These Dems Have To Go: Refused To Support A Public Option
Democratic Senators who killed the public option:
Sen. Evan Bayh IN (leaving)
Sen. Thomas Carper DE
Sen. Kent Conrad ND
Sen. Mary Landrieu LA
Sen. Blanche Lincoln AR
Sen. Ben Nelson NE
Sen. Mark Pryor AR
Charlotte Dennett: The People v Bush
I’m pleased to announce the publication of my book, The People v Bush: One Lawyer’s Campaign to Bring the President to Justice and the National Grassroots Movement She Encounters Along the Way by Chelsea Green. Never in a million years (a favorite expression of Vincent Bugliosi’s!) did I think my campaign for Attorney General in Vermont would end up being part of a book, or that I would be chronicling a nationwide accountability movement calling for the prosecution of Bush, Cheney and his gang of co-conspirators in murder and war crimes. But that’s what happened, in part because of the support I received all over the country from people like you.
Chelsea Green is a feisty Vermont publisher that made George Lakoff (and his book, Don’t Think of an Elephant) a best-seller and put former Vt Governor Howard Dean (A Prescription for Real health care reform) on the health care map. They’re small, but they’re not afraid to take on big issues.
People v Bush is being blacked out by the mainstream media – the same thing that happened with Bugliosi’s book. My one breakthrough is an upcoming blog with the Washington Post — but that’s not enough! We must not let the war criminals have the final word on what happened! Fortunately, Chelsea Green is not taking this sitting down, and is starting a campaign for my book and for the accountability
movement which will go out next week in conjunction with the upcoming 7thyear anniversary of the Iraq war. I’ll be sending out their campaign e-blast soon.
Meanwhile, I need all the help I can get to promote this book. I have put my legal career on hold for over a year. Chelsea Green will reimburse travel only, and I have to front the money which is hard for me – my husband had to retire from full time work due to health issues and I’m focusing all my time on turning The People v Bush into a call to action. If you can donate $50 or more, I will send you a personally inscribed copy of the book. If you can donate anything, I would be so appreciative as it will pay for my transportation and other promotion-related expenses.
If you want to help, please just go to PeoplevBush.com and there you will find a Paypal donate button. We need to build the accountability movement!
Thank you so much for your support in the past. Together, we will restore the rule of law, and democracy to our nation.
Accountability Now!
Charlotte Dennett
Pelosi: Public Option is Dead. Period!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was firm today: A public option will not be included in the reconciliation package. After reminding reporters that she has been for single payer health care since “before most of [them] were born”, she explained there would be no public option in the reconciliation bill. Expanding that answer, she pointed the finger at the Senate, saying,”[the Senate] does not have the votes.”
We can argue about whether the Senate has the votes or not, but as TPM reports, Senate support has diluted as more Senators make qualified commitments. Of those making some sort of commitment, only 24 have actually signed the Bennet letter. The rest have given only qualified nods.
But the latest support rests on increasingly unstable grounds, with recent additions to the list naming multiple caveats. Sen. John Tester (D-MT), for example, said, “It depends on how it was designed.” Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said he wouldn’t vote for a public option that reimburses doctors at the Medicare rate. Sen. Russ Feingold’s office told TPM he’d only support a public option that lowers the deficit by $25 billion.
Despite the lack of a public option, some little-recognized provisions in the Senate bill do actually serve the purpose of offering lower-cost insurance. Policies negotiated by the OPM which cannot be operated or priced for profit is one way to force competition, particularly when it requires companies to spend 95% of the premium paid on actual benefits. I have issues with the state opt-in provisions the Senate attached, but I still expect rates to be lower than ordinary commercial policies in states where they’re offered.
If the effort put into the public option was redirected into pushing Congress to remove the opt-in provisions and make the insurance exchange national as part of future legislation it would be a better use of energy. Or alternatively, push toward Grayson’s solution of offering at-cost buy-in option to Medicare to everyone. Either idea has a better chance than beating a horse that’s died, been laid to rest and had the coffin nailed shut by none other than Speaker Pelosi.
HOT TUB MAN: Utah Speaker Kevin Garn Paid off Minor
Utah’s Republican House majority leader said late Thursday he paid a woman $150,000 to keep silent about going nude “hot-tubbing” with her when she was minor a quarter century ago.
In a shocking statement on the House floor, Kevin Garn, 55, of Layton said he paid her to keep quiet about the incident during his unsuccessful U.S. congressional bid in 2002, but did not have sexual contact with her.
Garn said the woman, who he didn’t identify on the floor, has been calling news outlets and that he wanted to be open about the incident that occurred when he was 28 years old, before any stories appeared.
A woman identifying herself as Cheryl Maher told The Salt Lake Tribune that she and Garn were in a hot tub nude when she was 15 years old.
“This has just been a nightmare for me,” Maher said in a telephone interview with the newspaper from New Hampshire. “I just want to tell the truth because it’s part of the healing process for me.”
Garn told The Associated Press early Friday that Maher was the woman and that they were nude during a “spur of the moment” skinny dip. He said she worked for him in a warehouse.
“We sat there and that was it,” Garn said.
Maher, who now lives in New Hampshire, also contacted Garn’s hometown newspaper, the Ogden Standard-Examiner.
Bernie Sanders To Introduce Public Option Amendment
From the Plum Line by Greg Sargent
The public option just might get its straight up-or-down vote after all.
Senator Bernie Sanders, in a brief interview in the Capitol just now, confirmed to me that he’s willing to commit to introducing an amendment that would add the public option to the Senate bill’s reconciliation fix.
This is important, because as far fetched as this seems, if this amendment is introduced, a vote on it would be very hard for the Senate Dem leadership to block. The only thing that could stop it from happening, according to Senate expert Robert Dove, is for the parliamentarian to rule that it’s not germane to the Senate bill somehow — something that seems unlikely.
“I think somebody should do that, and I’d certainly be prepared to do that,” Sanders told me when I asked him if he’d be willing to commit to introducing a public option amendment. This is, in effect, a commitment to introduce the amendment if no one else does.
The possiblity that a single Senator will introduce a public option amendment — which would get a straight majority vote — is actually worrying to Senate Dem leaders. Indeed, Dick Durbin, the number two Senate Dem, yesterday told reporters that this would create headaches and even conceded that the leadership might be forced to ask liberal Senators to vote against it to ensure smooth passage for the overall bill.
Now, however, Sanders is essentially committing to doing it if no one else does. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the public option will indeed get its day in the Senate — and that the Senate Dem caucus may be forced to stand up and be counted on it.
Kucinich HR 248 Fails - Patrick Kennedy Eviscerates The Media
What was supposed to be a “largely symbolic” vote on Kucinich’s HR 248, removal of troops in Afghanistan, which went down in defeat, turned into Patrick Kennedy’s one man explosion on the do-nothing, useless corporate media.
“There’s one, two press people in this gallery,” he thundered. “We’re talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We’re talking about war and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!”
“You want to know why the American public is fit? They’re fit because they’re not seeing their Congress do the work that they’re sent to do,” railed Kennedy, who is retiring at the end of this term.
“It’s because the press, the press of the United States, is not covering the most significant issue of national importance and that’s the laying of lives down in the nation for the service of our country. It’s despicable, the national press corps right now.”
H.Con.Res.248 – Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan.
- by no later than 30 days after this resolution is adopted; or
- if the President determines that it is not safe to remove them by such date, by no later than December 31, 2010, or such earlier date that the President determines that they can be safely removed.
IYFR: We’ll post Kennedy’s video, on the house floor, as soon as it becomes available
1,000,000 Facebookers To Promote Rush Limbaugh’s Exodus From The USA
Jabba The Rush says he’s leaving the country, and moving to Costa Rica, (who ranks higher in health care than the US, and has universal health care) the moment the Health Care Bill takes effect.
“I’ll just tell you this, if [the health care bill] passes, and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented, I am leaving the country,” he told a caller. “I’ll go to Costa Rica.”
Cmon Dems let’s pass this sucker. This could be a green two-fer!
Jabba leaves and we get clean air.
FACEBOOK: 1,000,000 Facebookers To Promote Rush Limbaugh’s Exodus From The USA.
UPDATE: Today on Jabba’ show: If I have to get thrown into this massive government health care insurance business and end up going to the driver’s license office every day when I need to go to the doctor, yeah, I’ll go to Costa Rica for treatment, not move there.
Polls
Loading ...-
IYFR Broadcasters
-
-
-
IYFR Supports
-
- InYourFaceRadio: These Dems Have To Go: Refused To Support A Public Option 03/15/10 03:48pm
- InYourFaceRadio: Charlotte Dennett: The People v Bush 03/14/10 04:40pm
- InYourFaceRadio: Pelosi: Public Option is Dead. Period! 03/13/10 04:03am
-
-
-
Our Sponsors
-
-
