Jon Kyl Decides It's More Important To Hurt Democrats Than To Help Doctors

Announces he'll vote againt his own bill. Maybe he's a secret health care mole somehow? It's not very easy to get the AMA mad at Republicans, that's a nice trick.

Non-Prize-Winning Jokes

Working on the proper humorous reaction to today's Nobel Peace Prize announcement:

• Sure, it's nice, but it's not like it's an honorary degree from ASU
• Don't react immediately; instead, wait for David Broder and Robert Robb to explain how this actually is good news for the Republicans
• There goes Michael Crow's chance to serve on the Nobel Prize committee
• See? The rest of the world doesn't like the GOP, either.
• Or else they secretly want to see Bill Kristol's head explode. That would be pretty cool.
• It's a double-edged sword. Because winning the Nobel Peace Prize can really ruin your whole day.
  
• So Obama can't do anything in Copenhagen, but he's a hero in Stockholm? Choose your Scandanavian destination carefully, I always say. (Yes, the award ceremony -- for the Peace Prize only -- is in Oslo but the committee is based in Stockholm, where the other awards are given on the same day. I'm not letting you make my travel arrangements.)

Maybe the Nobel people are simply relieved at having a US president whose first reaction to anything isn't to bomb or send (more) troops. Still, that position got 46% of the vote in November.

Tour de Scottsdale 2009

Seventy miles, 3:39:09. The organizers give the time down to the tenth of a second, which is what we call in the business either (a) excessive or (b) a joke. But if you're keeping score at home, officially it was 3:39:09.2. Full results here. No photos yet. Not bad, overall; it was fairly windy and while I got dropped by the pack around mile 55, I finished about 2.5 minutes behind my goal. A lot of work to do before ETT next month, though.

"If It's Only Broke For Tens Of Millions Of People, Don't Fix It."

Financing health care for anyone less than 65 years old is socialism, I tell you. Socialism!

At Least Dan Quayle Wasn't Elected in '96, Either

I'm now old enough that I'm eligible for a college newspaper's dive into the archives. I look scarily young (and presumably healthy). I don't recall the Tucson rally as focused on health care, but what the heck.

He Said, She Said: Special Muslim Man-on-the-Street Edition!

You could read this Arizona Republic article three times, as I did, and finish with absolutely no idea whether CAIR is evil and connected with terrorist organizations, or if its real crime is not being acceptable to right-wing Republicans. It's also not clear if the American Islamic Forum for Democracy has any members apart from its president, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser. But what's beyond dispute is that Dr. Jasser is the Repubic's right-wing Islamic answer to Greg Packer.