woohoo – i love that ad jane – and it is certainly going to get some attention in arkansas.

now to work on finding the who…

Great ad.

Let’s rumble.

You’re such a badass, Teddy.

;)

Bravo. And please: a similar one for Jim Cooper.

I just received a message that the video was removed by the user.

Refreshed. Now it’s playing.

Shorter NSA: All your intertoobz r belong to us.

Blanche [I believe in the kindness of STRANGERS] Lincoln

how quaint

Jane did you see this study

http://www.physorg.com/news172424058.html

waiting or failure
is NOT ANOPTION

the straights are dire

The steady and strong leadership of Pelosi and Reid should overcome….never mind.

Lincoln and Ross need to be reminded that Democratic voters, not Blue Cross Blue Shield CEOs, are the ones who put them in office.

Don’t thoughts like that immediately vaporize, never to be recovered, just as soon as the V.P. swears them in?

But a DailyKos/Research 2000 poll shows that a majority of Arkansas voters, and 80% of the state’s Democrats, support a public option.

“Lessee – 80% of “the little people” versus guaranteed scads of money”?

No contest.

We The People simply need to stop being such annoying pains-in-the-ass – it’s entirely possible that at some point we might actually get, to some small extent, in the way of business as usual.

Goopers have no souls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..r_embedded

Is the add being run in Arkansas or are television stations refusing to run it?

After Brianna Rice, a 17-year-old in the Chicago area, was diagnosed in February with a digestive disorder called celiac disease, her insurer went through the teen’s health history and canceled her coverage that started in November.

The reason? There were reports of dizziness, elevated cholesterol, fatigue and cough in her file, according to the Chicago Tribune.

send to Barack and Michelle

libertarians, conservatives and Republicans would just say “freedom isn’t free.” As long as they don’t pay the price of freedom they could care less. They are indeed souless.

I’d like Rahm Emanuel to tell me I’m “fucking stupid” to my face.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Irak: 4344

US KIA Afghanistan: 838

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Physorg.com is a great website. But not all the stories are happy science.

argh………..so much needs fixin

Blue Dogs need to realize that for many of us, me included, Health Care reform is a deal-breaker.

I’m willing to put up with some crap from them, but if they undermine this, they will not only lose my support, but will earn my active opposition.

One reason all those 45-54 year old men at health town halls were so angry.

Hey Jane:

Start referring to the “Blue Dogs” as the “Blue Cross Dogs” or “Blue Cross Dog Democrats” every chance you get.

Pretty much says it all – simply by adding a single word.

I’d imagine there were a lot from the 55-64 group as well.

BCBS controls 75% of policies issued in Iowa.

In the 1990s, Iowa adopted a law to encourage the development of health care co-ops. One was created, and it died within two years. Although the law is still on the books, the state does not have a co-op now, said Susan E. Voss, the Iowa insurance commissioner.

That explains a lot

One wonders what sort of horrors Lincoln and Ross had to endure as children to grow up to become such douchebags. It’s a fail for their parents and the education system.

Done.
Modest, but given the fact that the CEO of United Health made over $25,000,000 as ‘compensation’ in 2007 alone, which is a damn sight more than any Dr or nurse that I know makes, at least it’s something that I can do to register my outrage and utter disgust at the current fleecing of everyone — including care providers! — by the profit-driven demands of insurance companies.

Yeah, and I’d like to know how many people actually work in the office of that Insurance Commissioner, whether they have subpeona authority, and how well equipped and qualified they are to track down medical fraud and abuse.

I’m guessing they’re undermanned and underfunded.

And when can we expect President Obama to act like a Democrat?

Here’s the Co-Op Model the Blue Dogs like Lincoln and Ross want to impose on the whole country.

Served 200 people, went out of business in less than 5 years because it was dependent on State and other grants that ran out (i.e. it wasn’t self-supporting). It never had any impact on health care costs…and it never generated a “movement” amongst the uninsured.

The good thing about all of this debate: it’s clear that our congress is bought and paid for by big corps.
The insurance industry is not regulated AT ALL! It’s time.

We can only expect our (s)elected officials to act like they represent us when we completely separate money from politics – and I do mean COMPLETELY.

Realize that all of the money spent to finance advertising campaigns goes to the media companies in one form or another. Realize further how the media companies and the drug/health/insurance companies were and are all in bed together, as evidenced by the fact that we are now subjected to constant bombardment of drug, health, and insurance related advertising on television.

Watch the MSM nightly news broadcasts and look how many drugs are advertised. It used to be prohibited for them to advertise in the US. Can you see why the media empire has a vested interest in promoting the drug/health/insurance agenda?

My friends and I pay through the nose for “health insurance,” yet, in reality, we have none. I’ve NEVER hit my high deductible – nor have any of my friends hit theirs. Yet we send Blue Cross $400 per month for which they provide NOTHING. The only reason we pay these amounts is to ensure against catastrophic disease or injury. Need a $4,000 procedure? Tough shit!

The system is symbiotic, and benefits all but those who require actual CARE.

We don’t need insurance. We need care. Remove the insurance layer from the entire structure, and consider how affordable actual care would become.

You’re staring fascism squarely in the face.

Blanche Lincoln says she opposes a public option because it’s “too expensive.” She doesn’t mention that it will save individuals $2000 a year in medical costs.

She also doesn’t mention she voted for all war appropriations and she voted against Feingold’s Iraq Withdrawal Amendment. See her Project Vote page under the “Defense” category.

I’d like to see a little more emphasis on the savings part of this ad. THAT will appeal to people more than just about anything and it flashes on the screen too fast.
I could WISH I had $$$ to donate. I would have last year…………

My partner is afraid to go to the doctor because she is afraid they will order some test that isn’t covered by insurance and that we can’t afford. She stares at coverage tables in booklets and panics at the thought of what kind of bill she could end up with if she walks through the door of a doctor’s office.

There’s only one thing that’s “fucking stupid” and it’s the people in Congress who want to allow this farce – this farce that is literally killing people – to go on.

A vote for the public option is a vote for a little bit of hope. A tiny glimmer. A vote for the continued dominance of the private insurance industry is a vote for years and years more of needless death.

Shame on Lincoln and Ross.

another STALWART of reform

Snowe’s early life contained much tragedy; her mother died of breast cancer when she was eight, and her father died of heart disease barely a year later. Orphaned, she was moved to Auburn, Maine, to be raised by her aunt and uncle, a barber and a textile mill worker respectively, along with their five other children. Her brother John was raised separately, by other family members. Within a few years, illness would also claim her uncle’s life.
wiki Olimpia Snowe

Thanks, RoTL. We worked hard on this one and really appreciate it.

And when can we expect President Obama to act like a Democrat?

When does the re-election campaign start to get serious?

oh wait, you said *act*, not talk….

never mind.

I totally know that feeling, CalGeorge. As a member of a “cancer family” we’ve had to be vigilant since an early age, and there were times I couldn’t afford to do what I should have been doing. It’s a terribly feeling, you always feel anxious even when you can put it out of your mind. You hope nothing is wrong but you never know for sure, and it colors everything you do.

I hope that changes in a meaningful way. I don’t want anyone to have to feel like that again.

Doesn’t that shot of Blanche remind anyone else of Father Knows Best. Someone tell me what decade this is.

Tell her to have the tests anyway. Don’t worry about paying for the tests. It is immoral to put humans through this kind of pressure. If she needs care she should do whatever she needs to do to get it. Then she could pay, …oh…, twenty bucks a month until it is taken care of. Why should citizens ruin their lives for the financial well being of the health care industry. 45,000 deaths a years of Americans who cannot afford insurance! Murder by spreadsheet. Murder-plain and simple.

I wish we could all wake up every day with a clean slate. My son has Aspergers. Literally everthing he does at school is colored by that. It’s very frustrating for him. For me as well.

bless you……wish Senator Snowe felt the way you do

lemme see . . . 45,000 a year . . . that’s 123 Americans per day . . .
dead peasants return @ $102K per dead peasant(approx) . . . coporate america receives $1.25M per day.

and don’t even get me started on the tax breaks – or that they’re tax free

sloooow down

applause!!!!waves{{{{{hugs}}}}}}

this is war on women

Many insurers consider a Caesarean-section pregnancy a pre-existing condition and refuse to cover women who have had the procedure.

… and this:

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 requires employers with more than 15 workers to include maternity benefits in their insurance packages. But only 14 states require maternity coverage in policies sold on the individual market, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

And a report last fall by the National Women’s Law Center found only 12 percent of 3,500 individual insurance policies included comprehensive maternity coverage. Another 20 percent offered it with a rider that cost as much as $1,100 a month. Others required a two-year waiting period.

I was thinking about you, some more, the other day. Do you remember back in the old days, when we had Rent Parties? Perhaps you and Ron could have a Divorce party. Invite all the money dogs in your town and ask them to bring the amount they pay each month for their health insurance.
I know. I’m weird. But, you already know that.

Saw one this morning about Dave Reichert (R-WA)…I love it!!!

A lot of men get prostate cancer. Is having a prostate gland a pre-existing condition?

I wrote a letter to that effect, saying nobody tells me to shut up here.

Absolutely.

Thanks for all you do, Mary. Glad to have you here and speaking from experience.

You are not weird. Here is my relative’s reponse to the article:
(article relates to health care financial devastation and divorce)

just read the article. Sorta’ sad, but you gotta’ do what you gotta’ do. I also read about 2 pages of the replies and a few of these people have their heads up their arses. You guys should have a big party (sponsored by Huffingtonpost) for your divorce and draw as much attention to it as possible. Get Michael Morer and anyone else famous(other than yourselves) to attend and get this message out. CNN and Rolling Stone can cover it as well as anybody else. This could be bigger than Michael Jackson’s funeral. Let me know what I can help plan.

He is a funny dude. I love him.

What Blue Dogs need to realize is that it’s not just us DFH’s who want the public option. And that they have something they’ve probably forgotten about — Democratic constituents.

Okay, it’s a good add and I’ve done my little bit. I must admit though, as a retired civil servant who had to deal with AR congressional staffs frequently, it’s not easy to come down on Sen. Lincoln. It’s a redish-purple state, the northwestern half of which is virtually owned by Walmart, and statewide elections are tough for Democrats of any stripe. Still, I agree that the correct pressure point for healthcare is Democratic senators.

And while we are at it, lets remind anyone claiming to be Democrat who regards higher tax rates on the wealthy as “class warfare” that he is not really a Democrat, and should find another home.

ANd Sen. Lieberman needs to be kicked out of the Dem. caucus if he puts his ass in the way.

The thing about kicking out incumbents who are not only beneficiaries of generous health insurance coverage, but of lobbyists who represent private health insurance über alles, as well, is they are likely to outspend any opponents at the primary stage.

Organizing can overcome.

It’s interesting to watch these Conservadems squirm as they try to make their arguments against real reform when they have no rational argument.

Will send a few more $ for these ads today. IMHO, Rahm Emanuel has a serious problem with projecting fucking stupidness.

This is the kind of thing that lights a fire under their tails. Senators *hate* to be singled out and they do everything (with Harry Reid’s help) to hide behind generic “we don’t have the votes” cowardly statements. Witness Ben Nelson’s reaction when he was called out by name and had ads run against him. Witness Grassley’s melt down when he was singled out.

Accountability is the name of the game.

I live in Mike Ross’ district and anti-reform commercials blanketed the airwaves during the month of August. This might be too little, too late but I’m glad to see it finally happening. When a constituent at a “town hall” pointed to the uninsured statistics in his district as well as the amount of money he has taken in from health industry interests, Rep. Ross dismissively accused him of “watching too much MSNBC.”

Senator Lincoln has been in the pocket of corporate interests for a while now. I’ve lost respect for the both of them.

That’s the thing, TarheelDem. When that 76% poll number came out, showing that a vast majority of people in this country support a public option, the argument that Dems in conservative districts/states can’t support it and need cover should have been dead.

In theory, and unless their district is very atypical, instead of endangering them in the next election, it should give them a boost at the voting booths given that a poll number of 76% means that the support comes from Dems, Independents and some Republicans.

They are just dragging out the tired, old arguments that are always used as excuses for Blue Dogs and Conservadems when they vote against the party. The Dkos/R2000 polls for specific districts/states are invaluable.

But, to reiterate, even without the polls — what percentage of the country are registered Dems? Like 40% or something? When you have a number at 76% the Conservadems usual excuses go right out the window.

cartesa -

Is there any possibility of someone running in a primary against them? That really is their worst nightmare – a real Dem shows up in the primary and gets the base going and the Demopublican looses.

The Congress is back in session and doing the dirty work for the Medical Industrial Complex.

mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,
lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M,
conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M, j wilson 800K
were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.
(Source: OpenSecrets.org)

Researchers from Harvard Medical School say the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States. 12 Million Americans were denied health care coverage by the Medical Industrial Complex because they had a pre-existing medical condition. 12K Americans are denied insurance coverage everyday by a for-profit Insurance bureaucrat. (Source: WaPo Article 05′ by Harvard Prof. E. Warren)

Medical malpractice lawsuits are a hot topic but, are they? Tort Reform is such a “red herring” and is easily disproved. A 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said medical malpractice makes up only 2 percent of U.S. health spending. Even “significant reductions” would do little to curb health-care expenses, it concluded.

Citizens for Tax Justice pointed this out. The tax legislation enacted under President George W. Bush from 2001 through 2006 will cost $2.48 trillion over the 2001-2010 period. This includes the revenue loss of $2.11 trillion that results directly from the cheney/bush tax cuts as well as the $379 billion in additional interest payments on the national debt that we must make since the tax cuts were deficit-financed. Over the upcoming decade (2010-2019), the costs of the health care proposals approved by three committees in the U.S. House of Representatives are projected to be around $1 trillion and deficit neutral(that means they’re paid for). In 2010, when all the cheney/bush tax cuts are finally phased in, a staggering 52.5 percent of the benefits will go to the richest 5 percent of taxpayers. The cheney/bush tax cuts were deficit-financed, which increased the national debt and resulted in greater interest payments on that debt. cheney/bush administration never even tried to pay for their tax-cuts. So, for the price of cheney/bush’s tax-cuts for the wealthiest 5%, we could have had Health Care for every American. Instead Americans got bupkus and cheney/bush’s republican campaign contributors/golf buddies got filthy rich off of the Blood Money from No-Bid, Cost-Plus Federal Contracts.

Follow the Money: Link

Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!

(Toll Free # House and Senate)
1-866-338-1015_______________1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711_______________1-866-311-3405

Sign Single-Payer Petition: Link

Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.

SEMPER FI!

Great ad, Jane!

I hate to say it but I think its a terrible ad. It simply shouldn’t begin with the fat white teabaggers. Or with Joe Wilson’s “you lie”–its stupid. Begin with the suffering people of their states without insurance. Then go on to attack the representatives. Then tell people what to do. You’ve wasted the entire beginning of the ad making the rightist case against the public option and you wait until the end to make our case.

I’ve put a bunch of money into individual ad campaigns but I can’t support this one. Its ham handed and counterproductive.

aimai

Thanks for giving me a simple, easy means to channel my contempt in a somewhat useful direction ;-))

And CalGeorge… I can’t tell you the number of similar stories that I know, and it’s not just ‘lower class’ (whatever the heck that means these days). It’s people WITH jobs, people who work for a living.

You know, people whose taxes are going to bail out banksters.

Agreed!

I don’t want to argue with you one bit; if you don’t like it, that’s fine.

But coming from my perspective, I’m actually really pleased to see the ridiculousness of Town Hall disruptions shown in a way that reveals them to be hostile nonsense.

I also think it is critical to point out the linkages between the way that Lincoln and Ross are caving to a bunch of angry, ill-informed people who do not have facts on their side, and who have been used as tools of corporate avarice.

We all have different preferences when it comes to ads.

FWIW, it’s important to point out the forces with which Lincoln and Ross are aligning themselves, because it should give them pause. Only a demagogue or a coward would align with that kind of ill-informed pot-stirring.

Many Thanks! I think I can use that link.
http://hmc-lavadogs.livejournal.com/20128.html

Welcome to FDL. What campaigns have you given to in the past?

Alas, I can’t watch the advert on my current connection which is way too slow for video whitewater streams.

Welcome to you too. To all our new friends who have only just joined us recently.

Congratulations on having so much free time on your hands that you can quickly jump into every health care thread. It seems to be a passion of yours.

Heehee.

Here is what Congressman Lloyd Doggett, D-Tx 25 wrote for the Austin Chronicle:

Health care in America has been turned upside down: The less you can pay, the more you are charged. More jobs are involved in denying health care then providing it. Premiums soar while coverage shrinks. And every year, less of our insurance premiums actually pay for health care and more pay for executive salaries and other administration costs.

“You lie!” is not just about another fanatic congressman screaming at the president, but the claim that insurance reform is not in the direct self-interest of many of the frightened protesters, who are shouting “No!” the loudest.

Unless denying the uninsured the right to buy into Medicare-type public insurance is a “deal breaker,” deep-poceted insurance giants will win this one.

I’m unsure what to call a political system that cannot execute the unambiguous will of over three quarters of its constituency, but “representative democracy” seems far wide the mark. We need to own up to the stark revelation that, when an overwhelming majority of the public want something and can’t achieve it, clearly someone else is running the show.

I just contributed $100 to help air this ad and I’m about to contribute to Accountability Now. I’ve always been against opposing incumbent Democrats but, after the way they’ve ignored us on health care, I’m going to spend ALL my time and money supporting primary challenges to these corporate tools.

I belong to the party of FDR, the Kennedys, and LBJ and I will not abandon it just because it’s run by fund-raising whores. Let THEM go start a third party; this one’s ours.

Sorry, but IMO this is not a good ad. This is not a good strategy.

For Lincoln and Ross, standing up against Democrats (liberals) is a feature, not a bug. The FDL ad reinforces their positioning. This ad actually helps them.

This will not move them at all — if anything it will help strengthen their opposition by underscoring their rationale.

All that and Grassely Too.
That’s Tough.

He was a fair cop.Gets more credit for catching “Green River Killer”
than he deserves.He was the only one left.The rest of the detectives retired.
LOUSY Congressman!!

Let us know when your ad comes out, aimai.

BRAVO! It’s time for everyone to take the gloves off now. And start hitting these democrats HARD! until they strongly support a Strong, Robust, Toothy Government-run Public Option, available on day one.

Or until they are so politically damaged that they wont stand a snowball chance in Hell getting reelected. AND NO BACKING OFF THIS TIME. If they complain, then hit them HARDER! and remind them what you want. This is about life and death. Be tough!

Sincerely

jacksmith — Working Class