Rockefeller Speaks

Rockefeller to Baucus, Conrad: Co-ops Are a Sham, Public Option Is a Must

The head of the Senate Finance Committee’s health subcommittee offered a scathing indictment of the reform package crafted by Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), saying it would do little to change how insurance companies operate and that as written, he would vote against it.

“There’s no way I could vote for the Senate package for a lot of reasons, and lack of a public option is one of them,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) told reporters.

Rockefeller, a strong proponent of a public plan, has been largely critical of the negotiating process that has involved a tight-knit group of six senators—three Democrats and three Republicans.

The results of those negotiations will be released tomorrow.

Rockefeller said he would offer a number of amendments to the bill, including one that would create a public plan. He said roughly six other Democrats on the committee favor such an option, but declined to speculate how they would vote.

Source

Planetizen’s Top 100 Urban Thinkers. Jane Jacobs tops a list that includes only 9 women.

Gotta Get Mad As Hell

Cooper wrote a post about a group of physicians “mad as hell”. They are traveling across country to try to meet with Obama, again, and get their voices heard. Check out the site. They left yesterday and may be stopping near you.

They have a site up and running here at Mad As Hell.

These guys tell it like it is.

There’s no nice way to say it. The financial cost of health care is killing our citizens, hobbling our economy, crushing small business, and threatening the solvency of our government. In the meantime, the Health Care Industry is spending almost two million dollars a day lobbying Congress and manipulating public opinion to accept “reform” legislation that leaves a vicious, for-profit system intact. The “public option” is a trap. We need real reform that finds immediate savings, controls costs, and accomplishes the moral imperative of true Universal Access. A Single Payer plan is the only real path to a Health Care System that is socially, ethically and fiscally responsible. And yet, our elected officials refuse to even discuss the possibility of a Single Payer plan!
If that doesn’t make you mad, we recommend checking your puls

Then you have these guys, the Republican AAPS, who want very much to prevent things like public option, set rates for services, and so on. In addition they support privatizing medicare.

First comes privatization of medicare, then education. The same way they privatized some prison systems, and made a financial killing for a few corporations. This is a Republicans wet dream people.

Right-wing group sponsoring Republican doctors rally supports privatizing Medicare.

Go Here.

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Reading the Map Correctly

Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary stands as the next big battleground in the Democratic presidential race and Barack Obama has no good options. He can stand and fight, and probably lose, or try to downplay the contest, and lose by an even bigger margin. In terms of demographics, Pennsylvania is Ohio squared. Everything that worked for Hillary Clinton in Ohio is there in Pennsylvania in greater numbers. The Post ran a chart in Thursday’s editions comparing the Democratic electorates in the two states. Obama’s campaign should tape it on every office wall in their North Michigan Avenue headquarters in Chicago as a reminder of the steep hill they have to climb.

For Obama, an Uphill Battle in Pennsylvania

He is now the “nothing to lose candidate”. He will have to step it up.

Pennsylvania doesn’t like to be called he uneducated state. Pennsylvania will take their job seriously.

The democrats in Pennsylvania have to think hard and long about how badly they want to win The White House. They will not win it with Hilary Clinton. I’ve never been so certain of anything in short my life.

The Dems have a map in front of them but they can’t read it.

Flying out tonight – see ya later.

Gore?

Gore Supporters’ Movement Lacks a Candidate

Draft Gore dot org

I wasn’t of voting age at the time but he lost. How he lost is something I forget because I was too busy playing soccer and worrying about my next AP history exam. Something like that.

He hasn’t said it clearly enough. According to the New York Times “his representatives stopped short of declaring that he absolutely would not run.” yet in the same paragraph it mentioned that his people have said “I think he’s said it many times, that he has no plans or intention to run for president.”

If the word absolutely is what they are waiting for I suggest Mr Gore use it. New York Times ads are not cheap and someone could have bought some decent solar panels with all that money.