You fib! READ MORE

Were you having a nice giant paper cup of coffee and maybe a waffle on Sunday morning when, in a fit of old-schoolness, you decided to act like days of yore and read your Sunday New York Times? How pleasant! Until you actually read the page one story about how lobbyists for Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, actually write the things that our elected officials put in the Congressional Record. Yes! Our elected officials-at best-regurgitate drug lobby talking points on healthcare. And they're all there, from Joe "YOU LIE!" Wilsons to Yvette Clarke, from whom we'd expect a little better. But that'll teach us to expect things. Is it a legal problem to say that it is my opinion, though I would do no such thing myself, of course, that the only political answer is that they should all be taken out back and shot? And then dismembered, and the remaining pieces of them shot individually, while every available orifice is filled with Raptiva and Xenical? Ha, oh look! "In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation's drug bill."

"South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson has raised $2.7 million in an outpouring of conservative support that followed his shouting 'You lie!' at President Obama during a joint session of Congress and facing fierce attacks from Democrats as a result..."

Elvis may have been a hero to most, but he hasn't had a new album in over thirty years. And now, somehow appropriate during this week of full blown race war, Jay-Z has just displaced him as the American artist, and the solo artist, with the most no. 1 albums on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart, ever. Jay-Z is black. Elvis, who died in 1977, was actually white. READ MORE

Suddenly the idea that there might be a racial component in the opposition to President Barack Obama is popping up everywhere: Maureen Dowd and her buddies brought it up in a Sunday op-ed, Politico has a piece on the growing consensus among Democrats that it is, in fact, the case, and even Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), whose "You lie!" outburst provided the moment of clarity by which so many people were able to finally say, "Oh, yeah, I get it now, it's racism," was forced to respond to the difficult question. READ MORE

Speaking of Joe Wilson: "Military beneficiaries like Wilsonâ"€who, as a retiree, is eligible for lifetime coverageâ"€never have to worry about an eye exam, a CT scan, a prolonged labor, or an open-heart surgery. They have access not only to the military's 133,500 uniformed health professionals, but cooperating private doctors as wellâ"€whose fees are paid by the Department of Defense. It's high-quality care, too: surveys from 2007 and 2008 list TRICARE among "the best health insurer(s) in the nation" by customer satisfaction. Yet Wilson insists government-run health care is a problem." You lie! READ MORE

No doubt spooked by the surge of donations to presumptive 2010 opponent Rob Miller-Miller's raised over $700,000 as of this writing-South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson has released this video, apologizing for shouting "You lie!" at the President of the United States and, uh, also asking for some money so that he can continue to "speak up and speak loudly," which I'm sure the Republican House leadership will be totally thrilled by. Meanwhile, for historical perspective, the Washington Post has an infographic of other wacky South Carolinian political activities throughout history; it mentions Strom Thurmond twice but respectfully neglects that whole Fort Sumter unpleasantness. Anyway, Wilson's probably got another week of publicity left; let's try to enjoy each and every minute of it.

So now here we are in the morning after Obama's speech to Congress about how the healthcare has no death panels and the state doesn't pay for abortions or illegal immigrants, which was largely a good speech, though, I think, in Obama fashion went on a little bit long in the home stretch. Also I would really like some affordable health care for myself. And then there was what is being referred to as a "heckling," by one Joe Wilson of South Carolina, which I don't believe is really a heckle? A heckle would have been like, "you smell!" Or "your jokes are so bad, Howie Mandel!" Calling someone a liar while they are not lying is not heckling. So now Joe Wilson's Democrat opponent in the 2010 election-Rob Miller, a Marine for 13 years-had only raised $3000 on Act Blue as of 10:30 p.m., but as of this morning has been given more than $100,000. Unfortunately, most of us were too busy thinking about this "heckling" hilarity to listen to the bizarre official Republican response to the president by Charles Boustany of Louisiana. READ MORE