Midday Open Thread

Update: Earlier reports that Sarah Palin's robocall in Virginia used the phrase, "Sarah's principles," were incorrect. Ms. Palin actually said, "vote to share our principles." Those being, presumably, the principles of "real" Americans like her.

• The health insurance industry has spent more than $8 million in the third quarter of 2009 to kill health care reform.
• It's always all about Sarah -- here's the script of her robocalls in Virginia:

  “Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote for Sarah’s principles. The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don’t take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too.”

• George W. Bush's latest deep thoughts on Osama bin Laden:

  Asked whether al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden could be alive, Bush said “I guess he is not dead.”

  He, however, noted that Laden is hiding and “not leading victory parades” or “espousing his cause” on TV.

  Neither is George W. Bush.

• It turns out that Dick Cheney took away the "I don't recall" title from Alberto Gonzales during Cheney's interview with the FBI over his role in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

  According to a summary of the FBI’s interview with Dick Cheney regarding the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, on 72 occasions, the former vice president said “he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small.”

• It took some time, but eBay has pulled the items:

  Supporters of the man charged with the May killing of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller are raising money for his legal defense through an eBay auction on items including prison art glorifying the murder and a commissary cookbook by the woman who is serving time for shooting Tiller in both arms in the early 1990s.

• How sad -- he obviously feels John and Jane Q. Public's pain:

  If history had taken a different course, Doug Holtz-Eakin would be inside the McCain White House driving the Republican president's domestic agenda, including health-care reform. But now, one year after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lost the presidential election, the man who was by McCain's side as the campaign's top health-care guru remains unemployed -- and his COBRA health coverage is running out.

  Irony of ironies, it gets worse. Holtz-Eakin, who is about to start shopping for insurance on the individual market, is 51. And he has one of those pesky "preexisting conditions" that insurance companies often cite in denying coverage.

  ... He said he'll get a job when he's ready, even if it means buying an individual health insurance plan at an exorbitant premium.

  "Let's not whine too much about me," he said. "I'm a wealthy, affluent American in the big picture."

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel will address a joint session of Congress tomorrow.
• Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelus on the fear and rumor-mongers who are railing against the H1N1 vaccine:

  Well, I tend to like to get my health advice from doctors and scientists. And that’s what we would urge people to do. I think it’s advisable to ask questions, to figure out — as a parent or a pregnant woman, or somebody with an underlying health condition, what the facts are, but probably not get your facts from — with all due deference — TV commentators. Maybe talk to somebody with a little scientific background and a medical degree about what actually is your risk and your opportunity to be safe and secure.

• As Americablog points out:

  The lesson from the election in Afghanistan is that massive fraud pays off.

• And from the good news, bad news file: One hundred and ten years ago, two man-eating lions didn't kill 135 people as was previously reported ... it was only 35 people.