Most excellent!

Jane Hamsher:

From his website:

“A public health insurance option that provides a basic level of coverage is vital to enacting real health care reform. It’s the one proposal being discussed that would provide market competition, squeezing some of the hundreds of billions spent annually on health care not going towards the delivery of medical services. The lack of a public option is one of the principal reasons our nation pays $7,900 a year per person on health care yet produces a shorter life span than nations that spent half that amount.

“A co-op plan, however, is no substitute for a public option. Experts believe you need roughly 500,000 people to join before a co-op could viably negotiate with health care providers. Start-up costs are high and it can take years, even decades, to establish a network that is competitive with private insurers. Public cooperatives are currently authorized in many states and used with some moderate success. They should obviously continue to be an available alternative, but they are not a substitute for a national public plan option.”

That’s pretty encouraging, though not necessarily the “pledge”. When I called his office (probably a day or two before this Aug. 18 statement), the aide (Maria) said unambiguously he would not vote for a bill without a public option.

I saw a kos diary about Sen. Bingaman’s town hall, where a questioner asked the Senator if he could get a show of hands of how many support.

I’ll be at Moran’s event and would like to suggest this question get asked.

I’m going to tonight’s town hall. First time so we’ll see. Bringing my flip camera.

Randall Terry to attend ??? don’t forget to bring the Haldol — although you may want to leave granny at home :D

Gawd, ’elp us!

I believe this town hall will be carried live on C-span

I went to a townhall in my area last Thursday with Sen.RObert Casey, D-PA. There were approximately 150 to 200 people there. THere were only a handful, 10 to 15, opposers.
All but one question asked the Senator were pro reform, and half of those were about the WH seemingly caving on public option. One deather tried to speak out of turn and was quickly, firmly and politely told to wait for the question period by the Senator.
The next day in my local newspaper there was, of course, a write-up of the event. They focused their article on two deathers who, like me, didn’t get a chance to ask a question. They only talked to Sen Casey after the event was over. They focused on these two in spite of the fact that a LARGE majority of people attending were PRO-REFORM. I shot off a letter to the editor that day! I think that is happening a lot at these events. The media is only focusing on the protesters, who are a very small minority of people attending these town halls.
Also I would like to post the addy for a site to sign up for a march for healthcare in 15 cities across America on SUnday, September 13th! http://www.marchforhealthcare.com/home
My husband and I are riding our Harley the almost 200 miles to DC to march. We are going on Saturday and using the money we will save taking the bike instead of the car and getting a motel for the night.
Anyone have any suggestions on what might the best of many things to see and do in DC in one day! Also anyone know of a clean, inexpensive motel or hotel near DC?
Hope some of you join us!

Terry McAuliffe is a piece of crap. He was the principal behind pushing Kerry to out hawk Bush. At the time of that election the rationale for the war had been utterly discredited. McAuliffe refused to challenge the war, the Bush lies or any of it. Between the two, Bush had learned the war was going South. Kerry’s campaign would have committed him to trying to prove his mettle. Terry McAuliffe, leader of the other war party.

Any chance that CSpan will be taping and showing this Town Hall? I think I’ve seen at least 3 replays of a town hall from Patrick McHenry (plus a number of other wing nut critters town halls).

It would be nice to see one offered by semi-intelligent folks for a change. :})

Also this evening in the DC area:

Please Join Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards Representing Maryland’s 4th Congressional District for her Community Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, August 25 2009 from 6:30pm – 8:00pm at
Plum Gar Community Center (Gymnasium)
19561 Scenery Drive
Germantown, MD 20874

Got here about 15 minutes ago. Parking lots are full. Line all the way down the sidewalk…

This is going to be interesting. People interrupted the prayer…

Long time reader … I just registered so I could comment … I’m watching this event live. I cannot believe this guy gets elected. Hopefully Dr. Dean can get some control. Moran is obviously not of the crowd (either side). His speaking manner is halting. He looks and sounds like Brooks Bros. …. he is not helping.

Randall Terry disruption

I wasn’t inside (too busy getting declarations from the people waiting in line, not all of whom got inside), but my sister was, and she said Randall Terry created a disturbance towards the end of the event, wouldn’t quiet down after being offered the first question by Moran, and was escorted out by the police. Sadly, I had already left, so I wasn’t around to demonstrate some of my appreciation for the ejectee as he bounced off his can.

Before the event, while the line gathered outside, these anti-choice folks had some street theater prepared for us. They had a fake doctor murdering doll babies, but their really special feature was two guys in black face with whips flogging a taxpayer and an elderly patient. Stay classy, guys. They called me rude for continuously placing myself center stage. I told them that “rude” didn’t even begin to cover staging a little drama in which the white man was being oppressed by Black Supremacy. This was just satire they said, and didn’t I have a sense of humor? Yeah, I said, but in normal people, the sense of humor is overruled by the sense of decency. The conversation got pretty unedifying after that.

I missed some of the craziness outside I guess. Outside of the guy with the megaphone draped in the don’t take my guns flag… and the larouche guys handing out the obama/hitler magazines.

there are some crazy people in this world. and this is a D +16 district.

The Obama-as-Simon-Legree people were over on the West entrance side, and left well before 6PM when the doors opened, so if you weren’t early, or were at the other door, you missed that particular treat. I asked them, and they were not from this D+16 district.

I spent most of my time walking down both lines of folks waiting to get in, asking people to sign a declaration of support for Obama’s three principles. In this non-selective sample of the admittedly selected group of people who decided to attend, I got at least 50-60% to sign. If you throw in people who only didn’t sign because they had already signed elsewhere, or didn’t sign because they’re to the left of Obama (”I’m not signing for three vague principles. I’m for single payer!”. This is the People’s Republic of Reston , after all.), it was easily 2:1, and more like 3:1 for our side. This activity also allowed me to see where these folks were from, since a street address is part of the declaration, and most of them (well, the ones who signed, I can’t say about those who didn’t sign) were from the 8th District, as I am. Of course we had a number of people from outside the district who very understandably wanted to hear Dean speak.

Without claiming that there are no crazies in the 8th District, I suspect that the people who were there acting out, as opposed to those waiting in line to get in, were almost all imported crazies, and wherever they happen to take their little psychodramas, it reflects not at all on the locals. As above, the ones I bothered to confront, when I had free time because the lines were small and slow-growing, didn’t even pretend to be locals. And after the doors were closed, a group of about 20 of them got on a group chant by the east entrance, “No health reform!”. Well, I waited for the right moment, in the lull between one repetition and the next, and shouted, “Go back to Idaho!”. The double take I got from about a half dozen of the closest of them told me that I had guessed right and hit the mark. Not that there were probably actually any of them from Idaho, but there are parts of Loudoun that are more than half way to Idaho.

I went in on the East side I guess. Got there at 5pm.