I guess I’m allowed to do this, right? I want to start a Labor Day Open Thread to celebrate the release of Baucus’ Plan which, quite frankly, I was beginning to wonder if we would see the messiah before this plan.
The details are below;
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09…
It occurred to me today how the Obama Administration (and the rest of us), should move the health care debate along this fall. After a long hot season of broiling hot Town Halls, Tea Bagging Parties, and a frightening increase in violent rhetoric, the Democratic Party could effectively turn the summer of 2009 back against the party of no. It is called a backlash and I have begun seeing the seeds of it starting already.
I am suggesting launching an all out assault against the lunatic fringe, insurance companies, and Republicans that have managed to control the issue up until this point. And it should be unleashed upon the American population, just as the fall sporting events heat up and the new television fall line up begins. A few well placed commercials on the season premieres of House and 30 Rock would go a long way.
Most of the commercials could be directed at the moderate middle. Those people who do not pay that much attention to politics, but are being influenced by the vocal minority who have been making such a fuss these past few months.
On Friday I substituted in a local school in the fourth grade. While I was there, during what is known as Focus Groups sessions, another teacher came to teach Lesson 1 in their “Bully Proofing Our School” unit. This unit has been around for years and I used it before.
It got me to wondering. How can we bully proof our adult citizenry?
Health care is the only issue right now. President Obama may be willing to stake his Presidency on health care reform. If Congress doesn’t do it’s job, there is a good chance we will be looking at significant Democratic losses in 2010.
MoveOn.org members and R.E.M. speak out for health care reform. We need a public option now.
Call Congress now. Let them know their jobs are on the line.
I have noticed a couple of pro health care reformers giving republicans a rough time lately on the tv machine. They don’t seem to handle it as well as many Democratic legislators I have seen in similar situations. I saw a clip on MSNBC earlier this week, where one republican lawmaker (sorry cannot remember the name and have been unable to find the clip) left his town hall 47 seconds after it started, when challenged by pro health care reform citizens. And then there is Michael Steele earlier this week.
They can dish it out, but they can’t seem to take it directed at them. Do we really want these idiots in power again?
I used to have a job. I have either gone to school and/or worked since I can remember. I have a couple of degrees and while I was getting them I worked at a vast array of jobs. Most of my jobs have been low paying. When I was younger, those were the kinds of jobs I could get and as I got older the work I did was designed to get me where I wanted to go, but were still fairly low paying.
I got my first “real job” working in my field about 14 years ago. I work in one of the “helping” profession, so while I was not going to get rich, I made a decent living.
That is until I got sick. That was when everything changed.
A close friend of mine is an aide to Nydia Velazquez. She lives across the street from me in Brooklyn and was one of my good sources when I worked at ABC. We are spending the weekend among other friends here in Fire Island. She was with Nydia yesterday on the conference call with the President. Here’s what she told me.
BURBANK: Information is beginning to emerge from the inside the The Walt Disney Company, that the entertainment and media giant is preparing to announce a national health plan for everyone in the U.S.
CEO Robert “Bob” Iger has scheduled a press conference for this Thursday,two hours before President Barack Obama‘s address to the joint chambers of Congress. With rumors swirling of The White House taking up a draft of its own health care plan, this move is clearly designed to beat the President to the punch and gain the initiative.
(Cross-posted at The National Gadfly.
Our own Cheryl Kopec has already planted her (far superior) flag in the subject of President Barack Obama’s pending address to students, and the ‘controversy’ we all probably should have seen coming given the birther/bircher/deather/oligarchy contamination in our current political environment. You know, the whole Obama iz comin’ fir yallz childern to make ’em Nazis meme.
After the jump, I’ll recount my own very personal experience with this matter. The names and most other identifying details have been redacted or omitted to protect the innocent, and not-so-innocent alike.
Controversy is swirling around the Associated Press’s decision to publish a photograph of a 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life.
Cpl. Braxton Russell pays tribute to Lance Cpl. Bernard during an August 27 memorial service in Afghanistan.
(Julie Jacobson, AP Photo, USMC)
Said a man with a megaphone outside an Obama health care rally.
There has been much discussion here about health care reform, about open racism on the airwaves and the increasing threats against the life of our POTUS. But I’m warning that the second firestorm of hate is about to roll down the mountainsides of our land like lava.