McJoan: The first question this raises is whether the supposedly politically savvy Messina and Emanuel thought they could actually get away with playing Billy Tauzin, of all people. This is too cute by far, and it was inevitable that Tauzin was going to go public with the deal if he thought they were going to [...]

August is showdown month, so please use our August Recess Event tool and keep working the phones even more to whip votes. If you are a blogger, please sign up your blog.

Here’s a round-up of the latest action in Vermont, Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and California.

If for example you were going to vote for — oh, I don’t know, Marcy Wheeler or Scarecrow or Ellie Elliot or something, you’d write “national marcywheeler” or “activist scarecrow” or “state ellieelliot”.

Voting closes Saturday, August 15 at 10am.

Thanks to everyone who leaped into action last night to spread the word that the Malkinites were targeting the health care event in Denver today with Nancy Pelosi, Jared Polis and Diane DeGette.  We were all up until the wee hours of the morning trying to wrangle people for the event.   Pronin2 at Daily [...]

Want to hear about insurance companies rationing health care? Just ask your local clergyperson. Most of us hear about the rationing almost every day as we visit with our members, and can paint a clearer picture of the need for reform than any lobbyist, without all the spin.

Thanks to Congresssman Filner, and great job by Democracy for America, who worked with him and got a great video. They have been wonderful partners on this project, really terrific to work with, and have helped tremendously.   They’ve also done great work on the Ben Nelson front, and have vowed to continue, even when the White House telling liberal groups to stand down. That takes tremendous courage and integrity.

We’re adding Filner to our Health Care  Heroes page.  At a time when a lot of people are demoralized and are being told that the Blue Dogs are going to write this bill and that they are going to have to suck it up, Congressman Filner’s courage and leadership are inspirational.  So please consider thanking him with a donation.

From Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films: UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley owns $744,232,068 in unexercised stock options. CIGNA’s Edward Hanway spends his holidays in a $13 million beach house in New Jersey. Meanwhile, regular Americans are routinely denied coverage for the care they need when they need it most. The Democrats should’ve launched this campaign [...]

Listed below are the health care events for Democratic members of Congress. If you know of an event and you don’t see it listed, let us know here. If you want to go to any event, you can sign up to join a group (if there is one) or create a group. You can also [...]

Update:  Jeralyn of Talk Left is going to be at the Denver event.  Sign up here.

Update II:  Zappatero at Square State is spreading the good word.

Update III:  ColoradoPols has more.

Remember these guys?