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Obama wants liberal groups (read: MoveOn) to stop
pushing Dems to support public option

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 04 July 2009 12:30:00 PM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

Liberal groups, such as MoveOn and SEIU, and liberal bloggers (such as Jane Hamsher and our own Joe Sudbay) have been pressuring Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu to support the public option in health care reform (i.e., some kind of public health insurance plan). Landrieu has been adamantly opposed to anything resembling a public option. So groups like MoveOn have been running ads against her.

Well, our president will have none of that, He want us all to stop trying to get Landrieu to support a public option. Specifically, he wants them to stop running this ad.

Yes, let's not pressure bad Democrats to support keep provisions of the most importance piece of legislation of Obama's presidency, let alone the next decade.

Obama is quickly pushing liberal groups to a make or break moment, I think. Groups like MoveOn can't just agree to stop supporting, and advocating for, key components of the liberal agenda simply because the president asks them to. I mean, sure, MoveOn can. Just as the gay groups have so far rolled over and played dead for the president even as he files briefs defending ant-gay laws, even as he compares their marriages to incest and pedophilia, even as he turns a blind eye towards the two gay service members a day being kicked out under his watch. But MoveOn doesn't lack the spine, and crave the cocktail parties, like our national gay civil rights groups. And now we have the second time that Obama has criticized MoveOn, and implicitly, its members.

At some point, liberal groups, and their liberal constituencies, are going to realize that the president has a habit of asking much and giving little in return. The blogs learned it during the election, when they busted their butts for this president and have since been treated like dirt. The gays have now learned it. The immigration groups are starting to learn it, as are the health care reform groups. I understand some women's groups aren't real happy (as if anyone thinks Obama, who is beginning to seem genetically incapable of fighting for anything "controversial," is going to defend abortion). And now it's MoveOn, again.

At some point these organizations' members are going to wake up and smell the coffee. And it isn't going to be pretty for anyone.

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ups-read-moveon.html

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Declaring Independence Day From the "Fixed
Market" Oligarchy that Runs D.C.

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 04 July 2009 12:29:12 PM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

The Civil War ended in 1865, but we are still two Americas.

The Republican Party is one ? composed of Neo-Confederacy politicians, corporations and Wall Street titans who want fixed markets to cover their losses at the taxpayer?s expense, and fundamentalists who believe (in general) in a divine guarantee of white entitlement.

Read The Full Article:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/8901

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Urban Study Group explains why a "Public Option"
is needed

post from Crooks and Liars on 04 July 2009 12:00:42 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Blue America's Campaign For Health Care Choice has been awesome and I want to thank so many of you for donating and taking part in our latest campaign to expose Blanche Lincoln's non-support of the public option. You can still participate.

The liberal blogosphere is rising up against the Democratic Senators who up to this point are blocking any kind of health-care reform in America. Adam writes in Open Left: Progressives Got Our Mojo -- Holding Senate Dems Accountable

Fortunately, the public option is not muddy at all. It appears to be one big sweet spot for progressive activism -- with movement actors fighting on Obama's side (and on the side of 76% of Americans) against lame corporate Democrats who are standing in the way of Obama's agenda.
Better news -- progressives aren't missing this opportunity! We're going for it! We're fighting hard and strategically. Check out these five TV ads by movement actors...read on

Hullabaloo found this gem of a report from The Urban Institute:

The Urban Institute has released a study on the public plan option that should be of interest to those who are following this debate. They focus on the competition factor, particularly on the fact that consolidation and concentration have already made any complaints on that count moot, something we've written about here a few times:
This paper makes the argument that a public plan is important to health reform because it will contribute to cost containment, primarily by addressing problems caused by increased concentration in insurance and hospital markets. We describe how the public plan might be structured, how many people might be expected to enroll, and how much money the public plan might save. We discuss the most frequent arguments that are made in opposition to the public plan. We conclude that the private insurance industry would survive at about the same size but be more efficient and more effective in controlling health care spending.
Unfortunately, the debate over whether to provide a public health insurance option as a competitor to private plans under comprehensive health care reform seems to have become an ideological litmus test. Conservatives are fervently aligned against the option while liberals are as strongly in favor it. Those who oppose it fear that the public plan will have so many inherent advantages that private plans will be unable to compete, eventually leaving the system entirely in government hands by destroying a competitive insurance market. Supporters believe that a public plan is a critical fallback option in a universal system that would cover many high-need and low-income groups.
The arguments around the public plan too often ignore what we believe is the central reason for including a public plan as a component of reform: that health insurance markets today, by and large, are simply not competitive. And as such, these markets are not providing the benefits one would expect from competition, including efficient operations and consequent control over health care costs. We believe that the concentration in the insurance and hospital industries that has taken place over the past several years has been a significant contributor to this problem. The role of the government plan is to counter the adverse impacts of market concentration and, in doing so, slow the growth in health care costs.
In this paper, we first describe problems with competition in current insurer and provider markets, in particular focusing on the implications of consolidation in both markets. We then discuss how a public plan could help address these problems. Next, we examine how a public plan might be structured and how much money a plan might save. We address how large the public plan would be and what impact it would have on the current private insurance industry. We then examine the most common arguments against the public plan. We conclude by arguing that private insurance plans would survive but be more efficient and more effective controlling health care spending.
The survival of the insurance companies isn't something I personally lose much sleep over, but this info might be useful to those who need to refute the idea that the insurance companies will all be driven out of business if they are forced to constrain their enormous profits and pay their CEOs less than 15 billion dollars in compensation.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/urbans-study-group-explains-why-public

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Celebrate Democracy by Including America's Future

post from Open Left - Front Page on 04 July 2009 12:00:00 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Cross-posted at Project Vote's Voting Matters BlogBy Ari Savitsky and Erin FernsAs we celebrate[...]

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acy-by-including-americas-future

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Presented By:

post from Talking Points Memo on 04 July 2009 11:58:00 AM. © Talking Points Memo

[...]

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Oh, The Things She Might Do

post from Talking Points Memo on 04 July 2009 11:58:00 AM. © Talking Points Memo

Peter Ferrara, who says Palin's resignation is "a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement," writes at FoxNews.com: "She should also lead the nation's mothers to oppose mandating[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/efzqPy6fcY0/oh_the_things_s
he_might_do.php

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Sanford Concedes Defeat

post from Firedoglake on 04 July 2009 11:53:15 AM. © Firedoglake

What a week. I thought nothing could top Mark Sanford's press conference about his affair and the followup interview with the AP. I was, of course, proved wrong.[...]

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http://firedoglake.com/2009/07/04/sanford-concedes-defeat/

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She Learned From the Master

TPM Reader LG:Is it just me or does Palin's announcement of her leaving office remind anyone else of McCain's bizarre "I'm suspending my campaign" moment during the 2008 election run-up?Each share several key components: * Seems - on the face of it -[...]

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m_the_master.php

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A greener 4th of July.

Scientists are increasingly worried that the beautiful fireworks millions of Americans will be watching this Independence Day contain toxic chemicals that may pose a threat to the environment. A particular focus is perchlorate, which helps “create the combustion reaction needed for the explosion.” According to a 2009 article in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, “the amount of perchlorate in nearby bodies of water could increase by anywhere from 24 to 1,068 times the amount present before the fireworks, and that it takes 20 to 80 days for the chemical levels to subside.” When ingested, perchlorate can hinder the thyroid’s production of growth hormones. In response, some chemists are looking for other solutions, including cleaner-burning fireworks that use nitrate-based oxidants.

ap02070405351

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/04/perchlorate-fireworks/

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Fourth of July Weekend Open Thread

"Loneliness is the ultimate poverty."

~~Dear Abby~~
~~Abigail Van Buren~~
Pauline Phillips
Born July 4th, 1918
Fear less; hope more. Eat less; chew more. Talk less; say more. Hate less; love more."