Weekend Update - September 13th

• We love starting off our weekly news rant with yet another Republican sex scandal. Really, half the GOP congressman in Washington could admit to a gay affair and the other half to snorting blow off the tailbone of a needy lobbyist/hooker/intern in front of a church on Sunday, and still the party leadership would say, gosh, that's too bad, what a shame, let us now respect the privacy of the families involved at this difficult time and leave them alone and hey by the way, Obama is a socialist tyrant who wants to indoctrinate your babies. Fear him! Mark Morford reports.


• So that mealy-mouthed congressman from South Carolina yells "you lie!" at the President of the United States. Is this a sign of growing racial attitudes? Maureen Dowd thinks so, and lays it on the line.


• Glenn Beck's 9-12ers had their little "march on Washington" yesterday, and while we don't deny these idiots their right to express themselves, take a hard look at these pictures of the signs some of them were carrying and ask yourself if these people are patriotic, or dangerously unhinged.


• After a good couple of years of living with the guy, we know the drill that defines his leadership, for better and worse. When trouble lurks, No Drama Obama stays calm as everyone around him goes ballistic. Then he waits — and waits — for that superdramatic moment when he can ride to his own rescue with what the press reliably hypes as The Do-or-Die Speech of His Career. Frank Rich writes about "Obama's Squandered Summer."


• I love this: Let’s not mince words here: We now have an entire political party that is not only dedicated to the mediocre. It is dedicated to the nearly deranged. The Boston Globe editorializes on the "Extreme Republican Party."


• Life's so unfair: Darth Cheney and his wife donated millions to his old alma mater, and was still heckled and booed when he gave a speech there. Maybe Darth needs to go back to the DeathStar from whence he came.


• Read this and weep for our country: The Top Ten Ridiculous Quotes by Health Care Reform Opponents.


• Oh, and speaking of Cheney, here's a wonderful article from Germany's Der Spiegel on The Dick's bloody legacy.