to Joe Wilson in the hope that he’ll shout something embarrassing. Drink more when he actually does.
• Drink and throw empties at the TV every time Ben Nelson or Bart Stupak is shown. Drink twice for Joe Lieberman.
• Drink every time Joe Biden is obviously not paying attention and/or asleep
• Drink every time John McCain IS paying attention and/or awake
• Drink and bury your head in your hands every time President Obama praises Congressional Democrats for doing a good job
• Finish whole drink and groan loudly every time President Obama says he wants more bipartisanship

I may add more as I think of them…

Update: New rule!

• Everyone chooses one domestic program other than defense. Finish your drink if President Obama announces a spending freeze for it.

Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation (sic) about it….w…hen the answer should simply be ‘yes’…

—Arlington, TN, Mayor Russell Wiseman, writing on his Facebook profile. (via)

“I’m taken aback by his deadline,” said U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park. “These guys wait centuries to get even. Eighteen months is nothing for them.”

Yes! The President of the United States should commit American troops to permanent war in Afghanistan for centuries, because the Taliban never forgets! If this country is attacked in the year 2211, it will be all Obama’s fault for surrendering centuries ago. Also, shouldn’t Obama know these things about the Taliban, what with his being a secret Kenyan Muslim?

Barack Obama — who is nearly one year into his first four-year term — has supposedly decided to randomly pick a three-year time table for ending his proposed escalation in Afghanistan out of thin air for no reason whatsoever…

Then again, you can’t really blame Lieberman for not knowing where the Democratic candidate for president stood on anything since he was John McCain’s almost-running mate.

This will start happening soon, probably on O’Reilly, Limbaugh, or Beck, and continue through the end of the year. Just wait. They haven’t had a problem with comparing Obama to Hitler so far, and I doubt they’ll stop doing it now.

Also, expect some cracks about how maybe Obama will ignore America’s Holiest Day Christmas and celebrate Kwanzaa instead (wink wink, nudge nudge, Obama is black), but it’s not racism because we have a post-racial society.

• It’s not Obama’s fault that he’s a terrible, America-hating, half-breed Kenyan whose mother had a bad case of jungle fever.

Wooo post-racialism!

Update: Bonus almost-verbatim Pruden: Hawaii is not really a state.

Will’s family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they’ve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They’ve been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.

“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”

After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, a retired educator from the district, who knew Will’s mother and grandmother. Though the substitute tried to make him stand up, he respectfully refused. He did it again the next day, and the next day. Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.

“She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up,” Will said. “I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, ‘With all due respect, ma’am, you can go jump off a bridge.’ ”

Will was sent to the office, where he was given an assignment to look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, the principal called his mother.

“She said we have to talk about Will, because he told a sub to jump off a bridge,” Laura Phillips said. “My first response was: Why? He’s not just going to say this because he doesn’t want to do his math work.”

Eventually, Phillips said, the principal told her that the altercation was over Will’s refusal to stand for the pledge of allegiance, and admitted that it was Will’s right not to stand. Given that, Laura Phillips asked the principal when they could expect an apology from the teacher. “She said, ‘Well I don’t think that’s necessary at this point,’ ” Phillips said.

Predictably, Will is being teased by his classmates in a typical, childish manner (because, of course, only gay people can possibly support gay rights), but here’s hoping Will sticks to his guns and inspires the rest of his generation to stand up–or, in this case, sit down–for equal rights for all Americans.

(via)

I am shocked and appalled that this president would take the unprecedented step of _____ before ______ on his overseas trip to _____. This fits into a familiar pattern of the Obama administration, most recently seen at home in his decision to ______, which emboldens our enemies and further pushes America into a _____ state that would have been unrecognizable just ______ months ago.

– TAPPED’s Mori Dinauer, providing an easy, fill-in-the-blank template for conservative freakouts.

Given that reality, the urgent necessity is to make a decision — whether or not it is right.

So in the longest military conflict in American history, David Broder would prefer President Obama make a bad decision now rather than take the time to examine all his options and make a good one. It’s only thousands of American lives, billions of dollars, and the stability of an entire region at stake. What’s the worst that could happen?

Update: We sort of have a winner in FOX News’ Bill Kristol, who says “they should just go ahead and convict him and put him to death” and skip the whole messy “trial” business.

You know that scene in the movie ‘Blazing Saddles,’ when Cleavon Little holds the gun to his own head and threatens to shoot himself?

– Former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald E. Neumann, on how much leverage President Obama has over Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

• Client #9, or “Eliot Spitzer” as he is sometimes known, is giving a lecture at Harvard’s Center for Ethics!…? However: “He’s not speaking about ethics. He’s here to talk about a research project we’re launching on institutional corruption.” So, you know, speaking from experience, then. (Boston Globe)
• What is the most offensive thing someone could say in 140 characters or less? Oh, how about equating Barack Obama with the Muslim terrorists who crashed planes full of Americans into things on 9/11? That should do it. (Denver Post)
• Lou Dobbs is quitting CNN, so probably he will just go on FOX to be appreciated for hating Mexicans. Who will CNN choose as their new token racist? (Politico)
• Haha, looks like birther lawyer Orly Taitz has suborned perjury–a.k.a. encouraged witnesses to go on the stand and lie under oath! But everyone knows that “facts” and “truth” (not to mention the entire American legal system) are all in on Obama’s conspiracy! (TPM Muckraker)
• There is only one way to get on Santa’s “nice” list this year, and that is to obtain these Sarah Palin Christmas ornaments and hang them from your Christmas tree! Of course, if Santa really wanted to help America, he’d quit delivering presents now and go on a book tour. (Wonkette)

If we’re going to ask why did he do it, knowing full well that he’s in the same mosque in 2001 with the radical preacher going nuts, we’re going to also [laughter] have to believe that the guy was just like Obama, and didn’t hear Rev. Wright’s words when he was in his church.

– GOP leader Rush Limbaugh, reacting to reports that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was spotted in a Virginia mosque with possible ties to al-Qaeda by comparing him to the President of the United States.