Weekend Update - American Nuts Edition

• You know that kidnapping/rape/confinement story that's been in the paper lately? Maybe you take the easy route. Maybe you, like millions of others, go for the knee-jerk, right-wing reaction and simply say, "Great, another psycho rapist madman. Let's just kill Phillip Garrido right now and be done with it. Or maybe throw him in prison and let him suffer for a while first and then inject him, hang him and zap him with 2,000 volts all at once because he's obviously an unspeakable monster who doesn't deserve another breath on this planet." Mark Morford comments.


• President Obama is going to make a little speech to kids this week about staying in school and stuying hard. But Colorado mother Shannon Barron says “Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me. I’m an American. They are Americans, and I don’t feel that’s OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.” Note to kids: Sneak into school and listen. Don't tell your parents. And before you go, check this out. Hilarious!


• Reading the wing-nut code: When Glen Beck throws up a graphic of a segmented snake as his project's mascot, or Sarah Palin speaks of her native land as the "sovereign" state of Alaska, they're blowing a kind of dog-whistle for the armed and paranoid who make up the right-wing, neo-militia "Patriot" movement and the broader "Tea Party" coalition. This story is both fascinating and scary.


• Michele Bachmann is encouraging right-wing activists to slit their wrists. By gawd we never thought we'd ever agree with Ms. Bachmann on anything. (We're kidding, but this mentally unstable woman isn't. But, gawdhelpus, if GOD asks her to run for President, she will! Please god, ask her ask her.


• You know all those right-wingnuts screaming about "death panels?" The real "death panels" are run by the insurance companies. More than one of every five requests for medical claims for insured patients, even when recommended by a patient's physician, are rejected by California's largest private insurers, amounting to very real death panels in practice daily in the nation's biggest state, according to data released Wednesday by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.


• Listen to Arthur. Get involved! Calling out the Senators: WeWantThePublicOption.com