Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog

• MAHD Huntington Responds to an Anti-Reform Doctor

  I'm a bit too busy to write much this morning, but Doctor Mike Huntington, one of the Mad As Hell Doctors I met a couple of months ago when they were in Chicago wrote an instructive piece in response to an anti-reform doctor he met while counter-demonstrating an anti-reform rally:In' [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:18am EST
  

• JFK's Words Fit Today

  "Let us not seek the republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. let us accept our own responsibility for the future." - JFK [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 9:00pm EST
  

• And You Thought It Was Just Me

  A good discussion of the faulty thoughtprocess that led us to where we are today in health care reform can be found here. Progressives make mincemeat of HCAN's paid national blogger, Jason Rosenbaum. [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 8:07pm EST
  

• David Hoffman's Campaign Defended His Push Poll To Me

  I posted some of the questions from David Hoffman's push poll last week. The Hoffman campaign was still touting it to me on facebook, so I responded that it was a push poll. This is what they said back:Our polls are conducted by Geoffrey Garin, one of the most respected [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 10:50am EST
  

• Robert Reich on the Public Option

  But even the House's shrunken and costly little public option is too much private insurers, Big Pharma, Republicans, and "centrists" in the Senate. So Harry Reid has proposed an even tinier public option, which states can decide not to offer their citizens. According to the CBO, it would attract no [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 1:27pm EST
  

• Question of the Day: Is Badly Done Reform Better Than No Reform?

  Tell me and why in the comments."When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 9:17am EST
  

• Physicians for a National Health Program Give Their Opinion of the Current Health Reform Bill Version

  UPDATE: Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont): "Without a strong public option the individual mandate makes no sense." Problem is that there is no strong public option and there hasn't been for months. Now, it's even weaker as the exchanges in the Senate bill are split up into 2 separate markets, the individual [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:07pm EST
  

• A Little History Lesson For Mark Kirk

  As we've discussed earlier this week, Mark Kirk is on a fearmongering mission to stop the detention of former Guantanamo prison inmates, detainees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at the super-max federal prison in Thomson, Illinois. He's crying Willis Tower and expecting Illinoisans will get scared and push him [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:58am EST
  

• Hoffman Campaign says poll not a push poll. You tell me.

  I've been bombarded with emails criticizing my comment that Hoffman's latest "information ballot" poll was a push poll. Ok, here's the poll off his own site, you tell me.Here are some of the questions that I question:ALEXI GIANNOULIAS's family bank had close financial ties with Tony Rezko, one of Rod [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:28am EST
  

• Senate Bill is Out.

  UPDATE: The employer mandate of the Senate bill virtually ensures the demise of employer based insurance and not for good reasons. It will be pretty cheap for your employer to dump you. The fine for large employers is $750 per employee, probably cheaper than the premium to insure an employee. [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:10pm EST
  

• David Hoffman: Social Liberal, Fiscal Conservative-ish

  This evening I attended Tenth Dems University's Meet the Candidates, David Hoffman edition. Hoffman is running for U.S. Senate, Barack's seat.Hoffman is a graduate of Yale and received his law degree from the University of Chicago. He worked for Pat Fitzgerald for 5 years in the Narcotics and Gangs section [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 9:14pm EST
  

• Mark Kirk Recycles

  UPDATE:Crankyboy commented: Kirk proves that terrorism works because Kirk's afraid of them. Kirk's afraid of a group of people living in caves eating canned goods heated over an open fire. People as susceptible to terrorist threats as Mark Kirk should not be in office.*****************************Mark Kirk is going full court press [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 7:51am EST
  

• Arguments for Faulty Reform Coming In Faster Than I Can Open Them

  From Dick Durbin to Chris Van Hollen over at DCCC to Jeremy Bird from OFA (DNC) to Campaign for America's Future to an HCAN devotee I know from the District, I'm getting the emails to support exchanges and subsidies in place of health care reform. Durbin is going for an' [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 2:41pm EST
  

• Please, Please David. Tell Me Why.

  Progress Illinois quoted Senate candidate David Hoffman who appeared on ABC 7's Newsviews yesterday. Mr. Hoffman is touting his self-proclaimed credential as the better Democratic candidate to stave off the corruption dialogue. Among other things, Hoffman said:I think the press has been very consistent about this: that there are vulnerabilities [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 2:20pm EST
  

• Mark Kirk Against Prison Use, But Residents Want It

  There's been talk of housing some Gitmo detainees in an underused prison in Thomson a small town in northwestern Illinois. Thomson residents want it for the jobs, but Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk says no. He wrote a letter to President Obama urging the Administration to stop the deal:Dear Mr. [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 6:00am EST
  

• Let's Do The Right Thing for A Change. Do Not Escalate In Afghanistan

  [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 1:44am EST
  

• Truth Is, H1N1 No Match for Profits on Sexual Dysfunction and Restless Leg Syndrome. Corporations should not be setting our national priorities.

  While Fox News tells its viewers that the shortage of H1N1 vaccines proves that government cannot be involved in health care, not even as a single payer as opposed to an actual provider because they refuse to recognize the distinction, Barbara Ehrenreich gives us some facts in her recent article, [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 8:56pm EST
  

• Mark Kirk: Tie Our Economy to China's

  Mark Kirk's Iraq War tied our economy to China. We borrowed so much from China for that war that we are beholden to them and then some. The non-manufacturing, fully consumer economy we got from the free markets touted by Kirk tied us even more to China. We'll have to' [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 10:23am EST
  

• "Hey, Bill. What the H*ll Happened!"

  UPDATE: Proves my point re OFA. More HCAN follies around the country.UPDATE: National HCAN just advised the Senate to use the House bill as the model health care reform bill proving that they do in fact have rocks in their heads over there. I guess they like high costs and [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 6:39pm EST
  

• Tell Northbrook How You Feel About the 70 Gun Giveaway

  On October 27, 2009, the Village Board of the Village of Northbrook approved an ordinance providing for the disposal of surplus police department duty weapons, seventy, 17-year-old Beretta Centurion 92FS'. They decided to give them away to the officers who used them for unrestricted personal use. Under the ordinance, if' [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Finally, an answer to my question and ooops, HCAN wrong again.

  I've been asking for months: why so much cheerleading on the progressive side for the health care corporate welfare/reform bill.Rose Ann DeMoro explains:Why then so much cheerleading by many progressive and liberal legislators, columnists, and activists?1- Passage of the bill was a clear defeat for the Republican opposition and those' [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 9:33pm EST
  

• A Spoon Full of Benefits Helps the Corporate Welfare Go Down

  Despite the mandate for change in last years election, it seems that every small bit of reform we manage to get passed is paired with a huge dose of corporate welfare. First, the climate bill got bogged down with perks to the coal industry saddling us with dirty coal burning [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Happy Birthday Grover, Cookie Monster and the Fuzzy and Blue Gang over at Sesame Street

  I can't embed it, but here is my favorite Sesame Street song, Fuzzy and Blue.' [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 8:24am EST
  

• Some Democrats No Longer In Mood To Drop Their Values For the Micro Mini Public Option

  The signatories of this draft letter to Nancy Pelosi will gain some respect back from me. Greg Sargent of The Plum Line blog is reporting 41 Democrats will sign.Will Obama finally draw the line?Over the years, I've learned that even though the road often gets tough, you are never sorry' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:37pm EST
  

• Claire McCaskill Misrepresenting Stupak Amendment

  UPDATE: Mccaskill seems to be backing off her statement. Maybe she finally read the amendment and realized she was wrong.*******************************************Sen. Claire McCaskill said:Obviously, I have been a pro-choice candidate for my entire political career, and obviously there is controversy always surrounding this issue. But we are talking about whether or [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 2:09pm EST
  

• My Article Re Howard Dean At Tenth Dems Made It To Huffington Post

  It can be found here. They placed it on their Politics page.Dr. Dean said the grassroots was going to have to make the final push for real reform. However, it seems to me that if the grassroots isn't acting independently of congressional leaders and the white house, nothing of any' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 10:09am EST
  

• Cultlike Devotion to a Pretty Bare Reform Package

  Even more disturbing than the weak to non-existent public option and the anti-abortion provisions of the health politics bill is the cultlike devotion to it. I'm reading the most outrageous things on the Internet from a call to kick Dennis Kucinich out of congress to telling women that they are' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Exchanging Core Democratic Values for Little Reform

  I told this story at the beginning of the health care debate, but I think it should be repeated now that health care reform has become anti-abortion legislation.I was in the waiting room of my doctors office a couple of years ago. A young woman came in with a bladder [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 9:01am EST
  

• Eric Massa's pre-vote statements

  Here is what Eric Massa had to say before the vote.At the highest level this bill will enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry,” Massa said in a telephone news conference this morning. “There’s no other way to look at it.Best line is always at [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:40pm EST
  

• Dennis Kuchinich on Why He Voted Nay

  We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:33pm EST
  

• It's Official. Health Care Reformers Sell Women's Right to Choose Down the Drain

  UPDATE: It took Chris Van Hollen about 30 seconds after the final vote to ask me for money. His email fails to mention the Stupak Amendment. Imagine what I had to say back to him.**********************************UPDATE: One bright light in all of this is Rep. Eric Massa. He told a constituent [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:37pm EST
  

• Jane Hampsher is Twittering that the Stupak Amendment is Expected to Pass--You worked for Health Care Reform and Got An Anti-Abortion Bill

  The Stupak Amendment will prevent all insurance plans sold in the individual and small group market from covering elective abortion. So, the bottom line is that more abortion restrictions than we ever saw out of the Bush Administration will pass under this so-called Democratic House. Maybe that's what they mean [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 1:21pm EST
  

• Kirk Fails to Get A Floor Vote On His Brand of Healthcare Non-Reform, Protects Record of Ineffectiveness

  Kirk offered his "protect the doctor-patient relationship" bill as an amendment to the House bill yesterday in the rules committee, but it looks like he's not getting a floor vote. This may seem like a defeat, but it does protect Kirk's record as a completely ineffective representative unable to get [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 11:19am EST
  

• FDL Action: One Bright Light of Honesty in the Health Care Reform Debate

  I've been tough on HCAN, OFA and MoveOn for their lack of open honesty about the health care reform bills. They deserve it. When they weren't trying to supress debate, they were lying through omission. However, I want to commend FDL Action as the only public option advocacy group that [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 11:11am EST
  

• And they call it a democratic congress

  There will be a vote on the House co-ops renamed public option bill today after all. There will be no vote on single payer or state single payer amendments, but there will be a vote on an amendment to make it illegal for an insurance company that covers abortion to [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:48am EST
  

• Profiles in Lack of Courage

  Kirk's going to be begging for Sarah Palin's endorsement. Even I didn't think he'd stoop that low:Kirk can't even answer the question:The nation seems surprised by Kirk's latest antics, but it's nothing new to us here in IL-10. Remember Kirk ran away from Josh, an Iraq War Veteran:' [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• Fired Up, Ready to Fight (but only with their own side)

  UPDATE: An anonymous commenter asked what I made of the Conyers and Kucinich request to single payer activists to not lobby for the Weiner Amendment. While I don't like to respond to anonymous commenters in general, I want to answer the particular question, so I will.Of course, I can never' [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 5:58am EST
  

• Mark Kirk Told Us All Summer That No One Who Matters Is Uninsured. Rep. Grayson Lists the Numbers of the Dead District by District

  Below is part of Rep. Alan Grayson's floor speech listing the numbers of dead due to lack of adequate health insurance. This comes from the Harvard Study showing about 45,000 each year die due to lack of insurance or underinsurance.IL-10 comes in at about the 2:17 point on this video:Here's' [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 10:41pm EST
  

• While It's Easy to Tear Apart a Bad Idea, It's Hard to Keep a Good Idea Down. Single Payer is Back and the Table is Covered with It.

  UPDATE: Congressmen Kuchinich and Conyers don't want the Weiner Amendment called up for a vote. They say it's a weak version of H.R. 676. PNHP disagreed with that latter point, seeming fairly satisfied it was about the same. The argument appears to be that there has been no debate and [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 8:42am EST
  

• Get Out the Tea Bags and Glue. Mark Kirk Needs a New Hat

  UPDATE: Watch for Mark Kirk at Michelle Bachmann's tea party raid on Capitol Hill. We'll be watching for him. If an attack on Congress such as the one Bachmann plans were to happen while the republicans were in control, the protesters would have all been arrested as terrorists.***********************************************We have an [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 1:24pm EST
  

• NY23 and Mark Kirk

  Some are saying that the defeat in NY 23 of Conservative Party candidate Hoffman is a good sign for Mark Kirk. Interference from out of state extremists didn't work. However, they also note that Hoffman himself wasn't a great candidate. He skipped debates and wasn't up on the issues.More important' [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 8:44am EST
  

• Insurance Companies Holding Up Tamiflu for Kids with H1N1

  This first came to my attention from an old friend, a divorced mother of 5, who is having trouble getting Tamiflu for her 15 year old who has H1N1. She has that really great employer-provided insurance that polls tell us she's supposed to love and not want changed through health' [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 9:54pm EST
  

• What Will Sarah Do Re Mark Kirk? What Will Mark Kirk Do Re Illinois?

  Illinois is left to wonder:Given Sarah Palin's endorsement interference in New York's 23d District, supporting an extremist right wing 3d party candidate over the moderate republican candidate, causing the latter to drop out of the race and support the Democrat and Palin's current robocalling in Virginia, will Palin robocall for [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 8:31pm EST
  

• Howard Dean Talks to the Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

  Howard Dean came to Deerfield tonight to speak with 250 Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats. He spoke briefly about the importance of the grassroots and health care and then took questions from the audience.Dean started out speaking generally about the grassroots. He pointed out that the past presidential election was [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 9:39pm EDT
  

• Mark Kirk: Watch Me Watch Me

  Progress Illinois posted Mark Kirk's latest health care reform ad here. I have a somewhat different take on it than Adam over at PI. I don't think the ad's for our benefit. I don't think Kirk's trying to sway Democrats or Independents to his way of thinking on health care, [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 9:07am EDT
  

• Welcome to the Consistent and Honest World of Single Payer Advocacy

  UPDATE: Jane Hamsher stands behind her original blog post. She was on Thom Hartmann this afternoon. She said pretty much what I said below and added that the original bill creating the mechanism for turning biologics into generics had a 5-year patent provision. Non-biologic drugs have a 5 year patent. [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 9:47am EDT
  

• Introducing the Puny Public Option

  UPDATE: Who is eligible for the puny public option? Almost no one.:But lost amid the ideological battle for or against a public option is a key overlooked fact: The vast majority of Americans would have no access to a public option even under its most expansive versions.House and Senate bills [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 11:21am EDT
  

• Kucinich calls out Democrats on the health care debate and I call out OFA and HCAN for damaging the Democratic Party and marginalizing liberalism

  Kucinich wrote to the Kossacks, but what he said pretty well explains why I've been pressing the issue here on this blog. Kuchinch said:We compromised on single payer by backing a public option, and now we are being asked to compromise the public option with negotiated rates. In conference, we' [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 7:05am EDT
  

• Obama Honoring War Dead--Bring Them Home

  [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 7:03am EDT
  

• "Your blog is always the first with the news."

  One of my readers emailed me: "Your blog is always the first with the news. Looks like the New York Times finally caught up with EllenOfTheTenth."I wrote about mortgage foreclosure defenses last year. Foreclosure plaintiffs just cannot seem to be able to prove they own the notes that are secured [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 4:05am EDT
  

• Environmental and Economic Note to Mark Kirk

  Kirk dumped the environment for the support of people wearing tea bags on their heads. He knows better, but doesn't care because his primary is at stake. His new argument against environmental legislation is that Illinois needs to maintain its coal industry above anything else.Bobby Kennedy Jr. says that's a' [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 12:00pm EDT
  

• Women's Health Care Forum

  Tonight, I attended the Women's Health Care Forum sponsored by Dan Seals. The event was not primarily political and happily did not dwell on current reform proposals, or even mention, the public option. The speaker was Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD. She is a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 9:11pm EDT
  

• Folks Are Figuring It Out: The Robust Public Option is Minor Reform

  Wapo reports:The public-option debate is frustrating some Democrats, who have come to believe that a government-run plan is neither as radical as its conservative critics have portrayed, nor as important as its liberal supporters contend. Any public plan is likely to have a relatively narrow scope, as it would be [...]
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  Posted: October 24, 2009, 10:07pm EDT
  

• Mark Kirk: Flaps and Flips

  I'll spare you the flap about Mark Kirk pressuring Mike Ditka to take back his endorsement of Patrick Hughes. That's an old pressure tactic we've seen before and don't care much for either. However, there is something interesting about the way the GOP is handling the Illinois Senate race.Kirk has' [...]
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  Posted: October 24, 2009, 8:45am EDT
  

• The Public Option Part 3: No one knows what it is and the problem with that is that a lot is slipping by public option advocates

  OK, I've gotten a lot of feedback about what is the true nature of this ever elusive mythical beast sometimes called the strong public option, the robust public option or the plain old public option hold the fries.Let's start out with HCAN and FDL because they laid it out simply' [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 1:40pm EDT
  

• Democat's Available, But She'll Cost You

  Rob Smoke, running for Boulder City Council hired his cat as campaign manager. It's supposed to be a statement about campaign financing. Smoke claims that the other candidates donate to each other to increase matching funds paid by the city.I asked Democat what she thought of a cat as a [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• A Study From Last January Found that Real Medicare for All Creates 2.6 Million Jobs and Stimulates the Economy By Putting Money Where It's Needed

  Over the past several months, we've watched the Hacker public option shrink beyond recognition, requiring the need to concoct the notion of the robust public option, which remarkably disappeared into the robust public option only to be revived and dishonestly renamed "Medicare for All" this week. Amid all the political' [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 12:03am EDT
  

• Halloween Spirit in the IL-10

  So far, this is my favorite display. You gotta love a family that goes out of it's way to build a gigantic grim reaper on their front lawn.A friend of mine couldn't help but dub this the republican health care reform plan. Maybe the scare crow is Mark Kirk.' [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 10:30pm EDT
  

• The Public Option Challenge Part 2: Can you explain the "robust public option" in one paragraph?

  UPDATE:I am liking the anti-trust reform being discussed. Now that is what real reform looks like.HR 3200 will not resemble Medicare. The essence of why Medicare is successful is not just the pay rate and the the Medicare +5 rate tie-in they are talking about is only temporary before the [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 8:05am EDT
  

• Illinois Economic Distress Rankings

  UPDATEDA couple of days ago, a friend told me that there's a hunger problem in our northwest suburbs. Apparently, charities that had been feeding people were no longer able to do so for lack of funding. From full meals, all they can provide now are a few frozen dinners. That' [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 5:36pm EDT
  

• Washington Post-ABC Poll Doesn't Ask The Single Payer Question and Misrepresentation Continues

  You're going to hear all over the media today that most Americans favor the public option. There are three things wrong with that statement. First, the Washington Post-ABC Poll doesn't ask the single payer question. The choice is between the public option and you're on your own against the insurance' [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 7:01am EDT
  

• So What Is This Medicare E

  UPDATE: OK, finally someone else istalking about what this "reform" sitting in Congress will do and they're saying what I've been saying for a while:Experts said the legislation under consideration does not significantly enhance patient protections against insurers refusing to cover requests for treatment.**********************So far, what Congress has placed before [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• We Hate To See Them Go! NOT

  Here's one way to regulate Wall Street the republicans won't be able to object to:' [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  

• John Hall's "Warm Power of the Sun"

  This is Rep. John Hall (D-NY). Somehow I cannot picture Mark Kirk writing and performing a song about environmentalism. [...]
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  Posted: October 17, 2009, 7:59pm EDT
  

• What's New With Balloon Boy Story

  The big balloon boy story I see here is that you used to have to be a U.S. Congressman lying about your personal knowledge of WMD in an Islamic country to take over a news cycle. Now, anybody can do it. [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 4:38pm EDT
  

• Mark Kirk Would Give Up 69,624 Clean Energy Jobs to Satisfy the Handful of Grown Men and Women Who Glue Tea Bags to their Hats

  Mark Kirk renounced his vote for the American Clean Energy and Security Act to satisfy the handful of grown men and women in our state who walk around with tea bags glued to their hats. However, according to the Center for American Progress, that means that Kirk is willing to [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 10:06pm EDT
  

• Progressives Need to Take Back the Health Care Reform Message

  While republicans feign a tiz over Princess Olympia's vote for the Baucus bill (has anyone actually seen this one in bill form yet?), the ones in the know are probably pretty happy about it. It virtually guarantees supremacy of the Finance Committee bill over the HELP Committee bill, the latter' [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 5:00pm EDT
  

• Mark Kirk voted against the Ag Bill. Was it the food stamps, the conservation provisions or did he just want to keep old promises to China?

  Last week, Mark Kirk voted against the conference report for the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010. He also voted no on the original bill passage back in July. The conference report passed without his vote and now awaits Senate approval.The bill funds [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• Health Care Reform Status, Not Much Has Changed Since 1912 or Still Crazy After All These Years

  UPDATE: Oh man. I just heard the mantra of the public option advocates used against them on MSNBC's It's the Economy. Of the Baucus bill, without the public option, the MSNBC reporter just said "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Sheesh. I guess if they get' [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 9:42am EDT
  

• You can't make a deal with the devil (redux) so make your own deal with yourselves, the taxpayers

  The Rahm plan for reform, the Baucus bill, the mandates, exchanges and subsidies and the House bill with the public option all have one thing in common. They are based on the notion that the insurance companies can be a part of the solution. I think this latest report from [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 9:15pm EDT
  

• Mark Kirk Betrays LGBT Community

  This weekend, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, President Barack Obama began work to end discrimination against members of the LGBT community by recommending the end of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. Mark Kirk disagrees. See here too.I always wondered why Kirk got any support from the LGBT community, but [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 8:05am EDT
  

• Tricksy Health Care Reform Hobbitses

  Enclosure: [download]

  UPDATED: Above you'll find Mark Kirk in Rockford selling his no reform health care reform and threatening seniors that they will lose their Medicare if anyone else gets reform.You'll remember from Kirk's campaign town halls here in the IL-10 that Mark Kirk's idea of competition and choice is to let Blue [...]
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  Posted: October 11, 2009, 11:40am EDT
  

• A Blast From the Past, But Oddly Timely

  [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2009, 10:00pm EDT
  

• Pumpkins

  [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2009, 11:35am EDT
  

• Congratulations to President Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize

  The reason he won. It's simple. It's the respect he shows to the rest of the world. Obama shows everyone respect and goes out of his way to make room for every point of view, even the point of view of the people on the right in this country who [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 6:17pm EDT
  

• Mark Kirk stands with Peter King (R-NY) in asking for 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan

  Per the Politico:Kirk was in a group of seven house members meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in another attempt at bi-partisanship between congressional republicans and the White House. Kirk "handed Gates a map of Russian troop deployments in Afghanistan to underscore his argument that troop levels need to be" [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 10:57am EDT
  

• Documentary: Tortured Law

  The Alliance for Justice just released a 10-minute documentary, Tortured Law. The documentary is a brief description of the DOJ memorandums that the Bush/Cheney administration used to justify waterboarding and other forms of torture. We here in Illinois have to remember that Mark Kirk supported the administration's use of torture' [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• Opt-Out Is the New Public Option. Talk About Government Getting Between You and Your Health. Government, No Worse, Election Politics.

  In yet another compromise, public option advocates are advocating the Carper/Schumer opt-out idea. This plan creates a national public option, but allows states to say no thanks. Sen. Carper originally suggested an opt-in plan and Schumer flipped it to opt-out. It seems that Democrats, and specifically those who have embedded [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 5:11pm EDT
  

• Other's Commenting on Health Care Reform Remind Me of....well....Me

  This isn't Ellen giving HCAN her daily dose of whatfor. It's Keith Olbermann:If you did not know what something called "The Public Option" was, you might instinctively oppose it. Option? My health care is now optional? Doesn't that mean it can go away somehow? Doesn't that mean that when I [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 12:00pm EDT
  

• Thoughts About Our Overwhelming List of Problems

  Although I'm not thrilled with the slow process of pulling us out of the failed warmongering hatemongering ownership society, or the political gamesmanship we're seeing far more often than governing, when I look at everything that's out there, I really do have sympathy for President Obama.Yesterday marked 8 years of' [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• Govern Anyone?

  Recently, one of my favorite writers William Rivers Pitt, came up with a list of what President Obama has accomplished. This was before the SNL skit making fun of his lack of accomplishments, but I think it was supposed to address dismay with lack of accomplishment on climate change, don't' [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• Obama Meets With Public Option Supporting Docs, Snubs the Mad As Hell Docs. Rahm Cut Deal, But Forgot to Get Quid Pro Quo.

  UPDATE: Dr. Paul Hochfeld, although not invited, showed up to Obama's Rose Garden meeting and they let him in. Neither he nor the other doctors actually got a chance to speak to the President. Dr. Hochfeld, however, got on Olbermann tonight and talked about the "wounded" public plan. He said' [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 2:15pm EDT
  

• Capitalism: A Love Story

  In 1989, Michael Moore released his first documentary, Roger & Me. In Roger & Me, Moore showed us what was happening to his home town of Flint, Michigan at the hands of its largest employer, GM, that cut jobs to maximize profits and break unions. Now, 20 years later, as [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 6:53pm EDT
  

• Sick Sad Truth On Health Care Reform Or Mission (?) Accomplished

  I think public option advocates need to face a sick sad truth. That truth is that they've done a far better job convincing progressives to stay away from single payer for political reasons than they've done in convincing republicans and independents to be in favor of their public option for [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 9:59am EDT
  

• CBS Confuses Single Payer with HCAN and AHIP Seeks Charity From The American Taxpayer

  Single Payer advocate Donna Smith, from the CA Nurses Association was on CBS with Robert Zerkilbach of AHIP. You can see the discussion here.Zerkilbach blames administrative problems for high claims denial rates. Smith points out that if he's correct, it proves her point that we need to get rid of' [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• Health Care Policy Starts With Ag Policy

  At his August health care reform town hall meeting, Mark Kirk made the point that Americans should take responsibility for their own health and that obesity was one of the biggest obstacles to good health care in our country. While one could argue that increasing obesity this country is no [...]
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  Posted: October 03, 2009, 1:07pm EDT
  

• Poor China, Mark Kirk's Cheating On It With Poland. U.S. Left In The Cold (again).

  UPDATE: ...and this is probably just the tip of the iceberg because as OMB reported today, bundled lobbyist contributions are underreported.***********************************UPDATE: TPM, the blog that broke the "Kirk tells China that the US budget is a lie" story, ties Kirk's actions to others in his party and sees a concerted' [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• Momentum: Senate Finance Committee's Public Option

  I wonder if this is the momentum that the Highland Park Chapter of the Main Street Alliance was talking about yesterday:An amendment on this proposal passed the Senate Finance Committee. The amendment redirects Baucus' tax credit to the states that decide to participate in this program to create basic health' [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 5:34pm EDT
  

• Civil Rights Didn't Happen Through Cynical Political Calculation

  It was people power.While Mark Kirk lies about tort reform and nationalizing the health insurance market without regulation and the rest of his party cheers its victory for corporate profits, and the Democrats cynically use their failure in the Senate Finance Committee as a fundraiser for the end of the [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 6:21am EDT
  

• Don't Say All's Well. Tell us what this is and why we need to fight for it. Or... This parrot wouldn't voom if you put four million volts through it.

  Hot off the presses is the statement of the Main Street Alliance, a sister organization of HCAN. They are encouraged by the loss of the public option amendments in the Senate Finance Committee. They say it's " a sign that the public option is going to get a fair hearing'" [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 12:09pm EDT
  

• Potpouri

  1. Fundraise on Failure. While I don't think Democrats should be tearing their hair out over the Senate Finance Committee vote down of the public option, I also think it probably shouldn't be used as a fundraiser. Apparently, Harry Reid did and he's getting a backlash. This is my second' [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 8:41am EDT
  

• Yes. I really made them. Double Chocolate Chip Brownies

  Thanks to all who came by last night to help me celebrate.It's my party and I'll complain about health care reform if I want to. [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 12:01am EDT
  

• Mark Kirk Northbrook Health Care Townhall. The Greatest Generation is Gone.

  UPDATE: Rep. Alan Grayson helps Mark out, describes the republican health care plan in a nutshell:***************************************Remember all those stories about grandparents coming over from the old world to make sure their kids and grandkids had a better life. Then, they worked themselves half to death to make sure their kids [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2009, 7:52pm EDT
  

• Mark Kirk's Northbrook Health Care Reform NOT Townhall

  Just a few thoughts because I have to go out, but I'll be back later:1. The Medicare card holding community out here in Northbrook has the attitude: Socialized medicine for me, nothing for you. The woman sitting next to me loved her own Medicare and hated all other government run' [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2009, 11:56am EDT
  

• Mark Kirk's Having Another Townhall. HCAN again tells volunteers to stay outside with its signs. This is not about HCAN visibility. It's about us.

  My sidebar has been disappearing off and on for some reason, so here's a post on Mark Kirk's Health Care Townhall:Tuesday, September 2910 a.m.Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel933 Skokie BoulevardNorthbrook, ILSadly, HCAN has again put its own desire for visibility over having any real dialogue with Mark Kirk. They are [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 2:59pm EDT
  

• Mad As Hell Docs Hit Chicago

  Double Woo hoo! Made it to Huffington Post.Here are the Pics that didn't make it onto Huffington:Winnie, the Mad As Hell Doctors’ 1986 WinnebagoDr. Quentin Young.The Mad As Hell Docs.' [...]
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  Posted: September 27, 2009, 12:05pm EDT
  

• Mad As Hell Docs Hit Chicago

  [...]
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  Posted: September 27, 2009, 9:23am EDT
  

• Watch Dr. Paul Hochfeld's Movie

  Here.Dr. Hochfeld is the spokes-mad as hell doctor. I had the opportunity to meet him on Friday and hear why he and the other docs are mad as hell this afternoon. [...]
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  Posted: September 26, 2009, 10:28pm EDT
  

• Single Payer Theatre

  [...]
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  Posted: September 26, 2009, 8:08pm EDT
  

• Stand Up Pizza With the Mad As Hell Docs at Joey's and Doc Gill Too!

  [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 10:42pm EDT