Good post! We should at the very least keep a list of the senate health insurance "enablers" and campaign against them when they run again.Health reform to me simply means national health vs Insurance Company profit at any cost paradigm.Anything that contributes to business over peoples life...

As Ezra Klein notes, this Baucus plan is more or less the same as the GOP plan of 1994, proposed by Chafee. Enough said, really...

On the bright side, now Baucus is no longer sitting on HCR until it dies. The bill will get voted on and then the game's in Conference. Hope Reid picks the...

What Glenn Beck will say is a foregon conclusion. There were 1.7 million people on the Mall 9/12. Maybe we did not know waht figure he would pull out of his butt, but we knew he would lie. It's about what CNN says and the networks. FOX is detached from reality. They are not an entity one...

No time atm to read this post, however, I did sit back last nite an skimmed the 200+ page bill.

*There's bronze, silver, gold and platinum packages the industry has to offer to the public.
*An obscure reference to a maximum of 13% of a person's salary for insurance premiums - I...

The working stiffs will have a new tax, insurers will be able to steal more money and privatizing SS was a better idea.

THIS BAUCUS SUCKS

Synch, this is a great idea. It would have to be far enough ahead so that we could organize it well. How about just before Christmas?

We could make up widgets and banners for websites, etc, and send them to Moveon and every other place we could think of.

Great idea. I'm in.

I will if I get more feedback. I was thinking a lot about this today. I would like to know more about the schedule in congress before picking a day.

I was thinking that if we could make something like this work, even partially... we could build on it and use this to demonstrate about...

Two things:

1. Exactly how is it news that Sarkozy supposedly said his spies think Iran is working toward a bomb? We've been told for years now that that's the consensus of western intelligence agencies. Isn't that the whole basis of the "crisis" over Iran's nuclear activities?...

The only way a mandate is justifiable is if it is affordable which it totally is NOT in this bill. This is regressive taxation weighing most heavily on the working class.

It is impossible to be both liberal and a Democrat. Impossible.

Well, perhaps the mandate idea seems weird to you because it is a weird idea that is only in play because our leaders do not want to upset the powerful insurance companies. This is a way for weak government leaders to cover more people without incurring the wrath of the insurance interests....

Hmmm....

"No Shopping Day in Support of the Public Option"

Pick a date.

Get it viral.

~OGD~

Interesting catch. For what it's worth, the Iranians also seem to have interpreted Sarkozy's comment as a reference to nuclear weapons, though unlike the Jerusalem Post, the Tehran Times did not insert the word "weapons."

Well stated Oleeb! Thanks for this post.

I am communicating with congress and white house every day on this issue now. I can't fax every day. I don't own a fax machine so I do call and email as well.

I had an idea. We can't stop using health care and medications in protest...

The point of my post has little to do with the event itself. The fact that the officer backtracked on the race bias explanation simply underscores what is the point: Limbaugh wants the assault to be racially motivated and cheered on by a busload of black children because he wants...

I think you're missing the point of the clip.  The context is generally understood by the intended audience.  The point is not merely to laugh.  The point is to illustrate how successful the misinformation campaign is.  The marvel isn't that these people seem dumb.  It's that they're out in the...

As an openly gay liberal, I know all too well about the evils of hate.  What I find very troubling, however, is that, if I were beaten on a bus for being gay, my fellow liberals would be rushing to my defense and offering support.

Although I truly believe that the porr victim in this...

What about the Jay Leno schtick where he goes around town asking people questions and broadcasts the stupidest responses?  Are people in LA really that stupid? 

I don't think we can view this edited video as an overall indictment of the opinions of the right, rather its an indictment of...

What, you're not celebrating assaulting white people? What kind of liberal are you?

To quote my man Q-Tip, it's a case of position of the feet in the shoes.

The only American answer is that white on black racially motivated crime and black on white racially motivated crime is always wrong.  As is bullying.

Also, there's that tricky little thing about many African-Americans not knowing which country their ancestors came from because they were kidnapped and brought unwillingly to this country. Or, if the ancestors were born here, they were often separated from their parents as soon as they would...

Ooh, grammar fail, grammarian win!

"Liberals trying to make sure prostitution and illegal aliens and child slavery is made legal..."

When you learn subject-verb agreement, I'll spend some energy making a thoughtful argument in response.

First Africa is a continent and not a  country. People are from countries not continents.

So any person whose ethnic decent is from Europe wouldn't be called European?  How often have you heard anyone refer to a black person according to the country in Africa...

My God, what has happened to the Republicans in this country? They keep highlighting liberals trying to make stuff up, liberals trying to make sure prostitution and illegal aliens and child slavery is made legal, and now they deign to highlight racial animosity shown by black kids towards some...

you all keep saying "African American". First Africa is a continent and not a  country. People are from countries not continents. the kids that did the beatings, terror assults or racial attacks, what ever you want to call it was WRONG. These boys need to be kicked out of school and HOME...

i think Genghis' complaint isn't that the protesters shown aren't representative of the crowd, but that the video doesn't demonstrate this. I.e., it would be easy to go to any rally of significant size, find the craziest people, and produce a similar video, even if the majority of...

Well, you're kind of shifting the goal posts here.  At first you protested that they weren't representative of the crowd.  Now you're saying that the video gives their "worldview" short shrift.  Frankly, I think you actually have to be seeing something of the real world to be said to have a...

More funny protest signs - and some of them are intentionally funny, but sadly some of them are just moranic.

...

I'll admit, we have no way of knowing how representative the folks on camera are.

That said, I found this video even more disturbing than some others because many of the interviewees were reasonably personable and well-spoken. Every protest attracts a corona of raving nutters, but a large...

My point was not to suggest that there are equivalent degrees of extremism on both sides. Far from it. I do believe that right wing extremism is pervasive; I'm even writing a book about it. I just don't think that pervasive extemism can be effectively demonstrated by a few sound bytes from...

And yes, these people ARE dumb as rocks. They are scared because they know deep down their beliefs are rooted in ignorance. That's the safe, comfortable country they want to return to.

What DF said. Crazy is the new Republican orthodoxy.

And this "extremists on both sides" mantra doesn't fly, Genghis. Polls say a solid majority back health-care reform, so by the law of averages there should be some crazies at every pro-reform gathering too.

Where's the video? If...

I have mixed feelings about these wingnut-on-the-street videos. First, asshats and crazies can be found in any crowd, and it's hard to get a sense of whether we're seeing average participants or just the extreme wackos. Second, there's something condescendingly voyeuristic about the videos, as...

Ah, I remember my childhood along the New England coast, and all the free salt.

Thanks, DF. I aspire to a world where everything I have to say about economics is tedious and banal.

Speaking of side issues: Never, ever cole slaw.  Ever.

Yeah, I don't dispute the heart of your argument, but I reserve my constitutional right to quibble about the details. German unemployment has dropped below ours, but you're comparing unusually high U.S. unemployment to unusually low German unemployment--which constitutes cherry-picking. It's...

Thanks for joining us, Dr. C. I agree with my Canadian friend (much as that pains me), excellent blog. Your point about unquestioned assumptions regarding both Europe and China is very sharp, and I agree that we could learn much from European economic models.

But if I may quibble, I think...

Thanks very much, acanuck.

Absolutely, the same applies to Canada, whose success is also inconvenient for American supply-side ideology. I wrote about Europe because it seemed so obvious to everyone on Meet the Press that Europe was lagging behind us.

Lots of Americans use China...

Excellent post. The same "socialist" smear is applied to Canada -- though less often these days, since proximity means more Americans have seen first-hand that our system works. If evidence were needed, our current government (which labels itself "Conservative") has made no move to dismantle any...

Ahem.  I didn't get an invitation .

YOU LIE!

In Wolfie's defense, he was expecting at most 27 million, so he ran out of briquets. Note to self: don't put barbecue invitations up on Twitter. Much less dagblog.

I was there.

At least that's what I'm going to tell my grandkids when they ask about it.

Real Americans won't rest under illegal aliens are on double-secret probation.

And perhaps I, or Barack Obama, agree. But that's not what Barack Obama said. He made a commitment that we -would- keep the illegals out of the system! And if he was referring to any proposal so far, he was lying.

That said, the Senate Finance Committee seems to be looking into this...

And my axe!

If covering illegal aliens was in a loophole, why did the Democrats just move to close it?  Want to update your story so it is not spreading false LIES?

LOL! "Love me, Daddy!" ;-)