McMahon and Schiff Add Names to #CTGOPBattleRoyale

Via tparty at MLN:

This morning, proud non-voter Peter Schiff officially entered the ring of the 2010 #CTGOPbattleroyale. This is the man about whom Stuart Rothenberg wrote earlier this year that he saw:

"...no evidence that he understands how to talk to voters who have the kinds of problems that average Americans in Connecticut face each and every day, no evidence that he'd be effective in the Senate and no evidence that he has even the vaguest idea how to put together a campaign"

But while Schiff will have tens of millions to spend savaging the Republican party, he may actually be late to the main event: Linda McMahon vs. Rob Simmons, which now appears to be a rematch of an under-the-radar fight the two had in 2006.
In late September 2006, as then-Congressman Rob Simmons was busy trying to fend off Joe Courtney in the closing weeks of what turned out to be an historically close election in eastern Connecticut, Greenwich multimillionaire McMahon from the other side of the state contributed $10,000 to the DCCC to help give Simmons that final push off the ledge:

McMahon, Linda E.
Greenwich, CT 06831
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE (D)
$10,000
primary 09/29/06

Here is Linda McMahon's unofficial announcement:

A cool dose of DFH reality

Might not be safe for work... But FUCK IT!

DFH by joeyess

Sweeoowweet... Here Doggy

Via Jed Lewison, the happy-go-lucky teabaggers:

A collage from this weekend's teabagger rally in DC (photos posted by NineTwelvePhotos on Flickr):

Aren't they such thoughtful and happy people?

Much like these people, via Connecticut Bob:

Ray Charles disrupts Tea Party!

In a brilliant bit of political theater, the 9/11 tea party in Bridgeport was interrupted by the legendary Ray Charles, singing an American classic! Ann Coulter was on the stage when it happened.

They don't seem to appreciate having their voices drowned out by America, the beautiful, when they are trying to speak. Imagine that? And, of course, those were happy threats of violence they were loudly sharing with the neighborhood.

And please remember to hide the white women because Obama is an angry black man...

Good hypocritical doggy!

A little Black history in the making...

I was checking out The Field Negro's Blog and Wayne had something far more interesting on his sidebar than anything he has written lately, to myself at least. (Sorry Field, not knocking your writing but I am a veteran.)

I have not checked out the background on this project or the "producer" myself, so if you are interested in helping out on this I suggest you use due diligence and verify before you give. I'll try and check if Wayne has looked into yet, himself. ([UPDATE] I just got an email back from Wayne and he said that he did do "some" looking into it and it appears legit. Again and always, do use due diligence and verify before you give.) Anyways, below is what Wayne had up there on the sidebar:

HEY FOLKS, PLEASE READ THIS AND SHOOT AN E-MAIL TO THIS BROTHA TO SEE HOW YOU CAN HELP HIM. THANKS!

Choc’late Soldiers From The USAA Landmark Television Project Po Box 63511 Philadelphia, PA 19147 215-627-6265 Heshprod@gmail.com

Dear Field:An attorney friend of mine referred me to you as a possible source of help.In fewer than 70 days, Choc’late Soldiers from the USA (CSUSA), a landmark documentary about the service, sacrifice and bravery of African American soldiers in Great Britain and Europe during World War II is scheduled to premiere (see attachment) at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture on November 10, 2009.

My primary sponsor who had promised funds for the documentary’s premiere and completion is unable to fulfill its obligation, so I am left to scramble for completion funds. I am requesting that you use your blog to bring attention to my situation, which could result in an influx of sponsors in time for the November 10th premiere.CSUSA is the untold story of African American soldiers in wartime England and Europe. It was in England where many Blacks experienced, for the first time, what it was like to be treated as Americans, and as equals. It was in England where many fell in love with British women, and some go on to have families. When Blacks left England for war-torn Europe, they demonstrated their mettle and courage in combat; some took pay cuts and had their rank reduced for the privilege of volunteering for combat. It was these character-shaping experiences that gave Black veterans the courage and conviction to fight for civil rights in America during the following decades. All of us stand on the shoulders of this “The Greatest Generation.” CSUSA can go a long way toward educating Americans, of all colors, about the sacrifices Black Americans have made in defending a democracy, which, for most of its history, has denied them the rights and privileges of being an American. Surely these men and women, who fought in a segregated army and who were thwarted at every turn by racist practices, deserve to be honored as “The Greatest of the Greatest Generation.”

But time is running short. Every day 1,200 WWII veterans die. Soon they will all be gone and no one will be left to tell their heroic sagas, the stories of unbelievable patriotism against overwhelming odds. CSUSA is an unprecedented opportunity to tell an untold American story and to once and for all let these African American heroes take their rightful places in American history.While we await a decision from a major foundation, we are seeking $332,000 to complete CSUSA in time for the Smithsonian Institution’s premiere on November 10, 2009. (Sponsors usually give increments of $50k) I am pulling out all stops to secure the funds for completion, which is why I am contacting you. Anyone who underwrites the premiere and completion of CSUSA will receive the following benefits:• Their name/organization in the film credits and all accompanying materials such as brochures, posters and study guides• A tax deduction up to the maximum allowed by the IRS• Inclusion of their name in major newspaper and magazine articles as a supporter of the project• Their personal legacy linked to helping complete an enduring piece of American historyAs a former high school and college educator, I am dedicated to the long-term proposition of teaching young people about black World War II veterans.

Part of the budget will be used to develop high school and college-level curricula for American and British students. I can think of no better gift to bequeath to future generations.Choc’late Soldiers from the USA has already generated enthusiastic interest from civilians, veterans and scholars in the U.S. and Britain, and has been featured at academic conferences and commemorative ceremonies.

Also, as a work-in-progress documentary, it placed third in competition at the D.C. Independent Film Festival in 2008. I am enclosing a verifiable list of veterans, historians and sponsors who are directly involved with CSUSA.Field, I am requesting that you use you blogging influence to help me raise funds for the Smithsonian Institution premiere and completion for PBS slated for next year.

I hope you are able to help me.

Sincerely,Gregory S. CookeProducer.


[p.s. He will take donations starting from a $1.00
Just think, you can be a part of making this happen for a $1.00. Now that I like.]

We Apologize For Being Correct, Yet Again

Those of us in the left Blogosphere of Connecticut and the nation that have a nasty habit of being right so often that it is truly embarrassing to the political elite, the media, the voters and activists that don't read and pay attention to the warnings we give you would like to apologize to all of you for, yet again, being proven correct.

Via Paul Bass at the New Haven Independent:

Three years ago the state AFL-CIO convened in New Haven and embraced U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s reelection. Thursday the AFL-CIO reconvened here — and made Lieberman its target.

The occasion was the state labor movement’s biennial convention at the Omni Hotel. The convention runs through Friday. A central theme of this year’s convention: Push politicians in Washington to pass universal health care with a “public option” — government-backed insurance.

Support For Public Option In Connecticut By District

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com did a great job of breaking down some poll numbers for the Public Option on a district by district level and across the nation. I did a quick cut and paste of the numbers just for Connecticut:

The results beg the question of why some more of Connecticut's Congress critters are not leading the charge for the Public Option? They know the people want it and they have to know that it is the right thing to do.

It is an all around political winner and just plain old common sense good public policy.

Some important notes on this from Nate Silver:

We can systematize these results by means of a regression analysis that accounts for the Obama vote share and the poverty level in each district. (Technically, we'll be using a logistic regession, treating each of the voters included in one of these surveys as a separate data point.) This analysis finds that support for the public option nationwide is about 55 percent, against 36 percent opposed, similar results to what I believe to be the most reliable polls on the subject.

What's more interesting, though, is where we project the public option in individual districts. We find that:

-- The public option is estimated to have plurality support in 291 of the 435 Congressional Districts nationwide, or almost exactly two-thirds.
-- The public option is estimated to have plurality support in 235 of 257 Democratic-held districts.
-- The public option is estimated to have plurality support in 34 of 52 Blue Dog - held districts, and has overall popularity of 51 percent in these districts versus 39 percent opposed.

Obviously, there is a margin of error inherent to this analysis when applied to any individual district. The polls that inform this analysis themselves have a margin of error, and there is an additional layer of error introduced by the statistical process that we apply to the data.

There is some pretty good reasoning behind this data to tell the few Blue Dogs trying to stand in the way of the Public Option to suck it up and do the right thing, as well. Go and take a look at the data yourself. The information is a real eye opener as to where there is some really strong support for the Public Option even in some supposedly "conservative" districts.

Don't Be That Congress!

Do you really want to be a repeat of the 80th "Do Nothing" Congress?

Pres.Truman: “On several occasions
during the past year I have reported to the Congress and to the Nation
on our general economic situation. These reports have told of new high
levels of production and employment. Farmers are producing 37% more
than in 1929. Industry is producing 65% more. In terms of actual
purchasing power, the average income of individuals after taxes has
risen 39%. The rapid growth of our post-war activity has exceeded
expectations, and has revealed anew the potentialities of our economy.
In each of my reports however, I have had to warn of dangers that lie
ahead. Today, inflation stands as an ominous threat to the prosperity
we have achieved. We can no longer treat inflation with spiraling
prices and living costs as some vague condition we may encounter in the
future. We already have an alarming degree of inflation.

And even more alarming, it is getting worse. Since the middle of
1946, fuel has gone up 13%. Clothing prices have gone up 19%. Retail
food prices have gone up 40%. The average for all cost of living items
has risen 23%. The housewife who goes to buy food today must spend ten
dollars to buy what seven dollars bought a year and a half ago. She
must spend ten dollars to buy what seven dollars would have bought a
year ago. The cost of living is still climbing. In the past four months
it has risen at the rate of 16% a year. Wholesale prices are rising
too. They affect every industry and trade. And they are soon translated
into retail prices. Since the middle of 1946, wholesale textile prices
have gone up 32%. Metals have gone up 36%. Building materials have gone
up 42%. Wholesale prices on the average have gone up 40%. The harsh
effects of price inflation are clear. They are felt by wage earners,
farmers and businessmen. Wage earners are finding that bigger paychecks
this year buy less than smaller paychecks bought last year.”

But Obama can feel free to be that President... Because when it comes to real healthcare reform?

We Can't Afford to Wait

Brought to you by MoveOn.org & R.E.M..

Republicans Sacrifice Chickens For Healthcare

We know that the biggest reason you all are pissed about this is that your failed Reagonomic free-marketeers-run-amok ideas that caused the shadow bank meltdown and the economic mess we are in now have already been discredited to the point that nobody wants to hear them anymore. Don't tell me that your answer to healthcare is the free market.

You can not put a dollar value on life, and that is all your free market answers are about, aren't they?

a moral responsibility   those words are clearly applicable to the health care crisis  in this country.  Intellectually I knew that long before I first read (and wrote about) the Remote Area Medical Mission in Wise Virginia.  I lost any doubt during the weekend I spent there in July, which is why I am taking the first weekend in October to go to a similar event in Grundy, VA.

How do we compromise on morality?  IF we can make the case that what we are attempting do is a moral obligation, then I believe the politics will be on our side -  the conscious of most people can be challenged.  Clearly the late Senator Kennedy understood this, which is why the words of Matthew 25 were so prominent at his funeral.  For whatever human flaws he had (and acknowledged both in his letter to the Pope and in his soon to be published memoir). on this he did not lack moral clarity.

Part of the responsibility of those of us who speak out on issues is to remember our dual responsibility to afflict the comfortable as we comfort the afflicted.

Yes, in politics we must look at what is possible.  We must "advance the ball" down the field, since Americans are too fond of football metaphors.  But one should also remember that it matters not who gains the most yardage, only who scores the most points.   Thus speak not to me of points of agreement in negotiation if those do not lead to meaningful action in legislation that becomes law.

In moral tests one cannot be neutral.

Here is the real and honest moral argument:

So now we know who the real death panelists are!

After the mortgage business imploded last year, Wall Street investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one.

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money.

Guaranteed Trickle Down Death

That is what happens when you put a dollar value on life. Investors would have twice the incentive to deny care to the elderly. What incentive would investors in healthcare insurance corporations have to keep them alive if they can make more money denying care to them and then, also, make more money on their investments in reverse mortgages?

Murphy Calls On Congress To Walk The Healthcare Walk

A release from CT-05 Rep. Chris Murphy:

Murphy Calls for All Members of Congress to Purchase Health Insurance in Health Reform Bill's New Exchange

NEW BRITAIN - After hosting public events in Waterbury, Danbury and Washington, Connecticut over the last two days, Congressman Chris Murphy (CT-5) is announcing today that he is returning to Washington, D.C. next week to call on Members of Congress to purchase their own health insurance on the health insurance exchange. America's Affordable Health Choices Act, the House version of the health care reform bill, will make changes to our current health care system so that more people can afford health insurance and increase choice through a health insurance exchange, which would force private plans to compete with each other and a government sponsored plan.

"For people and businesses that choose to go into the exchange, they will have access to better and cheaper coverage than they have today. There is no reason why Members of Congress shouldn't go into the exchange and choose between the public option and private plans like everyone else," said Murphy.

Murphy wants Members of Congress to be treated like employees of very small businesses are under the House reform bill. The bill states that in the first year of the law, employers with 10 or fewer employees will be able to have their employees purchase health insurance on an individual basis through the exchange. The employer would pick up the cost of, for an individual plan, 72.5% of the applicable premium and for a family plan, 65% of the applicable premium.

America's Affordable Health Choices Act also makes health insurance more affordable by providing tax credits to individuals and businesses to purchase it. While many people in Connecticut have health insurance that they like, premiums are going up and up. This summer, Connecticut's biggest insurer announced that it was increasing rates for individuals by over 30%. And a recent report found that 48,000 state residents, or 310 a week, will lose their health insurance before the end of next year because of increasing costs or other circumstances.

"We've got to act to bring down the cost of health care for people in Connecticut. If we are going to enact health care reform that the American people believe in, then Members of Congress aren't just going to have to talk the talk, we are going to have to walk the walk. I believe the health insurance exchange will be a good deal for people in Connecticut, and I am willing to place my own health care coverage needs in it to prove my faith in this effort," said Murphy.

For now, I've got nothing to add to that... As long as the public option is a strong one.

[update] A little extra from


Real Canadians Talk Real Healthcare

For those of you that just don't get what single payer healthcare is all about, via Karoli at US Health Crisis, real Canadians talk about healthcare:

Why this video? Why now?

In the spirit of truth, my friend Matte Black (@Shoq on Twitter) and his brother took their video camera to Canada on vacation to interview Canadians about their health care system. When we talked about it, I asked him to try to get negative views with specifics for balance. Here is the result. It has been edited for brevity, but the negative views were not removed, because there were none. He could not find one Canadian who thought they should kill the system. These are everyday people. They have no agenda at all other than being patriotic Canadians.

Please watch it and share it with as many people as you can.

I get a kick out of the responses to the co-pay question: "Co-pay? What does co-pay mean?" This is exactly what happens when the people demand a healthcare system that works for the people instead of for the bottom line of a corporation.

I lived in Canada for about 28 years.


I can't begin to list how much better everything is in Canada compared to the health care disaster we all suffer from south of the border. Cradle to grave, there is never any question about whether they will do everything they can to treat you in a reasonable amount of time.

I could walk in to my primary care physician any time he was open. If it was his golf day or something like his vacation time? I would go a couple of blocks down the street to another doctor. I chose those doctors based on my level of comfort with them.

My primary would even do house calls (probably still does?) if you or your kid were too sick to make it in.

If you had something so severe as to need more than what your typical primary could provide? Walk into the emergency room (or take the ambulance - they don't ask if you have insurance first because that would be inhumane). It is my understanding that they now have CLSCs in Quebec to cover the less severe emergencies like breaks, sprains, stitches, etc., that might just need the basics or to use when your primary caregivers office might be closed. This alleviates pressure on emergency rooms at hospitals so they can concentrate more on the serious emergencies.


My father was diagnosed with cancer not too long ago and given about six months to live.


He was treated by the best medical staff he could find for his specific problems. He also had a good backup for second opinions. He chose them based on how he wanted and needed to be treated and based on consultations with many caregivers. He lived 3 more years after that original dead end diagnosis and died in his 70s.

No healthcare or treatment is perfect but had he lived in the USA he very likely would have been uninsured because of pre-existing health conditions. In the USA he wouldn't have even had that "six months" diagnosis.

And never, not even once, did he have to make any healthcare decisions based on whether or not he could afford the treatment. He decided (as do all Canadians) in conjunction with and on the advice of his doctors. There was no insurance company in between them to turn him down.


The American system is as cruel to the poor and those that really need the medical help as it is profitable to the insurance companies.


Those are just some of the things I can say about the Canadian system.

Americans, in surveys, appear to be "more satisfied" with their healthcare providers than Canadians do. Maybe you don't understand this, being that you have had a crappy healthcare system all of your life...


That is because Canadians expect a lot more from their healthcare system than Americans do.


Never mind that the polls I have seen always point to satisfaction with providers BUT rarely address the cost and the mode of payment directly. Why? Because the few times we hear the voice of the people on this, for the most part, they say they hate their medical insurance companies.

My primary doctor in the US is great. He supports Single Payer. Most of the hospital people I have dealt with are great at their jobs, too. I always ask them and they support single payer by a large margin. My children have a great pediatrician and, yes, he supports single payer as well. Nothing to complain about the actual service providers. That side is pretty much equal to the Canadian providers. Some are better and some are worse, but competent and caring nonetheless. They want to give you the best service possible. And, for the most part, the majority of those providers want to give you single payer.

I am among the few that has half decent insurance. For how long, who knows? In this economy corporations are stripping workers of higher quality insurance for less costly junk plans. Our family's plan was changed to add higher co-pays and more restrictions on usage AGAIN, this year. And that is just a minor issue when many of these cash strapped corporations and small businesses are laying people off people all together so they have no insurance at all.

If our family lost our source of health insurance we know that our budget would eliminate any possibility of keeping coverage regardless of government's provision of the costly Cobra plans. On unemployment, we would struggling to keep a roof over our heads and the kids fed. Regardless of that, I expect more from my healthcare AND I expect it to cost a hell of a lot less. But that is because I have seen and lived with a better healthcare system than the one we have here.


I expect nothing less than Single Payer!


Of course, that does not mean I am completely rigid on this and unwilling to compromise. It is just a higher standard that could be attained in this country. More recently we have seen a lot of discussion on the public option, since single payer has been banned from the political discussion and the media's coverage of healthcare.

Fine.

Most recently some morons are saying that is the "Left of the Left" that are pushing for the public option and this supposed to be shocking news to be breathlessly reported on in the traditional media... As they continue their twisted and contorted takes on reality, let us look at who really supports the public option, OK?

67% of conservatives support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.


71% of Republicans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.


77% of Americans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

For those politicians and media stenographers that have a problem with reading comprehension I took a moment to annotate this Survey USA graphic. There is your "Left of the Left" in RED and BLUE...




The black ink in the ledgers of insurance corporations is being balanced by the red blood of Americans.


Right now about 22,000 Americans die every year because they are under or uninsured. This has got to stop. Now... You could do nothing at all about this issue OR you could contact your Congress critters and hammer them to bring some semblance of real reform to healthcare. Americans are literally dying waiting for something to be done. And a public option, at the very least, will allow for the uninsured to get insurance and give the underinsured the opportunity to choose better insurance.

Now... As a final thought, some more healthcare experts from Canada:



Addendum: I wish that Obama would pay particular attention to the final message from the former Premier of Saskatchewan. A very simple and clear message of "Medicare for all", even if it is made as the default "public option", would go a long way towards providing a unifying message that everyone in the USA could understand as a really good thing. People understand how good Medicare is. Since there is literally a super majority of support for a public option, this would be the nail in the coffin of the insane rantings from the opposition to reform. Add to that the positive move of putting Congress into the same position as the rest of America and people will understand that reform really is about making healthcare better.

If Obama and the Conservative Democratic party members in Congress think that the super majority of Americans called the "Left of the Left" are going to be happy with just any reform... Then they are not paying attention at all and do not deserve the offices they now hold.

The liberal left has, in large part, already made all of the concessions they were willing to give when they let single payer go for the compromised "public option". And many of us will be very loud and very clear as the next elections come around in punishing politicians for failure to act in our interests.

In a few days President Obama will be meeting with the AFL-CIO leadership to talk about relaunching healthcare reform. I expect that we will see a clearer message from the President on what he wants from reform, since he has really had no clear messaging up until now.

Obama had better understand that he can either invigorate healthcare activists with a strong message of honest reform, including a public option that is even closer to the original Hacker proposal than anything we have seen, or he can fall flat on his face and all alone as allies in real healthcare reform desert him and the Democratic party members that are willing to push for more of the same.

Real Canadians Talking Real Health Care

For those of you that just don't get what single payer healthcare is all about, via Karoli at US Health Crisis, real Canadians talk about healthcare:

Why this video? Why now?

In the spirit of truth, my friend Matte Black (@Shoq on Twitter) and his brother took their video camera to Canada on vacation to interview Canadians about their health care system. When we talked about it, I asked him to try to get negative views with specifics for balance. Here is the result. It has been edited for brevity, but the negative views were not removed, because there were none. He could not find one Canadian who thought they should kill the system. These are everyday people. They have no agenda at all other than being patriotic Canadians.

Please watch it and share it with as many people as you can.

I get a kick out of the responses to the co-pay question: "Co-pay? What does co-pay mean?" This is exactly what happens when the people demand a healthcare system that works for the people instead of for the bottom line of a corporation.

I lived in Canada for about 28 years.


I can't begin to list how much better everything is in Canada compared to the health care disaster we all suffer from south of the border. Cradle to grave, there is never any question about whether they will do everything they can to treat you in a reasonable amount of time.

I could walk in to my primary care physician any time he was open. If it was his golf day or something like his vacation time? I would go a couple of blocks down the street to another doctor. I chose those doctors based on my level of comfort with them.

My primary would even do house calls (probably still does?) if you or your kid were too sick to make it in.

If you had something so severe as to need more than what your typical primary could provide? Walk into the emergency room (or take the ambulance - they don't ask if you have insurance first because that would be inhumane). It is my understanding that they now have CLSCs in Quebec to cover the less severe emergencies like breaks, sprains, stitches, etc., that might just need the basics or to use when your primary caregivers office might be closed. This alleviates pressure on emergency rooms at hospitals so they can concentrate more on the serious emergencies.


My father was diagnosed with cancer not too long ago and given about six months to live.


He was treated by the best medical staff he could find for his specific problems. He also had a good backup for second opinions. He chose them based on how he wanted and needed to be treated based on consultations with many caregivers. He lived 3 more years after that original dead end diagnosis and died in his 70s.

No healthcare or treatment is perfect but had he lived in the USA he very likely would have been uninsured because of previously existing health conditions. In the USA he wouldn't have even had that "six months" diagnosis.

And never, not even once, did he have to make any healthcare decisions based on whether or not he could afford the treatment. He decided (as do all Canadians) in conjunction with and on the advice of his doctors. There was no insurance company in between them to turn him down.


The American system is as cruel to the poor and those that really need the medical help as it is profitable to the insurance companies.


Those are just some of the things I can say about the Canadian system.

Americans, in surveys, appear to be "more satisfied" with their healthcare providers than Canadians do. Maybe you don't understand this, being that you have had a crappy healthcare system all of your life...


That is because Canadians expect a lot more from their healthcare system than Americans do.


Never mind that the polls I have seen always point to satisfaction with providers BUT rarely address the cost and the mode of payment directly. Why? Because the few times we hear the voice of the people on this, for the most part, they say they hate their medical insurance companies.

My primary doctor in the US is great. He supports Single Payer. Most of the hospital people I have dealt with are great at their jobs, too. I always ask them and they support single payer by a large margin. My children have a great pediatrician and, yes, he supports single payer as well. Nothing to complain about the actual service providers. That side is pretty much equal to the Canadian providers. Some are better and some are worse, but competent and caring nonetheless. They want to give you the best service possible. And, for the most part, the majority of those providers want to give you single payer.

I am among the few that has half decent insurance. For how long, who knows? In this economy corporations are stripping workers of higher quality insurance for less costly junk plans. Our family's plan was changed to add higher co-pays and more restrictions on usage AGAIN, this year. And that is if these cash strapped corporations and small businesses aren't laying people off people all together so they have no insurance at all. If our family lost our source of health insurance we know that our budget would eliminate any possibility of keeping coverage regardless of government's provision of the costly Cobra plans. On unemployment, we would struggling to keep a roof over our heads and the kids fed. Regardless of that, I expect more from my healthcare AND I expect it to cost a hell of a lot less. But that is because I have seen and lived with a better healthcare system than the one we have here.


I expect nothing less than Single Payer!


Of course, that does not mean I am completely rigid on this and unwilling to compromise. It is just a higher standard that could be attained in this country. More recently we have seen a lot of discussion on the public option, since single payer has been banned from the political discussion and the media's coverage of healthcare.

Fine.

Most recently some morons are saying that is the "Left of the Left" that are pushing for the public option and this supposed to be shocking news to be breathlessly reported on in the traditional media... As they continue their twisted and contorted takes on reality, let us look at who really supports the public option, OK?

67% of conservatives support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.


71% of Republicans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.


77% of Americans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

For those politicians and media stenographers that have a problem with reading comprehension I took a moment to annotate this Survey USA graphic. There is your "Left of the Left" in RED and BLUE...





The black ink in the ledgers of insurance corporations is being balanced by the red blood of Americans.


Right now about 22,000 Americans die every year because they are under or uninsured. This has got to stop. Now... You could do nothing at all about this issue OR you could contact your Congress critters and hammer them to bring some semblance of real reform to healthcare. Americans are literally dying waiting for something to be done. And a public option, at the very least, will allow for the uninsured to get insurance and give the underinsured the opportunity to choose better insurance.

Now... As a final thought, some healthcare experts from Canada:

A pie fight between an incompetent poseur and a real journalist...

There has been a lot said and written about the current arguments between Salon's Glenn Greenwald and Time's Joe Klein. I wonder what the real journalist will have to say in response to Klein?

That didn't take long?

Beltway culture, checks on journalists and secrecy obligations

I'm ambivalent about whether even to acknowledge this obviously disturbed, Cheneyite rant from Joe Klein.  On the one hand, I don't want to be dragged down into what is, for him, quite clearly a deeply emotional and personal matter (having its roots in things like this, this and this); I don't think very many people care about petty feuds and engaging them isn't the purpose of what I do here.  Moreover, Klein's commenters (as usual) have done a thorough and masterful job of demolishing what he wrote, as have several others.  On the other hand, when someone like Klein -- first in a secret club composed of several hundred journalists, editors, bloggers and other peers and colleagues, and then using a megaphone like Time -- repeatedly calls you a military-hating, unpatriotic, ignorant, Limbaugh-like, "mean-spirited, dishonorable, graceless, bully" who doesn't care if America Stays Safe, and that then is "reported" in various places, it's probably prudent to say something.  So I'll just make a couple of general points illustrated by all of this that I think are worth making: (Read On...)

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

RIP Edward Kennedy

 

Via WCVB Boston:

Kennedy, who waged a public fight against a malignant brain tumor in the last year of his life, was surrounded by family members who had come in recent days to say a last goodbye to him. His death marks the end to a life where like the phoenix. Kennedy rose above earlier lapses in judgment that nearly eclipsed his potential.

Kennedy was first elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts in 1962 and was re-elected for seven full terms.

He became the third-longest-serving senator of all time.

Just a little info on the seemingly obsure reference... Apparently MBUBE = lion in Zulu:

a mishearing of the original song's chorus of 'uyimbube' (meaning "you're a lion"). Pete Seeger had made some of his own additions to the melody. The song was credited exclusively to Paul Campbell, a fictitious entity used by Harry Richmond to copyright material in the public domain.

Pete Seeger explains in one recording, "it refers to an old legend down there, [about] their last king [of the Zulus], who was known as Shaka The Lion. Legend says, Shaka The Lion didn't die when Europeans took over our country; he simply went to sleep, and he'll wake up some day."

We will hear a liberal Senate roar in my lifetime.
(h/t to skippy for teaching me something new a while back)

Bethel First Selectman Arrested

ctblogger had the story up early at HatCityBLOG and MLN, and the Newstimes got around to covering it as well, on Bethel's First Selectman, Bob Burke, being arrested for making harassing phone calls.

Ellis said Burke and the alleged victim had a personal relationship that was private between them and their families, but the issue became public after the individual went to the police department several times.

 To myself? The picture CB had up was screaming for a caption...

The only thing between us and the terrorists?

Is the neoconservative echo-chamber between Joe Lieberman's ears:

"I don't think anybody who has any fairness or is in their right mind would think the president or the secretary of homeland security would raise an alert level and scare people for political reasons... That's outrageous." - Joe Lieberman (August 1, 2004)

Yes! That was the terrorist threat assessment of the man who now sits as head of the Department of Homeland Security. Given what we now know:

Ridge: Rumsfeld and Ashcroft wanted to raise terror threat level because it helped Bush’s approval rating.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pours through Tom Ridge’s new book and offers the relevant passages where the former Homeland Security chief discusses the Bush administration’s desire to increase the terror threat level for political reasons. Ridge reveals that Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued in favor of raising the threat level by noting the correlation it had with Bush’s approval rating:

Osama bin Laden had released a videotape with one more ominous sounding but unspecific threat against the United States. Neither Mr. Ridge nor any of the department’s security experts thought the message warranted any change in the nation’s alert status.

“…at this point there was nothing to indicate a specific threat and no reason to cause undue public alarm,” he writes.

But that view met resistance in a tense conference call with members of the intelligence community and several other Cabinet officers including Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

“A vigorous, some might say dramatic, discussion ensured. Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld.”

Noting the correlation found between increases in the threat level and the president’s approval rating, Mr. Ridge writes, “I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’”

Through all of this commotion about politicizing and terrorizing Americans with a lever that was theoretically  meant to provide a certain measure of security... I have yet to hear one person mention the fact that they illegally aimed propaganda directly at  the American people.

Anyways... I feel so good knowing that Joe Lieberman has proved over and over again to be incapable doing the job of dog catcher so I believe this old post has earned a well deserved repeat:

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Help Wanted: Prestigious Senate Career Opportunity A prestigious opportunity for career advancement in the Senate:

The Democratic party is in search of a new Chairman (or chairwoman/chairperson) for the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Moderate Senators need only apply.(1)

The Chairman's responsibilities and Jurisdictions will include real oversight concerning failures of the Bush administration in providing security to our nation during times of war, illegal invasions, ongoing occupations, and natural disasters, as well as overseeing the bloated budget and operations of the largest branch of government ever to be created in the US governments' history through legislation authored under the Republican controlled Senate and House, and signed by the Republican pResident of the time.

Your main and immediate responsibilities will include holding the needed hearings, directing sub-commitees and legislation needed to avoid repeating the previous disasters, corrupt practices, and failures that will be found with the proper direction and oversight of a NON-PARTISAN and ETHICAL Senate leader.

Send all applications to Senator Harry Reid(2)

(1)Minorities such as moderate Republicans having no ties to far-right-wing radical organizations like the Neoconservative movement, the American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, Energy Corporations,Teabagging, Birthers and Deathers or any of the Bush and Reagan administration policies that caused so much economic and military failure, are encouraged to apply to Senator Harry Reid for any consideration concerning this soon to be available position.

(2)Note to applicants: Please mark the subject of the Email as "Homeland Security" and refer to this x-posted Blog diary in the opening paragragh of the application. You will be contacted shortly before I post an "I told you so!" diary covering the flawed positions, election statement lies, and propaganda of the far-right-wing radical Neoconservative Joe Lieberman.

ReReReReBlogged Since this position
has yet to be filled by a qualified,
ethical or sane candidate.  

The qualifications of the much needed applicant may have moved even more to the left yet again.... :)

Enjoy...

67% of Conservatives are in the "Left of the Left"

Since some morons are saying that is the "Left of the Left" that are pushing for the public option and this supposed to be shocking news to be breathlessly reported on in the traditional media... As they continue their twisted and contorted takes on reality, let us look at who really supports the public option, OK?

67% of conservatives support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

71% of Republicans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

77% of Americans support having the choice between a public option and private insurance.

For those of you that have a problem with reading comprehension I took a moment to annotate this Survey USA graphic. There is your "Left of the Left" in RED and BLUE...



Now... You could do nothing at all about this issue OR... You could contact these Connecticut politicians and ask them to join the vast majority in the "Left of the Left" and take a strong stand for a public option:

CT-01: John Larson - Phone: 202-225-2265
CT-02: Joe Courtney - Phone: 202-225-2076
CT-03: Rosa DeLauro - Phone: 202-225-3661
CT-04: Jim Himes - Phone: 202-225-5541
CT-05: Chris Murphy - Phone: 202-225-4476

If voting on principle is not enough incentive for them... Perhaps we can interest them in this ever sweetening pot of gold:

Bloggers Take $300,000 Victory Lap

We just crossed the $300,000 mark in our effort to thank the progressive members of Congress who signed the August 19 letter, pledging to vote against any health care bill that does not have a public plan.

A little video on where we are in this debate:

Hartford Courant Demonstrates Ethics

What?!?

Bad ethics are ethics too... As we are fond of saying at MLN... Time for a Bloggers ethics panel, right?

Maybe we should have a Bloggers ethics panel because some in the traditional media could learn from it.

Clashes in East Haven Over Immigration

Via the New Haven Independent:

Violence flared in East Haven, as New Haven activists marching to protest alleged police racism tangled with out-of-state “white nationalists.”

The clash happened during an event organized Saturday by New Haven immigrant advocacy organization Unidad Latina En Acción. More than 100 people marched through the streets of East Haven on Saturday, protesting alleged racial profiling on the part of East Haven police. They met groups of counter-protesters along the way, including a visiting band of white supremacists.

Go on over and read the whole thing...

If Stupid Had to Face Their Educated Conscience in a Mirror

Jane Hamsher kicks stupid's butt here:

As Emptywheel notes:

Look at what was happening here. Mitchell was trying to talk down to Jane, to suggest that she was being naive for suggesting that Bayh, and not progressives, should back down and accept the public option. In doing so, Mitchell was committing journalistic fraud--anyone presenting these issues and pretending this is about Bayh's "conservative Democrats in his state" and not his wife and donors is simply committing journalistic fraud. So Jane turned it on Mitchell, suggesting Mitchell was the stupid one.

I am still waiting for Blue Cross Dems to come out doing their insurance corporation choreographed Kabuki dance to explain how flipping a few Senators is impossible but flipping a hundred House Reps. is easy...

All you need to know about healthcare polls:

For now...

The right wing keeps trying to push a Rasmussen poll with bad numbers in it for Obama, the public option and for single payer. I dealt with the single payer numbers and public option numbers a little bit (and other interesting things, to me, at least?) at ePluribus Media a couple of days ago and most of the Blogosphere has seen the numbers for Obama start to rise again. Much of these numbers have all been noted to follow the start of of pressure from teabagging. Briefly numbers across the board dropped... But as people began to realize all of the things the birthers/.deathers/teabaggers were saying were as crazy as the things many of them were doing the numbers for those issues and Obama re-solidified. While pollster.com dealt with many of the numbers in a different way, I just want to show you the picture they put together of what I am talking about:

Yes, this one picture deals with the public option but is easily applicable across the board on almost any issue. And I am not even going to get in to the well known right wing bias of Rasmussen, nor their incredibly ridiculous outlier numbers in previous polls. Just remember that they are the one polling outfit that was predicting major leads for the GOP House early into the last election cycle and have, over time, taken a serious beating from many poll savvy people over many of their crazy outliers and polls bordering on the edge of push polls.

Anyways... Some in the media and the right wing are ignoring recent polls and quoting old stuff and even taking stuff out way out of context in order to fit their talking points and narratives. How the heck can any person call Obama and his policies in trouble when he has approval ratings over 50% in 48 of the 50 states? And an Obama 63% approval rate across the entire country?

6 months in we are talking uber popular, both in Obama's leadership and in many of his policies. If anything, the numbers inside the polls, overall and IMHO, show that the solutions they are seeing are not liberal enough for them.

And we can thank the raging, lying loonies on the right wing for helping to solidify those numbers.

While I am certain that many of the people with more experience in reading into polls will have more important things to say about it all, people like the number crunchers at dKos or Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com, but really, and let us be honest here: If a picture is worth a thousand words, that one up there speaks volumes.

Dump Dodd advocating FOR Suicide?

When I got to the healthcare event yesterday, these "Dump Dodd" nuts were out there screeching about communism and socialism. Never mind that they were essentially calling Medicare, the VA and the military's Tricare "Communist and Socialist":



They are now advocating FOR suicide?

"How come we don't just give Chris Dodd painkillers? Like a handful of them at a time! He can wash it down with Ted Kennedy's whiskey...!"

Yeah. They are crazy. Sorry. I couldn't wait around long enough for them to spout the communist stuff again. But many were there for this healthcare event and heard these fringe nuts and can corroborate that fact.

CTNewsjunkie has a great write up on the healthcare event and some more on the Dump Dodd crazies, and My Left Nutmeg does a great job figuring out who these Dump Dodd nuts are.

[update] Both Rachel Maddow and KO on Countdown picked up this video which I saw on the late night repeats after some at MLN and on twitter told me about it. Anyways...

Josh Marshal points to a post at TPM DC where they picked up the Dodd suicide video, as did The Political Carnival where GottaLaff was nice enough to link to ePluribus Media when she found out I did the video. Also, it was put up early this morning by tparty at MLN when I pointed it out to them. Thanks kindly for picking it up. Via avahome: AMERICAblog picked it up too. I guess it is going a bit viral now? Well? "Dump Dodd" was complaing that they didn't get any exposure from the event... You are welcome! /snickers

An Interview With Senator Chris Dodd

An exclusive interview with Senator Dodd on healthcare, single payer, the public option and a bit about Senator Jeff Merkley's recent statements. Sorry if it is just a wee bit shaky... I am just an amateur. Thanks to the Connecticut State Democratic Party for sneaking me into this event.

I still have a bit over an hour of video from the meeting in Hartford that I wrote about earlier to edit and process. And Yes. The first few seconds of the video is pretty darn emblematic of my skills as an interviewer... BLACKOUT!

A little healthcare video coming...

I will have an interview with Senator Dodd coming up soon, as well as a little over an hour of footage from a meeting in Hartford between Dodd, Sebelius, DeLauro and some small business advocates that I was at today. Thank you kindly to the Connecticut State Democratic party workers that snuck me in there - it was closed to the public - and to Senator Dodd for giving me the time to take some shaky and slightly comical footage. :) (Note to my amateur self... Next time, open the lens protector for the camera BEFORE starting an interview)

Sadly, and though she had said she would give me few moments, I missed out on putting some questions to Rep. Rosa DeLauro because she had to go while I was interviewing Dodd.

I think you'll find the questions I put to him pretty good. The kind of of questions he probably does not typically get from others out there.

Final notes: I was even asked for a statement from a Tea Party representative there. I'll see if I can find the message on the net (might be at the Dump Dodd site?) since after making the statement in conversation he asked me to record it for him. Not sure if he agreed OR not... But he said he would put it out there unedited. We'll see.

As well, a FOX news correspondent, Shelly Sindland, took some information from me after my interview with Senator Dodd. She said she would try to send me some pics that she had (Ed. Note: updated with a photo and attribution link now), as well. And I bumped into Ken Kreyeske there, covering the event either for his Blog or a paper. I did not get much of chance to say more than hello and shake his hand.

Another Day, Another Teabag Terrorist

Glen Beck loving Teabag terrorist, known on twitter as @ngenovese, arrested in Long Island scoping out a military base:

Glenn Beck Fan, Highly Armed, Busted For Casing National Guard Base, Thinking It Was A "FEMA Camp"

Taking a look at the background image of her twitter page removes any doubt about her teabagging. Much like many of the bigots, birthers and other crazies making up a good part of the Tea Party movement... She is way out there batshit loopy.

Think Progress delves into the mentality of Teabaggers:

Malkin Calls Right-Wing Tea Party Movement A ‘Counter-Insurgency’

This morning, right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin joined the ABC roundtable on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Asked what the conservative opposition strategy is going to be this coming month while Congress is in recess, Malkin said there is a growing “tea party movement — these counterinsurgencies amongst taxpayer rights groups” — that is fomenting opposition to Obama’s health care plan.

Malkin claimed the Obama administration has “vastly underestimated just how grassroots this movement is.” Lawmakers are going to face “townhalls-gone-wild,” she added. Watch it:

The term “counter-insurgencies” does reveal the mentality of conservatives in opposition to Obama. Like Bill Kristol has said, the right wing is bluntly stating that it is going “for the kill.” Malkin has previously declare her hope that Obama fails.

Throw Baucus Under Healthcare Reform Bus

From itskevin over at dailykos:

Dem Party Leadership May Abandon Baucus Talks

According to The Note over at ABC News, there might be some real meat to the rumors that rank-and-file Senate Democrats and party leadership may throw in the towel on Max Baucus' super-secret, interminable bipartisan talks.

With the health care bill languishing in the Senate and under fire in the House, Democratic leaders are quietly preparing for Plan B.

Under the scenario now being discussed, bi-partisan talks would be aborted and parliamentary maneuvers used to force the bill through with a party-line vote.

And from an inside source:

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., still has time to try to work out a deal with his Republican counterpart Chuck Grassley, but fellow Democrats are growing restless.

"There’s rising disgruntlement with how Baucus has handled this," a senior Democratic aide tells ABC News. "We have to look at other options."

Let's hope this is true. For our part, we might be able to exert real pressure in forcing our leaders to take a stand - and sooner rather than later.

Read the rest of the diary for some action items...

Senator Dodd Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer

Via the Hartford Courant:

U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. Dodd is scheduled to undergo surgery during the Senate's August recess and said he expects to be back at work after a "brief recuperation" at home. "It's something that's very common among men my age,'' said Dodd, who is 65 and the father of two young daughters. "In fact, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their life.'' Dodd, a Democrat who is up for re-election in November 2010, said he feels fine. "As you have probably noticed, I'm working some long and hard hours lately,'' he said. "And that will continue."

I am certain that everyone wishes him the best in his treatment and hopes for a speedy recovery. We need his voice to help fight for changes in health insurance and healthcare so that every American can have a chance to receive the kind of treatment he will receive. Via tparty, An email from Sen. Dodd to supporters:

Dear Friend,

I wanted to let you know that I've been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer.

This diagnosis is very common among men my age. In fact, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their life.

Luckily, a routine test allowed my doctor to catch it at a very early stage, and my prognosis is excellent - we expect a full and speedy recovery.

I want to assure you that I'm feeling fine. As you know, we've been working hard to pass health care legislation and reform our nation's financial system to protect consumers, and that hard work will continue.

After the Senate adjourns at the end of next week, I'll have surgery to remove the cancer. After a week or two of recuperation, I expect to be right back to work.

After all, as a Member of Congress, I have great health insurance. I was able to get screened, seek the opinions of highly skilled doctors, consider all the available options, and choose the treatment that was right for me.

And I know you'll agree that every American deserves the same ability.

We have health care legislation to pass - and an election to win. And I can't thank you enough for your support.

Sincerely,

Chris

A press conference is scheduled for 2pm today.