Healthcare debate in the House coming down to the
wire

Here is the debate on Capital Hill. The Republicans are trying to do everything that they can to[...]

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use-coming-down-to-the-wire/

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Rep. Steve King Is An Asshole

So earlier today, Republican Congressman Steve King actually said:

"All Americans have health care, every single one."

What a noble sentiment. And what a spectacularly, blatantly false one. One would have to believe King knows full well it is false, but then again he is a conservative Republican, and conservative Republicans are at this point synonymous with manufactured realities in which tax cuts cause unicorns to fart rainbows of money across the land and decent public education is the gateway to Stalinism. So it is equally possible that King is being honest, at least within the narrow confines of his own head, and he honestly believes that no Americans are out there who do not have basic health care.

But I know some of the very people who King claims do not exist, and I expect you do too. One of my own close relatives suffers from an untreated hernia -- simple enough to fix, but untreated because he is uninsured. He has an option, of course. His "option" is to wait for it to get bad enough to cause an intestinal strangulation -- a likelihood, at this point -- at which point he will be rushed to the emergency room, hopefully operated on, and then receive a bill for some outrageous figure that he will not be able to pay. But he will only receive this treatment if it reaches the point where he will die without it -- merely being incapacitated is insufficient to receive health care.

Alternatively, he will live with the hernia for several years until he turns Medicare-eligible at age 65, the age at which we have decided it is appropriate for the American government to give a flying shit about the health of its citizens, and at which age we have decided it is appropriate for the government to become involved in providing very evil, very socialist health insurance. 63 or 64? Socialism. 65? Oh, that's fine then.

I expect if you asked around, perhaps three in four Americans would know somebody who was not receiving adequate medical care or medication because they simply could not afford it. And the other one in four Americans would be narcissistic, self absorbed assholes.

So congratulations, Rep. Steve King. You make that small and highly distinguished list of public figures too stupid -- or too willfully ignorant, or too absorbed in your own ideological illusions, or too entirely bought and paid for -- to even know that there are Americans out there suffering from inadequate medical care. Which, after all, was and is the entire purpose of this legislation. On behalf of those Americans, Representative King, I can only offer a hearty Fuck You.

You want to meet me anytime, anywhere, and I'll be happy to show you Americans who don't have the health care they need. Maybe if you met them, on one of your trips to and from the Capitol, you would condescend to acknowledge their mere existence.

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Did Sen. Richard Burr Put Campaign Cash Above
Victims Of Gang Rape

video details and more

From an email by ChangeCongress:

We've got great news to report about our campaign shaming Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) for taking $700,000 from the defense industry and Chamber of Commerce and then siding with them against rape victims and his constituents. Thousands of people have signed our national expression of outrage and told their friends to sign -- and the national and local media are reporting on our campaign!

We need to keep the momentum up. Can you check out our petition and sign today?

From the National Journal:

Reform group Change Congress launched a campaign yesterday to shame Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., for voting against legislation that would help ensure victims of rape have the right to bring their case to court. The government reform group hit cyberspace with an email asking people to sign a 'national expression of outrage.' Citing $700,000 in campaign contributions from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the defense industry, Change Congress accused Burr of putting special interests before rape victims.

The more signatures we get, the more the media will report on his campaign. We need to keep publicly shaming these politicians one by one until Congress realizes it's time to replace special-interest-funded elections with citizen-funded elections.

Until they do, Americans will continue to ask: Did you vote that way because it made good sense, or because it raised special-interest campaign dollars?

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Young Dems Rally for Public Option Health
Insurance

Photograph courtesy of Melissa CarlsonThis morning, the Kansas City Young Dems led a protest and[...]

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http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2009/11/kansas_city_young_democrats_he.html

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Max Cleland on the Forever War of the Mind

Fort Hood has been in the news all today, on my radio as I drive from house to house visiting patients. It’s a tragedy I have no comprehension of, no way to make sense of. But the people who serve, who live on the bases, who suffer the wounds of war– they know. Max Cleland, who lost three limbs serving in Vietnam, and in peacetime served as a powerful advocate for veterans in Congress, has written a short op-ed in the New York Times…

?EVERY day I was in Vietnam, I thought about home. And, every day I?ve been home, I?ve thought about Vietnam.? So said one of the millions of soldiers who fought there as I did. Change the name of the battlefield and it could have been said by one of the American servicemen coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan today. Wars are not over when the shooting stops. They live on in the lives of those who fight them. That is the curse of the soldier. He never forgets.

The entire essay is here. Excerpts can’t do it justice, so go on over to NYT and read it in full.

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HCR House Debate: Procedural Votes a Clue on
Final Votes

Over at Congress Matters, David posts about the first procedural vote of the day.

Ordering the previous question is akin to a House version of cloture, except that instead of unlimited debate, there's only an extra hour at stake. Well, that and the ability to amend the rule, which would be an exceptionally dangerous surrender of the power the majority gives itself on the Rules Committee.

Essentially, ordering the previous question asks, "Will the House now end debate on that thing we were just debating -- hence "previous question" -- and move next to a vote on that thing we were just debating?" Defeat the previous question, and the House moves into default procedural mode, in which everything gets an hour of debate. The rule for the health insurance reform bill is the pending question, so that would stay on the floor unless it was pulled by the leadership (which is the most likely outcome of a defeat on the previous question), and the next hour would be devoted to the debate of proposed amendments to the rule. That would pretty much defeat the entire purpose of having developed the rule in the Rules Committee in the first place. So you don't want that.

Now, on the one hand, these Dems likely only voted against the previous question because it made no difference, with 240+ votes for it already racked up. On the other hand, a vote against the previous question is a vote that says, "I do not want the Democratic majority to control the agenda and the voting procedure in the House of Representatives today."

Ten Democrats said that today, which is bad enough. But to top it all off, they only said it because they want to be able to tell their constituents that they "stood up to the leadership" on that vote -- even though the bottom line was that it didn't make a damn bit of difference where they stood. So, doubly craven.

Those ten Democrats?

Boren, Bright, Childers, Davis (AL), Griffith, Marshall, Melancon, Minnick, Loretta Sanchez, Taylor

Loretta Sanchez? Really? That's a head scratcher, as is the full list of 15 members who voted against the final rule. It's the 10 above, plus these five:

Jason Altmire, Brian Baird, Frank Kratovil, Heath Shuler, and Ike Skelton

So we pretty much know the 15 who are going to vote against their party, their President, their constituents. They get every damned thing they want, with a watered-down public option and with the odious Stupak amendment, and turn around and thumb their noses at leadership on the procedural votes. At what point does leadership get around to the realization that appeasing these assholes just empowers them?

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THIS JUST IN: Dems have over 218 votes for health
care reform in House

A well-placed congressional source tells me the Democrats now have over 218 votes to pass health care reform. Three more votes to go. Will be over well before midnight.

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Brand USA takes the top spot

Bush leaving and Obama arriving certainly makes a difference. Reuters:

The United States was seen as the ideal place for business, one of the top places for families, shopping and quality products, as well as one of the countries people wanted to visit whether for the first time or again.

The FutureBrand survey echoes a similar poll which showed that the United States was the most admired country globally, largely thanks to Obama's global popularity.

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The Right Side of History

The President went this morning to meet with members of the Democratic caucus of the verge of a historic vote. Thankfully, he seems to have abandoned his bi-partisan baggage. From the Huffington Post: In a final push to get health care reform through[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mydd/~3/qmb69LKCU8Y/118

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Go SeeThis Movie Right Now

Just got back from seeing Capitalism: A Love Story.  I hadn't planned on seeing it, mostly because I'm not a huge Michael Moore fan.  I liked Fahrenheit 9-11 but thought it probably didn't persuade anyone, and never bothered to see Sicko because I've been screaming for single-payer since before Moore knew what it was.

But a friend wanted to see Capitalism: A Love Story, so I went along.

Go. See. It. Right. Now.

Moore is a fucking genius, and a genuine National Treasure.  It's What The Fuck Happened, What It Means and Who's to Blame in two hours and seven minutes that will keep you glued to your seat while you gasp and laugh and cry and burst into applause.

Click here to find where it's showing near you.

And keep repeating: Wall Street delenda est.


Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheyGaveUsARepublic-FrontPage/~3/El4vHER2fKo/go-se
ethis-movie-right-now

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