.

Right now, this minute, I just heard on CNN that VA hospitals would stay open if Boehner shuts down the government.  However, disability checks to veterans will stop.  But, they will keep the VA suicide hotlines open.

That just ain’t right.

.

“Look,” Juanita says this morning as she puts on the coffee, “she’s a cute little ole gal who never really had much of chance going in, what with her parents, small town attitudes, educational achievement, and oddly named siblings.”  Juanita is talking about Bristol Palin.

“But somebody needs to grab that girl and have a chat with her about propriety before she turns into her mother.”

It seems that Juanita has discovered that the Candies Foundation hired Bristol as their national spokeswoman on teen pregnancy prevention.  “Ain’t that kinda like making Charlie Sheen your spokesman on mental health,” Juanita asks.

The Candies Foundation paid Bristol $262,500 a year.  However —-

But a closer examination of the tax form by ThinkProgress shows that the group disbursed only $35,000 in grants to actual teen pregnancy health and counseling clinics: $25,000 to the Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center and $10,000 to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

“Okay,” Juanita gets out her jeweled pocket calculator, “that means they paid her 7 times what they spent on actual teen pregnancy prevention.”

Verdelia interrupts, “That’s Sarah Palin’s America, baby!”

“To add insult to injury,” Juanita says, “the Candies Foundation spent even more money on polls to prove that Bristol Palin is oh so much cooler than Jenny McCarthy.  No, I’m serious.  They did.  And the PSA that Bristol did?  It was with The Situation.  So, we don’t know if Bristol Palin is oh so much cooler that The Situation, or if Jenny McCarthy with The Situation would out poll Bristol.  But, let’s hope they don’t spend more money on that.”

.

It looks like the Tim Pawlenty campaign is gonna be a real crowd pleaser.

“So, some drunk shows up at a backdoor at 3:30 a.m., which ain’t unusual in Texas, but this is Iowa,”  Juanita begins her story to the chicas at the beauty salon this morning.

“The drunk, as drunks are oh so apt to do, scares a 15 year old girl into screaming her damfool head off, as 15 year olds are apt to do, while he keeps trying to break in the backdoor.  Daddy comes downstairs and holds a gun on 24 year old Ben Foster until the police arrive.”

“The mother explains…”

“He kept telling my husband, ‘I’m trying to find Johnson, Johnson.’ He kept saying Johnson. Well, I find out he’s trying to get to Johnston (the town,” said Stacey. “He was so drunk, he thought he was at his friend’s house – is what he told officers.”

“I dunno about you, but some drunk shows up at my backdoor hollering Johnson and I’m getting a gun, screaming my damfool head off and taping the whole thing to show my girlfriends the next day because there’s some good jokes in there,” Juanita admits.

“Meanwhile,” she continues, “while everybody is waiting on the police, Foster tries to convince the Daddy to buy some Amway and vote for Tim Pawlenty.”

“Okay, I made up the Amway part.  But not the Pawlenty part.”

Looking for Johnson

“Ben Foster is a paid political operative for Tim Pawlenty.”

Pawlenty’s campaign  issued the following statement:

“Governor Pawlenty is extremely disappointed in Ben’s actions and his behavior does not meet the standards he expects of his employees. Therefore, the committee is placing Ben on a two-week unpaid suspension and expects him to bear the legal consequences for his action.'”

And that’s a pretty good story and Juanita thanks Deb for sending it to her.

Thelma waited a minute and then remarks, “Well, if you’re not going to explain about the Johnson thing, then I just wasted 5 minutes listening to your stoopid story.”

I guess she did.

.East Texas Republican Representative Wayne Christian keeps that Good Ole East Texas tradition alive by wanting an amendment that would require that  Texas colleges and universities spend 10% of their budgets teaching “Western Civilization.”

Democratic Representative Borris Miles, a man with a kind and gentle soul, wanted to know exactly what “Western Civilization” means.  You will enjoy watching Christian squirm.

For you folks from foreign states, more information about the James Bryd murder can be found here.

The young man in the blue striped shirt and blue tie standing behind Rep. Miles is my own personal State Rep, Ron Reynolds.  I worked hard to get him elected, and have been so proud of him in his first session.  You can see him walk away in disgust and dismay.

Thanks to Sunnymoon for the heads-up.

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Nancy Pelosi drained the swamp and Boehner is filling it again.

Boehner has hired Brett Loper as his policy director.  Brett Loper learned politics at the kneecaps of Tom DeLay, Michael Scanlon, and Jack Abramoff.

While working for Mr. DeLay, Loper took a trip to the Marianas Islands with Michael Scanlon, super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s co-conspirator. They went to the Marianas Islands to deliver favor money to two legislators in order to bribe them into switching their votes to support an Abramoff ally in his campaign to become speaker of the House. They switched their votes, Abramoff’s buddy got the job, and Abramoff was rehired and “resumed lobbying for the continuation of abusive labor practices in the islands.”

This guy, a bagman for a corrupt lobbyist before he became a corrupt lobbyist himself, is now in charge of policy, for the speaker.

“You couldn’t clean this guy up with a Brillo Pad and a tub of Ajax,” Juanita says.