Earlier this week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) was asked by Charleston’s Post and Courier whether “people have a right to health care?”

“I think health care is a privilege,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it a right.”

Idaho resident Challiss McAffee has been “charged with felony aggravated assault after police say he pulled a handgun on a resident whose home he told police he was photographing as part of a foreclosure investigation.” When the resident began questioning McAffee about what he was doing, the confrontation escalated, culminating in McAffee brandishing his gun. McAffee is a member of the Ada County Republican Central Committee and “one of 231 voting members of the state Republican Central Committee.” He is also was also strong backer of libertarian presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and an activist in the tea party movement. Wells Fargo contractor Tony Schewmaker reportedly hired McAffee for the investigation and bemoaned that “we can’t use a gun in our own protection.” However, a spokesman for Wells Fargo said that McAffee’s behavior was “horrific and absolutely inexcusable.”

Just once, I’d love to hear producers/hosts explain why McCain has to be on one at least one of the Sunday shows 11 times in eight months. Refresh my memory: was there this much interest in John Kerry’s take on current events in 2005?

Veterans Affairs is criticized by its own inspector general for giving generous bonuses to employees amounting to $24 million over two years. The report says that in some cases the justification for the benefits was questionable. The VA news comes as the Obama Administration tries to address the problem of hundreds of thousands of backlogs in disability claims for wounded soldiers.

The Texas State Board of Education review committee is preparing to vote on a draft of proposed standards for history textbooks. Noting that the draft has “nothing about liberals,” the Houston Chronicle reported:

The first draft for proposed standards in United States History Studies Since Reconstruction says students should be expected “to identify significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority.” [...] Others have proposed adding talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the National Rifle Association.

The 15-member committee, stacked with 10 Republicans, is expected to vote along party lines. Earlier this year, a panel of right-wing “experts” produced a report urging the committee to remove biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Stephen F. Austin, César Chávez, and instead add history about the “motivational role the Bible and the Christian faith played in the settling of the original colonies.”

-- Plutonium Page