This morning, just after 7:00 AM EST, the United States Senate passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, marking a major step forward in the fight for health care reform. This comes after weeks of intense debate involving a million procedural motions that no one outside the beltway understands. Comparatively speaking, the House passed its bill in a relatively normal fashion, believe it or not.

In a funny turn of events, when Senator Reid cast his vote, he accidentally voted no before throwing the Mason sign begging for forgiveness and changing his vote to yes.

Now the fun part begins. The House and Senate health care bills are radically different and have to be reconciled.  Of course, there are House members who are threatening not to support the provisions in the Senate bill and vice-versa.  This is your government hard at work, folks, hard at work.

It’s been a long and arduous process getting to this point. Efforts to achieve universal health care actually began with Theodore Roosevelt. You can check out our humorous history of health care reform here.

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is trying his hand at a new career.

You tell me which one is the Pentagon briefing and which one is Saturday Night Live.

On a more serious note, a sincere thank you to all of our service men and women who are serving away from home this Thanksgiving.

I have a bad habit of starting too many projects.  I started another one last night called Recessions Aren’t Funny.  Of course, it’s tongue in cheek because the site is full of recession jokes.  I’ve still got a lot of work to do on  it, but for now you can go vote on your favorite recession jokes.

If you have feedback or ideas about the site, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.  Of course, as I said, this site is in it’s early stages.  I built it in about 3 hours last night, so it’s pretty rough around the edges.

If you don’t believe me, check out the Interim CDC Guidance for Public Gatherings in Response to Human Infections with Novel Influenza A (H1N1).

All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to our veterans and current military personnel that can never be repaid.   They have placed their lives at risk to protect our freedoms.  This is especially true for those of us who, like myself, publicly mock those in power.  Were it not for the brave men and women who serve in uniform, it is highly unlikely I would be living in a country where such things are allowed.  So to all those who honorably served and are serving I say:

Hat tip to Wizbang Pop!

Peter Hitchener, a newscaster for Melbourne’s Channel 9, keeps his cool while a gigantic seagull strolls around behind him.

The LAPD just released a new Public Service Announcement encouraging people to report suspicious activity, but the message seemed a little… spooky.  It wasn’t just the content of the message that was problematic; it was the tone as well.  I’ve reworked the video with some title slides to give you the real meaning behind the message.

Please note that nothing else about the video was changed (except for cutting a few boring seconds off the end).  I’ve also put the original video below so you can decide for yourself. (Hat tip to Ben Smith at Politico for bringing the video to my attention.)

Original:

Late Tuesday there was a rumor circulating around the Internet that Kanye West had died.  To put an end to the confusion, Kanye released the following statement.

Yo Richard, I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but my death was the greatest hoax of all time!

Some activists called The Yes Men took to the streets (or the Capitol steps as the case may be) to protest against global warming. They’re wearing “survival suits” that will supposedly protect them from the effects of climate change. However, police are a different matter…

Honestly, I think he may have taken a dive.

Thanks to the Yes Men for the thumbnail pic. If you’d like to caption a picture of these crazy balls, click the “Recaption this pic!” link below.

For context, read this.

By now you’ve probably heard about the “Balloon Boy” scandal, the hours long chase of a runaway hot air balloon that supposedly had a six year old boy in it.  It turns out he was hiding in his parents attic in what may have been a publicity stunt.

Either way, it’s become the stuff of internet jokes.  Well, Linden McStephen parodied the first line of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song in his Facebook status, and his friends completed the parody.  Here it is for your amusement.

Here are the lyrics to the original Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song, and below that is transcript of the original.  You can also caption a pic of the Balloon Boy Balloon if you’re interested.

Original Fresh Prince Lyrics

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air

In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys
Who were up to no good
Startin making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
She said “You’re movin’ with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air”

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror
If anything I can say this cab is rare
But I thought “Naw forget it. Yo homes to Bel Air”

I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie “Yo homes smell ya later!”
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air

Parody Lyrics

And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
And I’ll tell you how I took off
In a balloon filled with hot air

In eastern Colorado born and raised
Chasin’ tornadoes is how I spent most of my days
Chillin’ in a basket, laxin’ all cool
And shootin’ some helium out by the pool
When a couple of winds who were up to no good
Started pushing me out my neighborhood
I took one little flight and my mom got scared
She said “You’re moving with your new mom from Wife Swap in a balloon filled with hot air”

I fell out of a box and won’t turn 7 or 8
And I yelled to the balloon “Going down, smell ya later!”
They Google Earth’d me on Wolf Blitzer
I was finally there
Safe in my home known as the Prince of the Air

If you’re trying to counter something, it means you’re working against it, right?

In the never ending fight against the deadly H1N1 swine flu virus, a new hero has emerged, Dr. John “Doc Rapper” Clarke.

With all of the name calling that’s been going on recently, it’s hard to keep track of who said what to whom, so I’ve created this simple flowchart to help out.

Here’s the original picture on the CDC’s Flickr page.

YouTube user FreeYourPixels has done a fun mashup of Joe Wilson’s shout out to President Obama and Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards.

In case you missed it, here’s Joe Wilson’s shout out of “You lie!” to President Obama during an address to Congress, and here are some funny pics of the incident.

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