"...A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."

Ahem. We're waiting, Mr. President...

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The author was careful to address the argument being proffered by so many that this is all a clever game of chess that Obama is playing to push a progressive agenda. Yet, it just doesn't make any sense when the path is already open and the sun is already rising at its end.

What, indeed, is holding Obama back? The shadows are still long and sinister shapes flit ominously among them.

peace,
Paul

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The Baucus plan is the President's Plan.
That's been clear since the middle of May when he had Baucus throw Single Payer advocates in jail, twice. He and Emmanuel have instructed Baucus and the Gang of Six to craft legislation without consideration of a public plan, increasing consumer protections for the covered and profits to the insurance companies by taxing and criminalizing the poor.
This is the plan Obama will use his power to push through Congress.
This is the plan Obama will use his media power to deceive the electorate into thinking is real reform.
While Obama and Congress meet behind closed doors to negotiate the delivery of 20-40 million captives to a market profiting from the rationing of human rights, ask yourself this:
What makes them so special that they deserve healthcare and you don't? What makes them so much more human that only they are awarded the privilege of human rights? What is it making you less deserving?
Bad legislation is worse than no legislation.
Fight Obama. He is the architect of this corruption, this wholesale sellout of the American public's trust. The rest are toadies. Using the Obama celebrity and his empty rhetoric only as much as it aids in their chances for re-election.
The fight needs to be taken to Obama directly.
Bad legislation is worse than no legislation.

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Unless the Democraps get some rocks they are going to lose this battle, as they do not know how to fight fire with fire, or they really do not want to win in the first place.

This is the Repukian plan: to obfuscate the “discussion” with 1107 pages of gobblygook, that whould only take 3-4 pages if they would go to the ONLY health care plan worth considering-single payer. And single payer is dead by all accounts, and you can just imagine what you will get once they add another 1000 pages to the bill.

What is the Democrapic plan? Who knows?

A brand-new Gallup poll tied to Darwin's birthday finds that just 39% of Americans believe in evolution.

As expected, Gallup notes, education plays a big role here: 74% of those with post-graduate degrees believe in evolution. That's compared with only 21% of high school grads (or those with less education) who believe in the theory. Ditto religion: 55% who don't attend church believe in evolution, versus 24% of weekly CHURCHGOERS who believe in it.

When you have this kind of embedded mythology in this country, you can feed them anything and the Repukes know this. Religion has taught them to leave their brain at the door. Take for example the story of Noah.

Noah’s Ark is said in the bible to be 300x40x50 cubits, that is 4 stories tall and half the size of the Titanic! The length of a soccer field! Noah was 600 years old when God told him to build the ark! Noah was told to take animals with common ancestry: that would be 700 mammals, 600 birds, and 6300 reptiles! In one year the ark would generate 400 tons of manure! Not to mention the amount of food needed and the time it would take to feed them, by a 600 year old man!!

Until this brand of mythology and superstition (religion) is wiped from this earth, it is not surprising that people will believe in “death panels” or any thing else, even the mythology that Bam Bam is a progressive.

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Yes. Oh my Yes. You Betcha, Yes!

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And now I hear that if insurance is not "Bought" either for single and/or family.. that there will be a "Fine" levied on us...$950. +++ This is not Health Care Reform. So now, the jails will be further filled with the non-insured...If one is homeless how far are they allowed to walk with their ankle bracelets?

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What more proof do you need? When you vote Democratic, YOU ARE VOTING AGAINST YOUR OWN INTERESTS!

Voting Republican is even worse.

The Green Party doesn't accept ANY corporate money, and represents CITIZENS' interests, like single-payer health care.

Liberals have been voting for the lesser of two evils for the last several elections. When you do that you still get evil!

As a result of unconditionally voting Democratic, we have Democrats who are proposing the same bills Republicans would propose! There's no hope unless these corporate shills are replaced.

It will take several elections before the Green Party can start winning at the state and Federal levels, but that's the only way we can start to take our country back from the corporations.

The Green Party is already the third-largest party in the US. Building the Green Party requires voting for Green candidates that we know won't win. But it does build momentum.

5% of the vote will get the Green Party matching Federal funds, and will send the corrupt corporate Democrats into a panic.

We can expect the Democrats to suddenly get real responsive to citizens' needs when they start to realize they no longer have a captive audience.

Vote Green!

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If reversed, would more than cover any shortfall that occurs as the result of a new Insurance plan. I have no doubt that the cost is the problem. We can't provide close to 50 million people with lunch without denting the budget. I wish Obama could lay it on the line. In the long run the program may well pay for itself and then some, but for a few years we will have to bear some costs. ANNA

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tell them you are aware of the concerns on this bill, and that the critics are right-it sucks. Don't let Obama get away with weaseling out of his prior support for a public option. A bill that forces state coops to be small, to negotiate seperately with every single provider, to only service individuals and small buisnesses will not be able to rein in the costly and immoral big insurance companies, as Obama says he wants. Make sure Obama knows you know the score. It may not help, but if it doesn't, then YOU will know the real score too.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Forljian7s

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Obama is being advised by some of the same Democratic political insider hacks who advised Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hilary Clinton.

Their political calculation (or "triangulation") is the assumption that they can always rely on the votes of the liberals, the progressives, and the left because the alternative, Republican victories, is so loathsome that, in the end, the progressive wing will have (they assume) no alternative but to vote for the Democrats as the (relatively) lesser of two evils.

Therefore, all of their attention is aimed at what they consider the swing voters, those in the middle. Unfortunately most people who find themselves in the middle of the road are those with no guiding ideology or passionate principles, so they are easily swayed by fear, greed, simplistic arguments, and whatnot, into voting as often as not against their own interests.

Obama and his advisors feel they don't need to satisfy the traditional Democratic base to get their votes. But, they need to satisfy the swing people in the red states and districts who are critical to re-electing the Democratic Blue Dogs, and maintaining a (nominally) Democratic majority.

It is a political calculation totally devoid of any morality or system of social values. The only objective is, like the Republicans, the acquisition and maintenance of power.

As long as the Progressive wing of the party passively tolerates Obama's and the Congress's triangulation, the political insiders will continue their focus on policies only from the standpoint of the marginal voters in the fictional middle-of-the-road, by trying to blend weak versions Democratic policy with weak versions of Republican policy.

This is like saying "Some say the Sun rises in the East, and some say it rises in the West. Therefore, we will adopt a policy that the Sun rises somewhere in between."

Compromise of ideals and values is not compromise - it is cowardly capitulation and does not deserve to be rewarded with even lukewarm support from traditional Democrats.

It is time for the Left to show the same sort of passion the Right has shown (though in saner ways) and begin to fight for our ideals, not a party that has taken us too much for granted.

We have to remind today's Democrats that NOTHING of value has ever come from the middle-of-the-road so-called moderate Democrats. All of the greatest accomplishments, Social Security, WPA, strong unions, the Civil Right Act, the Voting Act, Medicare, workers' safety, environmental regulations, etc., have been causes championed by the Liberals, Progressives, and the Left - usually over the objections of the so-called conservadems.

Remember the racist Dixicrats of the 1960s, who aggressively opposed the Civil Rights Act and all efforts toward integration. If the party had tried to compromise to keep them on board, the Civil Rights Act would have ended up still keeping African-Americans in the back of the bus - but would have provided that they all had a right to use seatbelts.

Instead, we took an historic step in ending Jim Crow de jure segregation and let the Dixiecrats flee to the welcoming arms of the Republicans, who were less antipathetic to their overt racism.

Our only hope to reclaim our party from the cynical triangulators is to convince them that we, too, have passion for our ideals and will not compromise them just to win elections that are more and more meaningless to progressive policies. Let them know that we are prepared to sit out 2010 and 2012 if they keep subverting the party's traditional principles.

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If this were the president's objective, why bother to take on healthcare reform at all? After all, he didn't have to sign up for the challenge. For that matter I would surmise that we have to take Obama at his word. Actually, he's been pretty consistent. He wants what he's outlined in his speech. He's out rallying for his brand of health care today.
If you want a fight take on the Senate. Put the blame for this debacle squarely on the six senate architects of this bill who ignored the president's requests and who have cowtowed to the monied lobbying interests. If we, the people want real health care reform that's whom were going to have to fight for it.

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Barack Obama never had any intention of pushing for single payer or a public option. He is a corporatist shill, a liar and a con man. I worked for his campaign, contributed money and voted for him. He is a champion of the status quo and an enemy of the people of America. He has and is doing everything he can to keep health care in the hands of Big Pharma and the insurance industry. When has a nation, this nation anyway, been so deceived, lied to, betrayed. In nine short months I have gone from near adulation to disgust.

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