President Obama was quoted yesterday at a ceremony at the White House as hoping that he’ll get a "bipartisan" health insurance bill: Earlier today, at a White House ceremony honoring NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson President Obama said he’s "absolutely confident that we are going to get a [health care] bill, and I hope it’s bipartisan." That hope [...]

Mike Ross is full of shit. Twenty percent of his district lives in poverty, 21.8% have no insurance, and 25% are African American.  Instead of telling progressives that they should suck it up and accept a bad health care bill because it’s “politically imperative,” Bill Clinton should be using his Arkansas clout to kick Ross’s ass.

I wrote over at Huffington Post a month ago about Rick Scott, with the Conservatives For Patient Rights organization, crowing that he’d managed to kill the public option by delaying the passage of health care reform until after August recess: "Keep Up the Fight – Victory is in Sight! Thanks to a collective effort by a loose [...]

Matt Taibbi says that Rahm Emanuel’s health care debacle could be to the Obama administration what the Iraq war was to George Bush.

He’s right.

Susie Madrack at Suburban Guerilla received the following email about a Facebook death announcement. It arrived via an old friend. My commentary. This is Murder by Spreadsheet writ large. Late this afternoon I was gobsmacked by a Facebook announcement that a high school friend had died. I tracked down the story, and it is an absolute textbook example [...]

Max Baucus today reaffirmed his commitment to have a “bipartisan” bill. Since Republicans will never sign off on a public plan, that’s not-so-subtle code for “no public plan.” And any time anyone says that, including President Obama, that is in fact what they’re saying.

We started this whip count effort on June 23 because it became clear that in the course of making their deals with stakeholders, the Baucus Caucus (who were negotiating on behalf of the White House, with the participation of the White House) had very likely already dealt the public plan away. 

Today’s In The States includes Tennesse, Virginia, Kentucky, California, Arizona, Illinois, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Massachusetts and features a lot of action on the Blue America “Standing Up For The Public Option” ActBlue page.

In case anyone missed it, we’re doing a little fundraiser to thank the members of congress who have agreed to draw a line in the sand over a public plan. As of last count, we’re up to $97,863 with 1456 individuals who have given money. It’s an amazing result in just 24 hours. Keep up [...]

Somewhere there is a war breaking out. There are too many people with too much money at stake to just sit back and accept this passively. “Bipartisan”was always code for “no public plan,” something to keep the thieves stakeholders (AMA, PhRMA, hospitals, device makers, etc.) at the table and their money out of GOP coffers for 2010.