Archive

RachelWatch: Rachel Turns up Some Surprisingly Aristocratic Mobs

Today: Rachel muckrakes the fight over health care reform and explains why mountains are bad for you.

IntimiNation

Rachel started us off with the ongoing story of our nation’s increasingly loud town hall meetings.

Rachel and staff have continued to do yeoman’s work in uncovering the corporate lobbying that’s been so helpful in making sure these “spontaneous” mobs are all fired up and have the same playbook.

Join her for a little trip through the sponsorship of recessrally.com.

(I have no way of knowing if this is a direct cause-and-effect relationship, but as of late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, recessrally.com, which went down during Rachel’s first broadcast, was still failing to load.)

To go back to the living will issue that Rachel briefly mentioned at the beginning of the clip, whether or not you favor health care reform, people in certain segments of the population really should look into living wills: Adults who are capable of being hit by buses or falling down stairs or getting bonked on the head by coconuts or otherwise being incapacitated through accident or illness.

They are not “free pass to kill me” coupons, they are a way to make it absolutely clear whether or not you want to be put on life support and how far you do or don’t want medical teams to go in attempting to resuscitate you should the awful situation arise.

Being forced to guess what it is you really wanted is one last practical joke your loved ones do not need.

Besides, there are plenty of religions that allow posthumous conversion, so it’s not like your family can’t pull any retaliatory end-of-life hijinks.

“Senator, Whose Side Are You On?”

Rachel pointed out that much of the health care reform battle is swirling around conservative Democrats, who are emerging as the faction to watch. And perhaps the speed bump to hurdle.

Rachel gave us a look at a pro-reform ad that is running in Washington, D.C. and in Nebraska, home of Conservadem Senator Ben Nelson.

She also welcomed Michael Snider, owner of The Syzzlyn Skillet, to talk about the ad and his subsequent phone call with Senator Nelson. I kind of love him and how much he seems to dislike being on television.

Ms. Information

Wednesday was Inauguration Day in Iran. Because of the news lockdown, information on the protests has once again come in an oddly direct way — through snippets of cell phone footage uploaded to the Internet.

As the citizens of Iran hit the streets, a quieter form of protest manifested in its government: “dozens” of members of the legislative branch either missed the inauguration ceremony entirely or walked out when President Ahmadinejad began speaking.

Looks like the summer weather in Iran can get surprisingly frosty.

Rachel also reported that Vladimir Putin continues to make important strides for topless heads of state everywhere.

This time he took a pectoral-centric vacation in Siberia, stopping for as many bare-chested horse-riding, fish-catching, manliness-displaying photo opportunities as the space-time continuum would allow.

Not since Cicciolina has a world leader been so passionately devoted to fully participating in life’s rich pageant while shirtless.

Unnatural Mail Enhancement

After that, you might think it would be time for the show to get less weird, but you would be wrong.

Rachel gave us an update on the story of Bonner & Associates and the fraudulent letters they sent on behalf of the coal industry.

Also, you will perhaps be surprised to learn that stripping off entire mountaintops is really great for the locals. I have to admit that the swing-for-the-fences boldness of the explanation is pretty impressive.

OK, but seriously, though: Why no jail? Guys not wearing suits who stole letterhead and committed forgery for direct financial gain — probably financial gain on a smaller scale — would be in jail now, right?

Why no jail for the besuited?

All about the Benjamins and Jerry’s

Former Congressman William Jefferson (D — Louisiana), famous for having been caught with thousands of dollars in cash hidden in his freezer, has been convicted of bribery.

He has also been convicted of racketeering and money-laundering, causing headline writers everywhere to wonder why he couldn’t have opened it up to just one more appliance.

Sanford and Done

Rachel finished off the show with an interview with Joel Sawyer, the newly former communications director for Governor Mark Sanford (R — South Carolina).

I am trying to think of more stressful jobs than communications director for a guy who leaves the country and fails to communicate at all for several days in a row.

Multicultural outreach director for Pat Buchanan? Fact-checker for Rush Limbaugh? No, wait: I’m going with records archivist for any hospital in Kenya right now.

And, honestly, I’m still trying to figure out why Sawyer did this interview. He didn’t want to say anything real, and must have known that Rachel wouldn’t let him get away with anything. If it was one last favor for Sanford, what did either of them hope to gain?

Whatever his reasons, late in this interview you can enjoy some excellent examples of Rachel’s “bullpucky” face.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button