Mmmm… Sausage!

Don’t forget, the Senate and House bills will have to be reconciled for a compromise bill that will be sent to the president for signing. I’m still living under the fantasy/illusion/crackpot notion that we’ll get a modicum of a public option in the final bill.

BTW, I just contributed $20.00 to Moveon.org’s defeat Joe Lieberman fund.

Show the guy you’re pissed, with more than just words.

@Serolf Divad: $40 here. That’s the dogs’ Hanukkah treat money. No Lattkelicious TastyBites for them now. But I explained to them it was for a good cause and I think they understood.

@Benedick:

Bravo! The fund’s raised nearly $700,000.00 so far. Let’s make the douchebag of the decade sweat!

I’m still hoping for the US America I respect (yes, it’s strange for this Canada City boy to admit) to win and get single payer but one was up against a major league mountain.

TPTB weren’t going to let it happen. Didn’t want to let it happen. And had the resources to make it stop. The GOPers weren’t either because once it did then their entire agenda and reason for being slowly dies. They would end up being RINOs aka more “centrist”. The GOPers were backed into a corner and weren’t going to go down without a filibuster.

The fact that the actual bill got as far as it did against the usual suspects who had the resources to crush it did was amazing when you think about it.

Still a lot weaker than it could have been.

Turned JoeLie into a major villain and angered (ANGERED!) a lot of people into action.

This was a grinding, bitter, attrition based fight, the political equivalent of trench warfare. There was no grand maneuvers or ideas that will EVER win the opposition over. This isn’t a one time thing. This “fight” is on going and never ends.

Howard Dean says kill it but Tom Harkin was on cable last night making what I thought were some pretty good arguments for not killing it.

he used the example of buying a house that was not everything we wanted but had a good foundation. he also made a pretty good argument that this may be the last best chance we have to get the camels nose under the tent and end up with something to build on.

the end of preexisting conditions and stopping them from canceling policies when people get sick are almost worth it. it seems to me.

that was Harkins argument.
I will look for the vid.

video

@ManchuCandidate: Ain’t done yet.

I, for one, refuse to read any sentences that contain any of the following words:

Beck; Palin; O’Reilly; Lieberman; Baucus; Stupak; C Street; gay; Republican; Democrat; Reid; Uganda; marriage; pundit; lobbyist; filibuster; amendment; sixty; fifty-nine (or eight or seven, actually any and all numbers); global warming; deniers; tea-bags (unless we’re talking Tetley); birthers; deathers; Copenhagen; evangelicals; Warren; Fox anything.

This list may not be complete.

I also refuse to look at any pictures of Olympia Snowe; Lieberman; Adam Lambert; and that chick who (for some bizarre reason) does the Progressive insurance ads.

@Capt Howdy: If they can do that plus end medical bankruptcies I’ll be pleased-ish. My insurance payments just went up. If the bill doesn’t pass I expect them to sky-rocket next year. I’m only hoping they won’t sky-rocket if the bill does pass.

I’m stuck like a dope,
With this thing called Hope
And I can’t get it out of my heart.
Not this heart.

I’m off now to bang my head against the wall and sit in the snow.

@Benedick:
so agree
just looking at a picture of LIEberman gives me a sour stomach.

@Benedick:
you forgot “scottish”

/back to weeding

@baked:
baked
dexter!
what did you think
I have been trying to cross paths with you for days.

just got this unique gift idea from a friend:

My friend Mary Alice Monroe gave me a chrysalis for the holidays and this morning a beautiful monarch butterfly emerged. And on Ray’s Mom’s birthday, no less. It’s presently drying its wings in the orchid plant in our bedroom and it’s so beautiful! Since it’s going to get cold tonight, we’ll see if it will enjoy living indoors on a the Gatorade diet proscribed by Mary Alice. I’m simply enchanted with it.

@Capt Howdy:
i believe i answered you on another thread…I MISSED IT!
when is the next airing…i miss my tivo. don’t have the dvd recorder hooked up and i’m missing 1/2 the channels i signed up for.
how is a person supposed to live with such barbarism?

years best mug shots

@baked:
sorry
I have also been busy and in and out. YOU MUST WATCH.
it was amazing. the best finale to the best season evah.
cant wait to talk about it with you.
its on showtime almost everynight.

a warning. be careful what you read and see or you may hear about the ending. it was so shocking and unexpected its being talked and written and blogged about everywhere.
and people are PISSED.

you can also watch it here

@Capt Howdy:
will watch tonight! that’s if they decide to give me showtime tonight…you never know, here on gilligans island.
can’t wait to see it!…and deconstruct with you.

@baked:
the link above is not the best quality but it works.

@Capt Howdy:

first i’ll try the tv tonight and watch your linquey as a last resort.
thanks!

I think we’ve identified our next bubble.

Just one more example of corporate interests understanding the utterly unlikely prospects of the industrial economy continuing for much longer and taking advantage of the dying gasps of globalism to ramp up the raping and pillaging while it’s still possible.

@Pedonator: Gold. Women. Sheep.

Something that I have not seen mentioned anywhere and did not know until today: the health care “reform” bill will abolish the wildly successful SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) which provides health insurance coverage for low-income kids whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid.

That seems dumb.

@SanFranLefty: My sister once relied on SCHIP to help my niece, while she went without insurance herself. Now it’s personal. Very very personal. Wait, this whole shitpile’s been personal. Why don’t they just feed 5-year-olds to Dick Cheney? Oh wait, they did that for eight years. And might still.

@SanFranLefty: Thus, Question 1: Is what’s left still worth passing? Once the dust settles from the Public Option Demolition, I suspect we’ll see more details like this emerge.

@Serolf Divad: Parliamentary inquiry: Can whatever emerges from the conference committee also be filibustered? If so, Beck, Palin, O’Reilly, Lieberman, Baucus, and Stupak.

I also heard some suggestion that the House pass the Senate version as is, and skip that step. It’s really sounding like Joe has the process by the nuts.

@nojo:

I rally cannot stand this whole thing. Just send me an eMail when they’re done, okay?

TJ/ Roy Disney, responsible for the second great age of Disney Animated Films, dead at 79 .

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches:
dont get me started on Roy Disney.
for today we will let him RIP

@Capt Howdy:

Hay, he took the company back from Eisner at least. And insisted on acquiring CG equipment back when the technology was in its infancy.

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches:
ok
the Eisner part anyway.

@nojo: Well, the GOP has always hated SCHIP with a fiery passion because they view it as this insidious plot to get people accustomed to the idea of single-payer healthcare. Which it has done, with great success. That’s why I say it’s successful – plus, needless to say, it is a lifesaver to millions of parents just like cubbie’s sister. States like it because it gives them a chance to pull down federal money to help pay for health care that they would likely be paying anyway out of state-only funds (at least in more humane states where they care) and even the knuckle-dragging states tolerate it but don’t expand upon it because of the cost savings in terms of preventative care.

I’m still a big believer (like you) that Barry should have just said “Medicare for All” and start rolling back the age requirements. Simultaneously they could have said “SCHIP for all children” and lifted the income requirements, and start rolling up the age requirements to 21 or 25 (in some states foster youth who have aged out of care can already can get Medicaid until 21 or 23).

That, of course, would have been the most elegant solution and the best starting point. Not to mention would have made insurance CEOs’ heads explode. Ergo, not done.

@SanFranLefty:

They don’t really represent us, after all. We are left to the wolves.

@SanFranLefty: Let’s not forget that Barry also started by cutting a deal with the drug companies. Which leads to the provision in the current Senate bill that forbids cheaper offshore drugs from being imported.

So: Better than the status quo? I’ll keep an open mind, but it’s not going to be an easy call.

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches: Yesterday I read all 417 comments on the New York Times article about the trauma of joblessness and walked away in utter despair about how fucked we are.

@SanFranLefty: Welcome to my world. I’m not unsympathetic but that has been my life. And the life of every creative artist in the US. And no one has ever lifted a finger to help us. Jesse Helms used us to show the GOP how to take down the government.

@Benedick: I’m sure that as soon as Obama and Congress get this healthcare situation squared away, Bailouts for Broadway will shoot to the top of the agenda.