OW.Com Holiday Edition

8:36 pm EST December 22nd, 2009 | News | 5 Comments

FYI, I’m not going to be updating as often as usual during the next two weeks. We’ve got Christmas this week and my mom’s in town, and next week I’ll be causing international incidents with a trip to Europe. There will be updates, but not as much as usual.

Topic: Top

Senate Health Care Bill Advances

1:18 am EST December 21st, 2009 | News | 71 Comments

Senate health care bill has advanced, Lieberman, Nelson, Lincoln vote “aye”. 60 – 40.

Washington Post

Senate Democrats won a milestone victory early Monday in the health-care debate, approving a procedural motion to move the reform legislation to final passage later this week, and without a single vote to spare.

The 60-40 tally, taken shortly after 1 a.m., followed 12 hours of acrimonious debate and required senators to trek to the Capitol in the aftermath of a snowstorm. The vote was the first of three procedural hurdles that Democrats must cross before a final vote on passage of the measure, now scheduled for Christmas Eve.

Topic: Health Care, Top

Senate Dems Get 60 Votes For Health Care Reform

10:27 am EST December 19th, 2009 | News | 32 Comments

Link

Senator Ben Nelson’s announcement moments ago that he will vote to end debate on the Senate health care bill puts Dems within striking distance of the first major progressive legislative achievement of the 21st Century, even if the legislation is deeply flawed.

But Nelson also issued a stern threat, designed to put House liberals on notice: If you change the bill in conference, I reserve the right to sink it later. Translation: Don’t even think about trying to add a public option or Medicare buy-in, and don’t even think about putting your grubby hands on my abortion compromise.

Still, the Senate has taken a major step towards passing something that, as problematic as it is, could form a foundation for future reform and could even start to rewrite the relationship Americans have with government.

Topic: Ben Nelson, Health Care, Top

Victoria Kennedy: Pass The Health Care Bill

11:19 pm EST December 18th, 2009 | News | 20 Comments

Obama, Kennedy This will be a significant factor in this, I think. Senator Kennedy’s widow calls for passage of the senate health care bill:

Health care would finally be a right, and not a privilege, for the citizens of this country. While my husband believed in a robust public option as an effective way to lower costs and increase competition, he also believed in not losing sight of the forest for the trees. As long as he wasn’t compromising his principles or values, he looked for a way forward.

As President Obama noted to Congress this fall, for Ted, health-care reform was not a matter of ideology or politics. It was not about left or right, Democrat or Republican. It was a passion born from the experience of his own life, the experience of our family and the experiences of the millions of Americans across this country who considered him their senator, too.

The bill before Congress will finally deliver on the urgent needs of all Americans. It would make their lives better and do so much good for this country. That, in the end, must be the test of reform. That was always the test for Ted Kennedy. He’s not here to urge us not to let this chance slip through our fingers. So I humbly ask his colleagues to finish the work of his life, the work of generations, to allow the vote to go forward and to pass health-care reform now. As Ted always said, when it’s finally done, the people will wonder what took so long.”

Topic: Health Care, Ted Kennedy, Top

Bill Kristol, Sonofa…

12:46 pm EST December 18th, 2009 | News | 4 Comments

Bill Kristol wants the negotiations on health care reform to shut down in the senate because… he’s worried about the hill staffers having to deal with the snowstorm.

This has been today’s edition of Stuff Nobody Actually Believes.

Topic: Bill Kristol, Health Care, Top

Kill The Bill! Save The Bill!

8:47 am EST December 17th, 2009 | News | 98 Comments

Where I am:

I don’t like that the public option is out. Not even the weak versions like the trigger, the opt-out, and the Medicare buy-in. That sucks, and Hell has reaffirmed the special place they have had on reserve for Joe Lieberman.

I also don’t think President Obama inserted himself in this debate enough. As I stated before, I think they strayed too far away from the Clinton model of being too involved in the crafting of this legislation. The strategic mistake of leaving Harry Reid in charge of anything will be remembered for history to record. In the midst of this most important legislation, Reid proved once again that he’s no Lyndon Johnson. He’ll go down in history as one of the weakest minority/majority leaders and frankly I hope he isn’t re-elected.

On the President personally, I reject the conspiracy theories that he’s a tool of corporate interests as the facts don’t bear that out, nor was I ever of the belief that he was uber-progressive. Barack Obama is on the cautious, deliberative center-left. That’s where he’s always been.

In an ideal world, this point in the debate would have been reached in August. But we live in the real world, and that’s why I think for all the good that isn’t in this bill, it should be passed anyway. We needed to get to the end zone, where we are is about on our own 44 yard line. “You play to win the game.”

On the course of this debate I’ve come to hate the U.S. Senate and if we played under the rules as they are used today, I would still be waiting for civil rights legislation to pass. But that’s also why I think the argument about scrapping the bill isn’t realistic. The best hope at getting something on the books is for the current bill to be passed before Christmas. Either that happens or I believe, health care reform goes on ice for another decade. Congress won’t be passing anything this controversial next year, an election year (if the Democrats are smart, they’ll be passing bills called “The Jobs For America Act” and “Employ An American Now Act”, etc.). Any law pushed after that will be a setup for the 2012 election, and so on. I doubt health care will come up again in this major a format until the post-presidential election.

The bill is what it is. The design and the mandates aren’t pretty (though I think Ezra Klein makes a decent pro-mandate case here), but I think it gives a framework for future, needed modifications. And sure, in the unlikely event Republicans take control of congress, they could dismantle it, but my guess is enough people get on board, that is as likely to happen as the elimination of Medicare or the privatization of social security – both conservative daydreams.

I favor passage.

I think ripping up the bill gives the teabaggers and the GOP what they want, and helps to feed into the growing Fox News narrative of Democratic indifference.

For this of course, I am an Obamabot Broderite Centrist. Despite everything I’ve ever written for the last 10 years, but so what?

Topic: Health Care, Top

John Birch Society Sponsoring CPAC

12:19 pm EST December 16th, 2009 | News | 21 Comments

The John Birch Society is one of America’s original right-wing conspiracy groups. They first began exercising power during the 1964 Goldwater campaign, as their campaigns vs Supreme Court justices and against the perils of fluoridated water (as seen in Dr. Strangelove) captured the imagination of the far right. As we’ve seen, under President Obama, conservative conspiracy theories are all the rage. From fictional death panels to communist infiltration and of course birtherism, it is time again for the conspiracy right to exert their control.

The John Birch Society announces it is cosponsoring the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2010, to be held in Washington DC, Feb. 18-20.

JBS will have a double booth with half dedicated to offering educational and promotional materials and the other half housing a TV studio that will stream live video from the booth and broadcast onto JBS LibertyNewsNetwork.tv, a website that will feature archived JBS video and live video streams.

(via Matt Lewis)

Topic: CPAC, John Birch Society, Top

Oppose Health Care Reform, Get Hooters Wings

9:49 am EST December 16th, 2009 | News | 10 Comments

hooters girls Suddenly, I see this issue in a whole new light.

Online ads have popped up lately, telling readers that they can win a $150 Amex Gift Card for use at Hooters, if they complete a survey about other offers. One of those urges them to sign up for ‘free emails’ from the Chamber of Commerce, which will explain ‘how to protect your family’s future and bring common sense solutions to the health-care debate.’ In other words, getting involved with the Chamber’s campaign against reform. These ‘incentivized ads’ appear to be the favored new tactic of lobbying groups looking to generate the appearance of grassroots support for their positions.

Unless the Democrats can somehow offer a different variety of delicious finger food combined with scantily clad, attractive young women I’ll have to say: kill the bill!

Topic: Health Care, Hooters, Top

VIDEO: Keith Olbermann Explains The “Liberal Media” Bias

9:14 pm EST December 14th, 2009 | Media | 102 Comments

Nice takedown, gold.

Topic: Keith Olbermann, Liberal Media, MSNBC, Top

Your Mistake Is Assuming Lieberman Has Principles

3:18 pm EST December 14th, 2009 | News | 40 Comments

The worst thing Al Gore ever did was make Joe Lieberman his running mate. Because not only did it probably not help Gore in Florida, but it elevated one of the US Senate’s least honest people to a larger national prominence. Three months ago Joe Lieberman clearly supported the Medicare buy-in he cites as a dealbreaker today.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the mainstream press to report this. They’ve got way too much stock invested in phonies like Lieberman to actually get off their butts and do some reporting.

Topic: Health Care, Joe Lieberman, Top