Rahm Emanuel's brother, Doctor Zeke, on health care reform - See this link, & click on "watch this program:"
http://www.booktv.org/Program/10145/Healthcare+Guaranteed+A+Simple+Secure+Solution+for+America.aspx
To explain: most of the activists with whom I'm close are insisting that their activism focus on obtaining single-payer healthcare out of the current drive for healthcare reform. They're essentially saying that if we obtain anything less than single payer healthcare, we will have failed. And thus they're devoting all their healthcare energy into agitating for single payer.
Yet read the following excerpt from President Obama’s remarks the other day in front of the American Medical Association:
The first thing we need to do is to protect what's working in our health care system. So just in case you didn't catch it the first time, let me repeat: If you like your health care system and your doctor, the only thing reform will mean to you is your health care will cost less. If anyone says otherwise, they are either trying to mislead you or don't have their facts straight….You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package. Again, this is for people who aren't happy with their current plan. If you like what you're getting, keep it. Nobody is forcing you to shift.
… let me also address a illegitimate concern that's being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. I'll be honest; there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well. But I believe -- and I've taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief -- that it's important for our reform efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States. So when you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They're not telling the truth.
I read this as the president having crossed the Rubicon on single payer; if single-payer isn’t dead now, the best that can be said is that it’s on palliative care.
You may disagree with our President’s priorities, but it seems to me that he remains a rather brilliant strategist.
Even Dr. Howard Dean, our former party chairman & hardly a right-wing tool, recently noted:
People may not like the health care system, but they like their doctor or hospital. President Obama's plan is realistic. Even in Britain, where medicine really is socialized [doctors offices and hospitals are publicly owned] 15% of health care dollars go to private insurance. Private insurance isn't going away.... (From http://www.yesmagazine.org/svgblog/2009/06/howard-dean-on-single-payer-health-care.html ; again, emphasis mine.)
Interestingly, I've noted that a lot of these lefties who are practicing a "single payer or bust" strategy are seem to be supporters of a group called MoveOn.org . Yet when it comes to getting a healthcare plan that has a real chance of passing Congress, they won't move on!
C'mon, fellow Dems...get with the program!
As the healthcare debate rages in this country - and particularly here in my home turf of Wisconsin - note this little-noticed but not off-point matter:
The federal Pregnant Women Support Act is on tap in Congress. Go to http://thomas.loc.gov, key in bill number HR 2035 {house}, or S 270 {senate}. This bill may not be to the liking of everyone, but from what I’ve heard [and I fully admit I haven't read the bill myself, at least not yet], it’s that very rare piece of women-and-pregnancy-focused legislation that’s supported by both pro-choice and pro-life groups. Among its provisoions, I understand that it would:
• Repeal the sunset on adoption tax credits and make them permanent • Fully fund the federal WIC Program, Special Nutrition for Women, Infants and Children• Increase funding for domestic violence programs• End the denial to pregnant women of health care from insurance companies because of "pre-existing conditions”• Establish a national toll-free number and public awareness campaign to offer women support and knowledge about options and resources available to them when they face an unplanned pregnancy• Provide new mothers with free home visits by registered nurses• Help pregnant high-school and college students stay in school, offering them counseling as well as assistance with continuing their education, parenting support and classes, and child care assistance.• Codify the current regulation allowing states to provide State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) coverage to unborn children and their mothers
Among supporters of the PWSA are:
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin's old Obama teams are planning to heed the call of the national OFA organization by holding a meeting on healthcare - a meeting at which President Obama is expected to place a conference call.
The plan is to hold it on 6/6 at JB's Pizza on Sun Prairie's west side. Details, when confirmed, will be posted in the "Events" section of the OFA website.
There's a great Finnish classical music composer named Sibelius.
And now there's apparently a great Secretary of Health & Human Service named Sibelius.
What's so great about her? Well, note this (as I did): she was just confirmed on 4/29, and already she's restoring some sanity as to the "swine" flu (H1N1) outbreak - see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518754,00.html, which shows that the government has calmed down considerably from its initial "close everything" response to the flu.
In fact, note this timeline from my friends at Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518187,00.html
It shows a fairly unbroken chain of - well, "hysteria" is too strong a word, and "low level panic" is probably too strong a phrase, but - let's call it "irrationality" up to 4/30, Sibelius's first day on the job, by which point about 300 schools had been closed in America.
As of yesterday, with Sibelius on the job for several days, the government has changed its advice as to school closings and noted (as stated in the above-linked timeline) "that the swine flu virus had turned out to be milder than initially feared... and it took only two weeks to identify the genetic characteristics of the strain, and they are in good position to quickly produce a vaccine if the flu takes a turn for the worse."
If the GOP hadn't held up Sibelius's nomination over the wedge issue of abortion, we could have had sanity restored even earlier.
Thanks, Kathleen!
I'm generally in favor of President Obama's philosophy of "it's better to look forward than to look back."
However, here's an interesting little factoid to keep in mind next time you hear John Boehner or other Republicans whining about excessive government spending:
George W. Bush, in office since January of 2001, didn't veto a single bill until July of 2006. (Then, when he did start vetoing, he vetoed bills like SCHIP, providing health insurance for children.)]
(Thanks to Brian Lamb of C-SPAN for the factoid [from an episode of his "Q&A" show that aired a few weeks back.] )
"I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don't have a set of beliefs." -Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina
"I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don't have a set of beliefs."
-Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina
OK by me, Senator!
For more, see "Do You Really Mean That, Senator DeMint?" at http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2009/05/01/do-you-really-mean-that-senator-demint/
As reported here, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/us/politics/02stevens.html?_r=1&hp, the Obama Justice Department will drop the case against" Alaska's former GOP Senator Ted Stevens.
Is any more proof needed of the incompetence of the Bush Justice Department (in prosecuting the case as it did), and the fair-mindedness of Obama's A.G. Eric Holder?
Some time ago, I told one reader of this blog that I'd write a post discussing why I once voted for Rod Blagojevich.
Well, this still isn't that post. However, the awesome folks at The New Republic magazine & website have done their own variation on the theme, comparing Blagojevich to Al Franken's opponent for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat:
I can't think of a good reason why Rod Blagojevich has become the most hated man in America while [Minnesota Senate candidate] Norm Coleman still walks the streets with his head held high....[Coleman's] scandal is pretty simple. Nasser Kazeminy, a wealthy businessman and close Coleman friend, allegedly paid him $75,000 under the table. And by "allegedly," I mean "almost certainly." ...The payments to Coleman came in the form of what Tony Soprano would call a "no-show job." One of Kazeminy's companies is called Deep Marine Technology. Kazeminy allegedly ordered Deep Marine's CEO, Paul McKim, to make a series of $25,000 payments that would go to Coleman's wife. According to McKim, Kazeminy was utterly blatant. He said the reason for the payments was that Coleman needed the money and McKim should disguise them as a legitimate business transaction....The FBI is reportedly investigating ....Coleman has also been embroiled in a minor scandal in which he rented a Capitol Hill apartment from a Republican lobbyist for the preposterously low sum of $600 a month. He has also let Kazeminy fly him on his private jet to locales like Paris.......Coleman has not yet been proven to have committed a crime. But the same can be said of a certain floppy-haired former Illinois governor ....The comparison between Coleman and Blagojevich is instructive because the allegations entail the same basic crime, which is to leverage political power for personal gain.-Spare the Rod: In defense of Blagojevich (kind of).Jonathan Chait, The New Republic
I can't think of a good reason why Rod Blagojevich has become the most hated man in America while [Minnesota Senate candidate] Norm Coleman still walks the streets with his head held high.
...[Coleman's] scandal is pretty simple. Nasser Kazeminy, a wealthy businessman and close Coleman friend, allegedly paid him $75,000 under the table. And by "allegedly," I mean "almost certainly." ...The payments to Coleman came in the form of what Tony Soprano would call a "no-show job." One of Kazeminy's companies is called Deep Marine Technology. Kazeminy allegedly ordered Deep Marine's CEO, Paul McKim, to make a series of $25,000 payments that would go to Coleman's wife. According to McKim, Kazeminy was utterly blatant. He said the reason for the payments was that Coleman needed the money and McKim should disguise them as a legitimate business transaction.
...The FBI is reportedly investigating ....Coleman has also been embroiled in a minor scandal in which he rented a Capitol Hill apartment from a Republican lobbyist for the preposterously low sum of $600 a month. He has also let Kazeminy fly him on his private jet to locales like Paris....
...Coleman has not yet been proven to have committed a crime. But the same can be said of a certain floppy-haired former Illinois governor ....The comparison between Coleman and Blagojevich is instructive because the allegations entail the same basic crime, which is to leverage political power for personal gain.
-Spare the Rod: In defense of Blagojevich (kind of).
Jonathan Chait, The New Republic
The full Chait column is at http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=5d0983bf-2658-48c9-b449-0a0e9a7621e5
Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown: Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford. ..Even were the public still in the mood for fiery invective about family values, the G.O.P. has long since lost any authority to lead the charge. The current Democratic president and his family are exemplars of precisely the Eisenhower-era squareness — albeit refurbished by feminism — that the Republicans often preached but rarely practiced. Obama actually walks the walk. As the former Bush speechwriter David Frum recently wrote, the new president is an “apparently devoted husband and father” whose worst vice is “an occasional cigarette.”Frum was contrasting Obama to his own party’s star attraction, Rush Limbaugh, whose “history of drug dependency” and “tangled marital history” make him “a walking stereotype of self-indulgence.” Indeed, the two top candidates for leader of the post-Bush G.O.P, Rush and Newt, have six marriages between them. The party that once declared war on unmarried welfare moms, homosexual “recruiters” and Bill Clinton’s private life has been rebranded by Mark Foley, Larry Craig, David Vitter ...-Frank Rich, in the New York Times
Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown: Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford.
..Even were the public still in the mood for fiery invective about family values, the G.O.P. has long since lost any authority to lead the charge. The current Democratic president and his family are exemplars of precisely the Eisenhower-era squareness — albeit refurbished by feminism — that the Republicans often preached but rarely practiced. Obama actually walks the walk. As the former Bush speechwriter David Frum recently wrote, the new president is an “apparently devoted husband and father” whose worst vice is “an occasional cigarette.”
Frum was contrasting Obama to his own party’s star attraction, Rush Limbaugh, whose “history of drug dependency” and “tangled marital history” make him “a walking stereotype of self-indulgence.” Indeed, the two top candidates for leader of the post-Bush G.O.P, Rush and Newt, have six marriages between them. The party that once declared war on unmarried welfare moms, homosexual “recruiters” and Bill Clinton’s private life has been rebranded by Mark Foley, Larry Craig, David Vitter ...
-Frank Rich, in the New York Times
On 2/24 at 9pm EST, watch the CNN.com live State of the Nation Address and join in the online forum here to discuss issues with fellow voters. All political affiliations are invited to join in the discussion.
RULES OF PLAY:1. Pretend your 8 year old grand daughter is reading everything you type2. Treat those who disagree with respect3. Click 'report' on troll comments and ignore them. If you reply all attached conversations will be deleted by the system along with the offending comment.
Click on "COMMENT" at the top of the post to say something.
Clickon "REPLY" next to the person's post to say something about something someone said.
Sound good? Enjoy, and thank you for participating in this creative volunteer project.
Start the conversation here on this page --
On 2/24 at 9pm EST, watch the CNN.com live State of the Nation Address and join in the online forum here to discuss issues with fellow Kentucky Voters. All political affiliations are invited to join in the discussion.
Sounds good? Enjoy, and thank you for participating in this creative volunteer project.
Click Here: Link
You wrote25 minutes agoHere are my street creds: - Volunteer from April 2007 through 2008 Primary - 2007 Camp Obama graduate - Staffer during Primary - Admin for a large local mybo groupJust so we get those out of the way.To answer the question: The structure, style, leadership, groups, all of it is volunteer created and volunteer led. I emailed OFA and received a response that CAN is a volunteer created grassroots organization. Here is what I like about the CAN groups: - National network of volunteers that are active now, or at least will read their email and join an online group because a stranger asked them to - State network of the same - Updates of facts, action items, once a day under the "daily digest" option.Here is what I dont like about the CAN groups: - Aggressive against those elected officials who disagree. We received instructions during the Campaign by Obama himself to treat the other side (hillary at the time) with respect. See my MyBO blog for excerpts of his speech (under mybo username J. Lowe). - Admins are not clearly labeled a "Volunteer" - plus one of Lisa's titles are just like the DNC's official voteforchange.com campaign used during the general election - Establishes a top-down hieararchy, and the campaign was a flat organizational style.More on the last point - I was told by Matthew Barzun that the organization is flat, and received a diagram from him too. It is a circle of volunteers surrounding the staff at the center. There is no hierarchy - we are all equals. Also, Camp Obama taught that there are only two types of volunteers: those who make phone calls and knock on doors, and those who teach and encourage others to make phone calls and knock on doors. The organizer is not higher than the volunteer, it is just a role to complete the group assignment: to talk and listen to voters, and to bring that information back to HQ.What is the action to take on the CAN group? I can only tell you what I am doing: listening. I am not sold on this group right now, and am watching the communication style to learn how to be a better organizer for our local groups. My meditation on this group is to remember our call to Respect, Empower, and Include.As far as my volunteer action from here? Do what I have always done: Whatever the OFA website tells me to do, just like Forrest Gump in boot camp. And in the meantime mayb make something up that sounds like something they would like me to do.If I were to bet $20 on what the next OFA action is, it would be this: SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTANDThis was done during the first 6 months of the campaign and is what won Iowa. There was a link on the mybo website to submit ideas about important issues, and the field staff were trained in effective listening and knocked doors for months. All of the info was sent to HQ. Groups of intelligent minds were linked online who received our info, and researched and discussed it, and used it to create the Blueprint for Change and craft the course we are following right now. So it is most logical that there will be another round of what worked. So, good money is on house meetings led by you and me and everybody's cousin, using the question sheets they give us.Back to action (most important). I was thinking to host a health care meeting - I missed the opportunity during the holidays - and now since Daschle is out, staff would have time to incorporate our information into the health care design. Probably they may do another call under new leadership, i dunno. Or possibly i might host another USAservice.org volunteer project - doing something good for others. Then I'll feel like daisies and sunshine and the world will feel like the fabric softener commercial featuring a teddy bear.Either way, life is good.
Rush "I hope Obama fails" Limbaugh has risen to new heights of laughable stupidity.
As reported at http://mediamatters.org/items/200902130016 - which apparently has video of Rush making the comments I'm about to tell you about (though I haven't watched the video myself) - Limbaugh recently attacked Democrats for electronically formatting the text of the stimulus bill as a "pdf" file.
What's wrong with a pdf file? According to Limbaugh - and this is serious; stick with me now - pdf files are unsearchable. Therefore, said Limbaugh, it became impossible to search the bill text to see specific spending provisions.
Media Matters themselves says it best in their headline:
"Memo to Limbaugh: Try CTRL+F !"
I am a Democrat but mainly for the atmosphere and so I can meet normal people who do real work. -Garrison Keillor
I am a Democrat but mainly for the atmosphere and so I can meet normal people who do real work.
-Garrison Keillor
Potpourri for the day:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1864433,00.html
Sample:
"When a state lives with a story line of decline for so long, it ...becomes part of the culture. Whereas America's history has been one of expanding horizons, yours has become funnel-shaped....Rust Belt culture looks backward at an idealized past--a nostalgia ...for three-bedroom houses paid up on blue collar salaries...nostalgia is what's Michigan about [singer Bob]Seger--just take those old records off the shelf. I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself. ...And you hear its flip side in Eminem, whose movie 8 Mile was about a guy trying to escape his Detroit trailer park. His ticket out is rap, not the assembly line, but his defiance is as American as any ode to Chevys: 'Success is my only m_____f____ option/ Failure's not.' "
The dust is settling on the ‘bipartisan’ stimulus bill and one thing is clear: It is anti-religious. You would think the ACLU drafted this bill.
Former Arkansas Gov. & GOP Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee, as reported by POLITICO.COM 's Andy Barr -- says Barr, The Huckster "pointed to a provision in both the House and Senate versions banning higher education funds in the bill from being used on a 'school or department of divinity.' "
The Christain Science Monitor has an interesting piece on Barack & religion at
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0122/p01s02-usgn.html
The whole piece is worthy of reading, but here's the part that stuck out for me:
"Bless this nation with anger: anger at discrimination at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people," said the Right Rev. Robinson at Sunday's opening of inaugural ceremonies. [emphasis not in original]
While watching a bit of the confirmation hearings this morning for Eric Holder to become Barack's attorney general, I learned of a new report published the other day by the government's Office of Inspector General (OIG) as President Smugness is on his way out the door. (What was with that East Room farewell speech last night? Why has W. spent his entire presidency afraid of speaking from the Oval Office?)
The report examined illegal political bias in hiring at the Justice Department's Civil Right Division, specifically by an official named Bradley Schlozman. The full report - which I urge everyone to read - is available at this link:
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0901/final.pdf
But, in case you don't have time to read it all, check out a few choice paragraphs:
According to Appellate Section Chief Diana Flynn, Schlozman was open about his disdain for and lack of trust in the attorney staff of the Appellate Section. She told us that in conversations with her Schlozman alternately referred to the Appellate Section lawyers hired during prior administrations as "Democrats" and "liberals" and said they were "disloyal," could not be trusted, and were not "on the team." Flynn said Schlozman pledged to move as many of them out of the Civil Rights Division as he could to make room for the "real Americans" and "right-thinking Americans" he wanted to hire. As discussed previously, based on accounts from numerous Division employees and officials – including Kim and Section Chiefs Cutlar and Flynn – and from the context of Schlozman’s use in e-mails of terms such as "real American," "right-thinking American," and being "on the team," the evidence indicated that these terms were Schlozman’s way of referring to politically conservative applicants and attorneys. A May 9, 2003, e-mail provides additional evidence of the meaning of Schlozman’s phrases. Luis Reyes, then Counsel to the AAG for the Civil Division, sent an e-mail to Schlozman in connection with a legal matter, endorsing an attorney in the Department’s Office of Legal Policy as a "right thinking american to say the least." In an e-mail response, Schlozman wrote that he "just spoke with [the attorney] to verify his political leanings and it is clear he is a member of the team." Other e-mails showed that Schlozman viewed applicants unfavorably who were Democrats or deemed liberal. For example, in November 2003, when a Department attorney forwarded to Schlozman the résumé of a recent law school graduate clerking for a federal judge who was interested in working at the Department, Schlozman forwarded the résumé to a Division front office Counsel, commenting that "this has lib written all over it. let’s discuss...{"}On November 13, 2003...Michael Wiggins sent an e-mail to Schlozman containing a magistrate judge’s recommendation of his law clerk for a position in the Civil Rights Division. The magistrate judge described his clerk as "a very able lawyer" who would be "a good addition to your staff." Wiggins noted to Schlozman, "We need to hire this guy[.]" In a one-word e-mail reply to Wiggins, Schlozman wrote: "conservative?" In an e-mail to a Division front office Counsel dated January 12, 2004, Schlozman inquired about an attorney being referred as a candidate for a career civil service position by asking, "how does he view the world, if you know what I mean?" Schlozman added in the e-mail "(and for God’s sake, don’t forward this email!)." On January 30, 2004, Schlozman sent an e-mail to Kim declining an invitation to join Kim for lunch, noting, "Unfortunately I have an interview at 1 with some lefty who we’ll never hire but I’m extending a courtesy interview as a favor." ...In an e-mail dated May 27, 2005, Employment Litigation Section Chief Palmer asked Schlozman whether he was aware that a new Honors Program attorney who had been assigned to the section had worked for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Schlozman’s reply e-mail stated that he "kn[e]w all about him. He will be okay. (He worked as intern in [the Bush administration’s] W[hite] H[ouse] Counsel’s Office.) But he was forced on us anyway and got the nod over my objection. Still, I expect you to monitor him very, very carefully."
A May 9, 2003, e-mail provides additional evidence of the meaning of Schlozman’s phrases. Luis Reyes, then Counsel to the AAG for the Civil Division, sent an e-mail to Schlozman in connection with a legal matter, endorsing an attorney in the Department’s Office of Legal Policy as a "right thinking american to say the least." In an e-mail response, Schlozman wrote that he "just spoke with [the attorney] to verify his political leanings and it is clear he is a member of the team."
Other e-mails showed that Schlozman viewed applicants unfavorably who were Democrats or deemed liberal. For example, in November 2003, when a Department attorney forwarded to Schlozman the résumé of a recent law school graduate clerking for a federal judge who was interested in working at the Department, Schlozman forwarded the résumé to a Division front office Counsel, commenting that "this has lib written all over it. let’s discuss...{"}
On November 13, 2003...Michael Wiggins sent an e-mail to Schlozman containing a magistrate judge’s recommendation of his law clerk for a position in the Civil Rights Division. The magistrate judge described his clerk as "a very able lawyer" who would be "a good addition to your staff." Wiggins noted to Schlozman, "We need to hire this guy[.]" In a one-word e-mail reply to Wiggins, Schlozman wrote: "conservative?"
In an e-mail to a Division front office Counsel dated January 12, 2004, Schlozman inquired about an attorney being referred as a candidate for a career civil service position by asking, "how does he view the world, if you know what I mean?" Schlozman added in the e-mail "(and for God’s sake, don’t forward this email!)."
On January 30, 2004, Schlozman sent an e-mail to Kim declining an invitation to join Kim for lunch, noting, "Unfortunately I have an interview at 1 with some lefty who we’ll never hire but I’m extending a courtesy interview as a favor." ...
In an e-mail dated May 27, 2005, Employment Litigation Section Chief Palmer asked Schlozman whether he was aware that a new Honors Program attorney who had been assigned to the section had worked for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Schlozman’s reply e-mail stated that he "kn[e]w all about him. He will be okay. (He worked as intern in [the Bush administration’s] W[hite] H[ouse] Counsel’s Office.) But he was forced on us anyway and got the nod over my objection. Still, I expect you to monitor him very, very carefully."
