As Bernie Sanders's heroic performance on the Senate floor today demonstrates, sometimes endurance is necessary to represent Progressive values. This being the season for altruism as well as activism, here's another opportunity for tenacious performance to improve the lives of those most hard hit by the economic downturn.

The Second City That Never Sleeps is a tradition begun (and thriving) in Chicago, where a small group of comic improvisers perform for 24 hours straight to raise money for a good cause. In Los Angeles this year, we're about to perform for 24 hours to benefit Los Angeles Youth Network.

The sucktastic economic situation has hit all of us, but it's hard to find a more vulnerable population than homeless kids. Their situation in LA County is dire, as EVERY SINGLE OTHER youth facility of its type has had to close its doors in recent years due to a lack of funding. Schwarzenegger et al have slashed funding for social services to the bone, and it's up to the rest of us to pick up the pieces.

LAYN has a remarkable, unheard, crap-your-pants fantastic 80 percent success rate in getting its charges through high school and on their way off the streets. They provide 48 beds, counseling, tutoring, arts and academic education, and the support kids need to get off the streets. They're a spectacular shining star in an area desperately needing some light.

So if you're not in the LA area and can't come down and join us, please join us online. We'll be live streaming the event below (nothing fancy, a basic two-camera setup) from Hollywood starting at 10:30PM PST tonight, ending 10:30 tomorrow. We'll be there with some of the funniest people in LA, sweating it out for the kids.

Please, if you're able to donate, no amount is too small to help.

So enjoy the weirdness, the show will feature veterans of shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, MTV's Wild N Out, Current Television, Groundlings, Second City, SNL, FrankTV, Reno 911, 30 Rock, Last Comic Standing, Colbert Report, Daily Show, Tonight Show, According To Jim, Heroes, Lie To Me. MAD TV, Parks And Recreation, and much much more.

The problems of poverty keep getting pushed from one place to another (literally). We have so many people out of work and losing their homes. What, exactly, are we going to do about it? Other than criminalize poverty, I mean:

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―A local attorney opened up his private property for homeless campers to have a place to stay, but authorities are already warning they will have to shut it down.

Attorney Mark Merin is leasing his property on 13th Street and C Street in Sacramento to about three dozen homeless men and women for one dollar a year, which is meant to give them the legal rights of lessees and property renters.

"It's a matter of human dignity, and it's life and death," said Greg Bunker, executive director of Francis House in Sacramento.

According to Sacramento police, it isn't legal to live in a tent anywhere in the city for longer than 24 hours. The department wouldn't say when, but did say that they would soon enforce the city ordinance and kick the homeless persons out of the property.

The lot is located in a mostly industrial area, with only one home backing up to the property, but the city has received complaints about the campers from nearby residents.

Giuliani Spotted Sleeping On New York City Subway

"He seemed to jolt awake when a homeless guy started ranting about 9/11, but then he just sighed and went back to sleep."

Consider it open.

SF Chronicle:

Thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans are returning home only to become casualties of war - at their own hands. Suffering from psychiatric injuries, 1,000 veterans under Veterans Administration care are attempting suicide each month. Almost 40 percent of the young men and women returning from combat almost have proven mental health injuries that include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, major depression and traumatic brain injury.

But when they seek help, disabled veterans face a claims system so mismanaged and inefficient that they often must wait more than five years for any assistance. The Department of Veterans Affairs is choking on a backlog of some 600,000 unresolved benefits claims. Even after their eligibility has been established, thousands of veterans cannot obtain adequate mental health treatment. While they wait for the care they are owed, veterans are dying. About 126 veterans per week commit suicide. Vast numbers of veterans are living with mental illness, sometimes so severe that they are unable to work. Nationally, about 154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and twice that many are homeless at some time during the year. Read on...

I've said before that I'm the granddaughter of a career military officer. There is no excuse for the treatment of vets and it horrifies me that we're adding tens of thousands of more vets every year from Iraq and Afghanistan. They say that the measure of a society is how they treat the neediest among them. What does this say about us?

Obsidian Wings: National Review — wrong about those Democratic 'economic elites' and campaign contributions.

Alicublog: National Review — wrong about McCain's chances of selling the GOP as "the party of optimism" in 2008.

Sadly, No: National Review — wrong about the homeless causing global warming. (Hmm, I'm sensing a trend here.)

Eye on Economics: Distributorcap NY examines growing socio-economic inequality, while Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman explain why you should hate some economists — something to do with endorsements of McCain's "wildly irresponsible" tax proposals.

Guest roundup by Batocchio. Please e-mail submissions and tips to Batocchio9 at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

Well, what do you expect her to say?

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

When asked for her take on Hillary Clinton's big laugh at the Democratic debate that it took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush presidency and it may well take another Clinton to clean up after this one (good line, but in reality, I think we'll be cleaning up after Bush for a very, very long time.) Republican hack...er, apologist, hmm...strategist Mary Matalin starts whining that every thinking Democrat knows it's not about Bush:

MATALIN: You know, this…even Democrats—thinking Democrats—this is not going to be a race about Bush. They have united, this party’s been united under one organizing principle for eight years: it’s anti-Bush. People are over it.

RUSSERT: But in a Democratic primary?

MATALIN: Even Democrats are over it. What are you going to do? What are you going to…and always, elections are about the future. They’re not about the past. She’s just…it’s just a…it’s cute, it was clever, but in the end, it was sophistry.

Sorry, Mary. As I look at the tatters of the Constitution whose bright promise brought my grandparents here many years ago; as I look over pictures of the horrors and brutality done in our name in the Middle East and places like Guantanamo; as I read over the decisions made by the Roberts Supreme Court that value corporations over citizens and read that in a time of war Exxon has posted record breaking earnings yet again; as I realize that most Americans are just one tragic circumstance from being homeless and bankrupt from medical bills, I must tell you that we are most assuredly NOT over Bush.

The candidate who can convince me that they can undo this damage is the one who will get my vote. YOUR opinion, Mrs. Iraq Study Group--given your enabling of all that I've listed above--disqualifies you from saying what is sophistry or not.

Download | play Download | play h/t Jamie

On Wednesday's Tucker, the hopefully soon to be unemployed host gets riled up because Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, had the nerve to mention homeless veterans and those less fortunate in his holiday ad. Tucker calls it the Scrooge ad, and then attacks Edwards for not being Jesusy enough, and mocks him for being wealthy. Tucker, as usual, is offensive, annoying and wrong.

As a favor to those of you who can't stomach Tucker, I have posted Edwards' holiday ad below. Enjoy...

Happy Tuesday, harlots and hooligans. Melissa McEwan, trash-talking proprietress of Shakesville, here again, coming to you live from my parents' basement, where I dream up elaborate conspiracy theories while geeked on Bush Derangement Syndrome, clad in my pink footie pajamas and subsisting on handfuls of Dirty Hippie brand granola. But enough about Howard Kurtz's fever dreams. Back in reality, here's today's collection of shiny pennies:

Taylor Marsh explains how Obama isn't the anti-Hillary—and Christopher couldn't agree more. Mike the Mad Biologist says Obama has lost his vote.

Bint Alshamsa reports that public housing may be another victim in the very long line of them left in NOLA by Katrina, incompetence, and institutional apathy. Meanwhile, Scout Prime notes that a homeless encampment by New Orleans City Hall has tripled in size, and there are now an estimated 12,000 people homeless in the metro area.

Chet Scoville would like you to know that the corporate state owns you now. And here I've been bitching about the government trying to take over just my womb when they were planning to take over all of me!

Steven Hart discovers that the Creation Museum is about to become an even bigger, better moron magnet. In other weep-for-our-future news, Comandante Agí reports that automatic flush toilets will destroy America by giving children anxiety. Rachel updates the story of Katelyn Kampf, the girl whose parents abducted her last year to try to force her to get an abortion, because her baby's father is black.

As the action of the writer's union continues to make news, Linkmeister looks at the state of American unionism. (Hint: With Wal-Mart now being America's largest private employer, it ain't pretty.)

And some Quick Hits: Women Can't Cook … Bill Clinton is Emperor Palpatine … Beth Ditto Pukes on Homophobes … and David Broder's a Dick!

Seeya tomorrow! If you've got any hot tips, email me at shakespeares_sister at Comcast dot net.

Where's the religious right on this one?

It's the first trial of its kind. A man is facing a judge and jury for violating Orlando's ban on feeding the homeless. Eric Montanez, 22, was caught feeding a group in Lake Eola Park earlier this year. The prosecution told Eyewitness News their case rests on video taken of Montanez feeding the homeless, breaking Orlando's feeding ban.

"There are a lot better things for law enforcement to be doing in this town, but this was an outrage," said George Crossley of the ACLU.

And the verdict is in. He's been found innocent:

In the first test of Orlando's controversial ban on feeding groups in public parks, a jury Tuesday found 22 year-old Eric Montanez not guilty of the misdemeanor charge against him. After the verdict, Orange County Judge Steve Jewett praised Montanez for the "important" volunteer work he does feeding the homeless at Lake Eola Park, but cautioned: "you do have to obey the law."

Via Daily Kos:

Last week, with little fanfare, George W. Bush announced the nomination of Joseph Holsinger to become the Surgeon General of the United States. Said Bush:

"As America's chief health educator, he will be charged with providing the best scientific information available on how Americans can make smart choices that improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury."

And speaking of choices, Holsinger and his wife:

...founded Hope Springs Community Church in a warehouse at 1109 Versailles Road. Calhoun called it a socially diverse congregation with a "very vital recovery ministry." It serves the homeless and those with addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex; and it has a Spanish-language Hispanic congregation with its own pastor. [...]

Hope Springs also ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian, Calhoun said.

"We see that as an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle," he said. "We have people who seek to walk out of that lifestyle." Read more...

It turns out Holsinger's persecution and hatred of gays goes far beyond his little church. Keep in mind, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will have a say in Holsinger's nomination. Contact your Senators and let them know this intolerant bigot has no place in our government.