A poll of Massachusetts residents found that regular people in Massachusetts understand why their health care is so extremely expensive. It’s because they have to pay too much for drugs, insurance and hospital care, compared to what other nations pay.

Homophobic Linda Harvey warns parents in this video not to allow their children to be treated by gay physicians, because, . . . well, because. She’s a great example of the irrational homophobia of many on the religious right.

These wingnuts are absolutely convinced that human life begins at conception, but when it comes to global warming and Obama’s citizenship — we just can’t be sure.

Because of barriers on funding, WikiLeaks could have to close by the end of the year, according to its founder, Julian Assange. Glenn Greenwald points out it was WikeLeaks that helped spark the Arab Spring, for which the Administration tried to take partial credit while it imprisons the alleged leaker, Bradley Manning.

The Euro nations have set Wednesday as the new deadline for an agreement to resolve the Euro financial crisis. The basics including large haircuts for Greek bond holders, recapitalizing the banks who take the hit, and making the bailout fund large enought shield remaining Euro nations and stop the contagion. But critics are saying the plans are very risky and still avoid the real solutions.

An overwhelming 62 percent of Americans think the electoral college should be eliminated and replaced with a national popular vote for determining who will be president. Only 35 percent of the country thinks the electoral college system should be kept, according to Gallup’s most recent polling on the issue. An indirect fix based on a state compact has only half the states needed to make it work.

The White House will announce that millions more underwater homeowners can take advantage of a refinancing program if their loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. This is a plan the President announced as part of his American Jobs Act speech It will open up the Home Affordable Refinancing Program to everyone who’s current on their loan, regardless of how far underwater they are.

The Washington Post’s Ombudsman attempts a pull back from WaPo’s rerunning of the Bloomberg expose on the Koch Bros. Shorter WaPo OBM: We can’t disagree with anything Bloomberg Markets said about the Koch Bros illegal activities, but we should have included his paid PR denial even though it didn’t shake the original story, and besides there are lots of other corporate evil doers besides the 4th richest men in America.

  Chemical bomb thrown into OccupyMaine camp early Sunday a.m. Sgt. Glen McGary said police responded around 4 a.m. today to an explosion in Lincoln Park at Congress and Pearl streets. Though no one was injured, McGary said the homemade bomb, which consisted of chemicals poured into a plastic Gatorade container could have caused serious [...]

• Better late than never.
• Texas Miracle update.
• Krugman: The Hole in Europe’s Bucket.
• Another downgrade for the U.S.?
• The Secessionist goes birther.