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We sent this email to FDL activists this morning. -MW
Harry Reid said Joe Lieberman was the least of his health care worries. He said Joe is a “good man” who is “with us on everything but the war.”
I guess that’s why Reid is letting Lieberman write the health care bill.
Public option – GONE. Medicare expansion – GONE. Joe says he’s looking around for other things he might want to take out of the health care bill, because “Democrats haven’t given up enough yet.”
But it’s not over yet. Harry Reid fears one thing more than Joe Lieberman, and that’s losing his own seat. He’s up for reelection next year, and with a 38% approval rating, the Senate Majority Leader is trailing “generic Republican opponent” by ten points.
You’ve already contributed to our efforts, but we’re asking you to step up again.
Just how bad will the bill be if Lieberman gets his way?
- Mandates every American buy expensive insurance from private companies without the choice of a public option
- Severely taxes middle class health care plans, rather than wealthy individuals
- Insurance premiums will increase in cost $1000 a year
- Increased health care costs
- Insurance companies will be exempt from anti-trust laws, inhibiting competition
- A sweet, sweet deal for PhRMA with no ability to negotiate for Medicare drug prices
- Monopolies granted on new biologic drugs so they will never become generics
- NO public option
- NO medicare expansion
For good measure, Reid slipped in an annual limit on benefits that insurance companies have to pay out, contrary to President Obama’s promise in September. And to top it all off, the IRS fines you if you won’t shell out money to insurance companies!
I don’t know about you, but if I wanted John McCain’s health care plan, I would’ve voted for John McCain. He would have let Lieberman write the health care bill, too.
Reid can restore democracy to the country and the Senate. The majority in both want a strong public option. If Reid goes through “reconciliation” and tells Lieberman to piss off, majority rules. If Reid caves to Lieberman, it’s because he’s too weak to stand up for the American people.
Don’t let Reid invite the disaster in 2010 for the Democratic Party and his own reelection that befell John McCain in 2008.
Your contributions have brought us too far to give up now. The window to pass any real health care reform is closing by the minute. We need your help.
Thanks so much for all you do.
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The problem is the head of the party, the administration. Everyone is rearing their heads because they know there is no support there. They are incompetent and impotent.
Gosh, at least repubs know how to get things done no matter how outlandish and even if no public support.
Why get mad at Reid or Lieberman? This is the White House and Obama’s bill, and the congress is following their lead. Which has been clear since the beginning.
Mort
Sues- you’re right. The problem is President Obama, not Majority Leader Reid. Unless we’re willing to confront Obama- and Michael Whitney, at least, apparently is not- challenging Reid is ludicrous, and maybe a little cowardly.
No, it’s not. It’s how you take back the Senate.
We start by taking back each nominal performer’s seat as they come up for re-election. Right now it’s not Lieberman’s seat at risk, but Reid’s.
[edit: and by the way, for you Senate staffers checking in here today, we'll be checking your bosses' performance on this bill, too, if they are running for re-election. We're through messing around now, because the lack of reasonably priced health care with universal access is costing Americans their lives, their jobs, their homes.]
Exactly, Lieberman isn’t up for election in 2010, neither is Obama. But Reid is.
And if Reid pays for his treachery in 2010, maybe other critters who are up for election in 2012 will notice.
I will not quibble with the “head of the party” as a problem if you are talking about Tim Kaine as DNC Chair.
When’s the last time you saw him publicly doing anything to promote a health care plan which resembled the DNC’s platform?
What a waste.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Michael Whitney and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
ka-CHING!! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!!! Don’t gnash teeth, kick the dog or scream at the TV…go after the bastards where they live!!! I have been sayin’ for some time now that even if the Democrats lose a couple a Blue Dog seats, the Democratic Party will be stronger and better positioned to force Obama to the left or risk bein’ irrelevant by 2012. It is time to triangulate Rahm Emmanual and the Clinton corporatists right outta the fuckin’ party!
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE FUCKIN’ AMMUNITION, ALL THEY GOT IS THE MIRRORS LEFT!!
I’m calling bullshit.
The argument provided to the White House this time around was that the Clinton administration tried to force a plan on Congress into which Congress had no say and therefore no buy-in.
This time it was left to Congress to come up with a plan — all these bloody and useless amendments were all theirs (or their donors, depending on which member of Congress we’re talking about).
If the White House (hello, Rahm) failed, it’s in failing to demand what they ran on as a criteria from bill developed by Congress.
You don’t see the contradiction here? It wouldn’t be bravery on his part. It would only be his becoming more afraid of you than of whoever is jerking his strings now.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that on principle. But it won’t work. And – as others have commented – either way it would have no effect on the reaming we’re about to get.
Citizen mort:
It isn’t a question of who to get mad at, there’s plenty of anger to spread around to all the bastards but it’s a matter of who we can reach right now. We can reach One Hung Harry Reid and Blanch Lincoln and trust me the White House will get the message ‘cuz ObamaRhama is already irrelevant and the only way they become players again is to move in the people’s direction.
Right, mandates work.
There’s another fundamental issue at stake here, aside from Harry Reid, which seems to be forgotten in the mix.
This is about democratic (little d) process, about VOTERS having a say in how they are governed and about transparency. It’s about seeing the officials the VOTERS — not corporations — hired to represent them actually doing the job they were elected to do, and in plain sight of the public.
The people overwhelmingly want real health care reform, not a bailout for the insurance industry. They elected representatives to get this for them. And Reid needs a reminder that he works for the people, not for corporations — unless, of course, he’d like to step down and take a job in the private sector. If he can’t remember who his boss his, perhaps the people ought to help him remember with ads now and with a pink slip if he’s still struggling come primary election.
I’m done with this thing. I’m writing my Reps to just vote NO – what the Senate is producing is WORSE than no reform at all, it’s a giant giveaway to the insurance companies that will screw us for decades.
Vote NO.
It doesn’t have to be one or the other…… we can protest BOTH Harry Reid and the White House.
That’s what I did today. I made commitments to two monthly donations — one to this fund to run ads against Harry Reid and the other to run ads against Rahm Emanuel in his home district.
What do I want? I want them to kill the mandate and to strip Joe Lieberman of his chairmanships.
OH!!!! I just heard that Dean is coming out to kill the bill!!!
Here, here!
Well Rahm isn’t in an elected position, so I don’t know what running ads against him in Illinois is really going to.
But I agree they need to kill the mandate and strip Joe Lieberman of his chairmanship.
If they strip out the mandate, then this bill won’t be so bad – it still won’t do much good, but at least it won’t do much harm.
Then maybe they can pass a real public option through the budgetary reconciliation process that will only require 51 votes in the Senate.
Some feel that Rahm will resign and run for Obama’s old seat and the fuckery continues.
Well, everybody – Jane is right now on Shuster’s MSNBC show– and she is saying that it is now time to kill the bill.
So is Howard Dean.
And the repub putz opposite her is attacking Jane for “bashing Joe Lieberman” – whom he earlier called “a statesman” –.
Shuster, to his credit, asked about the Lieberman flip-flop on Medicare buyin.
Donated and tipped. The next time I hear some folksy, common-man story coming out of a politician’s mouth I’m going listen more carefully.
Harry’s been telling us he was born in a whoretown [Searchlight] and raised around whores. Why did I find common ground on that story?! I wasn’t raised that way. It’s not even normal. Harry has issues.
Oooh – Shuster gave Jane the last word!
That so rarely happens (I mean, in general, the wingnuts get the last word).
I know that Emanuel isn’t elected, but it’s just about the only way we have to strike back at him. I don’t think that Rahm Emanuel ever intended to support a real public option, much less single payer. To him, those were always carrots to keep progressives happy and then bargin away. And, yes, I realize that he’s only doing what Obama wants him to do.
But Rahm Emanuel is not above public reproach, and that’s the message that I’m sending with my donation.
that Dangerstein 3.0 tool better pray he has no conflicting connections to Lieberman -
Yeah, Rahm also helped push NAFTA through when he was with Clinton. Maybe he’s actually a Republican mole. His advice to Democratic presidents always seems to benefit Republicans.
Rahm undoubtedly has his backers but if he throws his hat in the Senate ring this is one Illinois voter who will oppose him.
I’d much rather see Roland Burris hang onto the seat.
I contributed the moment I got the email.
Great idea!
Tim Kaine?
Who is Tim Kaine. Is he anybody we should know. Is he anybody who pays attention to us.
Reid? He’s an empty scrotum. He has been is to the debate on healthcare debate what another Democratic party empty sac, Lee Hamilton, was to the the 9/11 Commission.
Thus Hath The Skeptical Cynic Spake
It is truly written in the sands of time…
One must never spit in a man’s face.
Unless, of course, his moustache is on fire.
Harry knows he’s dead in Nevada anyway, so the urgency of teaching Harry sunpthin, is imo, highly questionable as a tactical move at this point.
Is this reductio ad infinitum, the thing you can still git behind?, or is it a bailout of Insurance industry with garnish thrown in to make tha thang look purty?
Killing this absurdity now, is where money and efforts need to be focused, – not Harry.
FIREPUP FREEDOM FIGHTERS ACTION ALERT!!
I left a post downstream at Scarecrow’s last post and warned that if it was edited or altered again as it was a week or so ago I would turn this place out…well, my post was editied without notice or a flag to tell people that the wording had been changed…the language I used was “not enough rich folks died…” and was changed to “not enough people were harmed” for God’s sake the edited words are not what I said and are more inflamatory than the historical reference I made in the first God damned place!! The original remark came after the historical reference to bankers jumpin’ outta windows in 1929. There was absolutely NO implication that anyone should have been killed or “harmed”…in fact it was the editors pathetic attempt to rewrite the statement that implied that rich people needed to be “harmed”.
An appology is not sufficient…the only redress in this case is to fire the incompetent nincompoop who changed the wording without a notation to that effect and put inflamatory words in my post!!
THIS SHIT CAN’T GO ON FOLKS…when unseen editors change the words of writers without acknowleging their own words, then the citizen who originally posted the message becomes responsible for the change and any liability that might follow.
The moderator who did this is incompetent to manage a rock garden let alone the words and thoughts of intelligent people…how long has this shit beeen goin on here??!!!
“Reid can restore democracy to the country and the Senate. The majority in both want a strong public option. If Reid goes through “reconciliation” and tells Lieberman to piss off, majority rules. If Reid caves to Lieberman, it’s because he’s too weak to stand up for the American people.”
OR Rahm isn’t letting him use reconciliation?
Boycott conservative campaign contributors. Demand congress pass a strong public option http://bit.ly/public_option
Join the Liberal Democratic Party of the United States http://www.democratz.org
I personally think that Arundhati Roy ought to be an inspiration to progressives. Judging from Norske’s complaint; we will not be able to benefit from at least Roy @ FDL.
Every day our government incites us to kill. They justify it by telling us it’s for our protection. I think that more bankers should throw themselves out of windows for our protection. I understand that those sentiments are not shared by our pro Bankster government. But if Gov. can agitate and we cannot, then the fire in FDL has gone out!
How do you really feel?
y’know, when the police indict, arrest, try, and incarcerate the leader of a criminal gang or mafia, this amazing thing often happens: the gang promotes another member to the top leadership position, usually someone as bad or worse as the one that went away. Amazing!
so, its great that efforts are underway to impact Reid’s re-election, but the underlying structures, and mindsets of the Democratic Party which he exemplifies will remain, and even if his replacement is suave and articulate, the policy orientation will not change.
Citizen fuckno:
I expect the “government” and the rest of the corporate establishment to censor and rewrite citizen speech…but I don’t fuckin’ expect a brain-dead moderator at FDL to turn my words into incitment to violence for Christ’s sake!!
Whoa.
Is there going to be an official statement on this from the management of FDL? With the recent new hatch of trolls trying to scramble the conversation I could see flagging a comment. Though trolls seem to confine themselves to just smashing shit up so as not to get banned.
Can we have an explaination from the behind-the-scenes crew. Our Lurking Mods are our best assets!!!
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Arundhati Roy stopped a dam being built for over 20 years at the cost of millions of lives of people, animals and top soil washing away with the help of american environmentalists who really don’t know what is going on locally or that it was actually hurting the environment, people and animals.
The deaths of millions of animals, people and ruin of environment are on her head.
So don’t be so blindly following people without finding out that they are in it for themselves.
Remind you of blindly believing in someone else – like presidential candidate.
NO wonder everyone hates us everywhere.
Yes, but Reid is not being challenged where he needs to be—in the Democratic primary.
In Nevada, the polls show citizens [by 8 to 10 points] favor the Lieberman position on healthcare. At least to the best of my knowldege.
Pulling back from Joe will probably hurt him in the state.
That’s why we need candidates in the Democratic Party to teach him [and Joe] a lesson by druming them and their ilk out of the Party.
We need candidates able to confront the citizens of Neveda with sound arguments that demonstrate how they are basically brainwashed by the health care industrial complex into embracing healthcare polices that are actually detrimental to their own personal interests. And the interests of their families.
That is where this has to go.
Unfortunately there’s been an influx of new users, many of which who are not familiar with this site’s policy towards advocacy of violence against others (it’s not condoned).
Perhaps your comment could have been perceived as advocating violence? Might be appropriate to look at your phrasing to see if it in any way might have tripped moderation for this reason.
Citizen Raven:
Jesus, Brother Freebird, how the hell do you put up with some of this stupid shit…and I was gunna go out and drop some supplies off at the foodshelf but now I gotta chase some fuckin’ little twit around this rhetorical merrygoround in order to keep from bein’ accused of incitin’ violence…give some a these folks a little edjacation and they think they’re fuckin’ Shakespear!
These sorts of petitions are pointless. Why should Reid acquiesce to your plea to please become more principled and have more conviction. Please take pity on me.
These lame attempts are not going to have any sway on someone that has repeatedly shown he has neither conviction nor principles. From where are these going to appear as if by magic if he lacks them?
To hell with pleas and entrities. Reid needs to be replaced by a viable alternative candidate who shares our views. Who is the alternative to Reid whom we can back that will challenge him in the primary? If there currently isn’t such an alternative then we better find one soon. It would be staggering and criminal to return Reid to the Senate
The imperative is not to plea and hope that Reid will suddenly become a better version of himself. The imperative is to be rid of him and replace him with someone better than him.
I dunno, I mean I guess there was a good old days here. Some of these dickheads I even agree with but can’t stand their shit anyway. Just like real life I guess.
Your hero Arundhati Roy caused the death of millions over the years. She is worse than Bush. She destroyed the environment, killed innocent people and animals. They did nothing to her, all for money and presige and hoodwinked everyone. Shame on anyone who helped her.
Citizen Rayne:
Read my post…it was the moderator who put language in my post that implied violence!! Jesus H. keeeRIST on a God dmamned crutch, read the fuckin post it’s at #112 in Scarecrow’s column.
I hope that someone from FDL has contacted Norske privately to try to resolve his complaint.
I personally find Norske to be one of my favorite fixtures here at FDL, so I hope they can patch things up with him (or her, I guess, but I’ve always pictured Norske as a him).
Citizen sues:
Who the fuck is Arhundahti Roy…I don’t even know who the fuck that is…Jesus!!
who the fuck is sues?
Look where it came from. . .figures
Exactly what leverage did Harry Reid have? On behalf of the President (former Senator from Illinois), Rahm Emanuel (former U.S. Representative from a district in Illinois) put pressure on Reid to accomodate Lieberman to get a deal, any deal, done. Additionally, Dick Durbin (Senator from Illinois) chimed in with “we need to find a way to get to 60 votes, and that means accommodating and making concessions on a lot of issues we’d rather not make concessions on.” And if Reid is defeated for re-election, is there not a reasonable chance that Durbin, a close ally of Mr. Obama, will replace him as Majority Leader?
Reid may be defeated for re-election. But without the active support of the President (unlikely if he did not accede to Rahm’s demands), he would have had virtually no chance to return to the Senate.
Citizen Sulfilizard:
Don’t worry, I ain’t goin’ ANY damnedwhere…but I will dump a whole lotsa shit around here if there isn’t a response to my complaint…and NOT in a private e-mail but out in the fuckin’ open for all the members of this community to see and hear.
Yea. . .and so’s dey mama!
You said,
That’s true only if voters don’t participate and take back the party. In my county we’ve taken back the party from the entrenched chickenhawk-ish powerbase which saw the world as it was in the 1970′s. At the time we started taking back the party, the average age of folks participating each month was 60-65 years of age, and overwhelmingly straight/white in a community which is 30% non-white and definitely not all straight. After five years the party looks a lot more like the community it represents, although we are still very short on people in the 30-45 age bracket (too many demands from kids and career in this age bracket).
Now we directly affect our state’s platform, and many other counties have done the same thing, helping with the change process. It’s had an impact, but it takes a lot more time than most people outside of the process realize. Far more time than I expected, that’s for sure.
But if we don’t participate, then we have to suffer leadership by default. And it’s ugly.
If you’re talking about this comment with the following reference:
none of the mods have touched that comment.
I’m not sure what might have happened last week but be assured we will look into it.
And FWIW, it is mod policy to add a Mod Note with any edited comment.
It seems like a Public Ombudsman is needed. I willingly subscribe to FDL monthly with gratitude in my heart.
However, no one should have the right to change words or delete comments expressing opinions stated within the guidelines. Not without communication on the reasons.
You can’t maintain a coalition by seeding doubt. There’s a mouthfull !!!
Looks like MoveOn is launching a bash-Lieberman-on-healthcare ad campaign in CT next week. Not sure what it’s supposed to accomplish. Make people feel guilty for having voted for him over Ned?
Citizen RBG:
Thanks for the response…that’s a start. The language that was changed was “not enough rich bankers died” and was changed to “not enough rich folks were harmed”. And there was no footnote to reference someone elses words…there’s a lotta difference bewteen sayin not enough people died and sayin that people needed to be harmed. Do I hafta do a full Chomsky on this thing to get my fuckin point accross (now THAT would be irony).
I’ll vouch for that, they always tell me when they scold me!
Kudos Rayne, I’m trying to work on that in my area as well. Our state Democratic Party really needs some shaking up, but at the county level we’re starting to really see some action with younger folks getting involved.
You ain’t hangin them red stipes early now bro? :)
good job! I’m all for bio-regionalism. But in some areas where the leadership/patronage/machine system cannot be dislodged, starving the beast by voter boycott/3rd Party/(I) voting is a ready tactic.
And talk about magnifying influence! 3rd Party and (I) campaigns can get issues in front of people without going through (D) filters.
it used to be Money > Momentum > Message
but now Message > Momentum > Money is possible, both inside and outside of the Legacy Parties.
Check this out
Citizen Raven:
No Red Stripe here, Brother, been sober goin on 21 years.
Maybe strip him of his power and therefore his chairmanship? He does love sitting in the Chair with all the REAL information!!!
When I do Lieberman=Homeland Security it’s scares me.
Yeah, me,too. I used to go for the “C’ word occasionally but got sent to my room. Not banned.
I still hate sexism in colorful words but I’m learning to adjust for the Greater Good.
I think you’ve made your point. We all do our best and will continue to do it as well as we can.
P.S., and I love Chomsky.
Thank you, RBG.
Thank you, NorskeFlamethrower.
P.S. and I love FDL.
Please don’t forget to call Reid after you’ve donated to the fund for the ad. That way we can have an immediate impact.
This is really seriously misguided. It is embarrassing that this blog fails to comprehend how the Senate works. You have Senators who think they are President and somehow it’s all Harry Reid’s fault. The myopia is hard to believe.
I am embarrassed that FDL would stoop to this level of pettiness. The impression I get from all this is you would prefer that the GOP return to power. I’m sickened by that very notion and distressed that a progressive blog can not distinguish the trees from the forest. This blame Harry campaign serves no one. You are encouraging a circular firing squad with these near-sighted campaigns and I am frankly sickened by it. Yours is a craven politics. I am removing myself from your mailing lists. Let me know how a President Romney (and that’s if you’re lucky) works out for you.
Sadden,
Charles Lemos
San Francisco, CA
Harry is already toast in NV- I have a lot of friends there and everyone hates his guts, but the energy is vastly greater on the GOP side, and I think one of two no-names (Lowden or Tarkanian) who end up running against him will have to seriously screw up not to take his seat. Save your money on that race- it’s probably already decided.
A waste of time and a waste of money. The only thing that the ad will do is enable the republican in Nevada. Run your ad against Obama if you have the guts because thats where the genesis of this mess called health care reform lies. Lieberman is Obamas creature so it is Obama who is owed the black eye, not Reid.
It’s when your words can be changed behind your back, silently, with no notice or recourse, that the evil really starts to take over. (Anyone read 1984 lately?) I hope this gets resolved soon…