I’m honestly not sure why I had so few sketches to choose from this month. I store these things chronologically and there’s a gap in the early part of June, yet I don’t remember taking two weeks off. Anyway, on with the countdown!

8. I’m actually kind of glad this one didn’t get picked. I like the idea — that not helping people simply because you find them objectionable is profoundly unchristian — but I was a little uncomfortable with the New Testament references. I thought they were essential to making the point of how hypocritical the Nebraska Catholic Conference was being, yet I think it could have been counterproductive to compare homosexuality to crimes and illnesses.

7. I don’t think anyone got this one, which is understandable. I was just trying to make a goofy joke off of how people had no idea what they were ingesting. Although I have no idea if he’s ever been a smoker, Thomas Spann was my inspiration for the guy on the right.

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My friend and former Daily Nebraskan co-worker Van Jensen has posted a new mini-comic he wrote and illustrated. The first volume in his “Nebraska” series, which is based on his experiences growing up in the panhandle, is entitled “The Hunt.” I really like it, and it’s a quick read. So check it out.

Van’s writing career has taken him down a few different paths since he left Nebraska. He worked for a while as a reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and lately he’s been doing some work on the comic book industry. He’s the author of Pinnochio: Vampire Slayer, a graphic novel coming out this fall from Slave Labor Graphics. Comic veteran Mark Waid described it as “the greatest thing I’ve read all year.”

You can also visit his blog here.

Some folks tried to put together a healthcare reform rally and Sen. Johanns’ staff called the cops.

“Johanns’ voters– teachers, members of the armed forces, and SEIU members– set up a table with apple pie and signs welcoming the Senator and urging him to support a uniquely American solution to healthcare reform,” explained Jane Kleeb, SEIU State Director. “Instead of coming by and saying hello, the Senator walked right by us as we were surrounded by police, and the Senator said ‘good luck with that.'”

SEIU received advanced permission from the Nebraska Medical Center to greet the Senator as he started his day of roundtables on healthcare reform. Instead of greeting the healthcare reform advocates at the table, the Senator’s staff called the police.

I’m trying to think of some kind of catchy health-reform name that could double as naughty slang but I’m at a loss. Anybody have any healthcare rally concept name ideas that rival teabagging in its awesome vulgarity?

Adam Serwer:

Yesterday, Glenn Beck guest and former CIA official Michael Scheuer openly hoped for a terrorist attack on the United States, saying, “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. … It’s an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.” Beck nodded solemnly.
[…]
But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you’re not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health-care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying sub-prime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone’s head. Unpatriotic is phosphate-free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.

Steve Benen:

I’d just add that there will almost certainly be no consequences for this. Two nutty conservatives can talk about the advantages of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil — indeed, they can long for it — without facing any real pushback at all. There won’t be any suspensions or boycotts. No sponsors will withdraw. None of Beck’s or Scheuer’s allies will distance themselves, and neither one will be excluded from polite company.

It was, in other words, just another day on Glenn Beck’s highly-rated unbalanced national television broadcast.

I’d just add that, during the Iraq War, it was not uncommon for Republicans to pretend that Democrats wanted the war to go badly in order to sneakily achieve policy objectives. That was such a horrible thing, even imagining that it was true was enough to fire up the faithful. Yet here, it’s actually happening, and it’s embraced by the very tens of millions who were horrified by the thought of Democrats doing it. I realize that Glenn Beck and Fox News have long defied even the exaggerations of rhetorical questions, but what kind of sick freak hopes for a terrorist attack on Americans?