Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Pshaw, why would we need universal single-payer health care in this country when we have these quality health plans?

Wal-Mart Sues Disabled Ex-Employee

The Shanks didn't notice in the fine print of Wal-Mart's health plan policy that the company has the right to recoup medical expenses if an employee collects damages in a lawsuit.

[snip]

The family's situation is so dire that last year Jim Shank divorced Debbie, so she could receive more money from Medicaid.

Jim Shank, 54, is recovering from prostate cancer, works two jobs and struggles to pay the bills. He's afraid he won't be able to send their youngest son to college and pay for his and Debbie's care.

Un-be-lievable. So remember, kids: read that fine print. Not that you'll have any choice but to sign anyway - it's not like you're making enough money to purchase your own health insurance.

Pour me another drink, and let's see what else we've got.

Hey, wasn't Iran the enemy? I thought we were supposed to bomb them... I'm all confused (via The Carpetbagger Report (emphasis mine):

Maliki has since struck a close alliance with ISCI, which has its own militia, the Badr Organization, and whose members also hold much sway within Iraq’s official security forces (though more with the police
than with the national army). This alliance has the blessing of U.S. officials, even though ISCI—which was originally called the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq—has much deeper ties with Iran than Sadr does. (ISCI’s leaders went into exile in Iran during the decades of Saddam’s reign, while Sadr and his family stayed in Iraq—one reason for his popular support. As Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations has noted, SICRI was created by Iran, and the Badr brigades were trained and supplied by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.)

Did I end up with the absinthe by mistake somehow? Harf? The man we wanted in power in Iraq is all buddies with the man we want to destroy in Iran, and now we're fighting beside folks who were armed and trained by Iran, which just a little bit ago was the reason we wanted to bomb Iran, because they were arming and training the people trying to kill us... ye gods. I have a headache, and it ain't a hangover.

Moving on. What's all this I hear about ThinkProgress? They fucked up? And then they did what?!

You mean they published an immediate, prominent correction? They didn't bury it somewhere deep within the site where no one would ever see it so that ignoramuses could continue to cite the uncorrected original as proof of their bogus smears? Journalistic integrity? I thought we'd gotten rid of that pesky idea.

But you see, my darlings, this is the difference between news organizations and propaganda outlets: news orgs aren't afraid to issue mea culpas, whereas propaganda outlets... well, are.

And then, when the propaganda outlets crow over the mistakes of their foe, things like this happen:

The right wing has been jubilantly celebrating the fact that ThinkProgress made an error in claiming John McCain had plagiarized a speech by Adm. Timothy Ziemer. Drudge, Weekly Standard, National Review, and Instapundit have all referenced our mistake. On its "political grapevine” segment this evening, Fox News reported our error as well. Fox host Bret Baier said, “The left-wing blog ThinkProgress has had to eat its words.”

At the end of the segment, Fox News referenced this website as “ThinkProgress.com” in an on-screen chyron. Note to Fox: we’re actually ThinkProgress.org. It’s ok — we all make mistakes.

Note to Fox: if you're going to gloat over your enemy's mistakes, be sure you gloat accurately. Otherwise, you just announce what the rest of us already know - that you're fucking stupid. Thank you, but we already have abundant evidence.

And now, on a lighter note, sea cucumbers:

At 2:00pm today someone (in Alabama, no less) came here via a Google search for "sex with a sea cucumber". I'm speechless.

Tip o' the shot glass to John Lynch over at Stranger Fruit. I haven't laughed so hard since PZ Myers busted into the Expelled crew's hermetically-sealed press "conference" call.