Last night Rachel Maddow kicked off her show with a talk about the collapse of ambition -- the Obama Administration and corporate Democrats throwing in the towel on health care reform. The video -- after the first minute or so -- is incredibly compelling and I recommend you watch it if you didn't see it yet. This morning several bloggers have kicked off an effort to thank the House Democrats who have drawn a line in the sand and say they will stand up against the corporate shills in the Senate and the administration to defeat any bogus health care bill that doesn't include -- at the minimum -- a robust public option. You may remember that a few days ago I included all the names and phone numbers in a post and I want to encourage all DWT readers to call up Congress members on the list and thank them. Thereisnospoon at Daily Kos explained the thinking behind whole campaign this morning. And Blue America is hosting an ActBlue page for people who would like to give any of the Congress members who are standing up for the public option a dollar or two.
Is your Congress member on the list? Is your favorite member of Congress? Take a look -- and make your voice heard -- with a dollar.
Washington is paying attention. The top story at Politico today is Liberals Revolt Over Public Option.
"A bill without a public option won't pass the House," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), a member of Energy & Commerce Health subcommittee. "Not only are they weakening their proposal, but they are also weakening their hand. This is legislative subtraction by subtraction."
Privately, the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus sent the same message to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said Sunday that a public plan is "not the essential element" of comprehensive reform....Democracy for America honed in on the 60 House members who have pledged not to vote for a bill without the public option, and asked supporters to remind them to hold firm. Health Care for America Now urged its network to contact senators. And the Progressive Change Campaign Committee promised a new round of TV ads targeting undecided senators and highlighting their contributions from health and insurance interests.
"There is zero retreat on the grassroots level for the public option. We are all in, and we're staying all in, because the public option is the compromise," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change committee, one of the most aggressive defenders of the public option.
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I wish things would change for the better and in my limited way try to push things toward the better, but since my three wasted years in the Vietnam War things have gone in the reverse direction.
For hope is a conviction based on things known to be true, a conviction so absolute you go forward as if the hope has already happened, as if the thing expected has already taken place. For hope is trust carried to its ultimate conclusion.
And that is why trust in politicians is the root cause of all corruption in government. For if instead of our self-absorbed majority trusting Bush and Obama to secretly bailout our deep, dark and secret banking system, a demand for a criminal investigation had exposed everything to the full light of day, the 12 trillion given in secret to high finance would still be in the U.S. Treasury.
For trust is the root cause of darkness, a pretense of good hiding an intent to do evil, and darkness is the root cause of all corruption on earth.
Mr. Obama, have your "Justice Department get off their little butts, get all the names of the "Tax Evaders, Seize all their Assets, everything they own, give them a choice, One-way ticket out of the country or Jail for life, along with their Spouse's.
Mr. Obama, with all that wealth you can pay for the Public Option. Then do the same with your friends on Wallstreet, the Insurance Industry, the Healthcare Industry, close all tax loopholes in this nation.
One of his closest advisors is David Axelrod. It now turns out that he has been making money from big pharma. Yea, he'll tell Obama.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/09/lobbyblog_n_228657.html
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