Obama to Speak to Joint Session of Dummies

There goes another night of prime-time programming:

President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress on health care reform in prime time on Wednesday, Sept. 9, a senior official tells POLITICO.

Obama will receive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at the White House the day before for a previously scheduled sit-down.

The last time a president addressed a joint session of Congress that wasn’t a State of the Union, or the traditional first address by a new president, was Sept. 20, 2001, when President George W. Bush spoke on the war on terrorism following the 9/11 attacks.

After plans for the session had been reported, Reid and Pelosi released a letter of invitation to the president: "Our nation is closer than ever to achieving health insurance reform that will lower costs, retain choice, improve quality and expand coverage. We are committed to reaching this goal. We would like to invite you to address a Joint Session of the Congress on Wednesday, September 9 on health insurance reform. Thank you for considering this invitation to speak to the Congress and the nation."

I don't know why any Republican would attend this speech. We already know that the speech will be a heavy-handed effort to push Obamacare, full of hard luck stories with living props likely in attendance in the guest gallery. He'll try to sell a public option without calling it that and will attempt to guilt the Republicans into going along.

It's a waste of an hour.

And this headline from a country with socialized medicine that just hit Drudge won't help:

Sentenced to death on the NHS

Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.