Geez,

They’ve got to be kidding right? Where were they when Degette was saying “sure, an executive order would be peachy?”

I mean really. Their incense and a nickel might get them a cup of coffee-

I was going to say given their outrage and a paper sack I could bag my groceries. Too little, too late.

I bet Terry went to “sternly worded letter” school right alongside Harry Reid!

What is this supposed to accomplish, except to tip their hand in the last few lines?

We see now that we have our work cut out for us far beyond what we ever anticipated.

Shorter NOW: Send Money!

NOW can go straight to hell. So can Planned Parenthood for that matter along with the rest of their bleating chums in the pen. Where the fuck were they when it mattered? Not. one. more. dime. to. any. of. them.

Fundraising surge!

Though to be fair, I think they are the only ones who will actually score this vote.

They’re idiots if they didn’t see this coming a mile back down the road. NOW and the other women’s groups were duped by our photogenic fuhrer. He could care less about us and our stinking rights.

I heard the smarmy Mike Pence just a bit ago railing against ostensible provisions in the bill that “promote abortion.”

They’ve worked this Straw Man meme quite effectively. The pro-choice side has been totally punked in the spin war on this issue.

Please someone shoot me now.

Please someone shoot me now.

Be careful – if they miss you probably can’t afford the co-pay.

Ridiculous, the Executive Order isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Everyone knows it, including, the President, Stupac and NOW. This whole play is a sham on both sides. They’re all playing the public against each other. Yep – another play for money from the idiot citizens. When are we all going to stop this?

Now, now – you little ladies just go sit down with the ~~~EDITED~~~ and keep your mouths shut.

~~~ModNote: That rhetoric will get you nowhere.~~~

Settle down! Settle down, now.

This entire deal is a pre-arranged deal where Obama agrees to sign an executive order after the House vote. Stupak says OK. They all have a side agreement with the pro-choice caucus that some “hitch” will arise after the House vote which will make Obama decide to NOT sign the Exec order.

This “non” release of the order to pro-choicers ahead of the media is just such a “hitch” and will be the pretext upon which Obama will not sign it.

So, relax everyone.

That actually qualifies as today’s best humor.

Bottom line is the political arm of the pro-choice folks has decided being at the trough (I mean table) is more important than the principles they say they stand for. In truth I expect alll kinds of fund raising emails dripping in righteous indignation at the affront to women in the HCR. I joined these groups decades ago to prevent this sort of crap. I will continue to escort at my local clinic (18 years so far) but not one more nickel for the DC collaborators.

I want what you are smoking

LOL, thanks for that : ) There hasn’t been much to smile about today…

cregan

I wish I could say I felt you were right. I suspect that you aren’t though. I’d bank money that order is signed at the very same moment he signs the health bill the House sends him- as he promised Stupak.

Rep. Stupak already intended to vote Yes; before the vote in November!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URr68joWr1E

NOW and the other women’s groups were duped by our photogenic fuhrer.

That brown-eyed handsome man.

I suspect President Obama’s main, and only, concern is to get a “political win.” Everything else pales in importance.

After this debacle, I wouldn’t believe Obama if he said he supported the sun rising tomorrow. The man has absolutely no principles.

Hopium

I just asked my husband to tape Steny, so I could play it when I’m having trouble falling asleep. Man, is the guy boring or what?

Well ,they could have meant it as an alternative transitive verb:
“is incensed”
1. To perfume with incense.
2. To burn incense to, as a ritual offering.

Jane your link to the Now Statement is not working

I think this is the fate of every originally grassroots movement that moves to DC and goes mainstream and professional. Insider. Everybody out here in Ordinaryville, even the people who supported this hash-up, knew this was at the very least a possibility. The difference between supporters and opposers was about acceptance. I don’t accept this as improvement. NOW and PP either have grown so sclerotic they’re hopelessly senile or so cynical all the umbrage, left over from the presidential campaign, no doubt, is theater.

Please shoot me now. One term president. Is Obama so desperate to throw all of us under the bus? Are you friggin’ kidding me?

Watching this could burn a hole in your stomach.
If sleep is what you seek, The Exorcist would be more soothing.

Listen, Stupak was ALWAYS going to vote yes. He overplayed his hand to a degree and wasn’t going to get what he wanted.

He needed some kind of face saving device.

This is it. The tell tale sign is that the pro-choice members of the House did not IMMEDIATELY protest and block it. If it was real, they would have done both.

Second tell tale sign, Obama was only to sign the order AFTER the vote.

Therefore, it was a three way, pre-arranged deal. Obama agrees to sign the order AFTER the vote, but all agree that “something” will happen which will give him an out. He takes the out after the vote, signs nothing.

Stupak saves his face, pro-choice gets no order, Obama gets his bill.

You give the leaders and pols too much credit for honesty. Just another dirty deal to put the cherry on the cake.

“I suspect President Obama’s main, and only, concern is to get a “political win.””
___

I have to agree. We will nearly all remain one serious accident or illness away from financial ruin (“coverage” notwithstanding) — all the way to BK, for the foreseeable future.

Wow! They sound surprised. Where the hell have they been? “Keeping their powder dry”? Good job there. While you were saving your powder, Orahma took your guns away from you.

“I suspect President Obama’s main, and only, concern is to get a “political win.””

That’s all any partisan cares about.

Partisan I can take. Hell, partisan is what we need.
But this is something else.

Are there any moderate Republican or Democratic pro-choice supporters in the pro-choice movement?

It’s time for them to become single-issue voters. Don’t let pro-choice Republicans vote for Republicans. Don’t let pro-choice Democrats vote for anti-choice Democrats.

This whole thing is a win/win/win. Stupak gets to be a Catholic hero for Jesus. Obama scores another political victory for the American people. And the pro-choice leaders get riled-up members to shake more contributions from. Life is good.

If at some point you see people who look like this in Congress, don’t worry. It’s all part of the long (or maybe not so long) march to the Stone Age :-)

And they’ll not be tolerating any WIMMIN in there neither, no sirreee. Get them bundled up and back in the kitchen where they belong. The boys are going to have some fun now.

The man has absolutely no principles.

How can you say that?
he stuck to all his back room deals.

The irony, of course, being that from a partisan standpoint, I don’t think this will be a “win” for the Democrats in the House or the Senate.

If I were a betting woman I’d bet it invigorates the GOP base more than it invigorates the Dem base.

I mean between the excise tax, the executive order…… I’m surprised he didn’t try to sneak something in offensive to the LGBT community while he was at it. There’s almost something for everyone to hate.

What “we see now” is Obama & Rahm WANT to lose the House in ’10. Rahm will move on to an enormous payout in the private sector & Obama can be the President with great hopes but the ability to do little. The only loser is America. Oh well.

My prediction is that after this bill passes, all of the Kossacks, et al, will strut for a while and when the polls show devastating numbers for the Democrats in November, it will all be touchy feely kumbaya again and we need to unite to show those smelly Republicans. Save your breath. When we needed you to stand up and be “better Democrats”, you sold us all out.

I knew Obama was ready to sell women out when he appointed Larry Summers (“girls are inferior in math and science”) as a top economic advisor.
Frances Kissling, blasted Obama’s office of faith-based initiatives, saying what “many in the progressive religious community have, that it is anti-gay, anti-choice ‘progressives’ that have the ear of the President.”
President Obama named Alexia Kelley, to head the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at DHHS, despite Kelley’s having repeatedly stated that she seeks to reduce access to abortion.
The writing was on the wall long ago. Obama would sell women out big time. But the veal pen groups ignored all these signs and now they’re shocked, shocked, that Obama is now doing what even Republicans have not done. Seek to legislate against access to abortion services for women.
Great job, ladies. Trusting the President to stand up for you when you don’t stand up for yourselves or the rest of the women in America was just. plain. stupid.

If I were a betting woman I’d bet it invigorates the GOP base more than it invigorates the Dem base

I believe that too but politics, like business in this country has become more about tactical wins, rather than long term sustainability strategy. I don’t think they get the difference anymore.

after this bill passes, all of the Kossacks, et al, will strut for a while

Of course. That was the entire goal of passing it.

It’s got as much to do with caring for Americans as the Iraq war did with caring for Iraqis.

agreed.

Wow, who could have seen this coming. How did Now think the administration was going to bribe stupick and his ilk to vote for this piece of shit?

Damn I hope the mandated mental health coverage you get is good.

Too bad NOW doesn’t get a vote.
And even if they did…..

So…NOW is “incensed” by Obama’s EO.

Understandable…they should be. Do they have any votes in the House Pro-Choice Caucus?

Because, if NOW actually has VOTES, and not meaningless and ineffectual words…they can actually be relevant to the discussion.

But, if they’re a rubber stamp for the Senate bill, WE are the ones that ought to be “incensed”…because that means that NOW is just another progressive voice that caved, nothing more.

I knew Obama was ready to sell women out

I’ve seen Obama called a sellout a number of times here today.

While I understand the upset, calling Obama a sellout makes about as much sense as calling Tyson and Perdue sellouts to the cause of chickens.

We’re the product, people.

“The American economy is made out of people!”

Both are appropriate metaphors, that’s for sure.

I think this just points up how useless NOW and other progressive groups have been lately. They’ve been perfectly willing to sell out everyone else’s interests, thinking they’ll be fine somehow. Idiots. I haven’t given them money for years, and see no reason to take up that habit again.

It sounds like their usual MO: let the bad stuff go through, then use it for more fundraising.

Where were they when they could have been useful (like stopping Stupidk’s maneuvers early)?

It’s no longer NOW anyway. It hasn’t been for years. It’s all about staying relevant and keeping those donations flowing at NOWW, (National Organization of Wealthy Women)

My prediction is that after this bill passes, all of the Kossacks, et al, will strut for a while

Markos responded to Kathy Siera, who launched a campaign to stop abuse of women on line after recounting on her blog how she had been subject to a campaign of threats, including a post that featured a picture of her next to a noose.
Kos would have none of it:

Look, if you blog, and blog about controversial shit, you’ll get idiotic emails. Most of the time, said “death threats” don’t even exist — evidenced by the fact that the crying bloggers and journalists always fail to produce said “death threats”….Email makes it easy for stupid people to send stupid emails to public figures. If they can’t handle a little heat in their email inbox, then really, they should try another line of work.

Kos is not known for his sensitivity on women’s issues. His favorite punching bags are NARAL and Code Pink. There’s a chip in his brain….

That’s a central point here. I suppose I haven’t been willing to see this, much less say this, but it was pretty clear that this vote wouldn’t have been scheduled if Pelosi and Obama hadn’t figured out that they could persuade the Stupak bloc somehow. It shouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out what would do that. These people aren’t the Progressive Caucus – they weren’t going to wilt in return for some useless concession.

To say that his commitment on choice or any other issue is “shaky at best” is something of an understatement. Quite obviously, Barack Obama, like Rahm Emanuel, is a standard issue Chicago pol who would sell out his grandmother if he thought it would get him vote or two out of Congress.

Woooohooooooo, we’re passing health care. A Great day in American.

NOW will get over it. Don’t think they are all going to join up with you now, they know the Democratic party represents them better than any other, they are loyal voters.

Wooooohooooooo

I’ve only recently come to possess the degree of cynicism that your remarks suggest. You’ll have to forgive my occasionally slipping into the naivete I used to possess. I’ve now become totally jaded and cynical. Thanks, Obama!

What a great victory for the progressive movement. Who would have thought over a year ago that we would be passing a reform of health care today? This is monumentally awesome, huge, I’m doing a Snoopy dance.

I posted this point in a previous thread, but just checked…most of the bigger feminist blogs appear to have nothing up about this matter.

Am I missing something or does this omission seem pretty strange?

I think your dance would look better in orange.

Really? This isn’t DKos you know…

Women benefit huge from this bill, pregnancy is no longer a pre-existing condition that will keep a woman from getting health care. In the next year we have to help the democrats pass even more, changes, fixes, add stuff….we’re on a slippery slope now. We need all progressive’s help.

Look, I’ll admit that at first blush the EO doesn’t look so great.
But consider what we’re getting in return: removal of the anti-trust exemption,
rigorous review of rate hikes at the national level, a fully-funded high-risk pool,
and a robust public option. All of which will happen Real Soon Now™.
Don’t you think that’s a fair trade?

Meanwhile, NARAL has issued a very weird statement regarding the executive order issued by Obama, in which the group does not once mention Obama, choosing to condemn Stupak alone:

“On a day when Americans are expected to see passage of legislation that will make health care more affordable for more than 30 million citizens, it is deeply disappointing that Bart Stupak and other anti-choice politicians would demand the restatement of the Hyde amendment, a discriminatory law that blocks low-income women from receiving full reproductive-health care. Today’s action is a stark reminder of why we must repeal this unfair and insulting policy. Achieving this goal means increasing the number of lawmakers in Congress who share our pro-choice values. Otherwise, we will continue to see women’s reproductive rights used as a bargaining chip.”

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/news/press-releases/2010/pr03212010_execorder.html

Oh god Wayne, I think I’m gonna hurl…. ;-)

No I don’t

Then again, I have a uterus and a daughter with all the female parts that go with the whole being female thing.

Is this place turning orange…is this what is going to be like for the next few weeks? Gloating about how great the bill is?

Of course, upon further review when it turns to shit, it would be wrong if anyone reminded these people about how much support they gave the bill….

I can’t believe these comments. After 60+ years you expected to craft and pass a superior health care bill from scratch and with no foothold, on existing policy. How naive can you be!! This isn’t a progressive group it is a bitch session that is the mirror image of redstate, although with slightly beter grammar. Why don’t you focus on something that 1) can be accomplished and 2) moves the ball–hail mary’s are fun to talk about but have no use in the practical world. O and this HCR is the best thing to come down the pike–even if you don’t realize it.

As for the future–I’m out of here. On to more positive pastures.

Pretty sure what allan said was snark.

Sigh.

I am in such an awful mood, I apparently broke my snarkometer.

Werd.

Good luck with that. This little woman will not be doing a darn thing for the person who signs an executive order suggesting that if I become pregnant my decision be subject to committee.

Oooh…. NOW is mad. I’m sure that they are shaking in their boots over at the White House.

NOW is a useless organization and now (no pun intended) they will try to use this EO to raise money so that they can walk away without fighting at the next opportunity.

This is a pretty sad day.

Snark-Meter realignment strategy – drink something, watch this.

Let’s see. Obama has been able to split the Democratic party and now the women’s movement. Divide and conquer indeed.

Oh, the faux outrage!!!!

Obama made a deal and made sure no one who could screw it up got in the way. As the old saying goes, act first and apologize later. But let’s face it, the pro-choice caucus got the softer Senate language. Bart Stupak got his 15 minutes of infamy and an executive order that repeats the language already in play in the Hyde amendment. Big whoop. Obama Pelosi and Reid got the votes and the win.

Have some TUMS.

Don’t let the door that is closing on a woman’s right to choose hit you on the way out.

Don’t you have a torch light bund rally where you leader will be speaking, stirring the crowd to a frenzy?

He’s a fraud but don’t let his slavish devotees know. Their illusions are all they really have.

In my opinion, the Faith-Based Inititative is Unconstitutional……

I wrote a position paper for a course on this issue after it was passed by President Bush….I still argue it is Unconstitutional but Obama reaffirmed this bill.

I’ve now become totally jaded and cynical. Thanks, Obama!

“I’ve now become totally realistic and able to care for myself without being distracted by seducers peddling false hope. Thanks, Obama!”

ftfy

That is the value of all this – that people will learn to see.

It’s only painful for a while.

Then it’s liberating.

NOW (National Organization of Wealthy White Women)

Perhaps, you are not “cynical” as of now….Don’t be too hard on yourself….

Perhaps, your eyes have been opened up with the harsh realites of an ever encroaching corporate-run state, which will have more and more losers in the economic realm and much more social unrest to follow……

So, I don’t believe you are cynical but actually more sober in your thinking…..

Again, don’t beat yourself up over these dimwits.

Dear CarolynC,

Perhaps, you are not “cynical” as of now….Don’t be too hard on yourself….

Perhaps, your eyes have been opened up with the harsh realites of an ever encroaching corporate-run state, which will have more and more losers in the economic realm and much more social unrest to follow……

So, I don’t believe you are cynical but actually more sober in your thinking…..

Again, don’t beat yourself up over these dimwits. Take care.

Speak for yourself. My outrage is REAL and my memory is looooooooong.

I hope Barack Obama doesn’t need my vote in 2012. The whole executive order thing will get in MY way. So sorry bout that’

Where was NOW and Planned Parenthood in July when Stupak started all of this?

The Executive Directors of these two organizations should be fired IMO.

They were asleep at the wheel. Because of them, not doing their jobs, mobilizing back in July, we are left with this mess.

Their Board of Directors should FIRE THEM!

Oh, dear, I think you’re in for a big disappointment.

By now there should be enough ‘dry powder’ being hoarded by all the various people involved with this (and other bills) to blow up most of DC. (Personally, I’d prefer it only to blow up the people who have been hoarding it.)

In your dreams.

The insurance companies will find ways – they always do.

Fortunately he’s not the only person posting over there, and a lot of the big names are</em<women.

It’s a big deal to me to have any President issue an executive order against abortion rights. If Bush did it, everyone would be outraged.

Obama made one mistake: when he helped to take away our right to choose on abortion, he forgot to take away our right to choose our votes. I will remember this at this next election and all those which follow. I am no longer a Democrat. But then again, those voting for this bill are no longer Democrats, either.

Hell, I think the Hyde amendment is unconstitutional, along with all the other religion-based laws against abortion and contraceptives and so on. I don’t think any church should be trying to get its views enshrined in law, including the UUs.

You’re kidding, right?

If I were Obama I’d throw many here under the bus. Good lord, you sound like a bunch of Teabaggers. “Photogenic fuhrer”?

Jane, Naral and PP both have statements and they are pathetic. PP is “grateful”, NARAL doesn’t even name Obama.

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/live-blog-president-obama-breaks-faith-with-women/

From PP:

“We regret that a pro-choice president of a pro-choice nation was forced to sign an Executive Order…

Pathetic is right.

One term president.

We can only hope.

I agree.

I remarked to another commenter on another thread that I’d been voting Democratic since 1968 in part because of the “think of the Supreme Court” argument that’s floated every four years.

However, having watched what Obama has done to women’s rights and civil rights in a little over a year, I’m gonna start believing my lyin’ eyes, and not those fantasies peddled by OFA, DNC, NARAL and NOW.

BTW, I think it would be useful if Jane and the Crack Research Team put together a “Scare Tactic Bingo” — all the “terrible things that are going to happen” if a) Democrats don’t win in November; and b) Obama’s not re-elected in 2012.

It’s not too hard; many of the trolls who’ve dropped by during the last few weeks have treated us to a number of them. But having them all in a handy “chart” would be useful.

I’m not sure Marcy could get a TimeLine out of this — maybe something on when they start throwing them about.

In the next year we have to help the democrats pass even more, changes, fixes, add stuff….we’re on a slippery slope now.

Bahahaha. “Help Democrats”? “Pass even more”? “Changes & fixes”?

What are you smoking???

Do you really think the now-even-more-powerful [and wealthy, thanks to mandate $$$$] insurance companies and drug manufacturers are going to allow “fixes” and “stuff” to quietly slip through Congress in the middle of the night? You might want to take a look at how successful the Dorgan amendment — on allowing re-importation of drugs — was in the Senate.

Where’s the support going to come from for removing the exemption from the anti-trust laws for insurance companies?

And who’s going to be promoting the scaling back of the patent protection that allows drug mfgs to keep generics off the market?

Which wonderful groups are going to step forward and remove from existing law the ban on bargaining by Medicare for lower drug prices?

And please list for me all the great “fixes” in “flawed laws” like NAFTA, FISA, TARP and the Use of Military Force In Iraq that have come to pass.

We need all progressive’s help.

Yeah, we’ll give you the same amount of help you gave us. [And that's "progressives'" Sherlock.]

Removal of the anti-trust exemption? Where in this bill is that section? Has anyone here actually seen that provision? The House bill did remove the anti-trust exemption, the Senate bill, which I believe is what’s on the floor for a vote tonight, does not.

The message we have received today is that it is acceptable to negotiate health care on the backs of in the uteruses of women, and we couldn’t disagree more.

There! Fixed that one.

Hey, photogenic fuhrer was my line. And you call me a “teabagger” for that?
Okay, here’s the definition of fuhrer: “‘leader’ or ‘guide’ in the German language”
So I said Obama was a leader who is photogenic. What’s wrong with that? You hate Germans or something? :)

Don’t see many of those women over there much anymore. His Front Pager roster is getting pretty thinned out. Heard most of the Front pagers have gone onto other things. Can’t say I blame them. Having to watch out for the thought police gets pretty exhausting.

yes, it looks like FDL is the last bastion of sanity in America.

Is there NOTHING these Damn DC Democrats won’t get away with?

Is there NO ATROCITY that will snap Pelosi’s insanely corrupt “give $20 TRILLION in BAILOUTS billions $$
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aY0tX8UysIaM
to the VERY fraudulent NY, (“Chicago School”), and Wall Street banksters who MADE $14 TRILLION of American household wealth VANISH into thin air
http://www.thinkglink.com/article/2009/06/16/reversal-of-fortune-americans-have-lost-14-trillion-in-net-worth
as a result of their “boom & bust,” “pump & dump,” “INFLATE and DEFATE,” (credit deflation economics) market manipulations in the first place !!!

That is to say, NANCY PELOSI is DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE, for “overseeing” (NOT overseeing!) the THEFT of NEARLY $30+ TRILLION dollars from American working families, yet the so-called “progressive” and “Liberal” websites are standing right behind the Neo-Con NY Times
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/022810.html
and “Pravda on the Potomac” Neo-COn Washington Post
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031509.html
in APPLAUDING that “bailouts” THEFT of taxpayer trillions!

And it’s FAR WORSE than merely ENABLING TITANIC FRAUD, and the FINANCIAL PREDATION of the ENTIRE American middle class, the ENTIRE American economy…
for when BILL KRISTOL and LIZ CHENEY shouted out that “DEFENSE LAWYERS in terrorist trials ARE TERRORISTS TOO” -

… and when JOE LIEBERMAN and JOHN McCain introduced a bill to CRIMINALIZE DISSENT as “TERRORISM” – the DAMN PELOSI, Obama, & Schumer/Kerry/Feinstein (et al) “Democrat” Senators PRACTICALLY STOOD UP AND CHEERED!!
it was KEN STARR and TED OLSEN who objected most vocally – the DEMOCRATS SUPPORT CRIMINALIZING DISSENT in America!

“

don’t beat yourself up over these dimwits. Take care

.”
Thanks for these words.
I was in a rage for awhile. Got my peeps together and watched an episode of The Wire, and all is right with the (fictional) world. Now I feel better.
(I love how The Wire exposes how totally corrupt government is, just like in the real world. David Simon, who created the show, gave us something that is entertaining and heartbreakingly truthful at the same time. Wish there were more shows on tv like it.)

how can you stand to listen to these people anymore? I had to turn off Bush and then Obama and then all the democrats.

got my fundraiser email from DFA Friday. Saying they wanted money so we could get more progressives democrats in congress. Is there any sign that will do any good?

That was the best of humor all week and I love where they are the moderates, like our pres and all the other dems.

we aren’t called terrorist by McCain and Lieberman. We are “unprivileged belligerents”. My husband says I am in trouble.

liberal in your name tells us why people are now progressive. It’s obvious we will be moving on from progressives now that has been taken over by uninformed people. Have you seen the movie Idiocracy. Which person in the film would be you?

Oh, but they did: They left all of the LGBTQ-friendly provisions that had been put in the House Bill.

The bill has passed and Jane and the rest of you firebagger, kill the bill idiots look as stupid as she does. While the rest of us work to improve this bill you guys look like fucking idiots! Don’t worry. I won’t be back.

Nice.

Someone on DU called this a real clusterfuck because he hates the bill but loves seeing the teabaggers go ballistic. I hate the teabaggers far more than the sell-out dems (if that is possible) so the fact that the teabaggers have totally gone ballistic is some gratification. It also makes you wonder what in this bill could make the teabaggers jump off the cliff. Is there something we missed?

Did the bill give me anything I wanted or needed for my family? About all I can see is a few crumbs.

Maybe the mandate will be ruled unconstitutional (I am sure the lawsuits will be filed the day after passage) and it will go away and hurt the insurance industry big time. If so, it was a great ploy. The bill does have some needed insurance reforms and the industry would not pick up the additional customers it wanted as a trade-off for the reforms.

But if the mandate stands, I can’t see how making the insurance industry stronger is anything but bad. I have been fighting the bastards for 30 years (I am a personal injury lawyer). The last thing the insurance industry needed was more premium dollars to beat the shit out of us with.

Now a question about the crumbs. Does anyone know whether Medicaid will be expanded to any degree? If it will be expanded, maybe there is some real socialism in this bill that slipped in the back door. (Is that why the teabaggers are ballistic?) So I would like to know what really happened with Medicaid. Maybe we all need to be so poor that we all qualify and have Medicaid for all. Of course the banksters will be doing their best to see that happens.

But damn we needed a public option or medicare for all.

Me too. But let’s hope this doesn’t put the clinics totally out of business. The need is overwhelming already.

Am betting most FDLers would have rather had the public option than fed funded abortions.

I have the other view: the pro-choice caucus didn’t rise up in fury and refuse to support the bill because pro-choice was just a way for them to raise money. Nobody who is pro-choice could have voted for this. The bile would have risen in their throats as they tried to reach for the lever. They would have been blinded by visions of coat hangers.

The fact they still saw the “yes” button and had the nerve to push it tells you who they really are.