Coakley for President

It’s about damn time this started being said. (h/t Suburban Guerrilla):
Coakley, in her boldest gamble of the campaign, said that fighting for women’s access to abortions was more important than passing the overall bill, despite its aim of providing coverage for 36 million people, establishing a public insurance option, and prohibiting insurers from discriminating [...]

You have no rights

The Stupak amendment, the greatest rollback of rights for women in decades is now in that thing the House has been calling a “Health Care” bill. (Links from Reclusive Leftist, The Confluence, WiredLeft.)
But women are just, as always, the expendable canaries in the coal mine. Their rights are toast, which means so are [...]

Gratuitious ratings scheme or just good information?

Over at Townhall.com they’ve sparked a debate over whether Dr. Nancy, from MSNBC, was looking for a ratings boost or reporting on important information.  It stems from an on-air depiction of a breast-self exam demonstrated on a local news station, WJLA in Washington DC.  Dr. Nancy led her segment off with a clip of the [...]

Congressman Dennis Kucinich asks: “Is this the best we can do?”

Yesterday Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) issued the following statement in anticipation of today’s release of the House bill on health care insurance reform:

“If this is the best we can do, then it is time to ask ourselves whether the two-party system is truly capable of representing the American people or whether the system has been so [...]

Clueless Joe Lieberman

Politico says Lieberman will block any health care reform bill containing a public option.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill.
Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health [...]

Obama told us so

There’s some amazement floating around (e.g. Digby, TPM) about this:
President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its place, say multiple Democratic sources, Obama has indicated a preference for an alternative policy, favored by [...]

It’s enough to make anyone grumpy

I no longer remember to which kind blog I owe the enormous boon of finding Dr. Grumpy. At least once a day, sometimes oftener, his comments on life, neurology, and everything are laugh out loud funny. Today he’s on about insurance companies (go read the whole thing, it’s impossible to do it justice) [...]

Manic Monday News Links

Good Morning Conflucians! Here is my frantically rushed summary of the latest news. I may add a few more odds and ends.
Politics and Politicians
Paterson Says He Will Run Despite White House Pressure
At a parade in Harlem, the governor refused to discuss his conversations with President Obama’s political team, which has made clear [...]

Incoherency is not an Asset

I’m not sure what happened to Dr. Paul Krugman that fateful night of dinner at the White House, but I’d like the shrill one back now.  Was it something in the food?  Was it something in the conversation?  Who knows?  But in as much a Buddhist can offer a Jewish guy a come to Jesus [...]

Why Force the Poor into Subsidizing Insurance Companies?

This health insurance reform bill has sunk to a level that makes me wonder why all the huge corporations in the country don’t line up in front of the white house on Halloween, with bags, dressed as burglars, yelling trick or treat!  The Baucus plan is yet another corporate welfare program masquerading as public welfare [...]