Jack & Jill Politics

Hey fam. An experiment. I’m trying to watch the comments more and also want to share lots of the interesting emails we get. Rather than try to blog in depth on all of it, here are a few of my favorite links.

Roberto Lovato on Lou Dobbs:

Faced with a growing movement of communities demanding that CNN drop his program, Lou Dobbs responded Friday with one of his favorite postures: the victimized defender of American virtue. “They ask CNN to fire me because I oppose illegal immigration” said Dobbs, who added, “”The last thing they want is a first amendment, where people can express themselves… These are the most un-American, frightened people in the world because they won’t compete in the marketplace of ideas and facts.”

Not surprisingly, Dobbs is waving the First Amendment flag to change the subject, which is not about disagreement on immigration policy, and has nothing to do with free speech. Dobbs has the right to his opinions; but there’s nothing in the Constitution that says he deserves a “news” platform to disseminate hurtful and dangerous myths about immigrants.

Ezra Klein on the true cost of health care:

The average health-care coverage for the average family now costs $13,375, according to Kaiser. Over the past decade, premiums have increased by 138 percent. And if the trend continues, by 2019 the average family plan will cost $30,083.

Three years of slightly above-average health insurance will cost a solid six figures.

Those are numbers to marvel at. Those are numbers to fear. But they are not the numbers that loom in the minds of most Americans. And therein lies the problem for health-care reform.

The Public Option has the support of 62% of Americans, 73% of doctors and 100% of Bill O’Reilly:

100 Years of Dr. Kwama Nkrumah

Today marks the official birthday of the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a man who had a revolutionary vision for Ghana, and Africa as a whole, through his life-long mission to forge a United States of Africa

At “Values Voters” summit, Bishop Harry Jackson urges conservatives to stop sounding like racists! Poor thing.

Bishop Harry Jackson, the Religious Right’s favorite African American preacher, asked the mostly white participants at the Values Voter Summit to tone down their anti-Obama rhetoric. He knew they weren’t racists, he explained, but the fact that some people were sounding like racists made it even harder on him as a conservative trying to get other black clergy to join his anti-gay organizing in D.C.

Comment Rescue from the Open Threads

• Tavis cut ties with Wells Fargo (thanks to Shazza for the link)
• The VA governor’s race is heating up both in Virginia and in the JJP comments where D is basically holding GOP court.
• And let’s end on something positive, like police tasering a double amputee. (thanks to djchefron for the link)