Democracy is an 11th hour phenomenon, always on the edge of civic catastrophe. But there’s a difference between determination and fear. If we’re going to pass health care, we need first to take care of ourselves.

In promoting a health reform “deal,” the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein swallows the Beltway’s self justification that Ted Kennedy’s success in furthering liberal causes occurred only because he accepted anti-liberal compromises that the Beltway approved.

The WaPo’s two spook reporters let the torture apologists spew a bunch of logically bogus things.

It’s not just that the Villagers are passing along without comment or correction RNC-dictated lies about Teddy Kennedy. It’s that the Republicans’ lies are based on projection.

Sunday Talking Heads: August 30, 2009

Whoa, Be Gone! starring Wile E. Coyote (famishius vularis ingenious) and Road Runner (birdius high-ballius).  This Warner Bros. Inc. Merrie Melodies cartoon was released on April 12, 1958. 

What’s on your mind? 

You learn a lot of surprising things over at Townhall, the popular right wing Internet comedy site. For instance, today we learn that “conservative” college women act like sluts. We’re informed of this by one Eva Lorraine Molina, a test-tube wingnut baby currently incubating at the kook-science laboratories of the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute.

The iconic Reading Rainbow which taught kids the joys of reading aired its last show Friday. Producers unable to secure several hundred thousand dollars to secure broadcast rights for the program hosted by LeVar Burton. But the Bush administration’s education policies also played a part, explained John Grant director of content at the show’s home station, WNED in Buffalo. According to Grant who spoke with NPR on Friday

Grant says the funding crunch is partially to blame, but the decision to end Reading Rainbow can also be traced to a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming.

WaPo’s editor, Fred Hiatt, recommends that America invite two former Supreme Court Justices to conduct an impartial inquiry to determine how well torture works. But whom should we pick to torture?

George Stephanopolous says that there aren’t enough Democratic votes in the Senate to pass a public option, something 77% of the country is in favor, and something Barack Obama campaigned on. No serious journalist is pointing out that this is weird. Nobody except Bill Moyers that is, who appeared on Bill Maher’s show last night: