“I certainly hope that my star power can pump this hearing all the way up to C-Span 1,” Mr. Colbert said, before explaining that the “obvious answer is for all of us to stop eating fruits and vegetables — and if you look at the recent obesity statistics you’ll see that many Americans have already started.”

But, he continued, his gastroenterologist had explained to him that fruits and vegetables are an important source of “roughage” and said that he “would like to submit a video of my colonoscopy into The Congressional Record.”

“I don’t want a tomato picked by a Mexican — I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian,” Mr. Colbert said, before turning just perceptibly more serious and talking about how difficult work as a farm worker was.

“After working with these men and women, picking beans, packing corn, for hours on end, side by side, in the unforgiving sun, I have to say and I do mean this sincerely: Please don’t make me do this again, it is really, really hard,” he said.

With all the attention paid to the brain-dead Tea Party, we definitely need a break for some honest-to-FSM truthiness.

-janelane, I <3 Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert: The Whole Truthiness and Nothing But - NYTimes.com

“Americans for Job Security has no purpose other than to cover various money trails all over the country,” the staff of the Alaska Public Offices Commission said in a report last year.

The report went mostly unnoticed outside Anchorage. But its conclusions suddenly loom large in the current debate over nonprofit advocacy groups like Americans for Job Security, which campaign watchdogs say allow moneyed interests to influence elections without revealing themselves. Congress is now wrangling over a bill that would require some disclosure.

Fuck, this is news now?! What about "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"?

-janelane

Under a Tax-Exempt Cloak, Dollars Flow to Political Causes - NYTimes.com

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Who among us has not wanted to open their window and shout that at the top of their lungs?

Seriously, who?

Because we're looking for those people. We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it's appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles.

-janelane

Rally to Restore Sanity

In 1915, ...the richest 1 percent possessed about 15 percent of the nation's income....Today, the richest 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation's income.

I haven't yet fact/back-checked all of the authors figures, but so far this is turning out to be a fascinating piece of journalism. Somewhat depressing, of course, but it contextualizes what we already know about stagnate real wages, income disparities in light of tax breaks for ultra-rich people, etc.

-janelane

Did federal government policy create the Great Divergence? (1) - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine

When David Koch ran to the right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket (it polled 1 percent), his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools — in other words, any government enterprise that would either inhibit his business profits or increase his taxes. He hasn’t changed.

This is what we're up against. Abolition of basic government services in pursuit of Big Business. At least no one can speak logically (I know, like that matters) about getting rid of the CIA with so much terrorism at our doorstep.

-janelane

Op-Ed Columnist - The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party - NYTimes.com

People who drink heavily live longer than those who completely abstain from alcohol, according to a new study conducted by a psychologist at the University of Texas.

Ha! A perfectly counterintuitive result.

-janelane

How does booze extend your lifespan? - By Brian Palmer - Slate Magazine

It would be nice to dismiss the stupid things that Americans believe as harmless, the price of having such a large, messy democracy. Plenty of hate-filled partisans swore that Abraham Lincoln was a Catholic and Franklin Roosevelt was a Jew. So what if one-in-five believe the sun revolves around the earth, or aren’t sure from which country the United States gained its independence?

But false belief in weapons of mass-destruction led the United States to a trillion-dollar war. And trust in rising home value as a truism as reliable as a sunrise was a major contributor to the catastrophic collapse of the economy. At its worst extreme, a culture of misinformation can produce something like Iran, which is run by a Holocaust denier.

It’s one thing to forget the past, with predictable consequences, as the favorite aphorism goes. But what about those who refuse to comprehend the present?

This article encapsulates everything that is so much more wrong about today than in decades past. Every new generation decries the current times as the worst, but we are at a point where Americans are dumbening by the hour. I may over-internalize the problem of the extreme right, but before you know it, over half of the Republican party will believe anything and everything Rush Limbaugh and Fox News tell them. I don't know about you, but what a bunch of hate-filled, misogynistic, racist, wholly uneducated, and poor-people-and-basic-government-services-be-damned people we will become if they rule the country.

I'm just glad that the Daily Show is still on otherwise I would have turned my back on television and any semblance of accuracy in reporting a long time ago.

-janelane, pessimistically

Building a Nation of Know-Nothings - NYTimes.com

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, in an address Wednesday to a special commission on Georgia tax reform, called on the state and Gov. Sonny Perdue to reduce the public workforce in order to redirect money toward education.

Whoa. What a novel idea; don't cut taxes unless you can make up the shortfall, and eliminate the bloated state workforce to provide for an educated future work force.

-janelane

Atlanta's Mayor Reed suggests cutting state workforce �| ajc.com

You know my pants sag low (low)
Even though (though) that went out of style
Like ten years ago (go)

Ha! Two points for internet radio.

-janelane

Spose -- "I'm Awesome"

On August 4, Judge Vaughn Walker issued a lengthy opinion that concluded, "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license."

AMEN! The same way there wasn't a rational basis for interracial couples not to marry, there's not a reason outside various religious texts for gays not to marry. Hopefully the marriages won't be on hold for long.

-janelane

The most important news and commentary to read right now. - The Slatest - Slate Magazine